12 Museum Shows Around the World Worth Traveling for in 2020, Including a Triennial of Millennial Chinese Artists

The bro club of Western artists who have had solo shows in
mainland China will be disrupted in 2020 when the American painter
Elizabeth Peyton makes her Beijing debut.

Her portraits, many of celebrities, are due to go on show at the
UCCA Beijing in an exhibition organized by London’s National
Portrait Gallery.

Thanks to the private museum, a Chinese audience will also get
its first chance to see Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work alongside
examples by his New York contemporaries. The exhibition, “Somewhere
Downtown,” celebrates the counter-culture that briefly flourished
in Manhattan before the lives of several of its leading lights were
cut short by the AIDS crisis.

Avant-garde artists’ love affair with Charlie Chaplin will be
celebrated at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The most famous film star in
the world in the 1920s cast his comedic spell on artists as diverse
as Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, and Dada writers like André Breton.
In 1920, the poet Tristan Tzara even announced,
tongue-in-cheek, that “Charlot” was becoming a Dadaist.

Here are 12 shows to see around the world in the first half of
2020.

“Atelier E.B.” at the
Garage Museum

WHAT: Atelier E.B. is short for Atelier
Edinburgh-Brussels, an artistic duo that consists of Scottish
designer Beca Lipscombe and Scottish, Belgium-based artist Lucy
McKenzie. Their practice falls somewhere between fashion, design,
and art, and has been recently shown at the Serpentine Galleries
(in 2018) and at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris last year. For
their show at the Garage Museum, Atelier E.B. will continue their
two-year research project considering fashion consumers.

WHERE: Moscow, Russia

WHEN: January 31–May 10

“Have You Seen a Horizon
Lately?” at MACAAL

WHAT: This
group show at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden
draws its title from a Yoko Ono song, and aims to delve into the
politics of place. Ono’s work will be included, alongside examples
by Canadian-French artist Kapwani Kiwanga and Moroccan artist Amina
Benbouchta, among others. Through existing works and new
commissions, viewers will be invited to question their lived
environment and take a different perspective on the
world.

WHERE:
Marrakech, Morocco

WHEN: February
25–July 19

“Manifesto” at Museum
MACAN

WHAT: The Museum of Modern and
Contemporary Art in Jakarta will present German artist Julian Rosefeldt’s
13-channel film presentation, Manifesto (2015).
The work sees the actor Cate Blanchett assume 12 different roles,
as she reads various artists’ manifestos from the 20th century.
Visitors can see Blanchett perform writings by artists, poets,
architects, performers, and filmmakers from the Dada, Fluxus, and
Surrealist movements, among others.

WHERE: Jakarta, Indonesia

WHEN: February 29–May 31

“Yan Xing” at
UCCA

WHAT: Yan Xing
is an interdisciplinary artist whose works reflects on how history
is constructed. For the past two years, Yan has been looking back
at the post-war movements of China’s remote southwest, and he has
charted this history along an axis of post-war Western art history.
He has compiled a wide-ranging survey based on his research, and
will be exhibiting new sculptures, paintings, and
murals. 

WHERE: Beijing,
China

WHEN: March
13–June 17

“Ahmet Ögüt: No Poem Loves
Its Poet” at YARAT

WHAT: The
Turkish conceptual artist Ahmet Ögüt is being given a solo show at
YARAT in Baku, where the artist will present newly commissioned
sculptures and video works. Ögüt’s interdisciplinary practice
involves collaborations with different partners in order to address
complex social issues from migration to civil unrest, all the while
maintaining a sense of humor.

WHERE: Baku,
Azerbaijan

WHEN: March
19–June 2

“Under
the Stars” at the Art Gallery of New South Wales

WHAT: How does an Australian
museum commemorate the arrival of Captain Cook on the continent 250
years ago? This show focuses on the astronomical aspect of the epic
voyage undertaken by the British naval explorer—or invader,
depending on you point of view. Cook’s mission was twofold: to
document the transit of Venus and plant the British flag on the
“unknown southern land.” The exhibition features works by
Indigenous Australian artists alongside ones by non-Indigenous
people, with an emphasis on commonalities and connections, rather
than European colonization. 

WHERE: Sydney, Australia

WHEN: March 21–September
20

“Stars: Six Contemporary
Artists From Japan to the World” at the Mori Art
Museum

WHAT: The Tokyo museum has chosen six
artists whose work reverberated outside of Japan after World War
II, when the country was experiencing rapid economic growth and
internationalization. The show will explore the work of Yayoi
Kusama, Lee Ufan, Tatsuo Miyajima, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo
Nara, and Hiroshi Sugimoto and promises to look at each artist’s
work in a global context.

WHERE: Tokyo, Japan

WHEN: April 23–September 6

“Camille Henrot” at
National Gallery of Victoria

WHAT: For her first major show in Australia,
the French artist will present her acclaimed The Pale
Fox installation at the NGV in Melbourne. The show will
feature other key works from the past decade, such as her video
Grosse Fatigue, which won the Silver Lion at the 55th
Venice Biennale. Henrot’s diverse practice includes sculpture,
painting, drawing, and video, where she adeptly combines humor and
mythology with other social themes.

WHERE: Melbourne, Australia

WHEN: May 22–October (no closing date
announced)

“Somewhere Downtown” at UCCA

WHAT: This exhibition will
mark the first time that works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith
Haring will be shown on the mainland. “Somewhere Downtown”
celebrates 1980s New York, a period of edgy creativity and fun amid
crime, deprivation, and the AIDS crisis, which claimed the lives of
Haring, David Wojnarowicz, and the Chinese-American artist
Tseng Kwong Chi. The epidemic was called “No Name Fever” in
China as officials attempted to suppress news of its
spread.

WHERE: Beijing, China

WHEN: May
30–August 30

“Charlie Chaplin: When Art Met Cinema”
at the Louvre Abu Dhabi

WHAT: The actor, director, and producer Charlie
Chaplin had a profound impact on art. This exhibition will look
specifically at his influence on his artistic contemporaries, such
as Marc Chagall and Fernand Léger, through around 100 paintings,
drawings, and sculptures, as well as archival photographs and film
scenes.

WHERE: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

WHEN: April 15–July 11

“Austin Lee: Human Nature”
at M WOODS

WHAT: Austin Lee will have a big debut in
China, but also his largest show to date, at M WOODS with the
exhibition “Human Nature.” The New York artist has been garnering a
lot of attention lately for his process-based drawings and
sculptures that seem at once strangely digitalized and handmade.
For his show in Beijing, there will be new paintings featuring his
iconic, motley band of characters, including anthropomorphic
flowers and horses. There will also be three new commissioned
works, including a public sculpture.

WHERE: Beijing, China

WHEN: March 13–June
2020

“How Do We Begin” at the X
Museum

WHAT: This show, titled “How Do We Begin,”
is billed as the first edition of a “three-year rhythmic review of
Chinese contemporary art and its development with a focus on
emerging artists.” Organized by curator Poppy Dongxue Wu, it will
feature 33 emerging Chinese artists under the age of 40, from Cui
Jie, best known for her futuristic cityscapes, to Guan Xiao, who
makes humorous installations inhabited by quirky bronze
sculptures.

WHERE: Beijing, China

WHEN: March 17–July 5 (no closing
date announced)

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for in 2020, Including a Triennial of Millennial Chinese
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