January – the month to get inspired.

January. A grey old month in which to start the year!  Inspire your mind and add light to your soul with some art.

Here, we showcase the best art exhibitions in some of our most popular MondaytoFriday cities.  Use your weekday evenings, or take a lunch hour to yourself and do something inspiring whilst you are away from home.

 

London

Frank Auerbach at The Tate Britain (until 12th March 2016)

Frank Auerbach is known for his depictions of people and urban landscapes near his North London studio. This exhibition reaffirms his status as one of the pre-eminent painters of our age. As the artist reaches his 84th birthday, Tate Britain displays around 70 paintings and drawings from the 1950s to the present day, offering new insights into the nature of Auerbach's painting.

The lowdown

·      Open until 6pm daily.

·      £14.50 Adults (without donation)

·      More details: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/frank-auerbach

 

Bristol

John Akomfrah: Vertigo Sea at Arnolfini (until 10th April 2016)

Vertigo Sea, a three-screen film, first seen at the 56th Venice Biennale as part of Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures exhibition, is a sensual, poetic and cohesive meditation on man's relationship with the sea and exploration of its role in the history of slavery, migration, and conflict. Fusing archival material, readings from classical sources, and newly shot footage, the work explicitly highlights the greed, horror and cruelty of the whaling industry. This material is then juxtaposed with shots of African migrants crossing the ocean in a journey fraught with danger in hopes of ‘better life’ and thus delivering a timely and potent reminder of the current issues around global migration, the refugee crisis, slavery, alongside ecological concerns.

Shot on the Isle of Skye, the Faroe Islands and the Northern regions of Norway, with the BBC’s Bristol based Natural History Unit, Vertigo Sea draws upon two remarkable books: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and Heathcote Williams’ epic poem Whale Nation (1988), a harrowing and inspiring work which charts the history, intelligence and majesty of the largest mammal on earth.

The lowdown

·      Open daily until 6pm

·      Admission free

·      More details http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions

 

Oxford

Architecture in Miniature at The Ashmolean. (Until 15th May 2016)

Vicki Ambery-Smith has earned an international reputation for her unique style of jewellery and silverware based on her interpretations of architecture. Growing up in Oxford provided her with inspiration that has developed over 35 years into a theme that draws on buildings as diverse as ancient Greece and contemporary Europe and America. This collection is a celebration of Oxford’s extraordinary buildings. She has recreated key Oxford landmarks in silver including a piece celebrating the 350th anniversary of the construction of The Sheldonian Theatre.

Hugh Colvin is a ceramist. Inspired by his father, the Oxford architectural historian Sir Howard Colvin, he started making architectural models in porcelain clay fired to stoneware temperatures (1200 deg C). His models are often based on the historic designs by Michelangelo, Gibbs, Hawksmoor, Langley, LeDoux and others. He prefers the imaginary and the unbuilt, the follies and the ruins, and has also made many fantasies to his own designs. Hugh Colvin will be exhibiting four ceramic architectural sculptures.

The lowdown

·      Open daily until 5pm

·      Admission free

·      More details http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/details/?exh=131

 

Glasgow

Winter Exhibition at The Royal Glasgow Institute of The Fine Arts (until 31st January 2016)

RGI is inviting artists associated with the RGI who have exhibited their work in the Kelly Gallery; artist members of the RGI and elected RGIs, to submit up to two postcard size pieces of work (unframed). Small sculptures, books, jewellery, textiles and artist prints will also feature.

The lowdown

·      Open until 5pm Tues-Sat

·      Admission free

·      More details http://www.royalglasgowinstitute.org/exhibitions/

 

Manchester

Manchester Art Gallery’s Urban Garden (Until 1st October 2016)

Following the success of The Lost Gardens of Manchester, urban garden is being kept at the Gallery. Both visitors, and the bees that live on the Gallery’s roof, have enjoyed the green oasis in the city so much that the museum want the gardens to continue.

The lowdown

·      Open daily until 5pm

·       Admission free

More details http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/manchester-art-gallerys-urban-garden/