Past Exhibitions
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John Lyons: Carnivalesque
The first major retrospective exhibition of Caribbean British artist and poet John Lyons.
10 May – 25 August 2024
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Traces of Displacement
This exhibition uses the Whitworth’s collection to address one of the major humanitarian concerns of the 20th and 21st centuries – forced displacement. In tracing displacement within the collection, a partial, fragmentary, and yet compelling set of stories is emerging from academic and community collaboration.
7 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
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Material Power
Palestinian EmbroideryEmbroidery is the most important cultural material of Palestine. This ancient practice, called tatreez in Arabic, is characterised by remarkable beauty and complexity.
24 November 2023 – 7 April 2024
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Albrecht Dürer’s material world
Albrecht Dürer’s material world is the first major exhibition of the Whitworth’s outstanding Dürer collection in over half a century.
30 June 2023 – 10 March 2024Read more
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Office of Arte Útil
The Office of Arte Útil ran from 26 November 2021 to 21 December 2023
This space is closed in 2023 for redevelopment, the transformed space reopens in early 2024
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(Un)Defining Queer
This exhibition delves into the Whitworth’s collection to examine how we can use a queer lens to define what the term 'queer' means.
27 January – 3 December 2023
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Economics the Blockbuster
– It’s not Business as UsualHow can artists reimagine the economy?
A new project by the Whitworth part of The University of Manchester, presented as part of Manchester International Festival 2023 which runs from 29 June until 16 July 2023.
30 June – 22 October 2023
#MIF23
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Standardisation and Deviation: The Whitworth Story
Standardisation is a theme that is woven throughout this exhibition, telling the history of the Whitworth and the development of its diverse and internationally significant collections.
23 July 2022 – 24 September 2023
Previous running dates for this exhibition:
14 December 2019 – 17 March 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 1)
16 September 2020 – 4 November 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 3)
2 July 2021 – June 2022 (Artwork and display changeover)Read more
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Slow Down, You’re Doing Fine
In our attention economy, taking time out to meditate on a single object can be a radical act of self-care. This exhibition invites you to spend time getting to know one or two paintings in detail.
14 October 2022 – 10 September 2023
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This entry – Tino Sehgal
Tino Sehgal presented a playful exchange between different masters of their craft.
A new work by Tino Sehgal premiered at the National Football Museum and the Whitworth as part of MIF23.
Co-Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Juan Mata, The Trequartista – Art and Football United teams artists with footballers, inviting them into creative play.
7 July–16 July 2023 (not 10 July)
#MIF23
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Exchanges: Recent Additions to the Collection
Exchanges sets art and artist together, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in opposition – always with insight and intention.
This is an evolving exhibition (running from 2018-2023) in which works are regularly exchanged and displays refreshed, revealing the gallery’s recent acquisitions alongside existing collection works.
19 February 2022 – 21 May 2023
Dates for previous iterations of the Exchanges exhibition:
2 July 2021 – 6 February 2022
16 Sept 2020 – 4 November 2020 (Closed due to Covid-19 lockdown 3)
24 March 2018 – 17 March 2020 (Closed due to Covid-19 lockdown 1)Read more
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Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind: Familiar Phantoms
The premiere of a major new film by artists and long-time collaborators Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, jointly commissioned by the Whitworth and Film and Video Umbrella with support from the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
2 March – 21 May 2023
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Althea McNish: Colour is Mine
The Whitworth was pleased to announce Althea McNish: Colour is Mine, the first major retrospective of Althea McNish (1924-2020). McNish was the first Caribbean designer to achieve international recognition and one of the most influential and innovative textile designers in the UK.
21 October 2022 – 23 April 2023
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Open House
Wallpapers began arriving at the Whitworth in 1967 and today we house a collection of around 10,000 examples. Framed by living memory, the exhibition evokes a time from World War II through to the gradual removal of wallpaper from homes in the 1990s.
Past exhibition 26 November 2021 – 26 February 2023
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Suzanne Lacy: The Circle and the Square
The Circle and the Square is a beautiful, deeply moving film and sound installation. Set in Brierfield Mill in Pendle, Lancashire, and bringing together Sufi chanting with shape-note singing, it addresses how the demise of the textile industry impacted communities living in the area.
26 November 2021 – 29 January 2023
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Still Parents: Life after Baby Loss
Still Parents is the Whitworth’s programme to support families who have experienced the loss of a baby in pregnancy and just after birth.
This pioneering ‘constituent led’ exhibition showcases works from the gallery's extensive collection, selected by participants, alongside the artworks they created in the Still Parents workshops.
24 September 2021 – 4 December 2022
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Global Arts Manchester #cre8
Our creativity and energy are our synergy and unity. We have to make art.
Global Arts Manchester aka GAM, started in 2016 working with community partners and resident groups to give space and access to local and diverse people, especially in support of women and artists on low incomes.
7 July – 4 December 2022
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(Un)Defining Queer
(Un)Defining Queer is a participatory-led project that is working with an intersectional group of people, who self-identify as LGBTQIA+.
28 February – 30 October 2022
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Bee There for Maggie’s
A unique collection of paintings is now on display for visitors to the Whitworth. The subsequent sale of the Bee There for Maggie’s collection by artist Justin Eagleton will raise money for Maggie’s Manchester to support people living with cancer. All ten unique artworks will be on display at the Whitworth for a week.
The exhibition ran from 11-17 November 2022, during regular gallery opening times: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm
Past PopUp Exhibition | Bee There For Maggie's
Click the link to Maggie's website, below for full details
Bee There for Maggie's information
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Fayre Share Fayre
Fayre Share Fayre is the main course, a group show, and central hub for A Modest Show, hosted in Gallery 3 at the Whitworth. The exhibition brings together over 40 artists with a connection to Greater Manchester.
Part of A Modest Show, the collateral programme to British Art Show 920 May – 11 September 2022
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British Art Show 9
British Art Show is recognised as the most pertinent and ambitious recurrent exhibition of contemporary art produced in the UK, taking place every five years. The ninth edition brings the work of some of the most exciting contemporary artists to Castlefield Gallery, HOME, Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth.
27 May 2022 – 4 September 2022Read more
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Suzanne Lacy
What kind of city?
A manual for social changeThe Whitworth presents the first major UK presentation of multiple works of US artist Suzanne Lacy, a pioneer of social practice and community organising for almost five decades.
The 'What Kind of City?' 4 day summit took place 23-26 March 2022 at the Whitworth.
26 November 2021 – 10 April 2022
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Unity Arts 20M21
This exhibition, in our new School of Creativity, is the culmination of a two-year project led by Unity Arts, a youth and community arts organisation using creativity to challenge inequality and remove barriers.
1 April – 29 May 2022
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Cloud Studies | Forensic Architecture
Turner Prize-shortlisted research group Forensic Architecture mark their 10th anniversary with a major exhibition at the Whitworth as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.
Part of MIF21
2 July – 17 October 2021Read more
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Imran Perretta: the destructors
The Whitworth presented a new film commission by Imran Perretta.
19 May – 10 October 2021
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Utopias
This exhibition brought together historic and modern and contemporary works to examine how utopian strategies have been imagined, represented, and tested in the Whitworth Collection.
31 January 2020 – 17 March 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 1)
16 September 2020 – 4 November 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 3)Read more
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Unreformed: Wallpaper and Design Diversity
This exhibition looked at how powerful the voices of the people who called for Design Reform were.
16 August 2019 – 17 March 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 1)
16 September 2020 – 4 November 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 3)Read more
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Other Transmissions: Conversations with Outsider Art
An exhibition of work initiated during a long artistic collaboration between the Whitworth, Venture Arts and Castlefield Gallery, Other Transmissions brings together a group of six artists - Joe Beedles, James Desser, Amy Ellison, Frances Heap, Andrew Johnstone, John Powell Jones.
14 February 2020 – 17 March 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 1)
16 September 2020 – 4 November 2020 (Closed due to COVID 19, Lockdown 3)Read more
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Cézanne at the Whitworth
This exhibition celebrated an extraordinary collection of drawings and prints by Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) that have been gifted and placed on long-term loan to the Whitworth by gallerist, collector, author, and publisher Karsten Schubert.
24 August 2019 – 17 March 2020
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The Reno at the Whitworth
For a period of one year Linda Brogan and a group of local residents, who went to the Reno nightclub in the 1970s and 80s, occupied the Whitworth.
15 March 2019 – 17 March 2020
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Elizabeth Price: A LONG MEMORY
Bringing together many new and acclaimed works, this exhibition engages with Price’s pre-occupations of technology, history, politics and pop music.
25 October 2019 – 17 March 2020
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Tapestries
A tapestry is a coming together of people or things, usually thread, to make an intricate whole. This exhibition shows the breadth of the textiles at the Whitworth that are made with this method of weaving.
12 October 2019 – 23 February 2020Read more
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Li Yuan-chia: Unique Photographs
A group of Li Yuan-chia's lyrical hand coloured photographs of himself, his sculpture and garden at Banks, shown alongside the artist’s own collection of film cameras.
18 May 2019 – 12 January 2020
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Pearl Alcock
This exhibition presents the largest solo display of Pearl Alcock’s drawings and paintings to date – all from the Whitworth Collection.
18 May 2019 – 12 January 2020
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Beyond Faith: Muslim Women Artists Today
An exhibition of the work of five contemporary artists in conversation with pieces selected from the Whitworth’s art collection, that explore themes of identity, faith, cultures, otherness and belonging.
14 June 2019 – 2 February 2020
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Four Corners of One Cloth: Textiles from the Islamic World
From Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Yemen – the four corners of the Ka’bah – textiles from our collection will be brought together, extending to the widest reaches of influence of the Islamic world.
23 June 2018 – 24 November 2019
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SICK! FESTIVAL | Mats Staub: Death and Birth In My Life
A SICK! FESTIVAL Commission and UK Premiere, Death and Birth In My Life invites the audience to listen in on a series of intimate conversations about the most moving and challenging experiences in life.
Wednesday 18 September – Sunday 6 October 2019
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MIF19 | Ibrahim Mahama: Parliament of Ghosts
MIF19 World Premiere: This major installation reflects on the half-forgotten history of Ibrahim Mahama’s home country: Ghana, whose journey from British colony to independent nation was completed barely 60 years ago.
5 July – 29 September 2019
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Ancient Textiles from the Andes
This is a rare opportunity to see ancient Andean textiles of this quality and size exhibited in the UK.
29 March – 15 September 2019
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Prints of Darkness: Goya and Hogarth in a Time of European Turmoil
The first exhibition to show Goya and Hogarth’s works together. It features a hundred prints, selected from the stellar collections of the Whitworth and the Manchester Art Gallery and provides a unique opportunity to compare their extraordinary graphic work.
7 July 2018 – 4 August 2019
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Prints of Darkness: Being a Teenager in a Time of European Turmoil
An intervention situated in our current exhibition, Prints of Darkness: Goya and Hogarth in a Time of European Turmoil, that features artworks by students from Fred Longworth High School, Tyldesley.
8 April – 4 August 2019
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Joy For Ever: How to use art to change the world and its price in the market
This exhibition responds to the 200th birthday of artist, art critic and social reformer John Ruskin with a joyful look at how to use art for social change.
29 March – 9 June 2019
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Facing Out: Life after treatment for facial cancer
An exhibition of portraits of people who have experienced facial cancers together with their choice of artworks from the Whitworth collections.
22 February – 2 June 2019
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Bodies of Colour: Breaking with stereotypes in the wallpaper collection
This exhibition used the Whitworth’s extensive and significant wallpaper collection to focus on how imperial attitudes to people are reflected in wallpaper.
4 May 2018 – 28 April 2019
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William Kentridge: Thick Time
South African artist William Kentridge weaves together global histories of revolution, exile and utopian aspirations, exploring how they are shaped by the creative forces of memory and the imagination.
21 September 2018 – 3 March 2019
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Alice Kettle: Thread Bearing Witness
A major new series of large textiles, and other works, to be shown at the Whitworth, that considers cultural heritage, refugee displacement and movement.
1 September 2018 – 24 February 2019
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We are 11
An exhibition boldly curated by the children of Stanley Grove Primary Academy.
6 October 2018 – 10 February 2019
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In the Land
Rethinking the form, texture and space of the natural landscape
27 January – 4 December 2018
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The Art of Volunteering
Our volunteers take over the Collections Centre with The Art of Volunteering, a project which explores the breadth of the Whitworth's collections.
25 May 2018 – 23 September 2018
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Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves
A spectacular immersive film installation by British artist Isaac Julien
30 March – 28 August 2018
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Alison Wilding
Turner Prize nominee and Royal Academician Alison Wilding presents works spanning the past 20 years of her career.
16 February – 12 August 2018
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John Stezaker
Using vintage photographs, old film stills, postcards and book illustrations, John Stezaker makes collages that subvert their original imagery, creating unique and compelling works of art.
1 December 2017 – 24 June 2018
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Cozens and Cozens
Father and son, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, were influential watercolour painters of the 18th century.
16 June 2017 – 24 June 2018
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Beyond Borders
Beyond Borders, explores South Asian textiles bringing together four artists working on issues around post-colonial identity, ruptured spaces, authenticity, displacement and belonging. #NewNorthSouth
20 May 2017 – 3 June 2018
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Raqs Media Collective: Twilight Language
The first major UK exhibition by Raqs Media Collective
#NewNorthSouth30 September 2017 – 25 February 2018
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Apna: Ours Yours Everybody’s
Apna is a word used in many languages across South Asia meaning ‘ours, yours or everybody’s’. In the Collections Centre the curators hand over the reigns, in this case to Apna, a South Asian women’s arts group based in Rossendale. This display is a collaboration between the Whitworth and Apna, telling stories of women between two worlds.
3 February – 13 May 2018
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Cecily Brown: Shipwreck drawings
This is an exhibition of a extraordinary series of drawings by Cecily Brown, of wrecked ships and their passengers.
17 November – 15 April 2018
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South Asian Modernists 1953-63
Exploring the works of Pakistani and Indian artists who worked with Victor Musgrave between 1953-63.
#NewNorthSouth30 September 2017 – 15 April 2018
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No End to Enderby
Ashes (2002-2015), a double video projection, tells the story of a young Caribbean man known by this name.
22 September 2017 – 18 March 2018
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Beyond Dementia
Supporting active citizenship in those living with dementia
28 July – 21 January 2018
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Maeve Brennan
The Whitworth presents a major new film commission, The Drift, by London and Beirut based artist Maeve Brennan.
30 September 2017 – 28 January 2018
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Sooni Taraporevala
Home in the City, Bombay 1976-Mumbai 2016
The first UK solo exhibition of photographer Sooni Taraporevala.
#NewNorthSouth4 March 2017 - 28 January 2018
Upper Promenade
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Raqib Shaw
A solo exhibition by contemporary artist Raqib Shaw examining real and imagined spaces between the East and West.
#NewNorthSouth24 June – 19 November 2017
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No End to Enderby
A work by Graham Eatough and Stephen Sutcliffe.
To mark the 100th birthday of Manchester-born Anthony Burgess this year, artist Stephen Sutcliffe and theatre director Graham Eatough collaborate to explore the writer’s series of Enderby novels in a new film, No End to Enderby. #mif1730 June – 17 September 2017
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ToGather
Susan Hefuna
A wide-ranging exhibition, Susan Hefuna’s timely, poetic work addresses some of the most potent issues of our time: migration, movement and sensations of separation. #mif17
30 June – 3 September 2017
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John Akomfrah
Vertigo Sea
The acclaimed video installation Vertigo Sea, a three-screen film, first seen at the 56th Venice Biennale.
24 March – 23 July 2017
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Idris Khan
British contemporary artist Idris Khan's new solo exhibition.
14 October 2016 – 12 March 2017Read more
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M + Sigg Collection
Chinese art from 1970s to now. Eighty works, four decades of fast-moving art, one of the world’s finest collections of Chinese art – and the only chance to see it in the UK.
1 July 2015 – 20 September 2015
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Cornelia Parker
A major solo show from one of Britain’s most acclaimed contemporary artists.
14 February 2015 – 31 May 2015
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Thomas Schütte
A remarkable print installation by a leading German artist.
14 February 2015 – 19 July 2015
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Cai Guo-Qiang, Unmanned Nature
A spectacular installation in our new landscape gallery.
14 February 2015 – 21 June 2015
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BBC Little Painting Challenge
The Whitworth and BBC Learning have developed a series of events to accompany the exhibition.
1 May 2015 – 22 May 2015
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Manchester International Festival
MIF15: Richter/Pärt
World Premières and Special Events
Eighteen Extraordinary Days9 July 2015 – 19 July 2015
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Johnnie Shand Kydd
Iconic, black and white photographs of international art world figures at play.
14 February 2015 – 1 February 2016
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Richard Forster
Richard Forster makes super realistic drawings from photographs rather than from life - either using his own snapshots, or images found in magazines, books or on the internet.
29 August 2015 – 28 February 2016
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Wallpaper
Celebrating post-war design this show features highlights from the Whitworth’s collection of 1950s and 60s wallpapers.
29 January – 9 October 2016
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The Gardener Digs in Another Time
This exhibition reflects upon the use of the garden in visual culture as a vehicle for utopian thought and emblem for an ideal society.
23 June – 9 October 2016
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Art from the Friends
The Friends of the Whitworth was founded by the gallery’s remarkable Director and artist Margaret Pilkington in 1933 for ‘enriching the collections through the purchase of works of art’. Since then, the Friends have raised considerable funds to buy many of the finest works in the Whitworth’s collection. Here the Friends share a selection of works by Paul Klee, David Hockney, Anne Wilson and many others.
21 October 2016 – 8 January 2017Read more
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Whitworth Young Contemporaries: And Now We Are Plastic
As technology helps us to constantly evolve, the boundaries between our physical and digital spaces are blending, yet our ability to adapt and change remains visible in our art, marking the world we leave behind.
‘And Now We Are Plastic’ is the first exhibition curated by young people at the Whitworth.
27 January 2017 – 2 April 2017Read more
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ARTIST ROOMS: Andy Warhol
This exhibition shows the sharp critical opinions of an artist known to many primarily as art salesman, purveyor of product and celebrant of capitalism.
19 November 2016 – Easter Monday 17 April 2017Image: Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1986.
ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. Photo © TateRead more
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Revolutionary Textiles 1910-1939
In the early decades of the 20th century textile design took off in new directions throughout the Western world.
26 March 2016 – 23 April 2017
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Siobhan Davies Dance
material / rearranged / to / be
London-based investigative arts organisation Siobhan Davies Dance show an ambitious new installation comprised of multiple contributions by choreographers, visual artists and designers.
6 May 2017 – 14 May 2017
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NEW SCULPTURE
This exhibition presents a dynamic selection of contemporary sculpture recently acquired by the Whitworth.
22 October 2016 – 11 June 2017
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