Which exhibitions are you putting in the diary?

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2024

It’s always nice to begin the New Year with a fresh diary to add your exhibition wish list for the year, so I have a few here that I will be adding. No doubt many more will pop up during the days and weeks ahead. The lists of interesting up and coming artists, as well as the established geniuses is as abundant as ever this year and it’s hard to choose the favourites but some that obviously have connections to my works and influences would most likely begin with Expressionists, Kandinsky, Munter and The Blue Rider at the Tate Modern from April 25^th – October 20^th. Colour is one of my obsessions and this year I will be releasing my art book ‘Sculpting Colour’ so no surprise then, that this exhibition about some of the masters of colour in art interests me. This exhibition will explore the relationship between the artists known as The Blue Rider group, a German expressionist group of artists led by Kandinsky and Marc , which began in 1911. Their paintings were based around the theory that colour and form embodied spiritual values with blue being the most spiritual, this belief in the power of the senses perceiving colour as a vital message in art, is something I have also found inspirational in my work.

Another exhibition I will be interested in viewing due to my personal experiences will be ‘Michelangelo: the last decades’ at the British Museum, May 2^nd – July 28^th. This exhibition studies the time when Michelangelo left Florence for Rome in 1534 at 59 years old and started an exciting new and influential chapter in his life. In 2020 I also moved towns and went to live in Pietrasanta in Northern Italy, where many artists have travelled in the footsteps of Michelangelo who went there to choose his marble blocks from the Apuan Alps. I had also intended to spend two years to sculpt in marble here but unfortunately due to the pandemic had to return much earlier than I had planned, so this exhibition with Michelangelo and how moving towns fundamentally shaped his future experiences ignites personal recollections for me.

Of course I cannot leave out this great exhibition at the V & A, Fragile Beauty, photos from Sir Elton John & David Furnish Collection – 18^th May. I have had the pleasure of spending time with David when he kindly unveiled TAY, my AIDS memorial sculpture created in honour of my best friend and soulmate Paul Tay. This exhibition is highlighted as one that will present an ‘unparalleled selection of the world’s leading photographers, telling the story of modern and contemporary photography’. Elton and David have amassed over 7,000 photographs and this exhibition will show 300 of them and I am sure will be most inspiring.

Finally of course I cannot wait for an exhibition for one of my favourite artists, Francis Bacon and his portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, 10^th October- 19^th January 2025. This will feature portraits form the 1950’s onwards, exploring his work and ‘how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre.’ I am constantly inspired by Bacon so this exhibition will be one which I really will be looking forward to. The power of his portraits, in their distorted depictions, expressed through colour and form leave me inspired every time I view them, so this will be exciting.