MK Calling 2020, Milton Keynes, Saturday 15 February- Sunday 17 May 2020
Featuring over 130 artists across five world class gallery spaces, MK Calling is MK Gallery’s first open call submission exhibition in the majorly developed and extended building that reopened in March 2019. The exhibition will showcase a range of established and up and coming artists, very much celebrating what is happening today in contemporary art. MK Calling will be showcasing the most dynamic work being made today including work by Royal Academicians, and alumni of The British Art Show, John Moores Painting Prize and New Contemporaries. The show features numerous pieces that address and challenge many contemporary issues such as the environment and the political climate, as well as a number of playful and performance works. With the exhibition taking place in the new town of Milton Keynes and with a third of artists local to the area, a lot of the work also looks at cities and architecture.
Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945, An Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Longside Gallery, 4 Apr–14 Jun 2020
This major new touring exhibition challenges the male-dominated narratives of post-war British sculpture by presenting a diverse and significant range of ambitious work by women. In 1947, the Arts Council Collection invested in its first work by a sculptor, purchasing Barbara Hepworth’s seminal hospital drawing, Reconstruction. Since then, the Collection has acquired over 250 sculptures and installations by more than 150 women, supporting an impressive range of practices across 75 years. Through an investigation of these important holdings, Breaking the Mould proposes a radical recalibration – a riposte to the many accounts of British sculpture that have marginalised women or airbrushed their work from the story altogether.
Breaking the Mould represents the work of over fifty sculptors including Rana Begum, Lygia Clark, Cathy de Monchaux, Elisabeth Frink, Anthea Hamilton, Holly Hendry, Barbara Hepworth, Mary Kelly, Kim Lim, Cornelia Parker, Eva Rothschild, Veronica Ryan and Rachel Whiteread. The exhibition also features recent sculptures by Katie Cuddon, Jessie Flood-Paddock and Grace Schwindt, on public display for the first time since acquisition.
Ikon in the 1990s, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 12 June — 6 September 2020
The fourth in a series of surveys of Ikon’s artistic programme, this exhibition is a review of the 1990s. Comprising work by artists who featured in exhibitions and other projects at the gallery in John Bright Street during the period 1989-1997 and then at Ikon’s current premises in Brindleyplace until 1999. Elizabeth Macgregor was Ikon’s Director at this time and the exhibition programme became more international in its outlook, placing particular emphasis on the Americas and subsequently Australia, whilst also featuring a number of group exhibitions, with themes derived from current affairs.
Artists include: Edward Allington / Basil Beattie / Zarina Bhimji / Adam Chodzko / Juan Davila / Mark Dion / Eugenio Dittborn / Ellen Gallagher / Simryn Gill / Antony Gormley / Victor Grippo / Callum Innes / Ilya Kabakov / Permindar Kaur / Seydou Keita / Rose Finn Kelcey / Tania Kovats / Lisa Milroy / Avis Newman / Lucia Nogueira / Vong Phaophanit / Adrian Piper / Keith Piper / Donald Rodney / Martha Rosler / Yinka Shonibare / Nancy Spero / Georgina Starr / Amikam Toren / Suzanne Treister/ Shelagh Wakeley / Maxine Walker / Mark Wallinger / John Yeadon