About Howardena Pindell

Howardena Pindell (b.1943, Philadelphia, PA) works across painting and film. She is an activist, critic and teacher who spent over a decade working at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as one of the institution’s first Black curators. Largely known for her monumentally scaled abstract canvases, Pindell has expanded the definition of what abstract painting can be through her inclusion of glitter, paper circles made from punched holes, and the layering of mixed media and scent.

In this beautifully considered exhibition, explore the inventive ways artists in the 18th and 19th centuries recorded fleeting moments in nature, capturing the effects of light, drama, and atmosphere first-hand in the open air.

Live stream talk.

The exhibition, developed from field studies carried out on the recently formed Icelandic island of Surtsey and the geologically ancient island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides focusses, amongst other things, on the impact of both human and natural forces on the two contrasting islands.

Join us in the galleries for an introduction to the exhibition Ai Weiwei: The Liberty of Doubt with Kettle’s Yard Director Andrew Nairne.

The introductions will begin at 2pm and 3pm.

FREE, come along

About the exhibition

Ai Weiwei: The Liberty of Doubt  explores truth, authenticity and value, as well as globalisation, the coronavirus pandemic and current geopolitical crises.

Around 3,000 medicinal and aromatic plants are traded internationally, with the majority (60-90%) harvested directly from the wild. Most wild plants are harvested and traded with little consideration for sustainability or whether local harvesters are fairly paid or treated with dignity and respect for the products they produce.

Antarctica, A Creative Journey

An exhibition by Shelly Perkins

Shelly Perkins is a wildlife artist who aims to present the beauty and fragility of the natural world in an accessible way through her work. In 2017, Shelly travelled to Antarctica aboard the Royal Navy's ice patrol vessel, HMS Protector as the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute's Antarctic Artist in Residence.

Helena g Anderson is a photographer and designer based in Cambridgeshire. In March 2016, she developed Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (RHS), a condition that causes facial paralysis. Told by consultants that a full recovery was unlikely, Helena retreated within herself, struggling to come to terms with the news. “I felt empty, filled only with disbelief,” she says.

Come and see the newly discovered fossil of Arthropleura, the largest arthropod to have ever lived.

On display will be the partial remains of this 2.6m long animal along with new information the Museum has learnt from the discovery.

This exhibition presents artist John Kelly’s field explorations on two very contrasting islands, beginning in the young lava fields of Surtsey, Iceland, and ending among the time-worn rocks and erosional surfaces of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

On display are field sketches and objects collected from both islands, complemented by journal entries John made during his trips.

Using wildlife of the past to guide conservation of the future

This exhibition will use UK butterfly specimens from our collections to showcase the natural world and environmental change. It highlights the research that conservationists today are undertaking to reverse long-term declines, including people based here in the Museum.