Shows to See in 2024
By The Editors
Image courtesy Nguyen Trinh Thi and Singapore Art Museum.
JAN 12–APR 14
47 Days, Sound-less: Nguyen Trinh Thi
Singapore Art Museum, Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Singapore
Known for her experimental moving-image work, Hanoi-based filmmaker Nguyen Trinh Thi continues to push the boundaries of film and video art. Produced as part of the Han Nefkens Foundation’s Moving Image Commission 2021, the multimedia video installation 47 Days, Sound-less (2023) explores sensuous worlds within landscapes. Humans appear as peripheral, complementary subjects, probing conceptions of ecological synergy.
RUWANGI AMARASINGHE, Reverence: to the Unspeaking, 2021, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 152.4 × 213 cm. Courtesy the artist and Colomboscope.
JAN 19–28
Colomboscope: Way
of the Forest
Multiple Locations
Colombo
The eighth edition of the arts festival Colomboscope will feature over 40 artists and collectives in interdisciplinary programs across the Sri Lankan capital. Helmed by artistic director Natasha Ginwala with cocurators Protick Sarker, Hit Man Gurung, and Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Colomboscope 2024, titled “Way of the Forest,” seeks to rekindle restorative, ecological interdependence by interrogating colonial legacies, extraction culture, and hierarchical urban development.
JANE JIN KAISEN, Halmang, 2023, video still. Courtesy the artist and Esea contemporary, Manchester.
JAN 20–APR 21
Jane Jin Kaisen: Halmang
Esea contemporary
Manchester
For Jane Jin Kaisen’s first solo in the United Kingdom, the Copenhagen-based artist and filmmaker will interrogate the spiritual endurance of oceans amid modernization. “Halmang” will showcase Kaisen’s recent, eponymous film from 2023, a culmination of her decade-long exploration of the communities and landscapes that make up Korea’s Jeju Island, where the artist has ancestral ties.
FEB 2–MAY 19
Yhonnie Scarce: The Light of Day
The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Perth
Leading Kokatha-Nukunu artist Yhonnie Scarce’s “The Light of Day” will mark the largest ensemble of her mixed-media, large-scale installations in Australia to date. Working primarily with glass, Scarce’s chandelier-like artworks and archival photography collection illuminate forgotten histories, from nuclear testing in her birthplace of Woomera and its persistent consequences to international uranium mining.
NAKAHIRA TAKUMA, from Overflow, 1971. Courtesy The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
FEB 6–APR 7
Nakahira Takuma:
Burn – Overflow
National Museum of
Modern Art
Tokyo
Takuma Nakahira’s first major retrospective in nearly two decades will present the late Japanese photographer’s most iconic series alongside his recently discovered prints and lesser-known magazines. Split into five chapters, “Burn – Overflow” provides ample space for each period in Nakahira’s life and work, highlighting his profound impact on postwar Japanese photography while illustrating his personal artistic development.
LEE MINGWEI, Guernica in Sand, 2006- , mixed-media interactive installation, sand, wooden island, lighting, 1300 × 643 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
FEB 17–JUL 7
Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care
De Young Museum
San Francisco
Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei’s first major survey in the United States will present seven projects made between 1995 and 2024, including new commissions by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inspired by grief and healing. Known for his participatory, mixed-media installations and performances, Lee creates projects that are exhibited in public spaces, inviting audiences to serendipitously connect.
FEB 20–MAY 24
Diriyah
Contemporary Art Biennale 2024: After Rain
JAX District
Diriyah
The second Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, “After Rain,” will host 92 artists from 43 countries in repurposed warehouses of the JAX District of Diriyah, just outside of Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh. Artistic director Ute Meta Bauer notes that the theme hails from Arabic literature, connoting the deep relief felt after a storm. Evoking regeneration and growth, “After Rain” invites Saudi audiences to experience the diverse and emotive power of contemporary art.
FEB 24–JUN 16
Lala Rukh: In the Round
Sharjah Art Foundation
Sharjah
Born in Pakistan in 1948, the late Lala Rukh was both an artistic and a feminist trailblazer. Her first major survey will feature more than 60 conceptual artworks spanning drawing, print, photography, video, and animation. Archival materials including interviews will also be displayed, contextualizing her sociopolitical organizing across South Asia.
DARRELL SIBOSADO, Ngarrgidj Morr (the proper path to follow), 2022, powder-coated steel, LED tubes, fittings, electrical component, 300 × 245 × 8cm (each panel). Courtesy the artist and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
MAR 9–JUN 10
24th Biennale of
Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns
Multiple Locations
Sydney
With 88 participating artists and collectives from 47 countries, the 24th Biennale of Sydney, themed “Ten Thousand Suns,” seeks to supplant apocalyptic narratives by emphasizing First Nations cosmology and international climate activism. Under the artistic direction of curators Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero, the Biennale features 14 Indigenous artists commissioned by Paris’s Fondation Cartier who will work with Kuku Yalanji curator-artist Tony Albert to produce new works centered around this theme, highlighting anticolonial, artistic resistance.
Installation view of LUNGISWA GQUNTA’s Ntabamanzi, 2022, barbed wire, fabric, silver coins, dimensions variable, at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2022. Photo by Rob Harris. Courtesy of the artist and Henry Moore Foundation.
MAR 15–JUN 9
8th Yokohama
Triennale: Wild Grass: Our Lives
Yokohama Museum of Art and other locations
Yokohama
For the eighth Yokohama Triennale, “Wild Grass: Our Lives,” co-artistic directors Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu take inspiration from the Chinese author Lu Xun’s eponymous essay compilation. Written between 1924–26, Wild Grass delves into overcoming historical and personal plights, echoing the turbulence felt in recent years while invoking endurant celebration. The 67 participating artists will exhibit across the Japanese port city, including the newly renovated Yokohama Museum of Art.
Installation view of TREVOR YEUNG’s Soft Ground, 2023, soap-cast, mineral oil scents, black lighting, at Gas Works London, 2023. Photo by Andy Keate. Courtesy the artist and Gasworks.
MAR 16–JUL 28
Aki Sasamoto: Sounding Lines
MAR 16–MAY 19
Trevor Yeung: Soft Breath
Para Site
Hong Kong
Para Site’s pair of exhibitions look to expand conversations about sculpture today, with Aki Sasamoto’s newly commissioned performance and moving-images works centered around sculpturally altered found objects. Trevor Yeung’s “Soft Breath” features a soap-cast sculpture based on a tree at a popular London cruising spot.
Detail of NICHOLAS MANGAN’s Death Assemblage, 2022, coral, aragonite, gypsum, bioluminescent pigment, ultraviolet light, mild steel, enamel paint. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Sydney.
APR 5–JUN 30
Nicholas Mangan: A World Undone
Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia
Sydney
Nicholas Mangan's first comprehensive survey, “A World Undone,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will present two decades of Mangan’s sculptural practice into the politics of the Earth’s geology and material cultures. The show culminates in his ongoing project Core-Coralations (2021– ), inspired by the Great Barrier Reef’s bleaching events.
HO TZU NYEN, T for Time, video still, 2023- . Courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue, Hong Kong.
APR
6–JUL 7
Ho
Tzu Nyen: A for Agents
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Tokyo
Ho Tzu Nyen’s solo exhibition “A for Agents” demonstrates the Singaporean artist’s diverse and evocative practice, which re-animates film footage and archival materials to spotlight sociopolitical and historical conflicts. The exhibition will present six of Nyen’s iconic film-based installations alongside T for Time (2023), a new work previously unseen in Japan.
LIANG HAO, Untitled, 2020-22, camphor wood, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist.
MAY
18–SEP 8
Liang
Hao
UCCA
Beijing
For Beijing-born artist Liang Hao’s first institutional solo show, UCCA will exhibit the multitude of sculptures she has produced since 2009, when the artist returned to mainland China, as well as a series of new commissions. Greatly inspired by modernist movements, Liang’s work interrogates spatial and temporal representations through a unique visual language.
Irving Penn, IM Pei, 1976. Published in Vogue, copyright Conde Nast. Courtesy M+, Hong Kong.
JUN 29–TBA
IM Pei: Life is Architecture
M+
Hong Kong
In “Life is Architecture,” the first posthumous retrospective of Pritzker Prize-winning architect IM Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei), M+ will survey Pei’s practice in close dialogue with sociocultural circumstances through his work and personal archives across different media. The exhibition will also include newly commissioned photographs of his architectural works.
SEP 5–DEC 29
Anicka Yi
Leeum Museum of Art
Seoul
Interested in the potentials of technology, biology, and scent-making, the New York-based artist Anicka Yi will present her first solo exhibition in her hometown, at the Leeum Museum of Art. As part of the museum’s 20th-anniversary program, her projects that will explore different modes of artistic experience through technology.
Exterior of the Gwangju Biennale Hall. Courtesy of the Gwangju Biennale.
SEP 7–DEC 1
15th Gwangju Biennale, “Pansori – a soundscape of the 21st century”
Multiple Locations
Gwangju
Guided by the literal meaning of Pansori—the sound of public space, the voice of common people—curator Nicolas Bourriaud intends to build a narrative reflecting on the contemporary relationship between humans and space. In response to the sonic phenomenon, the exhibition will be divided into three sections: an echo chamber under the “Larson effect”; a polyphonous world acknowledging its complexity; and the “two immensities” delving into the sound of cosmos and molecular origins. The 15th Gwangju Biennale will also launch an ambitious National Pavilion platform at various locations across the city, from cafes to public parks, as an attempt to reconfigure the meaning of art spaces in our society.
JESSICA SEGALL, Say When, 2021, video still, HD video: 3 min. Courtesy the artist Bangkok Art Biennale.
OCT 24–FEB 25, 2025
Bangkok Art
Biennale 2024: Nurture Gaia
Multiple locations
Bangkok
The fourth Bangkok Art Biennale, titled “Nurture Gaia,” takes its theme from the personification of Earth, evoking ecopolitics, animism, and supernatural mysticism. With a curatorial team led by Thai curator and art historian Apinan Poshyananda, who has served as artistic director of three previous editions, the Biennale aims to spark dialogue on the intersections between nature-versus-nurture, divine femininity, and environmentalism.
DAWN NG, WATERFALL VIII, 2023, still image from 4K video: 27 min 6 sec. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan Strumpf, Sydney.
NOV 30–APR 27, 2025
11th Asia Pacific Triennial
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art
Brisbane
In its 11th edition, the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) centers Indigenous and First Nations knowledge as well as minority and diaspora voices. With more than 70 projects by 200-plus makers and thinkers working individually and in collectives, APT 11 looks at the dynamics of natural and urban environments as well as the intergenerational experiences of migration and labor through forms of storytelling, materials and technique.
Portrait of Ryuichi Sakamoto by Neo Sora. Photo courtesy Kab Inc and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
DEC 21–MAR 30, 2025
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Museum of Contemporary
Art Tokyo
Tokyo
Celebrating the pioneering artist and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away in March 2023, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo will host his first comprehensive exhibition in Japan. Included are Sakamoto’s acclaimed, large-scale sound installations, as well as a new work he produced for the show before his death.
