The biggest exhibitions to see in Sussex right now

Sussex is home to some of the UK’s best contemporary art galleries and museums, with a range of exciting exhibitions to see throughout the year. If you’re visiting Sussex soon, here are some of the biggest exhibitions now showing or coming soon at art museums from Chichester to Hastings.

Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs

Get up close to never-seen-before items and artworks from one of the UK´s most beloved author illustrators, in the part of East Sussex that he made his home. Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs is a highly personal show featuring 30 items from the late author´s estate with over 100 original artworks from his 60-year career. Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, until 22 December 2024.

Mike Silva

Bringing together new and recent paintings including portraits, interiors and landscapes, this is the first institutional solo exhibition of London-based Swedish artist, Mike Silva. Silva’s paintings draw from an ongoing personal archive of photographic material, much of which is rooted in the London of the 1990s and early 2000s. Subjects include acquaintances, friends and lovers of past and present, as well as the interior spaces that these subjects spend or spent time in. With works that capture subtle shifts of light and shadow, this exhibition includes several works where light serves as a compositional protagonist, responding to the ambient quality of DLWP’s Ground floor gallery. There’s also the chance to see a new landscape painting showing the dappling of light through a parkland enclosure – a former cruising ground in North London. De La Warr Pavilion, until 19 January 2025.

Callum Hill, E-Minor

Until January 2025, in a site-specific installation in DLWP’s first floor gallery, see this major new film commission by Bristol-based artist, Callum Hill. Throughout 13 kaleidoscopic minutes combining 35mm and 16mm film and archival footage, viewers are taken on a psychedelic journey exploring the darker side of Western cultural life by asking what lies beneath its surface.  De La Warr Pavilion, until 19 January 2025

Adam Dant: Legends of Albion

Known for his intricate map illustrations, cartographer Adam Dant blends history with the present world in his thought-provoking and often humorous works. Taking as their theme the vivid and arcane origin myths of Britain, these latest works revive the long lost art of ‘The Painted Cloth’ and the role of The Painter Stainer  within British Contemporary Art. Stories explored across Dant’s large painted cloths include how Brutus and his Trojans founded New Troy on the banks of The Thames, how the disembodied head of ‘Bran The Blessed’ came to be buried at The White Hill as one of the nations ‘Palladiums’ as well as how a race of monstrous giants came to be wandering the islands of Albion. Newlands House Gallery, until 16 February 2025

Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone

How does our definition of home affect our sense of identity? What does it mean to be British today? Featuring more than 30 works including textiles and pots to ceramic tiles and woodcuts, Grayson Perry: A Temple for Everyone tells stories of home and invites us to reflect on how the spaces we inhabit shape our stories, identities, and the way we see the world. The exhibition includes elements from Perry’s ‘A House for Essex’ (2015), as well as well-known works including ‘A Map of Days ‘(2013) ‘Our Town’ (2022), ‘A Shrine to Alan Measles (2007) and ‘Mad Kid’s Bedroom Wall’ (1996). Charleston in Lewes, Until 2 March 2025

Collecting Modernism: Pablo Picasso to Winifred Nicholson

Featuring over 80 paintings passed on between three queer homes over many years, The Radev Collection is now one of the biggest and most important groupings of modern British art in the country. This exhibition at Charleston in Lewes is a rare chance to get up close to works by Pablo Picasso, Winifred Nicholson, Amedeo Modigliani, Graham Sutherland, alongside key Bloomsbury figures such as Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell, and Duncan Grant. It tells the extraordinary story of how the collection came into being, and explores the lives of the collectors and custodians who grew and cherished it over many years: Eddie Sackville-West, Eardley Knollys, and Mattei Radev. Charleston in Lewes, Until 2 March 2025

Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs

Exploring the rich and complex genre of still life, this is a meeting of two of the UK’s most significant collections – The Ingram Collection and the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Including more than 50 works from artists including Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, Sir Anthony Caro, Patrick Caulfield, Michael Craig-Martin, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Sarah Lucas, Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson, the exhibition juxtaposes world-class contemporary sculpture, video and installation alongside traditional still life paintings. Hastings Contemporary, until 16 March 2025

Eastbourne public art trail

Originally created to accompany the Turner Prize exhibition in 2024, Eastbourne Alive curated a series of major artworks across public spaces in Eastbourne, some of which are still on display today. Featured artists include Nathan Coley and Helen Cammock. Drawing on the resort’s original design from the mid-nineteenth century – laid out in long tree-lined boulevards marked by grand monuments and statues – this series of temporary public interventions explore the notion of a modern-day monument, investigating what these cultural markers might look like today and the sorts of events, objects or people they memorialise. Discover the works and artists here.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Over 100 extraordinary photographs from around the world are showcased in this prestigious exhibition from the Natural History Museum, London. Share in the photographers’ stories, find out more about the processes and celebrate the winners from the 59th edition of this internationally renowned photography competition. Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, until 16 March 2025

Drawing the Unspeakable, Curated by David Dimbleby & Liza Dimbleby

Marking the end of his remarkable decade-long tenure as Towner’s Chair, renowned broadcaster David Dimbleby and his daughter, the artist and writer Liza Dimbleby, present this in-depth exploration of human experience through the universal language of drawing. Featuring 300 works by a vast array of well-known artists including Louise Bourgeois, Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney, L.S. Lowry and Tracey Emin, Drawing the Unspeakable highlights the father and daughter’s shared belief in the power of art to communicate those experiences and themes that words cannot fully capture. At the heart of the exhibition lies a thoughtful dialogue between David and Liza, providing deep insights into their curatorial choices and revealing the nuanced dynamics of familial relationships. Towner Eastbourne, until 27 April 2025

Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury

The first museum exhibition of works by Dora Carrington (1893-1932) in almost 30 years, Beyond Bloomsbury invites you to dive into the life and work of a remarkable artist who defied social norms with her bohemian lifestyle. As a significant contributor to Modern British art during the interwar years and an associate of the Bloomsbury Group, Carrington was described as ‘the most neglected serious painter of her time’ by former Tate Director, Sir John Rothenstein. Spanning paintings, drawings and prints from across her career, this exhibition aims to reposition Carrington in the history of Modern British art and forms a powerful portrait of the artist herself, exploring her defiance of gender norms and her bohemian circle of friends. Pallant House Gallery, until 27 April 2025

Maggi Hambling: Nightingale night

Inspired by the songs of nightingales and a night spent in the Sussex woodland guided by folk musician and conservationist, Sam Lee, this new series of 14 paintings by one of Britain’s most celebrated artists explores the profound connection between nature, sound, and art. The exhibition, which explores how song can be transformed into gesture and colour, also includes works inspired by the voices of Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey, and Will Young, as well as a monumental piece influenced by Nick Cave. Pallant House Gallery, until 27 April 2025

Coming soon

Tadek Beutlich: On and Off the Loom

Visionary textile artist, printmaker and teacher, Polish-born Tadek Beutlich MBE (1922 – 2011), made Ditchling his home in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This new exhibition celebrates his remarkable career and bold, innovative approach to materials through an exploration of his monumental tapestries, intricate textile constructions and vivid relief prints. Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, 18 January –  22 June 2025

Discover more Sussex art galleries.