Christ, it’s been hot, hasn’t it? And it’s not going to get any colder*. London, bless her, runs particularly hot (thanks to something called the Urban Heat Island effect and the fact that it’s the closest you can get in the UK to Hell), so let my list of exhibitions to see around the UK lure you out of the capital and into more temperate counties. From Cambridge to Cornwall via quilts, rocking horses, and 13th-century ships, here are my must-see exhibitions in June.
* In a ‘summer’s just getting started’ way, rather than the ‘the world is going to end’ way that we’re all well aware of, but let’s try to keep things perky, yeah?
Abingdon Studios, Lancashire - Abigail Hampsey: Close Enough - until 19 June
You’ve not got long to catch this one! It’s Abigail Hampsey’s latest solo exhibition, and for any minted collectors reading this (if there are some minted collectors reading this - can you monzo me?) you’re going to want to invest in her work sooner rather than later. Taking place in her home county, ‘Close Enough’ celebrates Lancashire’s landscape and tussles with our increasing loss of access to natural spaces as modern life draws us perpetually indoors. The divide between the indoor and outdoor world is dissolved away in these paintings, paired with art historical references and self-portraiture, resulting in a body of work that is otherworldly whilst firmly grounded in living, breathing heritage.
American Museum and Gardens, Somerset - Kith & Kin: the Quilts of Gee’s Bend - until 21 June
America gets a lot of things wrong: its political votes, the volume at which Americans speak when on foreign holidays, and its pronunciation of “aluminium”. One thing they get right? Quilts. Although quilting is an ancient craft and arrived in America with European settlers, American quilting really is the cream of the crop. And if you’re after some quilts, the American Museum and Gardens just outside of Bath is the place for you, holding a collection of over 250 of the bad boys. The museum is also filled with other Old American Stuff, but the entrance fee is well worth it just for the quilts and the gardens. Quilt-heads are doubly in luck this month, as the Museum’s exhibition space is currently exhibiting Gee’s Bend quilts made by African American women living on a remote river island community in Alabama, created in the face of economic deprivation and racial segregation. Their quilts use abstract designs and bold colours, and are more expressive than some of the more traditional collections.
Burton Art Gallery, Devon - What We Keep: The Art of Collecting - until 19 July
If you remember my listing last year recommending you to Leicester Art Gallery & Museum to see their new display all about staplers, you’ll know that I Love Stuff. So, naturally, I’m recommending you get down to Bideford to see an exhibition made up of personal collections submitted by members of the public. Ranging from rocking horses to skateboards, ‘What We Keep’ is part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of The Burton and its history of caring for its collections.
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridgeshire - Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today - until 06 September
One of two floral-focussed recommendations this month, it’s ‘Handpicked’ at Kettle’s Yard! Kettle’s Yard - a gorgeous amalgamation of 19th-century cottages - was the home of curator Jim Ede and his wife Helen from the late 1950s, which they opened each afternoon to the public to let people view their impressive personal collection. Along with showing off their impeccable taste, the couple would also display fresh cut flowers to complement the floral paintings which lined the walls. ‘Handpicked’ features work by contemporary stars like Lubaina Himid, Chris Ofili, and Caroline Walker alongside the 20th-century modernists who dominated Ede’s collection, like Vanessa Bell, Henri Rousseau, and Christopher Wood.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Mirrors: Reflecting on Identity - until 26 September
The first of in a hat-trick of Cornwall-based recommendations, which really is the ideal place to be during this hot weather (so take these shows as your excuse for hopping on a train - even if all you actually end up doing is enjoying visiting beaches not made of boulders, glass, and crisp packets). ‘Mirrors’ in Falmouth showcases how modern artists have tackled identity in self-portraiture, boasting work by Claude Cahun, Ithel Colquhoun (new tongue twister just dropped, say those two two times fast), Grayson Perry, and Cindy Sherman.
‘Making Her Mark’ in Penzance is a group effort between unlikely geographical bedfellows Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, and Kirkcaldy Galleries (just shy of 600 miles between them) - but the teams can rest assured that the shipping costs were worth it. More than 50 works by women have been brought together from the three collections thanks to Art Fund’s ‘Going Places’ programme, which has buddied up local galleries and museums to create brilliant new touring exhibitions. ‘Making Her Mark’ includes works by Laura Knight, Tracey Emin, and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, and with quality like that, the future of this gallery pen-friendship looks bright (certainly brighter than my pen-friendship: Sorry Neresha, wherever you are. I know I still owe you a reply from 2006. All the best.)
Tate St Ives, Cornwall - Aleksandra Kasuba: Shelters for the Senses - until 04 October
Aleksandra Kasuba’s show at Tate St Ives looks incredible, but sadly, I can’t go because I would end up trying to crawl inside all of her sculptures (you’re lying if you say you don’t know exactly what I mean after you’ve looked at the photos). The show spans seven decades of Kasuba’s career, from early paintings and mosaics she made after fleeing Lithuania for the US following WW2, to her later architectural designs and “special environments” (where you’d see me setting up shop). It was fleeing her home that inspired Kasuba to create sanctuary spaces that serve both the body and soul. St Ives also became a hub for artists fleeing London during the conflict, from Naum Gabo to Margaret Mellis - but not Piet Mondrian, who, despite being offered a ride from Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, decided he’d take his chances in London because he hated the countryside…
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside - May Morris: Crafting a Legacy - until 01 November
I know I give May Morris a lot of stick for being a nepobaby, but I do categorise her with Ben Stiller, Sofia Coppola, and Drew Barrymore as nepobabies whose work absolves them for the leg-up. Arts & Crafts exhibitions have been all the rage recently, and I think their successes have been down to the fact that we’re all fed up with AI slop and are starting to realise that maybe Morris and Pals were onto something when they warned that decoration made by machine is bad for our souls. ‘Crafting a Legacy’ at the Lady Lever Art Gallery (in the absurdly gorgeous Port Sunlight - built by the ‘Soap King’ William Hesketh Lever in 1888 as a utopian town to house the workers at his soap factory) is all about how May Morris broke convention and exceeded expectations set upon her as a female craftsperson (even as the daughterthe craftsperson of the generation).
Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Norfolk - Miranda Boulton: Chain of Flowers - until 06 December
Another floral show to get your chops around this month, this time by semi-abstract contemporary artist Miranda Boulton, whose work explores memory and time, using floral painting as a vehicle for discussions about what it means to be a female artist. Boulton takes the legacy of the female floral painters who came before her seriously, rigorously researching these pioneers whose work links to hers through a “chain of flowers” through history. For ‘Chain of Flowers’, it was the work of Emily Stannard (1802-1885) and her niece, Eloise Harriet Stannard (1829-1915), both members of the Norwich Society of Artists, who helped to guide Boulton’s new paintings made for the show. This show is also a great reason to visit Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery - a recently renovated 12th-century castle built by William the Conqueror (the lad on everyone’s lips, what with the Bayeux Tapestry’s homecoming tour), which has been shortlisted for this year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year.
Shoreham-by-Sea, SUSSEX – Shadow Ships - ongoing
There are many reasons why you might head to Shoreham-by-Sea, whether it’s visiting the UK’s oldest airport, or checking out a fort built in a panic in the late 1850s when it looked like Napoleon might invade. Well, now there’s another one - a new set of six permanent installations by the powerhouse creative duo Dawn Parsonage and Peter Hudson. Celebrating Shoreham’s rich shipbuilding history (once a galley-building hub for medieval kings), Hudson and Parsonage have created six ships made from reclaimed metal and glass, suspended on high poles which cast their shadow towards the sea as the sun rises. Five of the six boats were based on real ships built in Shoreham over the course of the last 700 years, and the sixth was designed by Year 5 pupils from a local school (be warned - the video of them seeing their ship being unveiled is tear-jerkingly lovely).
