The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure

This major international exhibition from the National Portrait Gallery, featuring some of the hottest names in contemporary art, can be seen free at The Box this summer for its only UK showing outside London, where it received five-star reviews. It includes nearly 50 works of sculpture, painting and drawing by 22 of the UK and USA’s most important living artists, including Turner Prize winner Chris Ofili and Amy Sherald, official portraitist to Michelle Obama. The exhibition is curated by writer Ekow Eshun, formerly of The Face and Arena magazine. Visitors will be able to see large-scale, dazzling works that ask highly relevant questions about race, identity and history. The exhibition highlights the use of figures to illuminate the richness and complexity of Black life with themes of being and belonging; gatherings in domestic and public spaces; and both the presence and absence of Black figures in art history. There will also be a series of free family-friendly arts and crafts workshops on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until Thursday 29 August - see theboxplymouth.com

“Stunning from first to last” (The Observer)

“A gorgeous display of some of the best painting happening today” (Time Out)