All the art exhibitions not to miss in 2020

Nowadays, it is impossible to count all the temporary exhibitions held over the course of a year all around the world. At the same time, it is difficult to tell what the best exhibition will be, but it is not impossible to imagine what will be the most relevant ones in 2020. On 26 January, a retrospective on the American artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967), whose iconic works on the American landscape have now become part of the collective imagination, will be inaugurated at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel. The exhibition, which will be held until 17 May, will display works from 1910 to 1960 and is expected to provide an important insight into the artist’s work. On February 1st do not miss the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at the Wiels museum in Brussels. You’ll be able to see the work of one of the best artists of our time, who looks at the world through photography, experimenting and pushing the boundaries of the medium. There will be photographs, some of which have never been shown before, videos and sound installations. During the same month, the 34th Sao Paulo Biennial, entitled “Faz escuro mas eu canto” (“Though it’s dark, still I sing”), will begin. During the biennial, as the curator Jacopo Crivelli Visconti says: “Brazil and Latin America are well represented, both in terms of the artists’ nationalities and the themes that they address [...] Special attention will be given to the power and importance of production within the expanded field of the African diaspora. In general, the 34th Biennial aims to shed light on productions that deserve more attention, such as contemporary indigenous art (Brazilian and other parts of the world) or art produced in the Caribbean”.

Let’s move on from Sao Paulo to Sydney for another biennial, now in its 22nd edition. Called NIRIN (which means margin) and directed by Brook Andrew, artist and indigenous, the exhibition will open on March 14 and will continue until June 8, 2020. On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage to Australia, the biennial aims to reflect on issues such as globalization, migration and populism, connecting local communities through an international network. Not to be missed is also the appointment with the Tate Modern, which is preparing to inaugurate a major exhibition dedicated to the great Steve McQueen, from 13 February to 11 May. The exhibition will present 14 works by the artist starting from his first film shot on Super8 film entitled “Exodus” (1992-97). A celebration of the pioneering activity of an extraordinary creator of moving images. The exhibition, in collaboration with Pirelli HangarBicocca, will then move to Milan where starting from 29 October. It is right at the HangarBicocca in Milan, from 9 April to 26 July, that a monumental exhibition on the work of Chen Zhen (1955-2000), curated by Vicente Todolì, will be inaugurated, presenting large-format installations. The works of the Chinese artist, who brought his own journey through the world within his practice (also coining the notion of trans-experience), will greatly impact the huge exhibition area in Milan.

From 18 March to 15 June, the Centre Pompidou will dedicate an exhibition to Christo and Jeanne-Claude. On this occasion the exhibition will retrace their Parisian period (from 1958 to 1964) and the history of the project of “Le Pont-Neuf empaqueté, projet pour Paris” (1975-85). The very first studies for the wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe date back to 1962 and almost sixty years later the work will be carried out starting from 19 September. Overseas, from 5 April to 7 September, the MOMA will dedicate a retrospective on Niki de Saint Phalle, a visionary artist who has addressed many issues such as women rights, climate change and HIV. The exhibition will focus mainly on her large outdoor sculptures and architectural structures, such as the enchanting project of the Tarot Garden in Capalbio (GR), which began in the late 1970s and has been open to the public since 1998. On May 14th, DAK’ART will hold the biennial of contemporary African art in the Senegalese capital, which will be open to the public until June 28th. This is one of the most interesting events on the African continent, which for this 14th edition, directed by El Hadji Malick NDIAYE, already aims, with its trilingual title (“I Ndaffa/forger/Out of fire”), to bring together the different elements that coexist within African creation and to offer new ways to tell and understand the continent. To conclude, between spring and summer 2020, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris will present a retrospective on the work of Cindy Sherman, an artist whose ever-changing identity has been shown in front of the photographic lens since the 1970s and who, even during the Instagram era, is still one of the most interesting protagonists of the art world.