5 amazing art shows to see this October

From a major showing of works by Lucian Freud to mysterious pieces from an emerging artist, this is our pick of top art shows to see this month

Inspired by beasts. Courtesy of Hannah Lim

Inspired by beasts

Pictured here is Hannah Lim’s curious Fire Breathing Snuff Bottle; it features in the first solo exhibition from this exciting emerging artist at Edinburgh Printmakers. Lim, a recent graduate of Edinburgh College of Art, is Singaporean-British; through her work she explores the relationship between the UK and Southeast Asia. One element to take from this display of her sculptures and prints is how the artist draws on ancient Chinese and medieval mythical creatures and stories. Look out for her larger, vibrant, furniture-like pieces, and smaller ceramic works, that carry a level of anthropomorphism. This is art that tells of Lim’s ‘journey of identity searching’. Although still new to the scene, we think this artist is one to watch, with shows already lined up in New York and Milan.

Hannah Lim Ornamental Mythologies runs until 20 November; edinburghprintmakers.co.uk

Robert Indiana LOVE Red Blue Green 1966–1998. Credit: Jonty Wilde

Feel the love

This is Robert Indiana’s LOVE (Red Blue Green), his iconic 1966–98 sculptural work, currently installed on grassy sward at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. This is the first major UK exhibition of work by the American artist, who died in 2018 and was long associated with the Pop Art Movement. It spans 60 years of his career, with indoor and outdoor works, paintings and prints, many of which have not been seen in the UK before. Indiana harnessed language and numbers as his tools, calling himself a ‘painter of signs’; today his work is a key influence on artists who choose the written word as a central motif in their work. LOVE is perhaps one of the most enduring of Indiana’s pieces. In 1966 it marked a turning point in his career, with its huge success being adopted by the ‘Love Generation’ and even the United States Postal Service, which featured it on a stamp.

Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018 is at Yorkshire Sculpture Park until 16 April 2023; ysp.org.uk

Credit: Private collection © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images

A fresh look at Freud

This landmark show marks the centenary of the artist Lucian Freud’s birth in 1922. It brings together works from across 70 years of his practice, in the first major exhibition of his work in a decade. You’ll see early pieces, such as this, his 1944 The Painter’s Room, and later works, including Her Majesty The Queen (2000–1), on loan from the Royal Collection. It is apt that The National Gallery should present this celebration, as Freud had a long association with it, being a regular visitor. ‘What do I ask of a painting?’ he once wrote. ‘I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.’ Find out more about Freud and the events and publications marking this centenary in our upcoming issue of The Arts Society Magazine, out next month.

The Credit Suisse Exhibition, Lucian Freud: New Perspectives is at The National Gallery, London, 1 October 2022–22 January 2023; nationalgallery.org.uk

Courtesy of Reena Kallat

Exploring boundaries

Opening on 20 October comes another powerful solo show – one that explores ‘notions of borders, migration, inequity and citizenship’. The works are by internationally renowned Reena Saini Kallat (b.1973), a Mumbai-based artist whose own family history overlaps with the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan. That division is the theme of this exhibition, along with the friction to be found between man-made and natural boundaries. Kallat’s practice spans drawing, photography, sculpture and video. This is her 2018 Woven Chronicle; it features among pieces from a decade of the artist’s work, alongside new works she has created specifically for the art gallery and parkland.

Reena Kallat: Common Ground is at Compton Verney, Stratford-upon-Avon, until 22 January 2023; comptonverney.org.uk

Credit: Collection Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York. Gift of Roy R. Neuberger. Photo: Jim Frank © 2022 Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London 2022

Catch before it closes

Long recognised as one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century, Milton Avery’s observations of daily scenes and life are noted for their colour sensibility, harmony and balance (seen here is his delightful 1942 beach scene, Little Fox River). Avery’s intuitive use of colour is nothing short of brilliant, from his early Impressionist works to his later more abstract flattened forms. Avery had not, at first, been destined to be an artist. It was only after enrolling at night school after a decade working in factories that he started on the path to his career in art. His talent was clear from the start, with one artist noting after an early exhibition in 1919: ‘Mr Avery used a brush and a canvas to write poetry.’ We loved this show at the Royal Academy, which has been the first time the artist’s works have been shown this side of the Atlantic. Catch it while you can.

Milton Avery: American Colourist is at Royal Academy of Arts, London, until 16 October; royalacademy.org.uk

Discover more shows to see in the next issue of The Arts Society Magazine, out in November and available exclusively to members and supporters of The Arts Society (to join see theartssociety.org/member-benefits). And for our online monthly ‘5 amazing art shows to see’, sign up at theartssociety.org/signup