Turn Up The Culture at These 6 Groundbreaking Art Shows

March 23, 2018

If you noticed a significant uptick in the number of paintings and sculptures in your timeline this winter, you’ve probably got Google’s Arts and Culture app to thank for it. The app’s selfie feature—which pairs users’ photos with their art history doppelgangers—was a viral hit when it debuted this past January; following its initial splash, Google also just unveiled a new suite of experimental features for the app. 

We’re big fans of anything that encourages cultural discovery…but if you’re ready to supplement your art selfies with some IRL exploration, we’ve got some suggestions, too. Begin with these six anticipated 2018 exhibitions, held in cities all around the country. Covering a range of media, genres, and eras, these shows all offer the opportunity to sleuth for your lookalike in-person and sign on for some urban exploration.

1. SELVES AND OTHERS: GIFTS TO THE COLLECTION FROM CARLA EMIL AND RICH SILVERSTEIN, SFMOMA, MARCH 24-SEPTEMBER 23: Portraiture is at the heart of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's latest spring exhibition, Selves and Others: Gifts to the Collection from Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Comprising a range of masterworks gifted to the museum over the last two decades, the show "features portraits of the self; of personas or avatars; of family members, lovers, and friends; and of strangers," from the 19th century to the present day. Keep your eyes peeled for special highlights, from Cindy Sherman's kooky self-portraits to Man Ray's surrealist shots.

Image courtesy of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
2. CÉZANNE PORTAITS, THE NATIONAL GALLERY, MARCH 25-JULY 1: Sure, Cézanne might be best known for his dreamy landscape paintings and still life canvasses packed with overflowing bowls of fruit (what can we say? The guy had a thing for apples). But in this blockbuster 2018 exhibition at Washington DC's National Gallery, it's his portrait work that's in the spotlight. Comprising more than 50 artworks, Cézanne Portraits is the first show of its kind, and will demonstrate how the boundary-pushing artist used portraiture to further explore his avant-garde sensibilities.

Image courtesy of 2017 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
3. COMMON GROUND, PORTLAND ART MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 24-MAY 20: One of portraiture's greatest strength is its ability to connect us with people from various walks of life, and break down barriers between viewer and subject. That's exactly what the aptly named exhibition at the Portland Art Museum, Common Ground, achieves. Comprising a collection of photographs by Fazal Sheikh, the works were taken in locations as far-flung as India, Afghanistan, and Kenya over the course of 25 years, and make visible the realities of life as a refugee.

Image courtesy of Fazal Sheikh.
4. 2018 TRIENNIAL: SONGS FOR SABOTAGE, THE NEW MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 13-MAY 27: Portraits may not be the only focus of the New Museum's 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage-but considering that this banner exhibition only comes around once every three years, it's a must for any curious, would—be urban explorer. Go on a hunt for doppelgangers, sure, but also leave time to encounter some of the most exciting voices in contemporary art today—you won't find a better, more urgent exhibition this year.

Image courtesy of Manuel Solano.
5. DAVID HOCKNEY: 82 PORTRAITS AND 1 STILL LIFE, LACMA, APRIL 15-JULY 29: It's fitting that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is home to this spellbinding collection of Hockney paintings; though he hails from Yorkshire, England, the artist will forever be associated with sun-dappled SoCal scenes and turquoise-hued swimming pools. In this exhibition, however, well-known canvasses like A Bigger Splash are swapped for a series of vibrant, arresting portraits, painted over the course of half a century.

Image courtesy of David Hockney.
6. PAINT THE EYES SOFTER: MUMMY PORTRAITS FROM ROMAN EGYPT, MARY & LEIGH BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART, JANUARY 13-APRIL 22: Is there anything cooler than finding an artistic doppelganger—who happens to be an ancient mummy? Not really. Make way, then, to this Chicago museum on Northwestern University's Evanston campus, for Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. In the Roman era, mummies were accompanied by naturalistic funerary portraits; these striking images are so immediate and individual that they make 2,000 years feel like no time at all.

Image courtesy of The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California and NU-ACCESS.
1. SELVES AND OTHERS: GIFTS TO THE COLLECTION FROM CARLA EMIL AND RICH SILVERSTEIN, SFMOMA, MARCH 24-SEPTEMBER 23: Portraiture is at the heart of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's latest spring exhibition, Selves and Others: Gifts to the Collection from Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Comprising a range of masterworks gifted to the museum over the last two decades, the show "features portraits of the self; of personas or avatars; of family members, lovers, and friends; and of strangers," from the 19th century to the present day. Keep your eyes peeled for special highlights, from Cindy Sherman's kooky self-portraits to Man Ray's surrealist shots.

Image courtesy of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
2. CÉZANNE PORTAITS, THE NATIONAL GALLERY, MARCH 25-JULY 1: Sure, Cézanne might be best known for his dreamy landscape paintings and still life canvasses packed with overflowing bowls of fruit (what can we say? The guy had a thing for apples). But in this blockbuster 2018 exhibition at Washington DC's National Gallery, it's his portrait work that's in the spotlight. Comprising more than 50 artworks, Cézanne Portraits is the first show of its kind, and will demonstrate how the boundary-pushing artist used portraiture to further explore his avant-garde sensibilities.

Image courtesy of 2017 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
3. COMMON GROUND, PORTLAND ART MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 24-MAY 20: One of portraiture's greatest strength is its ability to connect us with people from various walks of life, and break down barriers between viewer and subject. That's exactly what the aptly named exhibition at the Portland Art Museum, Common Ground, achieves. Comprising a collection of photographs by Fazal Sheikh, the works were taken in locations as far-flung as India, Afghanistan, and Kenya over the course of 25 years, and make visible the realities of life as a refugee.

Image courtesy of Fazal Sheikh.
4. 2018 TRIENNIAL: SONGS FOR SABOTAGE, THE NEW MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 13-MAY 27: Portraits may not be the only focus of the New Museum's 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage-but considering that this banner exhibition only comes around once every three years, it's a must for any curious, would—be urban explorer. Go on a hunt for doppelgangers, sure, but also leave time to encounter some of the most exciting voices in contemporary art today—you won't find a better, more urgent exhibition this year.

Image courtesy of Manuel Solano.
5. DAVID HOCKNEY: 82 PORTRAITS AND 1 STILL LIFE, LACMA, APRIL 15-JULY 29: It's fitting that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is home to this spellbinding collection of Hockney paintings; though he hails from Yorkshire, England, the artist will forever be associated with sun-dappled SoCal scenes and turquoise-hued swimming pools. In this exhibition, however, well-known canvasses like A Bigger Splash are swapped for a series of vibrant, arresting portraits, painted over the course of half a century.

Image courtesy of David Hockney.
6. PAINT THE EYES SOFTER: MUMMY PORTRAITS FROM ROMAN EGYPT, MARY & LEIGH BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART, JANUARY 13-APRIL 22: Is there anything cooler than finding an artistic doppelganger—who happens to be an ancient mummy? Not really. Make way, then, to this Chicago museum on Northwestern University's Evanston campus, for Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt. In the Roman era, mummies were accompanied by naturalistic funerary portraits; these striking images are so immediate and individual that they make 2,000 years feel like no time at all.

Image courtesy of The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California and NU-ACCESS.