Van Dyck in Sicily: Painting and the Plague, 1624-25

Sir Anthony van Dyck, "Self-Portrait" (1620-21), Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence

Dulwich Picture Gallery’s latest exhibition, Van Dyck in Sicily: Painting and the Plague, 1625-25, presents a highly focused exploration of the seventeenth-century, Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck during the years 1624-25 (ends 27 May, 2012). Van Dyck lived in Italy, and principally Genoa, for six years having moved there in 1621, however this concise exhibition focuses on the relatively un-explored period of his residence in Palermo, Sicily.

An interview with Song Dong: ‘Waste Not’ at the Barbican

Song Dong, "Waste Not" (detail) (2005/2009), Installation at New Art Gallery, Walsall, © the artist and Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, courtesy Barbican Art Gallery

We caught up with Chinese conceptual artist Song Dong at the opening of his latest exhibition Waste Not at London’s Barbican Art Gallery. His first solo exhibition in a major UK public gallery, this installation comprises over 10,000 household items hoarded by the artist’s mother over a period of five decades. This work acts like a family portrait, a tribute to his mother and their way of living in the aftermath of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Romance, kissing, or…. heartache and despair?

Does the thought of Valentine’s Day make you gaze longingly into random strangers’ eyes on the train and gush romantic poetry whilst walking down the street….or does it make you want to watch Dirty Dancing  on repeat whilst weeping endlessly into a bottomless tub of cookie dough ice cream? Whatever your thoughts on the much contested holiday, we’ve got the artwork to suit you.

Yayoi Kusama unleashed at the Tate Modern

Yayoi Kusama, "The Passing Winter (detail0" (2005), © Tate. Presented by the Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee 2008, Photo: Tate Photography

Yayoi Kusama is considered Japan’s most important and best-known living artist. You may have read our recent blog post on Kusama’s sticker installation at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, in which the artist invited thousands of children to deface a pristine white environment with multi-coloured stickers. Within this performance-based installation – and indeed throughout her entire career – an underlying obsessive force and compulsion lies at the core of her art. Kusama has lived in a mental health hospital since the early 1930s and battles with psychological instability, which manifests itself in the recurrence of repetitive and compulsive patterns in her work.

Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

Lucian Freud, "Reflection (Self-portrait)" (1985), © Lucian Freud, Image: Courtesy Lucian Freud Archive

Lucian Freud Portraits at London’s National Portrait Gallery (9 February – 27 May 2012) is the most ambitious exhibition of Freud‘s work since 2001. Including over 100 paintings, etchings and drawings spanning from the early 1940s to Freud’s death in July 2011, the exhibition is the first of its size devoted to portraiture by the realist artist.

David Shrigley: Brain Activity at the Hayward Gallery

David Shrigley, "I'm Dead" (2010), taxidermy puppy with wooden sign and acrylic paint, photo by Linda Nylind © the artist, courtesy of the artist

David Shrigley has branched out into taxidermy, a seemingly oh-so-popular medium of choice for artists nowadays (see here and here). The British artist, who is most known for his dark humour sketches, has his first major survey in the UK at London’s Hayward Gallery. The exhibition David Shrigley: Brain Activity (1 February – 13 May 2012) features some 175 works spanning his career, including drawings, photographs, sculpture, animation, painting and music….and taxidermy, of course. Shrigley’s work is characterised by its graphic, deliberately amateurish style, its immediacy and accessibility, and always insightful and witty commentary on everyday life.

New limited edition digital artworks on Artfinder from s[edition]

Tracey Emin, I Listen to the Ocean and All I Hear is You © Tracey Emin courtesy http://www.seditionart.com. HD video in an edition of 5,000

s[edition] is a new and innovative platform for collecting art from some of the world’s leading contemporary artists. s[edition] allows you to buy limited edition artworks in a digital format for your smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions.

In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

Frida Kahlo, "Autorretrato con collar de espinas y colibrí" (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird) (1940), © 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society, New York, photo courtesy Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, The University of Texas at Austin

If you’re in Los Angeles over the next few months then be sure to head to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where the most influential women surrealists artists from Mexico and the United States are taking over the Resnick Pavilion.

Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986 – 2011

Damien Hirst, "Spot Painting" (1986), household gloss on canvas, 243.8 x 365.8 cm, © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd

Arguably the most talked about man of the art world moment, Damien Hirst is currently exhibiting his collection of spot paintings worldwide at the Gagosian Galleries. Spanning 25 years, Hirst’s spot paintings – and there’s more than 300 of them – are quite simply rows of randomly coloured spots, of which only 5 were painting by the man himself. The rest were painted by his infamous assistants, which many have been quick to bash.

David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture

David Hockney, "Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006" (2006), oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 366 cm. Courtesy of the artist ©David Hockney. Photo: Richard Schmidt

David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture promises to be a crowd pleaser. Held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (21 January – 9 April 2012), the exhibition takes you on a voyage to Hockney’s homeland Yorkshire, in a vivid palette of jewel colours, and will leave you feeling elated and positive. With over 150 works on show – many of which were created specifically for the exhibition – the exhibition is a thorough examination of Hockney’s landscape work, and includes video work and iPad drawings alongside the more traditional paintings.