Exhibitions to see this spring

The Royal Academy of Arts presents Spain and the Hispanic World, celebrating the unrivalled collection of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York, bringing together outstanding works from Spain and colonial Latin America, from antiquity to the early 20th century.

Spain and the Hispanic World reflects the great diversity of cultural and religious influences, from Celtic, Islamic, Christian and Jewish to American, African and Asian, that have shaped and enriched Spanish culture across four millennia.

Presented chronologically, the selection of over 150 works includes paintings, sculptures, silk textiles, ceramics, lustreware, silverwork, precious jewellery, maps, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. Learn more

A major exhibition of new and recent works by Peter Doig opens at The Courtauld featuring 12 paintings and 19 works on paper. The exhibition will include a group of major canvases created since the artist’s move from Trinidad to London in 2021, presenting an exciting new chapter in the career of one of the most celebrated and important painters working today.

Peter Doig (born Edinburgh, 1959) is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading artists. He secured his early reputation in the 1990s as a highly original figurative painter, producing large-scale, immersive landscape paintings that exist somewhere between actual places and the realms of the imagination.

Layered into his paintings is a rich array of inspirations, such as scenes from films, album covers, and the art of the past. His works are often related to the places where he has lived and worked, including the UK, Canada and Trinidad. Learn more

London’s world-renowned Saatchi Gallery is pleased to present the most comprehensive street art exhibition to open in the UK with the international blockbuster arrival of BEYOND THE STREETS this February.

Marking the first time in eight years a show has occupied the entirety of Saatchi Gallery, the exhibition will feature original art, rare ephemera, photography, immersive and site-specific installations, archival fashion, and surprises from over 150 artists, icons, rule-breakers, and mark-makers.

BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON pays homage to the monumental moments from the worlds of graffiti, street art, hip-hop and punk rock as well as the artists who immortalised them. Learn more

This exhibition will shed new light on one of the most unforgettable paintings in the Gallery’s Collection: Quinten Massys’ ‘An Old Woman’ , (about 1513).

Defying Western canons of beauty and rules of propriety, this arresting figure became known as ‘The Ugly Duchess’ after she inspired John Tenniel’s hugely popular illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (1865). She has remained associated with the world of fairy tale ever since.

The work captures the emergence of the grotesque as a subject for painting. The exhibition will also reveal what this painting tells us of the vibrant artistic exchanges taking place between Italy and the Netherlands at the time and will interrogate the Renaissance’s attitudes towards women’s youth and appearance. Learn more

In April 2023, Tate Britain will present the UK’s first ever survey exhibition celebrating the influential work of British artist and filmmaker Sir Isaac Julien (b. London, 1960). One of the leading artists working today, Isaac Julien is internationally acclaimed for his compelling lyrical films and video art installations.

This ambitious solo show will chart the development of his pioneering work in film and video over four decades from the 1980s through to the present day, revealing a career that remains as fiercely experimental and politically charged as it was forty years ago.

The exhibition will present a selection of key works from Julien’s ground-breaking early films and immersive three-screen videos. Together, they explore how Julien breaks down barriers between different artistic disciplines by drawing from film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture. Learn more

The Ashmolean’s first exhibition in 2023 explores one of the most infamous of classical myths and celebrated stories of modern archaeology: the Labyrinth, the Minotaur and the Palace of Knossos.

The exhibition features more than 200 objects shown alongside the Ashmolean’s unrivalled collections and the archive of photographs and documents that illustrate the exciting moments when the Palace of Knossos was uncovered between 1900–1905. Learn more