Your privacy

We use cookies to help make our site work properly and to analyze how our site is used. You can view our cookies policy, manage your cookie preferences, or consent and dismiss this banner by clicking agree:

Win Subscribe

Upcoming Art Exhibitions to see in the South East

Whether you’re by the sea or exploring the countryside, there’s art galleries dotted all over the South East with exhibitions opening that are just waiting to be explored.

A black-and-white photo shows an older man wearing a shirt and tie with his arm around a smiling younger person dressed in military attire. They stand inside a room with a sculpture in the background.

This summer sees new exhibition Animals & Us open across the first floor galleries of the Turner Contemporary. The exhibition will explore artist’s reflections on the relationship between humans and animals. Some of the first subjects of art were animals in cave paintings, and this exhibition discusses and explores how the art world’s relationship with animals has evolved. Featuring work from Turner, Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol and Lucian Freud among many others, there will be paintings, sculpture, videos and installations to explore the relationship between humans and animals at a time when scientists warn we are facing the sixth mass extinction on earth.

Also in Margate this year, Antony Gormley’s sculpture Another Time will stay until November 2018. The iron-cast figures are installed all over the world and the Margate figure can be seen 3 hours before low tide.

Image Credit: Candida Höfer, Zoologischer Garten Paris II 1997 via Turner Contemporary

Animals & Us is on at the Turner Contemporary 25 May - 30 Sep

Edward Stott: A Master of Colour and Atmosphere

Another seaside gallery, Towner Art Gallery is located in the heart of Eastbourne and presents major exhibitions from UK and international artists.

May sees Towner open Edward Stott: A Master of Colour and Atmosphere, the first collection of Stott paintings in over 40 years. 100 years after his death ‘the poet-painter of twilight’ remains famous for his poetic depictions of rural scenes and his deep connections to the Sussex countryside. The exhibition not only shows the finished works but also his sketches which informed the paintings Stott later completed in his studio.

Image Credit: Edward Stott, Starlight Landscape via Towner Art Gallery

Edward Stott: A Master of Colour and Atmosphere is on at Towner at Gallery 25 May - 16 Sep.

Paul Feiler: One Hundred Years

This year long centenary celebration of the life and work of Paul Feiler could not be better suited to the picturesque location of the Jerwood Gallery, next to the fishing beach in Hastings. The Anglo-German painter was inspired by the Cornish landscape and the unique light he found there, with much of his work focusing on the beauty of the town he loved so much.

Paul Feiler: One Hundred Years is on at the Jerwood Gallery 21 April - 8 July.

Picasso at The Lightbox

Anyone who’s been to see the Tate Modern’s current Picasso exhibition 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy and wants to find out more about the man behind the work should check out the Lightbox Gallery’s two personal Picasso exhibitions. Four Days with Picasso, open until 29 April, shows never before seen images of Picasso on holiday in 1954. Taken by amateur British photographer Stanley Stanley who forged an unlikely friendship with the painter, Picasso’s holiday in Antibes is documented in an unformal and friendly way.

For more Picasso focused photography, The Lightbox is also hosting Lee Miller: Picasso Portraits. Miller was a model, photographer, life-long friend and lover of Picasso, giving her the chance to capture these informal shots of the great artist.

Image Credit: Stanley Stanley via The Lightbox

Four Days with Picasso is on 10 - 29 April and Lee Miller: Picasso Portraits is on 14 April - 17 June.

An exhibition drawn from the Artist Rooms collection, anti-establishment Turner prize winning duo Gilbert & George are celebrated at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Their formal appearance and manner is offset by their use of brightly coloured graphics and photo style which revolutionised ideas of live art and the role of the artist in the work. Provocative and controversial in their time, Gilbert & George strive to create ‘Art for All’ and this Brighton exhibition looks set to celebrate that wholeheartedly.

Image Credit: Gilbert & George, Existers, via Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.

ARTIST ROOMS: Gilbert & George is on 29 April - 2 September.