The 10 essential exhibitions to see this summer 2024

Lonnie Holley: All Rendered Truth

The Alabama artist and musician has incorporated objects and materials salvaged during a recent residency in Suffolk into these new works – including brambles and Victorian glass apothecary bottles.

Camden Art Centre, London NW3 (camdenartcentre.org), July 5-Sept 15

Barbie: The Exhibition

More than 250 objects – including a rare first edition Barbie from 1959 – trace the 65-year evolution of “the world’s most famous doll”. (Mounted in partnership with toy company Mattel.)

Design Museum, London W8 (designmuseum.org), July 5-Feb 23

Revealing Nature: The Art of Cedric Morris and Lett-Haines

This is the first show to chart the relationship between Welsh painter and horticulturist Cedric Morris, and his partner, the painter Arthur Lett-Haines, who ran the famously unorthodox East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing (alumni include Lucian Freud and Maggi Hambling).

Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk (gainsborough.org), July 6-Nov 3

Louise Bourgeois: Nature Study

More than 40 works span the seven-decade career of this brilliant French-American artist, acclaimed for her unsettling monumental bronze sculptures of spiders.

Compton Verney, Warwickshire (comptonverney.org.uk), July 6-Oct 6

After the Storm: Mohammed Sami at Blenheim Palace

There’s a sinister, dream-like quality to the sought-after Baghdad-born painter’s pictures, often depicting empty, shadow-strewn interiors.

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire (blenheimpalace.com), July 9-Oct 6

Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body

As the Olympics returns to Paris for the first time in a century, the Fitz explores how, back in the 1920s, avant-garde modernist artists engaged with “themes of the sporting body”.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk), July 19-Nov 3

Elisabeth Frink: Natural Connection

Bronzes, plasters, and works on paper by this gifted 20th-century British sculptor of human figures, birds, horses, and dogs, are testament to her enduring passion for the natural world.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (ysp.org.uk), July 20-Feb 23

Henry Moore in Colour

These powerful drawings by the renowned 20th-century British artist – including life studies and informal works powered by “chromatic vibrancy” – reveal his fascinating experiments with colour.

The Lightbox, Woking (thelightbox.org.uk), July 27-Nov 3

Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look

A free, focused show, pits Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ alongside a pair of paintings by David Hockney in which the 15th-century Renaissance masterpiece is reproduced.

National Gallery, London WC2 (nationalgallery.org.uk), August 8-Oct 27

Edinburgh Art Festival

A bigger-than-ever line-up to celebrate EAF’s 20th birthday, with work by more than 200 artists on display across the Scottish capital.

Various venues, Edinburgh (edinburghartfestival.com), Aug 9-25