GWA Newsletter: July

The best things to see, read, listen to and do this month

Dear Readers, Summer is here. Scroll on for your guide to the best shows, listens, reads, events, artists, and more. But first: some updates – including a special bonus episode of the GWA Podcast: an exhibition tour of Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern!

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On Substack: Your Summer Reading List

Click here to discover a plethora of novels, short books, non-fiction, and memoirs to keep you stimulated this summer.

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On Substack: Summer Artworks

Be transported to some of the most iconic summer scenes by women artists. Click here!

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In The Guardian: Jenny Saville at the NPG

For The Guardian I wrote about looking at Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting through the eyes of teenagers. Amazingly, the exhibition is free for anyone 25 and under. A preview:

“…the exhibition was swarming with teenagers. Equipped with notepads and sketchbooks, scribbling down words like “expressive”, “daring” and “beautiful”, the budding art enthusiasts seemed enraptured by Saville’s portraits: from blemished backs and wounded faces to colossal closeups of girls and fleshy nude women. I got talking to an art teacher and her sixth formers and we discussed how Saville’s bodies are the antithesis to the idealised forms we see online today; and how stunned we were by the landscape of textures that can exist within a single cheek.”

Read more here.

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The GWA Podcast: Emily Kam Kngwarray

For a special bonus episode of the GWA Podcast, step inside the magical world of Emily Kam Kngwarray with an exhibition tour of her new show at Tate Modern.

This is the first large-scale presentation of Kngwarray’s work ever held in Europe and a celebration of her extraordinary career as one of Australia’s greatest artists. Amazingly, Kngwarray was only in her late 70s when she began painting properly, making c.3000 paintings before the end of her life!

And wow – these are some of the most dazzling and vibrant paintings I've ever witnessed: filled with rich colours that range from dry and dusty to oceanic; and textures that could be a constellation of stars, the scurrying footprints by animals, or the sacred grasses blowing in the wind.

As told by curator, Kelli Cole. Tune in!

This is a potential new format for the podcast. Let me know what you think?

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Now for my July recommendations…

Enjoy Katy. Xoxo

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16 exhibitions to see in the UK:

• Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery, London, until 7 Sep

• Emma Talbot: How We Learn To Love, Compton Verney, Warwick, until 5 Oct

• Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern, London, until 11 Jan

• Alien Shores: landscape, once removed, Curated by Susanna Greeves, at White Cube, London, until 7 Sep

• Lubaina Himid with Magda Stawarska: Another Chance Encounter, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, until 2 Nov

• Carol Rhodes: Sites, Alison Jacques, London, until 9 Aug

• Aubrey Levinthal: Mirror Matter, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, until 13 Sep

• Francesca Mollett: Annual Honesty, Modern Art, London, until 19 Jul

• Summer Exhibition 2025, Royal Academy, London, until 17 Aug

• Solange Pessoa: Pilgrim Fields, Tramway, Glasgow, until 5 Oct

• Connecting Thin Black Lines 1985 - 2025, ICA, London, until 7 Sep

• Erin O’Keefe: A Whole Thing, Seventeen Gallery, London, until 19 Jul

• Liverpool Biennial 2025, Liverpool, until 14 Sep

• Gala Porras-Kim: The categorical bind, Sprüth Magers, London, until 26 Jul

• Emma Amos at Alison Jacques, London, until 9 Aug

• The Power of Drawing: Marking 25 Years of the Royal Drawing School, Royal Drawing School, London, until 26 Jul

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10 exhibitions to see outside the UK:

• Anna Maria Maiolino: Je suis là. Estou Aqui, Musée Picasso Paris, until 21 Sep

• Firelei Báez, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, until 21 Sep

• Anicka Yi, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, until 7 Sep

• Nicola L., Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, until 14 Sep

• Amy Sillman: Alternate Side (Permutations #1 32), Dia Bridgehampton, New York,

• Christina Kimeze: Long Loops, Hauser & Wirth, West Hollywood, until 4 Oct

• Push Me, Pull You, Thomas Dane, Naples, until 27 Sep

• Cindy Sherman: The Women, Hauser & Wirth, Menorca, until 26 Oct

• Louise Giovanelli: A Song of Ascents, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark, Austria, until 28 Sep

• Vija Celmins, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland, until 21 Sep

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6 books + articles to read:

• Andrew O’Hagan - Joan Didion on the Couch, via LRB

• Rebecca Solnit - No Straight Road Takes You There

• Wangechi Mutu interviewed, via FT

• Edmund de Waal - an Archive

• Vija Celmins: The Real and Its Double, via ArtReview

• John Clegg - An Opinionated Guide to Literary London

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7 shows to listen to:

• Lubaina Himid via A brush with…

• Rachel Jones via Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

• The Infinite Yayoi Kusama, via Dialogues

• Rebecca Solnit and Carole Cadwalladr, via London Review Bookshop Podcast

• Jenny Saville via This Cultural Life

• Katherine Rundell via This Cultural Life

• Lynn Hershman Leeson on art, technology and science, via Artforum

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4 things to do in London:

• Painting Country: The Vision of Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern talk, 9 Jul

• Deborah Levy in conversation, National Portrait Gallery, 11 Jul

• Watch The Ballad of Wallis Island

• ‘The Triumph of Art’ in Trafalgar Square, 26 Jul

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5 artists to know

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Sally Mann (b.1951)

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Gala Porras-Kim (b.1984)

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Mary Stephenson (b.1989)

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Helen Levitt (1913–2009)

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Rene Matić (b.1997)

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That’s it from me! Happy GWA’ing. Thank you for reading this Substack. If you think someone else might enjoy this too, please spread the word and share this article. If you have any feedback — or your own July recommendation! — please comment below.