What’s On: Exhibition and Events - December 2023
November. Another What’s On Monthly Round Up, full of exhibitions & events going on.
Like Paradise
5 Oct – 5 Dec 2023 | Claridge's ArtSpace
A dynamic group exhibition curated by the renowned writer Ekow Eshun, bringing together artists of colour exploring natural landscapes.
> More information here
Vanley Burke and Francis Williams: Between Two Worlds
Closes Sunday, 31 December 2023 | V&A South Kensington
Explore portraits of two Jamaican gentlemen scholars. Burke's photography and archives, alongside historical artefacts and scientific images shedding new light on the Williams painting, invite reflections on quests for identity and colonial legacies.
> More information here
The Missing Thread: Untold Stories Of Black British Fashion
21 Sep 2023 - 07 Jan 2024 | Somerset House
This autumn, Somerset House explores the stories of Black British fashion in a major new exhibition, The Missing Thread, curated by the Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency (BOLD). Spanning from the 1970s to the present day, The Missing Thread charts the shifting landscape of Black British culture and the unique contribution it has made to Britain’s rich design history.
> More information here
Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance
8 Sept 2023 - 7 Jan 2024 | Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Which stories get remembered, and why? This exhibition explores some new stories from history – stories that help us to separate fact from fiction and history from myth.
> More information here
Shifting the Centre: Anticolonial Ways of Seeing Exhibition
26 Sep 2023 -12 Jan 2024 | iniva, 16 John Islip St, London SW1P 4JU
An exhibition of works that connects history, politics and art, through the lens of anticolonial thought and activism.
> More information here
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography
until 14 Jan 2024 | Tate Modern
Bringing together a group of artists from different generations, this exhibition will address how photography, film, audio, and more have been used to reimagine Africa’s diverse cultures and historical narratives.
> More information here
Hélène Amouzou: Voyages
22 Sep 2023 - 20 Jan 2024 | Autograph
Contemplating the complex emotions of displacement and exile
> More information here
Armet Francis: Beyond The Black Triangle
22 Sep 2023 - 20 Jan 2024 | Autograph
For more than four decades, Armet Francis’ mission in photography has been to document the African diaspora. A Jamaican-British photographer with an acute understanding of black consciousness, his images are life-affirming moments that celebrate the resilience and survival of African diasporic cultures.
> More information here
Challenging the Narrative: Black Resistance to Scientific Bias
5 Oct - 28 Jan 2024 | BCA
An iteration of Wellcome Collection’s Genetic Automata Exhibition featuring the influential work of Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, exploring the impact of eugenics, scientific racism and Black resistance
> More information here
Pope.L: Hospital
21 Nov 2023 - 11 Feb 2024 | South London Gallery Pope.L’s wide ranging practice spans writing, painting, performance, installation, sculpture and video, which will be explored across both the SLG’s Main Gallery and Fire Station. Hospital is the artist’s first solo exhibition in a London institution.
> More information here
Julianknxx: Chorus in Rememory of Flight
14 Sep 2023 - 11 Feb 2024 | Barbican
Poet, artist and filmmaker Julianknxx explores themes of inheritance, loss and belonging as he crosses the boundaries between written word, music and visual art.
> More information here
Frank Walter: Artist, Gardener, Radical
4 Oct 2023 – 25 Feb 2024 | The Garden Museum
One of the most significant Caribbean visual artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Artist, Gardener, Radical will delve into Walter’s prolific body of work exploring Antiguan plants and landscapes, environmentalism, Caribbean and Black identity, social justice and the complexity of nature.
> More information here
DIVA
24 Jun 2023 – 7 Apr 2024 | V&A South Kensington
About: DIVA will celebrate the power and creativity of iconic performers, exploring and redefining the role of 'diva' and how this has been subverted or embraced over time across opera, stage, popular music, and film.
> More information here
Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui
until 14 April 2024 | Tate Modern
El Anatsui’s Behind the Red Moon is a monumental sculptural installation made of thousands of metal bottle tops and fragments. The commission builds on Anatsui’s interest in histories of encounter and the migration of goods and people during the transatlantic slave trade. Sourced in Nigeria, the liquor bottle tops used in this commission form part of a present-day industry built on colonial trade routes.
> More information here
Thomas J Price at the V&A Museum
22 Jul 2023 – 27 May 2024 | V&A South Kensington
British artist Thomas J Price is celebrated for his arresting yet contemplative sculptures depicting everyday people. This display sets his work in dialogue with the V&A's historic collections.
> More information here
Legacies: London Transport's Caribbean Workforce
Until 31 Aug 2024 | The London Transport Museum.
Celebrate the contribution Caribbean people have made to transport in London and British culture more widely at our new exhibition Legacies: London Transport’s Caribbean Workforce, now open at the Museum. Explore the struggles and triumphs many of these individuals and their families experienced as they moved halfway across the world from the Caribbean to the UK.
> More information here
Did you know these shows were happening or are they news to you?