The wait is over for London’s much-anticipated Naomi: In Fashion exhibition which opens at the V&A this June; a powerful, canonical and retrospective month in the art world. Along with this, these are eight of the most exciting global exhibitions to visit this June.
From London to Los Angeles, New York and Paris, archival fashion and contemporary art are on the move through June – including the first solo exhibition of one of fashion’s most iconic figures, Naomi Campbell, and one of America’s popular contemporary visual artists, Mickalene Thomas.
Naomi: In Fashion, V&A Museum, London, UK
One of fashion’s most iconic figures, Naomi Campbell, has carried fashion through some of its greatest eras and designers under the esteemed ‘supermodel’ title, and is trading runways for the marbled hallways of the V&A. Sponsored by fashion label Boss, Naomi: In Fashion traces Campbell’s extensive four-decade career – from becoming the first Black model to feature on the cover of Vogue Paris in August 1988 aged just 18, to transforming the runway with her legendary, confident strut (featured in the exhibition via a series of video clips) and launching her own perfume line. The exhibition uses many different mediums to tell her story, including video, photography and clothing, and moves from Naomi’s childhood to the present day. Highlights include a selection of photography by Arthur Elgort and Patrick Demarchelier – curated by Edward Enninful OBE – as well as dresses made specifically for Campbell by the likes of Valentino and Azzedine Alaïa. In a recent press conference Naomi Campbell says the show is for – and tributes – “everyone who has been good to me.” This is a beautiful time capsule of some of fashion’s greatest people and moments.
Fashion On The Move, Palais Galliera, Paris, France
The Olympics might not have arrived in Paris yet, but the sport of dressing has with Palais Galliera’s exhibition Fashion On The Move, or La Mode En Mouvement. The theme has been teased by the gallery for a year; their presentation of the exhibition is made up of three mini-series, in order to spotlight the incredibly extensive archives of the gallery. Part one showcased last June, while part two runs across the Olympic dates – and in honour of the sporting event. The exhibition will showcase 300 items that represent the relationship between clothes and sport spanning from the 18th century to the present day. Mapping the ever-shifting relationship between clothes, the body, and movement, the exhibition is thematically ordered, moving between swimming and bathing suits to horse riding, golf, cycling and more – tapping into sociological factors and historical moments in time while doing so.
Imaginary Conversations, Chatsworth House, UK
The eponymous brand by Erdem Moralioğlu is journeying to the Regency Guest Bedrooms at the historic Chatsworth House in the heart of the British countryside. The exhibition follows Erdem’s Spring Summer 24 collection debuted in autumn last year, which honoured the British roots of the fashion label while also tributing the continued inspiration of the late dowager Duchess Deborah Devonshire on Erdem’s work. The collection of dresses and shoes is based on the shapes and silhouettes of the Duchess’ own fashion, designed both using and taking reference from fabrics from Chatsworth Houses’ interior archives (including curtains). Imaginary Conversations has been curated to imply a visual chatter between designer and muse; it opens in Erdem’s atelier and moves to portraits of the Duchess by Lucien Freud and John Ulbricht, before arriving at the collection.
The Whole World Smiles With You, Opera Gallery, London, UK
The exhibition title The Whole World Smiles With You originates from Louis Armstrong’s romantic jazz track When You’re Smiling, in order to reconfigure Western perceptions and portrayals of Black art. According to the exhibition curator, Alayo Akinkugbe, “this exhibition interrogates various modes of figuration by contemporary Black artists. It includes works by artists who challenge the European canon by overtly reconfiguring renowned paintings to include Black protagonists or, more covertly, portraying figures in poses reminiscent of pre-twentieth-century portraiture.” Moving away from the dramatic, poignant, and often violent depictions of Black subjects in popular art, the exhibition turns to collages and paintings of often relaxed, smiling, and jovial subjects, featuring works by Jazz Grant, Amoako Boafo, Adjei Tawiah, Deborah Roberts (and many more) with lots of vibrant, dopamine-drenched colours across large canvases.
Andy Warhol: After The Party, Fotgrafiska, Berlin, Germany
In After the Party, Fotografiska Berlin offers a deep dive into the desires, thoughts, experiences, and settings that informed the pop-art genius of Warhol’s work. Straying away from the commercial and busy pop-art prints and avant-garde canvas art Warhol is known for, instead we see the esteemed artist through a lonelier lens, the lens of his own camera. Scenes of longing, vulnerability, and fleeting every day moments are key themes in this photographic exhibition, including empty table settings left awry after a meal, candid portraits and snapshots of desire.
Niki de Saint Phalle And Aislan Pankararu, Salon 94, New York, USA
On New York‘s impressive Museum Mile is the unpretentious – yet very prestigious – contemporary art gallery, Salon 94. Founded in 2002 by Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, the space is set across a beautiful early-1900s townhouse that has recently been restored to its original Edwardian splendour. Its glistening limestone exterior gives way to four floors of original parquet floors, oak finishings, marble details, and a neo-Renaissance spiralling staircase adorned with iron banisters and a custom-made Philippe Malouin chandelier. The exhibitions inside boast the same intrigue as the building. Current showings include Endless River by Brazilian artist Aislan Pankararu which honours the interconnected community of the indigenous Pankararu people through over two dozen paintings, and Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tableaux Éclatés (exploding paintings): kinetic landscape paintings.
Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, The Broad, Los Angeles, USA
With a title taken from canonical feminist author bell hooks, All About Love by artist Mickalene Thomas is a visual examination of motherhood, pop culture, mass media, the politics of power, sexuality, and the complexities of femininity that bell’s essay collection also questions. The exhibition culminates many different artistic forms including photographs, collages, figurative paintings – often mimicking the poses and compositions of 19th-century French paintings, but reconfigured to re-evaluate the painter-subject power dynamic. A highlight of the exhibition is the eight-foot tall Portrait of Maya No. 10 (2017) fashioned from layers of acrylic and rhinestone. Co-organised by London’s Hayward Gallery and offering over 90 of the artist’s pieces, this is Thomas’ first international tour and a must-visit on the USA’s west coast.
Terence Donovan: Full Frame, Atlas Gallery, London, UK
In 2023, Atlas Gallery re-commenced representation of Terence Donovan’s archives, and is now spotlighting the photographer’s work, including rare prints, spanning the entirety of his forty-year career. Between 1959 to 1995, Donovan helped define a new era for advertising and portraiture within fashion photography; his shots often cross styles with hyper-realist photojournalism and include backdrops of London’s working-class East End and industrial sites left derelict after the war. In this exhibition, these include signed vintage prints, contact prints, and silver gelatine estate prints, and are available to collectors.
Lead image credit: Peter Knapp, Peter Knapp, Swimwear, for Elle, 1971. © Peter Knapp
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