Buffalo AKG Art Museum
June 2023
After a three-year closure, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery has become the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Designed by OMA and Cooper Robertson, a new, glazed structure on one side provides flexible gallery spaces, giving the museum freedom to display its outstanding collections of modern and contemporary art in all their variety while keeping the visitor rooted within the surrounding parkland.
Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury
November 2022
After a £10.5m redevelopment by architects ZMMA, the Suffolk house in which Gainsborough was born is now able to tell the story of the artist’s development as never before. A striking new building in local brick at the end of the garden offers permanent gallery space for loan exhibitions, freeing up the house itself for more intimate displays.
Gallery of the Royal Collections, Madrid
June 2023
Concrete and granite collide in the new building designed to show off works from the Spanish Royal Collections. The project has taken 17 years to complete, but now visitors can appreciate the riches of one of the world’s most important collections of Flemish tapestries, as well as exceptional baroque art and an array of royal carriages.
International African American Museum, Charleston
June 2023
Built on the site of a former slave harbour, this museum represents the most concerted effort to date by an American institution to present Black history in a truly international perspective. The ambitious building, designed by Henry N. Cobb with Curt Moody, is alive to the complexities of this story and gives the curators great freedom in telling it.
National Portrait Gallery, London
June 2023
Architect Jamie Fobert has transformed the space within the NPG, created new galleries, punched doors through walls and relocated the entrance to give the gallery a new plaza in front. It’s not just an intelligent redesign – it has also, somehow, given a slightly depressed part of London a burst of energy and fun.
Sydney Modern, Art Gallery of New South Wales
December 2022
In taking on the Sydney Modern project, SANAA architects faced major geographical constraints – a steep embankment, a disused fuel tank from the Second World War and the foundations of a multi-lane highway. Yet they have managed to fashion a startlingly light and welcoming building for this unlikely setting, in which works by women and First Nation artists are given particular prominence.
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Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes