5 amazing art shows to see this July

Where will you discover art this month? Here’s our guide to some of the most spectacular showings around the country 

Your daylight destination. Image: © Studio Olafur Eliasson

1. To the sea

Combine a day at the beach with viewing some great art. Launching this summer is Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast, a new public art programme for the UK’s West Cumbrian coastline. It includes new writer commissions and site-specific artworks created by acclaimed artists. Shown here is an artist rendering of a proposed landmark installation from Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, created in collaboration with British writer Robert Macfarlane. Provisionally named Your daylight destination, it will use the beach as a stage for an artwork that utilises the daily tides, sea water and light. ‘In a sense,’ says Eliasson, ‘it is a humble reflection of what is already there – the beach, the water, the sky, the plants and animals – reframed within a space that invites self-discovery in a deep-time perspective.’

Get all the latest details at deeptime.uk

Vivien Leigh photographed by Yevonde. Image: printed 2022–23, purchased with The Portrait Fund, 2021 © National Portrait Gallery ​

2. Four eyes, two shows 

If you’ve yet to discover the work of pioneering photographer Yevonde (1893–1975), head to the newly reopened National Portrait Gallery in London for the exhibition Yevonde: Life and Colour. Yevonde was known throughout her 60-year career for the verve of her use of colour, as seen here in her 1936 portrait of actress Vivien Leigh. Catch, too, the show Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, with its unique insight into a year in the life of the Beatles, as only McCartney could have captured it.

Yevonde: Life and Colour is on until 15 October

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm is on until 1 October

npg.org.uk

Image: 2023 © Lubaina Himid. Image courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. Photo: Gavin Renshaw​

3. Sounds and canvas 

See What Does Love Sound Like? – a show of Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid’s large-scale paintings and objects, made in response to operas in Glyndebourne Festival this season. Pictured here is her Dialogues des Carmélites in reference to the opera of the same name. View the exhibition, all at Glyndebourne in Sussex, in two parts: in Glyndebourne’s Gallery 94, for all ticket holders until 27 August, and by appointment in the Old Green Room. The whole exhibition will be open on two Family Open Days in September.

glyndebourne.com

South African dance artist Lorin Sookool, Project ongoing, 2022. Photography: Tanja Hall 

4. Liverpool’s big show 

Dive into one of the biggest arts shows happening in the UK this year, with events staged in historic buildings and unexpected places across the city of Liverpool, all part of the Liverpool Biennial. Expect ambitious outdoor works, performances, screenings, learning activities and fringe events. This is the Biennial’s 12th edition and is titled uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things. The port city will, says curator Khanyisile Mbongwa, open itself ‘to be excavated – laying bare its history of colonialism, role in the trade of enslaved people and the making of the British Empire’. Artists will explore that past while also seeking to discover possibilities for healing. Pictured above is dance artist Lorin Sookool, who will present live works for the festival. 

Until 17 September

biennial.com

Image: © Grayson Perry. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro. Photo: Angus Mill

5. Grayson goes to Scotland

Opening in Edinburgh this month is the biggest-ever exhibition of Sir Grayson Perry’s work. Staged in the Upper Galleries of the Royal Scottish Academy, this is a one-time-only show. Titled Grayson Perry: Smash Hits, it offers an exclusive look at the artist’s oeuvre, with over 80 exhibits, from his earliest plate, made during his first week at evening class, to new works made especially for this exhibition. Knights of the road might relish the chance to view Perry’s 2010 custom-built motorcycle, pictured here.

22 July–12 November

nationalgalleries.org

For more must-see shows, see The Arts Society Magazine, available exclusively to members and supporters of The Arts Society (to join, see theartssociety.org/member-benefits). And for our online monthly ‘5 amazing arts shows to see’, sign up at theartssociety.org/signup