'Immortal III (red, green and pink)', Daniel Crews-Chubb, 2022. Oil, oil bar, acrylic, ink, charcoal, spray paint, sand, coarse pumice gel & collaged fabrics on canvas © Daniel Crews-Chubb, courtesy Timothy Taylor, London / New York

Ashmolean Now: Flora Yukhnovich x Daniel Crews-Chubb, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford until 14 January 2024

The Ashmolean has launched a new exhibition series of contemporary art: Ashmolean NOW. Contemporary artists are invited to create new work inspired by the Ashmolean’s historical collections. The first exhibition is dedicated to contemporary painting. It juxtaposes the work of two London-based painters, Flora Yukhnovich and Daniel Crews-Chubb.

Join us:

As part of our Autumn Term lecture series, come along to our Shoreditch studios and hear Daniel Crews-Chubb in-conversation with Dr Lina Fritsch on Wednesday 11 October, 7pm. The lecture is free but places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Rubens & Women, Dulwich Picture Gallery, open until 28 January 2024

Rubens & Women, introduces visitors to a more nuanced view of the artists' representation of women, challenging the popular assumption that Rubens painted only one type of woman. It is said that he painted more portraits of his wives and children than almost any other. The exhibition reveals the varied and important place occupied by women, both real and imagined, in his world.

Claudette Johnson, Figure in blue, 2018, Pastels and gouache on paper, 163 x 133 cm. Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © Claudette Johnson. Image courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London. Photo: Andy Keate.

Claudette Johnson: Presence, The Courtauld Gallery from 29 September - 14 January 2024

See the impressive large scale drawings and paintings by Claudette Johnson, a founding member of the Black British Arts Movement and one of the most significant figurative artists of her generation. Working in a variety of media, ranging from monochrome works in dark pastel to vast sheets brightly coloured in vibrant gouache and watercolour, combined with dramatic use of pose, gaze, and scale, Johnson’s distinctive drawings of friends, relatives, and often herself seek, as the artist puts it, “to tell a different story about our presence in this country”.

Frank Walter, Modern Tropical Flowers (undated) Oil on wood

Frank Walter: Artist, Gardener, Radical, Garden Museum from 4 October - 25 February 2024

One of the most significant Caribbean visual artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Frank Walter created over 5,000 paintings, 1,000 drawings, 600 sculptures, 2,000 photographs, 468 hours of recordings, and a 50,000-page archive. Artist, Gardener, Radical will delve into Walter’s prolific body of work exploring environmentalism, Caribbean and Black identity, social justice and the complexity of nature.

Nicole Eisenman, Sloppy Bar Room Kiss, 2011, Oil on canvas, 99.1 × 121.9 cm, Collection of Cathy and Jonathan Miller. Image Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles, Photo credit: Robert Wedemeyer

Nicole Eisenman: What Happened, Whitechapel Gallery from 11 October - 14 January

This exhibition will bring together paintings, sculptures, monoprints, animation and drawings, many of which have not previously been shown in the UK.  Eisenman explores some of the most prescient socio-political issues of the day.  These encompass gender, identity and sexual politics, recent civic and governmental turmoil in the United States, protest and activism, and the impact of technology on personal relationships and romantic lives.

Gwen John, Autoportrait à la Lettre, (Self-Portrait with a letter)

Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris at Pallant House until 8 October and Holburne Museum, Bath from 21 October.

See the work of progressive and trailblazing artist Gwen John in this exhibition of portraits, self portraits and interiors. She chose to make her life and work within the heady art worlds of London and Paris amid a rich cultural circle or artists and writers. This exhibition re-examines the significance of John’s work alongside her fellow international modernists.

Hurvin Anderson, Is It Ok To Be Black?, 2015. A 70th Anniversary Commission for the Arts Council Collection with New Art Exchange, Nottingham and Thomas Dane Gallery, Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey.

Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings, The Hepworth Wakefield until 5 November 

Hurvin Anderson (b. 1965) first painted a Birmingham-based barbershop in 2006. Over the last 15 years, Anderson has repeatedly reworked the same barbershop in a multitude of ways to explore key painting styles, shifting from figuration to abstraction, and experimenting with the classic genres of still life, landscape and portraiture. The Salon Paintings exhibition focuses on the Barbershop series as a lens through which to understand Anderson’s wider practice and key concerns of memory, identity and nationhood.

Chantal Joffe, Self-portrait combing Esme’s hair, 2009 © Chantal Joffe / Victoria Miro

Real Families: Stories of Change, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge from 6 October until 7 January 2024 

Bringing together more than 120 artworks spanning painting, photography, sculpture and film, Real Families: Stories of Change asks us to consider what makes a family today, and the impact our families have on us, through the eyes of contemporary artists. A spotlight on artist Chantal Joffe brings together ten of her paintings made over the past two decades, capturing the joys, tensions and complexities of her family experience and inviting us to explore the intricacies of modern family relationships.

If you're feeling inspired, why not try one of our Drop-in courses, online or in the studio. We also have some 5-week courses starting on 23 October