It’s the first day of summer. Art Basel has concluded (we promise a post soon), but the art world can’t stop won’t stop. There is so much to see, so we outlined our top picks for summer exhibitions.
Since we previewed Anish Kapoor at the Château de Versailles, there have been so many articles about the sculpture that kind of looks like a vagina (it does not) and some vandalism. No matter. Instagram is full of evidence that the installations are amazing, and this is still our favorite summer exhibition.
The Fondazione Prada opened its new campus in Milan last month. The inaugural exhibitions include Serial Classic, with more than 70 works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Multiples in plaster, bronze, and marble explicate the reproduction of classical works and illustrate the methods used in the making of copies.
On June 7, the Orange County Museum of Art will open My Generation: Young Chinese Artists. The exhibition was first shown at the Tampa Museum of Art last year. We saw My Generation at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in December and can’t wait to see it in a new context at OCMA.
The Getty will open A Kingdom of Images: French Prints in the Age of Louis XIV on June 16. The exhibition was co-organized by the Getty Research Institute and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. At the tercentenary of the death of Louis XIV, the Sun King’s influence on French art, style, and culture is still a big deal.
On July 4, the National Building Museum will open the BEACH in collaboration with the design firm Snarkitecture. The 10,000 square-foot installation will cover the museum’s Great Hall with an ocean of about one million plastic translucent balls. Following last summer’s BIG Maze at NBM and reminding us of Paris Plages, the BEACH will be DC’s best summer experience.
Christian Marclay’s The Clock will return to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on July 5. The 24-hour montage of thousands of moments of film clips, synchronized to local time, was screened at LACMA in 2011 and in 2012. The Clock will be on during open hours, but 24-hour screenings on July 25 and August 8 will be big events for art lovers to visit LACMA overnight. Expect food trucks.
The Venice Biennale is ongoing through November, but we recommend visiting in the summer. Of course Venice is hot and crowded, but the art world jet set have already left and the acqua alta haven’t yet arrived. The 56th edition of the Biennale, All the World’s Futures, includes 89 pavilions with works by 136 artists from 53 countries. It could take all summer to experience them all.
After all these, save the date for a few big events in the fall:
– The Biennale de Lyon, in its 13th edition as La Vie Moderne, opens at macLyon and around the city on September 10.
– Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament exhibition will open at MOCA on September 13.
– The Broad will open on September 20.