From coast to coast and around the globe these inspiring museum exhibitions evoked a sense of awe
Six Standout Art and Architecture Experiences of 2024
From coast to coast and around the globe these inspiring museum exhibitions evoked a sense of awe
In a tumultuous year the resilience of artists and the art world to keep the creative process alive and open for the public is more important than ever. Time and time again we find ourselves in inspiring spaces viewing emotional and thought provoking works that create hope for the future. Looking back on the year, so many exhibits, performances and installations have been featured here on CH. Today we highlight six more exceptional art exhibits and architecture spaces that we didn’t previously publish. From Chiharu Shiota’s sprawling installations at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka to Studio Drift’s balletic Shy Society installed in the center courtyard at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, each of these art experiences exist in conversation with the spaces they inhabit.
Chiharu Shiota at Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka
In a building by architect Katsuhiko Endo, NAKKA features an atrium that towers five stories tall, filled with soft light from above, built to be a cultural hub for contemporary art exhibits and events in Osaka. In I to EYE Chiharu Shiota brought her creative storytelling to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art (NAKKA) to her hometown of Osaka, Japan. Entering the exhibit visitors walked through a path flanked by vertical red strings that provided scrim like views of long red gowns hanging from the ceiling. In the next room “Circulating Memories” white strings over a large reflective pool of water felt heavenly and ethereal. Further galleries depict reflections on the theme of home. A documentary about the artist’s life, videos of her theatrical set designs, wall hung fabric and assemblage pieces all add up to a breathtaking vision of this visionary artist. Shiota’s iconic and dramatic sculptural installations pulse with emotional depth.
Imagining Black Diasporas at LACMA in Los Angeles
When imagining Black Diasporas (open through 3 August 2025) at LACMA visitors to the museum can finally get a much better view of the new Peter Zumthor designed building set to open in the spring of 2025. The Renzo Piano designed BCAM building provides the setting for their new exhibit that presents an impressive array of over 60 artists including Diedrick Brackens, Mark Bradford, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Kara Walker. With more than half of the artworks on view recently acquired for LACMA’s collection, what makes this exhibition both important and exceptional is the commitment the museum has made by acquiring a significant number of the works to expand their Pan African exhibition collection. Curated by Dhyandra Lawson, the show examines nearly a quarter century of work by Black artists, highlighting the connections among artists working in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Purchased by LACMA in 2020, Calida Rawles’ beautiful and haunting “The Space in Which We Travel” is on view next to Lorna Simpson’s deep blue “Detached Night”. Nick Cave’s colorful flower “Soundsuit” sits in the middle of a gallery near El Anatsui’s “Fading Scroll” fashioned from aluminum bottle wrappers and copper wire [check out CH’s Design Tangents episode feturing Nick Cave and his husband Bob Faust here].
The Biomuseo by Frank Gehry in Panama City
While visiting Panama City there are many beautiful historic churches and museums to tour in the old city. Many visitors will plan excursions to tour the Panama Canal to experience the importance of this body of water. Though the recommendation to see a natural history museum may sound like an activity for families with school age children, don’t miss the Biomuseo. Designed by Los Angeles based architect Frank Gehry, it feels otherworldly to walk the open-air atriums and interior spaces filled with bold colors inspired by the natural world of Panama. Located on the Amador Causeway at the entrance to the Panama Canal, the exterior vista also reveals views of the city, Casco Antiguo, Ancon Hill, and the Bridge of the Americas. With its debut in 2014, the Biomuseo was Gehry’s first work in Latin America. The structure features his signature dynamic shapes, but here with bright colors to reflect Panama’s natural diversity.
Julio Le Parc at Palazzo Delle Papesse in Siena
This may not be the first contemporary art exhibit shown in an historic Italian palazzo, but may be one of the most fun and fascinating examples of the juxtaposition of boldly colorful geometric art in contrast to its historic setting in a building that dates back to the mid 1400s in Siena, known as a site, where scientist Galileo Galilei observed the moon from The Altana at the top of the building; visitors can walk in his footsteps and view Siena from the same vantage. Julio Le Parc‘s The Discovery of Perception (open through 16 March 2025) is the first major event that this historic exhibition space is presenting for their reopening. Le Parc shares his passionate exploration of color, chromatic variation, and shapes. Filling the spaces with bold, geometric painting and sculpture highlights the contrast of the space with his groundbreaking and innovative works dating from 1953 to 2024. His research on kinetic movement invites the viewers. A large green sculpture installed over a mirrored square on the floor greets visitors in the inner courtyard and another glistening blue one is installed downstairs in The Vault, once used by the Bank of Italy.
Shy Society at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence
In the middle of Florence, a city known for the massive Uffizi Galleries, visits to the Duomo, and vying for tickets to see Michealangelo’s “David”, Palazzo Strozzi focuses their attention on contemporary art. The museum hosted Italy’s first major retrospective of Marina Abramović. Currently Helen Frankenthaler’s Painting without Rules (open through 26 January 2025) fills the galleries. Entering the historic palazzo, Studio Drift’s Shy Society (also open through 26 January 2025) inhabits the Renaissance courtyard. Part of their future art program, this site-specific installation, was created by the Dutch duo Drift.
Part multimedia sculpture, part performance, seven large white geometric white puffs float up and down in a choreographic ballet set to music by RZA. For the choreography of Shy Society software was designed to mimic the unpredictable movement of flowers. The experience gathers viewers from each of the open doorways into the courtyard to watch the performance that changes from sunlit by day to glowing orbs at night.
Bass by Steve McQueen at The Dia Beacon
The Dia: Beacon in New York’s Hudson Valley is one of the largest exhibition spaces for contemporary art in the US. This large footprint gives the museum the ability to showcase large works like Rita McBride’s Area Momentum and Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. The Dia may also be one of the only places with the ideal environment to realize Steve McQueen’s vision for “Bass”. A surreal immersive space of lights and sound concrete subterranean parking lot, McQueen brings together LED lightboxes and music he composed and conducted. The band of bass players includes Marcus Miller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Aston Barrett Jr, Mamadou Kouyate, and Laura Simone-Martin. Color transformations evoke memories, new ideas, and maybe even dreamstates and hallucinations. The music pierces deeply in an otherworldly experience that feels both soulful and maybe one of the best approximations of floating in outer space.