Culture Guides
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The re-opening of bars, restaurants, shops, gyms and hairdressers this April has put a spring in many people’s step, and hopefully galleries are not far behind with many scheduled to welcome visitors back in May. There’s much to look forward to, including REMOTE WORK and Lubaina Himid: The Mourning Kangas – two shows wrapped inside one – at Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, and Top Secret – an exhibition curated in partnership with expert advisors from GCHQ, at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.
Over the past year, artists and art organisations have become highly adept at finding new ways to present art, however, and we still have plenty to look forward to outside of the traditional gallery space. Among these, Abandon Normal Devices – the nomadic festival of digital culture, art and film – is returning to the cultural landscape with a water-borne, water-inspired programme that makes use of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey in an entirely new way. The 2021 edition is centred around an urgent message concerning the damage humans are causing to the lakes, rivers and oceans of this planet. The need to repair our relationship with the natural world also lies at the heart of Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds – a new artist commission sited within a stand of birch trees at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, where visitors will be invited to enter into an act of solitary communion with nature.
A different kind of communion with nature fuels the Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani’s major new digital commission for Manchester International Festival’s Virtual Factory series. Unfolding as a nine-part hallucinatory journey across time and space, The Neon Hieroglyph explores the potential of psychedelic drugs to open a powerful imaginative space from which new visions of society and alternative possible futures can emerge. Buckle up, you’re in for a trip.
Here are our picks
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1. Abandon Normal Devices Festival 2021
Toxicity's Reach, Mary Maggic, Dr Luiza Prado de. O Martins, and Sissel Marie Tonn Abandon Normal Devices Festival 2021, 27 May–11 July 2021, Tickets not yet on sale - Book now
Abandon Normal Devices Festival, the UK’s only roaming digital festival, resurfaces in 2021 with a new hybrid format, exploring the post-industrial landscapes of the Manchester Ship Canal and River Mersey.
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2. Tai Shani: The Neon Hieroglyph – Online with Manchester International Festival Virtual Factory
Tai Shani, The Neon Hieroglyph (still), 2021 Tai Shani: The Neon Hieroglyph – Online with Manchester International Festival Virtual Factory, online, Until 31 March 2022, free entry - Visit now
Turner Prize winning artist Tai Shani takes us on an LSD-inspired hallucinatory journey across time and space. Prepare to have your consciousness expanded.
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3. Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Original concept illustration by Heather and Ivan Morison. Courtesy of the artists. Silence – Alone in a World of Wounds at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, 5 June 2021 - Book now
Stop and spend an hour or two with this special creation, nestled within a stand of birch trees beside Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s Upper Lake.
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4. REMOTE WORK and Lubaina Himid: The Mourning Kangas at Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool
Echo Chambers by Nicola Dale Photo credit Darren Nixon REMOTE WORK and Lubaina Himid’s ‘The Mourning Kangas’ at Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool and online, Until 19 June 2021, free entry - Visit now
Grundy Art Gallery reopens with two exhibitions wrapped inside one – REMOTE WORK and Lubaina Himid: The Mourning Kangas.
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5. Top Secret: From ciphers to cyber security at the Science and Industry Museum, Manchester
Jody Kingzett, Science Museum Group Top Secret: From ciphers to cyber security at Science and Industry Museum, Castlefield, 17 May–31 August 2021, free entry - Find Out More
TOP SECRET: the Science and Industry Museum digs into the history of British national security over the last 100 years.
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6. Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life at The Hepworth Wakefield
Hepworth carving in the Palais de Danse, 1961. © Bowness, Hepworth Estate Photo: Rosemary Mathews Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life at The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, 21 May 2021–27 February 2022 - Book now
The Hepworth Wakefield celebrates its 10th birthday with the largest exhibition of Barbara Hepworth’s work since the artist’s death in 1975.
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7. Portable Sculpture at Henry Moore Institute in Leeds
James Ackerley Studio Objects 2021 Photography: James Ackerley Image courtesy of the artist Portable Sculpture at The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, Leeds, 18 May–29 August 2021, free entry - Find Out More
Portable Sculpture at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds challenges our expectations of what sculpture is and can do.
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8. Digital Realness – Online with Site Gallery
Phantom, Sian Fan -
9. Electric Dreams – Online with Venture Arts
Declan Leslie, untitled, pen on paper, 2019-20. -
10. Fledge: A Year of Birds at Contemporary Six
Fledge: A Year of Birds at Contemporary Six, City Centre, 1–23 May 2021, free entry - Find Out More
Contemporary Six presents a very different kind of portrait of the last year focused around the peace and solace nature can provide.
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11. John Moores Painting Prize 2020 – Online and at Walker Art Gallery
Katheryn Maple The Common John Moores Painting Prize 2020 at Walker Art Gallery, City Centre and online, Until 27 June 2021, free entry - Visit now
The prestigious John Moores Painting Prize moves online for the first time, featuring the best in contemporary British painting.
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12. Sutapa Biswas: Lumen at BALTIC, Gateshead
Sutapa Biswas, Light Rain , 2015 (production still). Made possible thanks to the generous support of Beppu Projects, Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan, the Kashima Residency 2015. © Sutapa Biswas. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2021 Sutapa Biswas: Lumen at Baltic, Newcastle, 8 May–31 October 2021, free entry - Find Out More
Sutapa Biswas’ major solo show explores the artist’s role in illuminating the imperialist structures that still exist within British society.
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13. The Earth Asleep at HOME, Manchester
HOME The Earth Asleep at HOME Manchester, Manchester, Until 11 September 2021 - Book now
The Earth Asleep, a new film and original live score from creative duo Clara Casian and Robin Richards, premieres this spring at HOME.
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14. Nicola Ellis and Ritherdon & Co Ltd: No gaps in the line at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Nicola Ellis, Live powder series, 2019. Image Courtesy the artist Nicola Ellis and Ritherdon & Co Ltd: No gaps in the line at Castlefield Gallery, Castlefield, 13 June–1 August 2021, free entry - Find Out More
After a year of mostly silent and empty galleries, we look forward to this clamorous return to exhibiting ‘in the flesh’.
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15. Liverpool Biennial 2021 – The Stomach and the Port
Ebony G. Patterson, ...a pale horse weeps in silence...for those who bear/bare witness, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago -
16. POSTPONED – AI: More than Human at World Museum Liverpool
Lawrence Lek 2065 (Preview). Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London AI: More than Human at World Museum Liverpool, City Centre, Until 20 June 2021, from £5 - Book now
Barbican’s major exhibition, AI: More than Human, comes to Liverpool, offering a tantlising look into the future.
More in Exhibitions
Trading Station: how hot drinks shape our lives at Manchester Art Gallery
Trading Station at Manchester Art Gallery charts the history and changing social role of hot drinks in our lives.
These Lancashire Women are Witches in Politics with The Turnpike
A collaborative project that takes inspiration from the history of the Leigh Female Reformers of 1819 and the monstrous representations of them in the media of the time.
Posters from the Irish civil rights era – Online with the Working Class Movement Library
Working Class Movement Library presents an online exhibition of powerful posters made by young activists fighting for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
What it is to be here: Colonisation and Resistance – Online at The Portico Library
The Portico Library marks 250 years since British explorer James Cook first landed on the shores of what we now call Australia with an online exhibition that explores the history of violence and resistance that followed.
The Gardener Digs in Another Time – Online at the Whitworth
the Whitworth in Manchester invites you to step into the garden as subject with an online version of its 2016 exhibition, The Gardener Digs in Another Time.
Life Drawing Manchester Online Classes
The popular Northern Quarter community, Life Drawing Manchester, have migrated to zoom, opening up their classes to models and artists from all over the world.
What is Manchester Art Gallery? at Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery reopens with a thought-provoking new exhibition that delves into the history of the public institution and its role within the city.
Don McCullin at Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool presents a major retrospective of work by Don McCullin, widely considered to be one of the greatest photojournalists of our time.
Aid Workers: Ethics Under Fire at Imperial War Museum North
Aid Workers: Ethics Under Fire at Imperial War Museum North takes a close look at the moral dilemmas surrounding overseas aid.
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