The Midlands has a wealth of art galleries and museums hosting a range of fantastic exhibitions - both permanent and temporary. Here's a selection of what's showing across the region. 

SEULGI LEE

New pieces commissioned by Ikon form part of Seulgi Lee’s first solo exhibition in the UK. The Seoul artist and Paris resident  creates work which reflects her interest in the relationship that exists between craft practices and the language system. To do so, she has developed a unique sculptural vocabulary in which she often combines conceptual approaches with artisanal methods.

Ikon Art Gallery, Birmingham, until Sunday 7 September

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OUTSIDE IN: SHELTER

Shelter is the seventh National Open exhibition to be presented by Outside In, an award-winning charity dedicated to helping artists who encounter barriers to accessing the art world. These may include issues around health, disability, isolation, or the individual’s social circumstance.

As part of Shelter, surrealist sculptor & furniture designer Chantal Pitts was selected for a 21-week residency at the gallery, during which period she developed an interactive and den-like installation that will serve as the exhibition’s information hub.

New Art Gallery, Walsall, Saturday 28 June - Sunday 19 October

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BRICK DINOS

This new exhibition provides families with the opportunity to step back in time to the prehistoric world. 
The show’s attractions include a range of Lego dinosaur sculptures - created in collaboration with palaeontologists - behind-the-scenes videos, photo opportunities, and the chance to uncover fossils at an interactive ‘dino dig’. 

Visitors can also get creative with hands-on Lego and Duplo play, design their own dinosaurs on a graffiti wall, and take home dinosaur-themed colouring sheets.

Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until Sunday 7 September

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SHROPSHIRE QUILTERS: THREADS OF FRIENDSHIP

A friendly group that brings together people from all walks of life with a common interest in patchwork, quilting and related needlecrafts, Shropshire Quilters have been going strong for 40 years. This celebration of their output across the decades includes some of their favourite objects from Shropshire Museums' textile collection.

Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, until Sunday 22 June

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MAO ISHIKAWA

Warwick Arts Centre is this month and next presenting the first institutional exhibition in the UK of revered Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa.

Featuring more than 60 photos from the 1970s onwards, the show includes images from some of Mao’s best-known projects. Among these is an iconic series focusing on Okinawan women who formed relationships with African American servicemen stationed at US military bases on the island.

Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, until Sunday 22 June

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THROUGH THEIR EYES: 80 YEARS ON

Marking this month’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Through Their Eyes is part of the National Memorial Arboretum’s The Year Was 1945... project. The initiative comprises displays, events, services, talks and tours, its aim being to share the stories of those who served during wartime. 
Through Their Eyes has been produced by the Royal British Legion, the UK’s largest charity solely dedicated to supporting the needs of the Armed Forces community.  

National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, until Sunday 16 November

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BEYOND THE CANVAS

Taking the subtitle A Celebration Of British Sculpture From The Ingram Collection, Beyond The Canvas explores the diverse styles and techniques that defined British sculpture throughout the 20th century. 
The Ingram Art Foundation boasts one of the most significant collections of modern British art in the UK. The collection is here sharing space with pieces from the widely admired Rugby Collection. 
The display is being presented as part of the gallery’s 25th anniversary celebration. 

Rugby Art Gallery, until Saturday 7 June

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EMII ALRAI: RIVER OF BLACK STONE

Blackpool-born and Yorkshire-based artist Emii Alrai produces sculptures and installations that imitate archaeological artefacts and which combine ancient mythologies from the Middle East with oral histories from her own Iraqi heritage. Her aim with her art is to highlight the contrast between the polished aesthetics of museums and the states of ruin which befall archaeological objects and the landscapes from which they are excavated. 

Emii’s Compton Verney commission sees her responding to the venue’s nationally important Naples Collection. Through a sequence of darkening rooms, the artist dramatises the moment of archaeological discovery, at the same time considering ‘themes of volcanic eruption and geological rupture as metaphors for our times’.

Compton Verney, Warwickshire, until Sunday 15 June

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HRAIR SARKISIAN: OTHER PAINS

“Keeping the same way of thinking is depressive,” Hrair Sarkissian told whitehotmagazine.com. “I am someone who makes a lot of jokes, and my work is completely depressive, melancholic, and [tells] only sad stories. There is nothing that gives a positive feeling. It’s all kinds of desperation.”

An Armenian born in Syria and currently based in London, Hrair is considered one of the leading conceptual photographers of his generation. He also works with moving image, sculpture, sound and installation, conveying stories of conflict, displacement, loss and hope. 

Comprising three bodies of work, Hrair’s now-showing Other Pains exhibition features captivating landscapes and urban scenes which reflect sites of pain, trauma or melancholy, either from the artist’s own personal history or the previous experiences of others.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery, until Sunday 22 June

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SUZANNE HOLTOM: AND HILLS BORE SCARS

“During the pandemic, I lost my dad,” explains Suzanne Holtom, “and as a result, my trips back home to the West Midlands became far more frequent. It was this continuing return to my original home, contemplating and experiencing this embodied landscape, that initiated a new direction in my work.”
A deep mapping of place - encompassing geological time, personal experiences, social histories and memory - has become the primary motivation in Suzanne’s art.

The paintings featured in And Hills Bore Scars - which draw from ‘geosites’ in the Black Country Global Geopark - contemplate bodily forms, land masses, histories, patterns of energy and industry, layered materiality and shifting terrains.

Visitors to the gallery on Saturday 10 May can join Suzanne for a printmaking session and a tour of her exhibition.

New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 29 June

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ELIZABETH AND STANHOPE FORBES: A MARRIAGE OF ART

Elizabeth and Stanhope Forbes were very much the power couple of British Impressionism, with both artists already well established and enjoying success at the time of their marriage in 1889. 

This brand-new exhibition features what’s being described as a ‘sumptuous’ selection of their artworks. The show includes many pieces that are on loan from Penlee House Gallery & Museum, and which are visiting Worcester for the very first time. 

Also on display in the exhibition is Stanhope’s Chadding On Mounts Bay, one of the most widely admired and beloved paintings in Worcester City’s Fine Art collection.

Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, until Sunday 29 June

Image: Stanhope Forbes, Lighting Up Time, 1902, courtesy of the Bowerman Charitable Trust.

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POP, PRINT, PROTEST

Featuring artwork created in the mid-20th century, this fascinating show explores how Pop Artists used mixed-media collage and combined text and image in order to protest against capitalism, racism and conflict. In the process of doing so, the artists were responding to some of the biggest social and political issues of the time, including the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War... The exhibition has been curated by Sophie Hatchwell, who is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Birmingham.

Wolverhampton Art Gallery, until Sunday 11 May

Image credit: Bela Lugosi Journal (1964) Joe Tilson, © DACs

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EARTHBOUND

Work by nine artists and community makers is featured in this topical exhibition, a show set within the context of global anxiety about the climate crisis. 

Addressing earthbound themes that connect people with soil, plants, seeds, mycelium, animals and birds - and the histories, cultures and knowledge surrounding these - the exhibition includes sculpture, drawing, painting and installation, as well as work produced via natural art-making techniques.

Image: Charmaine Watkiss, The warrior focuses intent to overcome adversity, 2022. 

New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 8 June

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GREENER GLASS

With an emphasis on eco-friendly practices and the artistic exploration of environmental themes, the future of glassmaking is brought firmly into focus in this long-running exhibition. 
The show - co-curated by UK artists in collaboration with University of Birmingham students - features a diverse array of glass artworks produced using a wide range of techniques, including kiln work, glass blowing, mosaic, flame working and cast glass.

Stourbridge Glass Museum, Wordsley, until Sunday 27 July

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DIPPY IN COVENTRY: THE NATION'S FAVOURITE DINOSAUR

The Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast - life-size, made of plaster-of-paris, and affectionately referred to as Dippy - has taken up residence in Coventry for an initial period of three years. 

Diplodocus carnegii, to give it its official name, lived during the Late Jurassic period, somewhere between 155 and 145 million years ago. Huge, plant-eating dinosaurs with long, whip-like tails, they grew to about 25 metres in length and are believed to have weighed around 15 tonnes, making them three tonnes heavier than a London double-decker bus. 

Dippy first arrived in London in 1905 and recently visited Birmingham as part of an eight-city tour that attracted a record-breaking two million visitors.

Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until Tues 21 February 2026

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