Fanny Charles looks ahead to what’s coming this year
January is an odd time in the art world – some galleries carry their December/Christmas exhibitions over into the New Year. Others – such as Bournemouth’s Russell Cotes Museum and Gallery – are closed, for necessary maintenance work or other reasons. And it’s not a time when you necessarily want to venture far from the warmth of your home or the demands of the job, so here is a brief look at some of the interesting exhibitions in the first half of 2025, from big London shows to local galleries.
For fans of the great early Italian Renaissance artists, the National Gallery has the exhibition of the year – Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350, This milestone exhibition marks the gallery’s 200th anniversary with a rare reunion of 14th-century Italian paintings. The 100 or so works on show will showcase the pivotal role of Sienese artists in Europe’s artistic landscape. Highlights include Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Maestà panels and Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptychi.
– 8th March to 22nd June.
Staying at the National Gallery, we find there is more to Mexican art than Frida Kahlo, wonderful though she was of course. The UK’s first exhibition of work by Mexico’s leading 19th century artist – Jose Maria Velasco: A View of Mexico – celebrates his paintings of Mexico’s landscapes and industrialisation and the 200th anniversary of UK-Mexico diplomatic relations.
You may recognise his painting called (in translation) Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, an iconic view of two of the massive ancient structures which dot the Mexican landscape.
– 29th March to 17th August.
The Royal Academy at Burlington House in Piccadilly has an exhibition of Victor Hugo’s drawings. Best known for his massive novels, including Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hugo was also a poet, politician and artist. His drawings, many made while he lived on Guernsey, include imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes.
– 21st March to 29th June.
The Royal West of England Academy in Bristol has its biennial open 2025, with the theme of Paper Works, and an important exhibition of work by Paule Vezelay, a pioneering modernist, born in Bristol, with an international reputation.
– 25th January to 27th April
The Russell-Cotes on Bournemouth’s East Cliff is one of the most beautiful museum buildings in the country, with a fascinating display of the many collections of Sir Merton and Lady Russell-Cotes as well as a changing programme of exhibitions. The current show is Artists in Purbeck: Spirit of Place, a revelatory survey of the artistic heritage of this spectacular part of Dorset, with its dramatic coast and landscape and its history of quarrying and stone-carving. The artists, painters and sculptors featured include Mary Spencer Watson, Brian Graham, Mark Gertler, Augustus John and Paul Nash. – Returning from 21st January to 16th March, after the New Year closure period.
Southampton City Art Gallery has an exhibition from its important permanent collection that tells the story of western art from the Renaissance to the present day. Featured items include works from the 17th century Dutch, French and Italian baroque, French Impressionists, 20th century British art, Surrealism and the St Ives-based abstract artists. – From 23rd February
Sladers Yard at West Bay follows the Christmas-New Year mixed show, Radiance, with Restless Earth – paintings, prints and ceramics by leading gallery artists, including Anthony Garratt, ceramicist Adela Powell and resident furniture designer-maker Petter Southall. The spring show is a solo exhibition by the Poole-born and West Dorset-based Philip Sutton RA. Now in his 90s, this remarkable artist has a career spanning seven decades including paintings and drawings from his years living on Fiji. The new show is Portrait of the Artist, 70 years of self-portraits and the places where they were painted. – 15th March to 11th May
Messums West, based in the magnificent medieval Tithe Barn at Tisbury, has a wide range of exhibitions and events, including Landscape Painting Today, from 11th January to 24th February, Contemporary Danish Ceramics from 1st March to 4th May and Dressed for the Woods, a retrospective to mark Nicola Hicks’ 65th birthday, celebrating one of the most significant sculptors of our time, from 8th March to 4th May. Further ahead, there is an exhibition by another outstanding contemporary sculptor, Laurence West, from 26th July to 29th September.
If you have been captivated by the blood and glamour of the amphitheatre in Gladiator II, you will be fascinated by Gladiators of Britain at Dorset County Museum. The exhibition explores the history of gladiatorial contests in Roman Britain, and will include finds from Maumbury Rings in Dorchester, originally a Neolithic henge which was transformed into an amphitheatre by the Romans. This is followed by Jane Austen: Down to the Sea, celebrating the 250th anniversary of her birth and exploring the influence of the sea in her novels.
– Gladiators of Britain, 25th January to 11th May
Jane Austen: Down to the Sea, 14th June to 14th September
Shaftesbury Arts Centre’s gallery has a regularly changing programme of exhibitions, mostly on for a fortnight, but the 2025 opening show – Welcome 25 – is on until 1st February.
It is followed by the Spring Open, from 5th to 22nd February, and the arts centre art group’s annual exhibition from 26th February to 4th March.
The gallery is open most days and is always worth a visit. The standard of work on show – paintings, prints, ceramics, photography and more – is consistently high.
Hauser & Wirth at Durslade Farm, Bruton, is the Somerset outpost of a global contemporary art group, bringing world-class art to our area. Past exhibitions have included Elisabeth Frink, Henry Moore and Phyllida Barlow, in a beautiful rural setting, with a garden designed by Piet Oudolf. This year’s shows include An Uncommon Thread, featuring 10 contemporary artists living and working in the UK, highlighting the transformative power of unconventional media, using unexpected painting surfaces, adapting formal craft traditions and repurposing discarded products into compelling works.
– 8th February to 27th April.
