10 cities to visit for spectacular art exhibitions in 2023

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is best known for bringing the city out of its doom-and-gloom industrial era in the 1990s and making it the creative hive it is today. This year, the museum continues to deliver unmissable temporary exhibitions alongside its permanent collections. First, Absolute Reality by Joan Miró (10 March to 28 May 2023) sees the development of the Spanish artist’s work from 1920 to 1945 – considered a key period in Miro’s career. Later in the year, the Guggenheim will exhibit Picasso. Matter and Body (29 September 2023 to 1 January 2024), paying homage to the renowned artist’s sculptural work and the form that inspired many of his creations: the body.

Following the World Cup, this tiny Arab Nation has surprised visitors with how much it has to offer. One of those offerings is its art scene, especially after the reopening of the beautifully built Doha Museum of Islamic Art in October 2022. Another museum in the capital has grabbed our attention this year, though. The National Museum of Qatar brings a multi-sensory experience with its Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You (21 March to 15 July 2023) exhibition. Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist is the brain behind the largescale installation that features more than 12,000 LED lights. It's the artist's debut show in the Middle East, and certainly a spectacular one.

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The Broad museum is becoming the first-ever institute in Los Angeles to put on an exhibition dedicated to the legendary artist Keith Haring. Haring rose to fame in the 1980s on the New York graffiti scene, where his pop art became a huge influence on the modern art movement. Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody (27 May to 8 October 2023) will display more than 120 pieces of his work, including material sourced from his personal journals. Meanwhile at the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age (12 February to 7 July) highlights the origins of what we now call digital art, looking at work created or inspired by computers between 1952 and 1982. Visit the LACMA after 23 April and will also be able to see Women Defining Women (23 April to 24 September 2023). This exhibit by 75 women, either from or living in Islamic societies, demonstrates they are neither voiceless or invisible: how they are so often perceived. 

Manchester’s cultural scene is booming following the opening of the Manchester Museum in February. But the excitement doesn’t stop there as a £210 million arts and music centre will be making its debut in June. Factory International will open its doors with a bang with one of its first exhibitions by Japanese surrealist Yayoi Kusama, the artist behind the sell-out Infinity Mirror Rooms at London’s Tate Modern. The 93-year-old will bring her largest-ever immersive show to the new venue, titled You, Me and the Balloons (30 June to 28 August). Expect to see more of her psychedelic inflatable creations – many of which will be more than 10 metres tall. Continue your creative journey in the city at the Manchester Art Gallery, just a 20-minute walk away.

In the year which marks 50 years since Pablo Picasso’s death, cities across Spain (his birth country) and France (where he spent most of his life) are honouring the artist’s life. But Madrid takes first place for holding the most exhibitions. The Spanish capital – where Picasso attended the Fine Arts Academy in 1897 – will be hosting eight exhibitions at eight different venues throughout the year. Go to the Prado Museum for Picasso – El Greco (13 June to 17 September) to compare the work of the two influential artists. Later in the year, Picasso. The Sacred and the Profane (4 October 2023 to 14 January 2024) at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum examines Picasso’s ability to reimagine and incorporate themes of earlier art into his own work.

After closing its doors due cost-of-living difficulties six months ago, we are pleased to see the reopening of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Mordern Two) in Edinburgh on the 29 April. It returns with Decades: The Art of Change 1900-1980, an exhibition which takes visitors on a journey through eighty years of art. Six rooms will represent six different chapters in art history, each one demonstrating how artists rebelled against previous generations to make work of their own, from the colourful, radical landscape paintings of the 1900s, to the playful, experimental sculptures of the 1960s. Summer 2023 also expects the opening of the Scottish National Gallery’s new wing. The extension will feature collections by Scottish artists including Phoebe Anna Traquair, William McTaggart, and Sir Henry Raeburn.

From Brunelleschi to Michelangel, Florence is famously home to iconic artists and designers of the past. Although the city’s Renaissance paintings and architecture cannot be missed, we encourage those who visit to head to Palazzo Strozzi for something a little newer. Reaching for the Stars (4 March to 18 June 2023) shines a light on art from the present and future with more than 70 works on display. Well-known names of the Italian and worldwide contemporary art scene will feature, including Damien Hurst, Maurizio Cattelan and Lara Favaretto. Expect each corner of the venue filled with artworks in a variety of forms, from sculptures to video formats. 

Just when you think the work of Van Gogh has been explored to the nth degree, a new exhibition finds a refreshing angle. This year, the Art Institute of Chicago is that museum, delivering Van Gogh and the Avant-Garde: The Modern Landscape (14 May to 4 September 2023). The collection of 80 works by the Dutch icon were painted in the period from 1882 to 1890, a time when post-impressionists were lured to the outskirts of Paris, fascinated by changing landscape along the Seine River that was seeing increased industrialisation. Visit before the 12 June, and you will also be able to catch another famed artist’s work. Salvador Dalí: The Image Disappears (18 February to 12 June) showcases more than 30 paintings, drawings and objects by the Spanish surrealist, reflecting his contrasting needs of wanting to be seen but also disappear.

Read next: 9 of Chicago's spectacular buildings every architecture lover must visit

The UK capital is teeming with new exhibitions at its world-class galleries and museums. Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle (16 February to 21 May 2023) at the Barbican is the largest UK exhibition of the artist’s work yet. Neel described herself as the ‘collector of souls’, and this collection of figurative paintings celebrates those who were often marginalised in society, including black children, pregnant women and queer performers. At the V&A, Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance (11 February to 11 June 2023) explores a fresh vision on arguably the world’s greatest sculptor, and his influence on the generations of artists that followed. Towards the end of the year, Tate Britain will exhibit more than 100 female artists in Women in Revolt! Art, Activism and the Women’s Movement in the UK 1970-90 (8 November 2023 to 7 April 2024), a display exploring issues during the titled time period including the British Women’s Liberation movement.

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (also known as KMSKA) reopened in November 2022 after more than a decade of restoration. Coming to the museum nearly a year on is Bold Faces (20 October 2023 to 21 January 2024), a 60-part collection of 'heads' by world-famous artists such as Vermeer and Barocci, and Flemish Masters, such as Rubens and Metsijs. This exhibition looks beyond just the portraits of 'someone', but focuses on 'something', whether a character trait, a feeling, or something else. 

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