Tate announces major David Hockney, Edvard Munch and Sonia Boyce exhibitions for 2027 – The Art Newspaper

Shows dedicated to Lynda Benglis and Edvard Munch will open next year at Tate Modern, along with a Sonia Boyce retrospective at Tate Britain and two shows focused on the work and legacy of David Hockney marking his 90th birthday.

Tate’s statement announcing the 2027 programme, announced on the eve of director Maria Balshaw’s departure, reveals the exhibitions and events to be held across Tate’s four sites next year. “There are lots of firsts in [2027]: Tate Modern’s first Monet show, Tate’s first show of Asian ink painting, the UK’s first solo show for Algerian artist Baya, and the first time the Turner Prize travels to the West Country [to Tate St. Ives, 23 October-23 January 2028],” says a Tate spokesperson.

“Tate Modern will present more than 50 extraordinary works from the late 1960s to the present, showcasing the inventive aesthetic that has cemented Lynda Benglis’s role as one of the most influential artists of our time,” says a statement (30 September 2027-5 March 2028). Benglis, who posed naked with a large double-headed dildo in Artforum in 1974, has been celebrated for her vibrant colour and process-oriented abstract art, which includes poured latex floor paintings, totemic wax paintings, tubular knots and biomorphic mounds or spheres in bronze, lead and glass.

The Monet show at Tate Modern, Monet: Painting Time (25 February-27 June 2027) focuses on “Monet’s profound and evolving relationship with time” through works such as Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare (1877). The exhibition is organised by Tate Modern and Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. The Munch show (11 November 2027-23 April 2028) explores his ‘soul paintings’ through the lens of cinema and visual storytelling, unpicking issues around identity and desire.

In a bold move, Tate Modern also presents the UK’s first ever solo exhibition of the work of Algerian artist Baya (Mahieddine) from 10 June 2027 to 17 October. According to writer Rawaa Talass, Baya’s body of work contributed to the field of Modernism in North Africa and won acclaim from European pioneers. Self-taught, Baya created a world of her own inspired by her childhood memories and surroundings, as well as her rich Algerian and indigenous Amazigh origins.

A survey of works from the past 60 years by the Mumbai-based artist Nalini Malani—who made key pieces such as Mother India: Transactions in the Construction of Pain (2005) and In Search of Vanished Blood (2012-20)—also launches at Tate Modern (1 July-3 January 2028). 

Ink painting gets a platform also at Tate Modern in the show Ink (22 April-30 August 2027) which includes around 80 works organised around three themes: Life, the Garden, and Breath. “The show focuses on key artists in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who helped reinvent [ink painting] for the twentieth century,” says Tate.

As Hockney hits 90, Tate Modern will stage a multimedia installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in the summer while Tate Britain will open a career-spanning exhibition in autumn 2027 featuring more than 200 works (7 October-20 February 2028). The latter show features “trailblazing 1960s explorations of queer love and desire to tender depictions of his parents and recent works exploring private moments in Hockney’s home and studio”, Tate says.

Sonia Boyce’s work and legacy will be presented in a survey at Tate Britain drawing on her large-scale installations, photography, collage, drawing, film and sculpture (24 March-27 August 2027). Boyce, who won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, will show works such as the Devotional series, her archive created in dialogue with the public. “In the broadest sense, my research interests lie in art as a social practice and the critical and contextual debates that arise from this burgeoning field,” Boyce writes.

Other shows planned for Tate Britain include a blockbuster presentation of more than 120 paintings and drawings by the society portraitist Thomas Gainsborough, marking the 300th anniversary of his birth (20 May-10 October 2027). The Tudors (18 November-23 April 2028) meanwhile shines a light on “the age that witnessed the birth of modern Britain, and in turn, that of British painting”, featuring important works by Hans Holbein, Nicholas Hilliard, and Isaac Oliver, among others.

The long-awaited renovation of Tate Liverpool is also scheduled for completion next year, launching with a major exhibition of works by the British-Indian artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman. The gallery was initially due to reopen in 2025 following an overhaul which was previously forecast to cost £29.7m (the project is now costed around £35m).

However, difficulty in raising the funds led the gallery to postpone its relaunch until next year. “A new art hall will showcase large-scale installations, while new spaces for play, relaxation and learning will offer spectacular views across the Mersey,” says Tate.