With so much happening at our museum and gallery partners throughout the UK, you don't have to get caught out in the cold searching for cultural hotspots. Meet Rembrandt in London and Cambridge, Paula Rego in Edinburgh, or Martin Parr in Aberdeen on your own cross-country Grand Tour.
Featured regions:
Channel Islands
To Japan and Back Again: How a Corner of Guernsey Turned Japanese | Guernsey Museum
Until 31st December 2019
A colourful and enlightening exhibition that reveals rich connections between Guernsey and Japan.
England: London
Nam June Paik | Tate Modern
Until 9th February 2020
Over 200 works spanning a five-decade career showcase the brilliance of the South Korean artist who pioneered the use of TV and video in art.
Dora Maar | Tate Modern
From 20th November 2019 to 15th March 2020
The largest-ever UK retrospective of the celebrated photographer, painter, and poet brings together her surrealist photomontages, commercial work and documentary projects.
Mark Leckey: O' Magic Power of Bleakness| Tate Britain
Until 5th January 2020
Step into a life-size replica of a motorway bridge on the M53 on the Wirral, Merseyside, which acts as the setting for a folklore-inspired audio play.
William Blake | Tate Britain
Until 2nd February 2020
The radical and rebellious visionary is represented by over 300 original works, including an immersive recreation of the small domestic room in which Blake showed his art in 1809.
Gauguin Portraits | The National Gallery
Until 26th January 2020
The first-ever exhibition devoted to Gauguin's portraits, encompassing his early years through to his later life in French Polynesia.
Young Bomberg and the Old Masters | The National Gallery
27th November 2019 to 1st March 2020
From Botticelli to Michelangelo, see how the audacious artist David Bomberg drew inspiration from the paintings he most admired.
What Remains | Imperial War Museum London
Until 5th January 2020
Artist Piers Secunda explores why cultural heritage is attacked during war and the ways we save, protect and restore what is targeted.
Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits | Royal Academy of Arts
Until 26th January 2020
Discover how the modern master consistently turned his unflinching eye on himself through more than 50 paintings, prints and drawings.
Eco-Visionaries| Royal Academy of Arts
23rd November 2019 to 23rd February 2020
See how the most urgent environmental issues of our times are being confronted by artists, architects and designers, with works from Olafur Eliasson, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Virgil Abloh.
Rembrandt's Light | Dulwich Picture Gallery
Until 2nd February 2020
Major international loans from The Louvre and Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum are among a selection of the Dutch master's greatest paintings exploring his deft use of light.
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things | Victoria and Albert Museum
Until 8th March 2020
Take a trip through the looking glass into the fantastical and immersive worlds created by photographer Tim Walker.
Celebrating Ellen Hutchins | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Until 22nd November 2019
The story of Ireland's first female botanist is told through her beautiful drawings of seaweeds, her letters, and her plant finds.
Kirsten Schmidt | William Morris Gallery
Until 26th January 2020
Printmaker Kirsten Schmidt responds to green spaces in the Waltham Forest, inspired by our connection to nature surrounding urban spaces.
Pioneers: William Morris and the Bauhaus | William Morris Gallery
Until 26th January 2020
The first exhibition in the UK to delve into the relationship between the English Arts and Crafts movement and the Bauhaus, the ground-breaking German art school.
Two Last Nights! Show Business in Georgian Britain | The Foundling Museum
Until 5th January 2020
The stage is set for a show which delves into the mechanics of theatre and concert-going in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain.
Buddhism | British Library
Until 23rd February 2020
Encounter the outstanding beauty of Buddhist manuscripts and artworks in the largest exhibition of its kind ever held at the British Library.
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters | National Portrait Gallery
Until 26th January 2020
This major show highlights the oft-overlooked contribution of 12 women to this iconic artistic movement as models, artists, makers, partners and poets.
Elizabeth Peyton: Aire and Angels | National Portrait Gallery
Until 5th January 2020
Captured from life, memory, literature and imagination, the portraits of Elizabeth Peyton demonstrate an intensely personal and expansive understanding of the genre.
England: Midlands and East
Birmingham
Thoughts on Portraiture | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Until 18th November 2019
Picasso, Auerbach and Bomberg are among some of those represented in this reflection on portraiture in art.
Dressed to the Nines | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
From 7th December 2019 to 4th September 2020
See the garments, accessories and outfits essential to a fashion-forward night out from around 1850 to the present day.
Truly Bright and Memorable: Jan de Beer's Renaissance Altarpieces | The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Until 19th January 2020
Dazzling devotional paintings by Antwerp's Jan de Beer, focussing on the Barber's own double-sided altarpiece featuring The Nativity and the apocryphal tale of Joseph and the Suitors.
The Printed Word: Image, Text and Meaning | The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Until 26th January 2020
European prints made for periodicals and posters reveal how text has been used as a compositional element from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.
Amalia Pica: Private and Confidential | The New Art Gallery Walsall
Until 2nd February 2020
The artist's experience of obtaining British citizenship frames this series of works, which parody and subvert bureaucratic systems.
Arpita Shah, Maryam Wahid, Nilupa Yasmin | The New Art Gallery Walsall
From 15th November 2019 to 19th April 2020
Three photographers present work centred around portraiture, culture and female identity in collaboration with their families and communities, both in the UK and Pakistan.
Cambridge
Rembrandt and the Nude | The Fitzwilliam Museum
Until 23rd February 2020
An exhibition highlighting the beauty and power of Rembrandt's treatment of the female form, often depicted naturalistically and in informal poses.
Seeing Sound: Music, imagery and inspiration | The Fitzwilliam Museum
Until 12th January 2020
Bringing together a remarkable range of artworks and musical manuscripts that display how artists and composers have engaged in a dialogue between sight and sound.
Leicester
Open 30: The People's Exhibition | New Walk Museum & Art Gallery
From 14th December 2019 to 25th January 2020
The longstanding 'Open' exhibition celebrates its 30th year, with painting, prints, textiles and sculpture made by artists and makers across the East Midlands.
Norwich
John Sell Cotman in Norwich and London | Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
Until 19th January 2020
The last two decades of the skilful watercolourist's life are revealed in his landscapes and rarely seen drawings.
England: North
Liverpool
Jacqui Hallum | Walker Art Gallery
Until 1st March 2020
The winner of the John Moores Painting Prize 2018 showcases her latest work, with imagery sourced from medieval woodcuts, leaded glass windows, Art Nouveau children's book illustrations and tarot cards.
Politics on Pots | Walker Art Gallery
Until 31st December 2019
Designer Harriet Coles brings politics to the dinner table with a range of household china called 'Brexitware', shown alongside printed earthenware from the gallery's historic collections.
Manchester
Cézanne at the Whitworth | The Whitworth
Until 1st March 2020
See an extraordinary collection of Cézanne's drawings, gifted and placed on long-term loan by gallerist, collector, and author Karsten Schubert.
Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY | The Whitworth
Until 1st March 2020
New and acclaimed works explore Price's pre-occupations of technology, history, politics and pop music.
Halima Cassell: Eclectica – Global Inspirations | Manchester Art Gallery
Until 5th January 2020
Influences from geometry, architecture, natural forms and foreign travel, all come together in the work of ceramist and sculptor Halima Cassell.
Sheffield
GAZE: A Retrospective of Portraits by Lorna May Wadsworth | Graves Gallery
From 9th November 2019 to 15th February 2020
Come face-to-face with an array of famous sitters by the acclaimed painter, including actors Michael Sheen and Derek Jacobi, author Neil Gaiman, and politicians David Blunkett and Tony Blair.
Joe Scarborough: Life in the Big Village| Weston Park Museum
Until 24th November 2019
Charming and affectionate everyday scenes of Yorkshire are the hallmark of Joe Scarborough, one of Sheffield's best-loved artists.
Wakefield
David Smith: Sculpture 1932–1965 | Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Until 5th January 2020
This landmark exhibition charts the development of Smith's unique visual language, from early constructions combining wood with mussel and clam shells to his large-scale steel sculptures.
Holly Hendry | Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Until 19th April 2020
A new kinetic sculpture installation animates The Weston Gallery in an exhibition titled 'The Dump is Full of Images'.
Alan Davie & David Hockney: Early Works | The Hepworth Wakefield
Until 19th January 2020
This exhibition assembles around 45 paintings and works on paper by the key post-war British painters, many of which have not been seen publicly for decades.
York
Making a Masterpiece: Bouts and Beyond | York Art Gallery
Until 26th January 2020
Taking inspiration from the Dieric Bouts workshop painting, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, this exhibition of Dutch and Flemish art explores images from the northern Renaissance to the present day.
England: South
Brighton
Floating Worlds: Japanese Woodcuts | Brighton Museum
Until 12th January 2020
Enjoy a journey through Japan as depicted in Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, a style from the Edo period meaning 'pictures of the floating world'.
Bristol
Do you believe in magic? | Bristol Museum & Art Gallery
Until 19th April 2020
An enchanting exhibition of over 200 fascinating objects and stories that reveal how magic has been used to heal, hunt and harm across the world.
Chichester
Jann Haworth: Close Up | Pallant House Gallery
From 2nd November 2019 to 23rd February 2020
The first chance in the UK to see American Pop artist Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake's mural Work in Progress, alongside Haworth's works dating from the 1960s to the present day.
Radical Women: Jessica Dismorr and her Contemporaries | Pallant House Gallery
From 2nd November 2019 to 23rd February 2020
Discover how Dismorr and fellow members of the Rhythm group, Anne Estelle Rice, Ethel Wright, and Helen Saunders, engaged with modernist literature and radical politics through their art.
Cookham
Painting by the Thames Swan Upping at Cookham | Stanley Spencer Gallery
From 7th November 2019 to 22nd March 2020
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the completion of one of the artist's most famous paintings, Swan Upping at Cookham, which is on loan to the gallery from Tate.
Eastbourne
David Nash: 200 Seasons | Towner Art Gallery
Until 2nd February 2020
A major survey of Nash's career from the late 1960s to the present day, exploring his unique contribution to British sculpture and the Land Art movement.
BRINK: Caroline Lucas curates the Towner Collection | Towner Art Gallery
From 23rd November 2019 to 10th May 2020
The Green Party MP selects from the collection's works, with choices reflecting her passions and interests, from her environmental work to issues of climate change and effects on our landscape.
Oxford
Philip Guston: Locating the Image | Ashmolean Museum
From 23rd November 2019 to 8th March 2020
The acclaimed American artist Philip Guston has his first solo exhibition in Oxford, with works revealing the inspiration he drew from historical art and literature.
Cai Guo-Qiang: Gunpowder Art | Ashmolean Museum
Until 19th April 2020
Best-known for his gunpowder explosion events, see the significance behind the artist's materials, and how he adapts them to explore his own central themes of creation, destruction and chance.
Southampton
Beyond the Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy | Southampton City Art Gallery
Until 1st February 2020
Follow the Pre-Raphaelite thread from its inception into the twenty-first century, and the movement's influence on artistic developments including realism, aestheticism, symbolism and art nouveau.
St Ives
Otobong Nkanga: From Where I Stand | Tate St Ives
Until 5th January 2020
The first UK museum show of the artist whose practice spans tapestry, drawing, photography, installation, video and performance.
Naum Gabo | Tate St Ives
From 25th January to 3rd May 2020
An extensive presentation of the constructivist artist's work, embodying his principle that authentically modern art should engage with and reflect the modern age.
Northern Ireland
Belfast
Temporary/Permanent | Ulster Museum
Until 10th November 2020
A photographic display to mark the 50th anniversary of the erection of the first Belfast peace wall, featuring photographs taken by Frankie Quinn over a period of 25 years.
Masterpieces of Dutch Landscape from the National Gallery of Ireland | Ulster Museum
Until 26th January 2020
Showcasing four outstanding examples of Dutch seventeenth-century landscape, including Hendrick Avercamp's Scene on the Ice, alongside related works from the Ulster Museum collection.
As Many Reps As Possible | Naughton Gallery at Queen's University Belfast
Until 1st December 2019
The worlds of sport and art collide, with works tackling issues around gender, sexuality, religion, class, politics, and diversity, all within a sports context.
Scotland
Aberdeen
Martin Parr: Think of Scotland | Aberdeen Art Gallery
From 2nd November 2019 to 23rd February 2020
The world-renowned photographer has been visiting Scotland for over 25 years, taking pictures the length and breadth of the country, with his characteristic twist, of course.
Cartomania: A Victorian Photographic Phenomenon | Aberdeen Maritime Museum
From 30th November 2019 to 11th April 2020
Relive the 'carte de visite' craze, the first form of affordable mass-produced photography popular with the public and royalty alike.
Edinburgh
Chinese Oracle Bones | National Museum of Scotland
Until 29th March 2020
A fortune in ancient divination tools, originally used as instruments to obtain guidance and divine insight from ancestors and deities.
The Luxury of Time: Clocks from 1550–1750 | National Museum of Scotland
Until 26th January 2020
Take time to see the history of early British clockmaking, including exquisitely decorated pieces from the seventeenth century.
Paula Rego: Obedience and Defiance | The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
From 23rd November 2019 to 19th April 2020
An ambitious retrospective of the Portuguese artist's work that resonates strongly with contemporary feminist and political issues.
BP Portrait Award 2019 | Scottish National Portrait Gallery
From 7th December 2019 to 22nd March 2020
The most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world was this year won by Brighton-based artist Charlie Schaffer, for Imara in her Winter Coat, a portrait of his close friend.
Glasgow
Fiona Tan: Disorient | Gallery of Modern Art
Until 26th January 2020
An impressive two-screen video installation fills Gallery 1, combining a fictional staged scene, documentary footage, and spoken word to explore complex historical identities.
Linda McCartney Retrospective | Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Until 12th January 2020
A major photographic exhibition, curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, capturing iconic names and moments in music from the 1960s along with more intimate and emotional later works.
Alex Impey | Hunterian Art Gallery
From 15th November 2019 to 23rd February 2020
This solo show from the Glasgow-based artist features new sculptural works created from researching 'sacrificial' methods and structures in various forms of knowledge production.
Perth
ICONS II: Bellany | Perth Museum and Art Gallery
Venue: Perth Museum and Art Gallery
From 16th November 2019 to 31st May 2020
An exhibition celebrating the life of one of the most prolific and acclaimed Scottish artists of his generation, John Bellany. The exhibition brings together works from the artist's long career including The Boat Builders, The Bellany Family and Fishing Boat Poseidon in Harbour.
Wales
Aberystwyth
RECORD: Folk, Protest & Pop | The National Library of Wales
Until 1st February 2020
Hear how Wales' rich musical tradition began and developed over the centuries, from the crwth to Catatonia.
Flora McLachlan: Yng Nghoedwigoedd y Nos / In the Forests of the Night | Aberystwyth University School of Art Gallery
Until 22nd November 2019
Etchings and lithographs take us into the briar wood of the imagination, through its wild wastes on a quest for a glimpse of the elusive white hart.
Stuart Pearson Wright: Halfboy | Aberystwyth University School of Art Gallery
Until 22nd November 2019
Drawn from photographs and personal memories, this series of candid paintings chart the artist's attempt to reconstruct his childhood.
Caernarfon
Merched Chwarel Exhibition | National Slate Museum
Until 7th January 2020
Merched Chwarel is a group of four artists: Marged Pendrell, Jŵls Williams, Lisa Hudson and Lindsey Colbourne, whose work is connected to the quarries of North Wales where they each live and work.
Cardiff
Imagine a Castle: Paintings from The National Gallery, London | National Museum Cardiff
From 28th January 2020 to 10th May 2020
See Bernardo Bellotto's The Fortress of Königstein from the North, plus five other of The National Gallery's European Old Master paintings featuring castles.
ARTIST ROOMS: August Sander | National Museum Cardiff
Until 1st March 2020
Over 80 photographs taken from Sander's project People of the Twentieth Century, which classifies individuals and groups of people according to profession and social class.
Alec Mackenzie, Project Officer at Art UK