Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality

10 February 2023 – 30 July 2023

Knossos was famous in Greek myth as the location of the Labyrinth and its resident Minotaur. The exhibition explores the archaeological hunt for Knossos from 1878 through to the modern day.

Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design

21 September 2023 – 18 February 2024

Dispelling our monochrome idea of Victorian Britain discover a revolution of colour. From dazzling dyes used in chic corsets and the flamboyant use of nature’s beauty in exquisite jewellery, to the shimmering splendour of ceramics and bold experiments by avant-garde painters, rediscover Victorian society as a vibrant colour-filled era in this major new exhibition.

Connected Planet

7 February 2023 – 15 August 2023

Connected Planet takes us on a global safari from wind and waves to grassy plains to witness some of the points where life and earth processes meet and shape each other. Earth and life exist in delicate balance, a continuous whirling dance of planetary and life processes that began when life first evolved in the oceans 3.6 billion years ago. Today, the oceans, air and land swirl with plants, animals, fungi and single-celled organisms in astounding richness and diversity.

His Dark Materials among the displays

Trace the steps of Lyra Belacqua through the galleries of the Pitt Rivers Museum in this opportunity to see items featured in the BBC HBO production of the television series His Dark Materials within the famous displays.

UNMASKED – Spirit in the City

28 January 2023 to 7 January 2024

Fusing art and anthropology to unmask the violence and vulnerability of life in Nigeria’s oil capital Port Harcourt.

John Newberry: Recording Oxford

30 May – 10 June 2023

John Newberry returns to The North Wall this summer with Recording Oxford, an extensive collection of small watercolours painted between 1982-1995. Although Oxford’s skyline has since been transformed, the views of the St Giles Fair, Oxford’s colleges, cobbled streets and river walks remain unchanged.

Born in 1934, at school in Bath, John did National Service and studied Architecture at Cambridge when Leslie Martin was Professor. After three years he transferred to read Fine Art at Newcastle under Lawrence Gowing and Victor Pasmore.

John came to Oxford in 1962 to teach part-time at the Ruskin School of Drawing. He also worked at Sanders where he prepared annual exhibitions of English drawings and watercolours for Kyril Bonfiglioli (part-owner, art dealer and comic mystery writer). There John was able to study ‘ in the hand ‘ a large range of watercolours. Other than that he was untaught in the medium – it was not a subject in art schools. His own watercolour exhibitions at Sanders became annual events and this is a chance to see some of those works.

When Fine Art became a degree and the Ruskin moved from the Ashmolean to the High Street, John became full-time with a post at Brasenose College. From 1987-1989, he was the Ruskin’s Acting Master. John retired in 1989 and lives with his partner, the composer Bryan Kelly, in Somerset. John was made a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1995.

Annie Rapstoff, Monika Tobel & Cally Trench: In The Likeness of Birds

4 July – 22 July 2023

Human beings treat birds as other: strange winged descendants of dinosaurs to be hunted or exploited for eggs, feathers, meat, or companionship. But we also envy birds their power of flight, their freedom of the air.

What is it like to be a pigeon, or to wear a beak, or to watch your arms change into wings? Visitors are invited to join these three artists in celebrating the autonomous existence of birds and, through acts of imagination, break through the barriers that separate us from them.

Monika Tobel campaigns in the guise of a bird for fairness for pigeons, and offers herself as a human bird table for them to feed at.

Annie Rapstoff sews beaks or wears feathers, creating a hybrid bird-human form; the masks become a form of concealment, inducing a freedom to be other than self, and a channel to reveal or shift into another identity, exploring the im/possibility of a halfway existence between human and bird.

Through drawings and film, Cally Trench observes objectively her own ageing body mid-transformation as she metamorphosises into a bird.

The exhibition includes films, photographs, drawings, prints, objects, and an original board game.

26 July - 12 August 2023

26 July – 12 August 2023

To Speak of Solitude interrogates identity through a rich visual duality. Individual discovery is set in contrast with an ethnic group experiencing the erasure of their entire cultural identity throughout this multi-layered exhibition merging image and ephemera from two bodies of Daniel’s work: Voices and Panopticon.

Voices seeks to reconcile Daniel’s difficult formative years by exploring the ways teenagers and young adults often use interests, activities and the perception of their peers to form their own identity. Voices suggests such topics as depression, love, suicide, isolation, domestic abuse, and the recognition of one’s own mortality; struggles central to Daniel’s development into young adulthood.

The Panopticon is a system of control designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 1700’s. It places a watchtower at the centre of a circular prison allowing prisoners to be observed simultaneously by a single guard. Crucially, the guard remains unseen, thus creating a sense of collective permanent observation, forcing behavioural change. Panopticon addresses the overt use of digital surveillance, censorship and oppression across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a region with deep personal ties for Daniel through his relationship with his grandfather.