15 exhibitions worth travelling for in 2024

The complications, pains and joys of motherhood are rarely depicted with as much care and detail as in this exhibition, which begins its UK tour at Bristol’s Arnolfini art centre in March. With over 100 artworks by more than 60 artists, three themes of motherhood – creation, maintenance and loss – will be explored through paintings, photographs, sculptures, sound and film. Featured works range from the feminist avant-garde to the modern day, with the exhibition culminating in a series of self-portraits exploring the artist as mother.

From March 9 to June 2, 2024. This exhibition will also show at Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham June 22 to September 29, Millennium Gallery in Sheffield October 24 to January 21, 2025 and Dundee Contemporary Arts in spring 2025.

An exhibition on horror? It might not sound like one for the faint-hearted, but don’t worry: this collection is far more nuanced than a bunch of scary paintings. Instead, the works of 19 Australian and international artists, plus some brand new commissions, have been compiled to raise questions about horror through feminist, queer and non-binary lenses. One intriguing aspect is a look at harmful representations of female monsters (witches, hags, possessed women) and how they have been reclaimed by female storytellers. 

Until March 3, 2024

She’s undoubtedly the most famous Mexican artist in the world, but how well do we really know Frida Kahlo? This exhibition at Paris’ Grand Palais Immersive promises to answer all our questions by literally immersing us in the inner world of this inspiring creator. The Parisian stop of this touring exhibition (which has won 14 awards) retraces Kahlo’s rich and tumultuous life through 360-degree projections, artworks, photos and documents, all informed by her diary. 

From September 18, 2024 to March 2, 2025

🖼️ Read our full round-up of Paris’s best exhibitions in 2024

How does our environment shape us? An age-old question. This exhibition takes the concept of ‘environment’ itself and interrogates its relationship with art. Exploring how artists have challenged and redefined space through their work, immersive artworks by 11 pioneering women artists created between 1956-1976 will be reconstructed for the first time. Viewers are encouraged to physically interact with the installations to understand how we embody our environments and the unique challenges these artists faced during their time.

Until March 10

Nan Goldin’s radical photography, tenderly capturing her bohemian life and contemporaries in the 1970s and 1980s, continues to influence art, photography and fashion today. Following a critically successful run at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, this retrospective will travel to Berlin to take over six exhibition rooms in the upper hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Through video, sound, music and photography, Goldin documents subjects ranging from addiction and domestic violence to LGBTQ+ rights and the AIDS epidemic.  

From November 23, 2024 to February 16, 2025

You’ll know Edvard Munch as the troubled man who painted ‘The Scream’, but ‘Trembling Earth’, at his eponymous museum in Oslo, unearths the artist’s oft-underplayed fascination with the natural world. Bringing together Munch’s work from the museum’s own collection with a diverse range from public and private collections, the exhibition presents a rare opportunity to see such a span of Munch’s depictions of nature in one room.

From April 27 to August 25, 2024

Hauser & Wirth’s new ground-level space in Hong Kong will open at the end of January with an exhibition of new works from Chinese artist Zhang Enli. With a creative journey that has morphed from figurative compositions and depictions of everyday objects into abstract paintings and installations, this should be an interesting dive into Enli’s contemporary style. Expect colourful, abstract paintings which demonstrate a freer, looser style of brushwork. 

From January 24 to March 9, 2024

Margate is only getting artsier, thanks in no small part to Margate native Tracey Emin’s 2020 homecoming. See for yourself at the town’s seafront art space Turner Contemporary this spring, where this group exhibition will explore how globally, women have used abstraction as an artmaking language in a shifting cultural, social and political context. The exhibition will feature sculptures by Mária Bartuszová, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Hannah Wilke among the work of over 50 artists on show. 

From February 3 to May 6, 2024

Hip hop has had a huge influence on culture over the last 50 years, and this exhibition at Toronto’s AGO is taking a deep dive into the genre’s history and enduring relevance. The range of mediums on display, from fashion and photography to video and sculpture, are testament to hip hop’s seismic impact on the visual arts. Highlights include a large-scale installation from Lauren Halsey, the work of conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, and photographs from Deana Lawson.

December 2024

This mid-career survey of South African visual activist Zanele Muholi at London’s Tate Modern captures the breadth and power of an extensive body of work dedicated to presenting a multifaceted view of Black LGBTQI+ individuals. Originally opened near the start of the pandemic, this show has now been expanded with more recent work, all tackling big important themes like labour, racism, sexism and sexual politics.

From June 6, 2024 to January 26, 2025

🎨 Read our full round-up of London’s best exhibitions in 2024

Tokyo’s design museum 21_21 Design Sight is taking a look at the history of modern graphic design in the early months of 2024, with an exhibition that explores how computer-based desktop publishing technology has revolutionised the world of design since its inception in the ’90s. Special focus is given to the work of Japanese designers and Japan’s distinctive graphic culture, with individual exhibits ranging from magazine covers to the ‘etiquette’ posters seen on Japanese trains.  

Until March 10, 2024

Pop Art icon Roy Lichtenstein would’ve been 100 years old last October, and Vienna’s Albertina museum is putting on a major retrospective in celebration. Featuring over 90 works from the 1960s to his later pieces, the centennial exhibition will span the entire breadth of Lichtenstein’s canon. Iconic pieces Look Mickey and Popeye will be displayed together for the first time in decades, and Pop Art classics of distressed blondes, military heroes and product advertisements will be shown alongside lesser-known works from Lichtenstein’s diverse oeuvre – who knew he was a sculptor too?

From March 8 to July 14, 2024

Fourth-generation Navajo weaver Melissa Cody uses traditional weaving methods and handmade dyes to create her large-scale tapestries, which will be on display at New York’s MoMA this summer. Cody interweaves landscapes of her homeland Arizona and traditional Navajo tapestry symbols with pop culture and video game references; by combining this tradtional textile art with modern touchstones, she demonstrates how processes of forced migration and cultural exchanges have impacted Navajo and other Indigenous communities. 

From April 4 to September 2 2024

This will be Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino’s first exhibition held outside of Brazil, displaying works made over 30 years between 1994 and 2024. Paulino’s work explores the experiences of Afro-descendent South Americans, based on Brazilian philosopher Léila Gonzáles’ concept of ‘Amerfricana.’ Creating a dialogue between personal and historical archives and the colonial hangovers imprinted in Brazilian society, Paulino’s art has contributed to important conversations in Brazil about the lived experiences and circumstances affecting Black women in Brazilian and Latin American society.  

From March 22 to June 10 2024

Seven is a spiritually significant number across various belief systems – it’s the number of days in the week, wonders of the world, and now it’s the number of seekers, seers and soothsayers featured in this exhibition at Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA. The exhibition takes a deep-dive into the invisible with a collection of intriguing, eerie and psychological works by seven artists. Behind the lens, these artists use immersion, performance and narration to document the non-physical world (or at least their interpretation of it). 

Until October 13, 2024