Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits thrum with pain. In this painting Kahlo’s nude torso is split in two. In place of her spine is a crumbling Ionic column. Her broken body is held together by a polio support. Nails pierce her skin; tears run down her face. Kahlo painted The Broken Column in 1944 shortly after undergoing spinal surgery to correct on-going problems which had resulted from a tram accident when she was 18. Unlike many of her other self-portraits, Frida is alone in a bleak and fractured landscape. Despite her evident physical suffering, her gaze is steadfast, symbolic of her strength within.

In August 2022 Ai Weiwei unveiled his first-ever body of work in glass for a new solo show at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The centrepiece of the exhibition, which explores themes of spirituality, freedom, life and death, is La Commedia Umana, a monumental chandelier featuring over 2,000 pieces of black glass made in collaboration with craftsmen in the Berengo Studio in Murano.

A closer look at the twisted hanging sculpture, measuring more than six metres wide and almost nine metres high, reveals a cascade of bones, organs, skulls and surveillance cameras — a poignant plea for us to fight for our freedom before we die. When sunbeams fall from the church’s windows, it casts angular, eerie shadows around the space. ‘It is a work that stirs emotions, that forces us to come to terms not only with our own mortality, but with the part our lives have to play in the greater theatre of human history,’ says Adriano Berengo, Founder of Berengo Studio. Catch it in Venice until 27 November.

Little known during her lifetime, Alice Neel is now regarded as one of the most radical painters of the twentieth century. A champion of social justice, she painted still lifes, cityscapes, landscapes and the people she encountered on the streets of New York, from her family and friends to Puerto Rican immigrants, homosexual couples, single mothers and African American writers. ‘For me, people come first,’ Neel once said. ‘I have tried to assert the dignity and eternal importance of the human being.’ Devoid of any sentimentality, this striking portrait of the American feminist, activist and artist Irene Peslikis is evidence of Neel’s unflinching approach to her subjects. See it at the Centre Pompidou this autumn in the first monographic exhibition in France dedicated to the artist.

With a career spanning over 60 years, Frank Bowling is one of the most exciting living artists in Britain. Like his changing environments - from the town of Bartica in colonial British Guinia where he was born, to his childhood spent in New Amsterdam, then to London in 1953 to pursue art, to New York for a decade and then back to London where he currently lives and works – Bowling's artwork is constantly shifting and provoking new sensations for spectators.

Turmoil is one of Bowling’s newest paintings in which he experiments with the physicality of the canvas, textures, colour, and the methods of applying of paint. For Bowling, material practice has always come before intellectual strategy. Dripping, pouring, playing, spraying, scraping – these are all in Bowling’s abstract artistic vocabulary through which he creates such sensual and deep visions of colour. Like works by Cy Twombly or James Turell, one cannot help but engage their senses and endeavour on a journey of looking when being confronted with Bowling’s bold paintings.

Discover a world seen through the sequinned canvases of Hanoi-born multidisciplinary artist Tia-Thuy Nguyen. Local traditions, folklore, rituals and beliefs from Vietnam punctuate her contemporary artistic practice to create visually arresting works of art that have shaped her distinctive ethereal aesthetic.

In this new series of work entitled Floating into Nothingness, which are now on display in her first solo exhibition in Europe at Château La Coste, she has transformed the canvas into a visual diary that documents sights from the sky during numerous trips between Asian and Europe. Clouds – once ephemeral and delicate – have become tangible and textured through the intricate practice of sewing beads and sequins directly onto the canvas, offering a unique perspective on an all too familiar view.

Marina Abramović puts her audience centre stage. Over the past 50 years, she has tested the limits of her own physical and mental endurance in her work — and pushed audiences to question their own responses and emotions. Gates and Portals, her new site-specific performance-based exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, is no exception. Rather than just viewing artworks in front of you, you will be invited to respond to the artist’s structures, objects and instructions. For Abramović, this participation will prompt visitors to experience heightened bodily awareness and transitional states of being. ‘Their experience with the object is the artwork itself, without that experience the objects are empty,’ she says. In true Abramović style, it offers an intense, physical encounter that will stay with you long after you’ve left the building.

In a career than spans more than 25 years, Es Devlin has made her name creating immersive artworks and dazzling stage sets for the likes of Kanye West, Adele and Beyoncé. Her latest large-scale public artwork, described as an illuminated choral sculpture, is about London’s endangered species. Commissioned by Cartier, it takes the form of a sliced dome and is covered in Devlin’s intricate drawings of each of London’s 243 priority species, including moths, birds, beetles and wildflowers.

On select evenings at sunset, London-based choral groups of the diaspora will perform choral evensong from within the illuminated sculpture. It also features a recording of the animals’ names and QR codes within each of the choral tiers that provide more information about the priority species, choral music and London Wildlife Trust. ‘Dome originally meant a home,’ says Devlin. ‘The works invites us to see, hear and feel our home, our city as an interconnected web of species and cultures, to learn and remember the names and sing those under threat into continued existence.’ Come Home Again will be on display from 21 September to 1 October 2022 in the garden at Tate Modern.

In the world of fashion illustration, few people are as revered as David Downtown. Over the course of his dazzling career, he has captured such famous names as Paloma Picasso, Catherine Deneuve and Cate Blanchett, as well as couture looks for Chanel, Schiaparelli and Christian Dior. This eye-catching illustration depicts Look 44 from the Dior Spring 2015 Couture show at Paris Fashion Week. In this collection, Raf Simons, Dior’s then creative director, paid his respects to David Bowie. ‘He’s a chameleon, able to reinvent himself,’ Simons enthused. Featuring graphic silhouettes, pops of vibrant colour and unlikely materials such as plastic, this landmark collection revealed Simons to be just as adaptable as his hero.

Although little known in Britain, Winslow Homer is one of America’s most celebrated and admired painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Charged with emotional and historical significance, his art tackles the complex social and geopolitical issues of his era, notably race, slavery, class and conflict, as well as broader environmental concerns such as our relationship with nature and the fragility of human life.

Between 1884 and 1909, Homer travelled to the Bahamas, Cuba and Bermuda, where he created a number of dazzling watercolours of island life. Among them is Flower Garden and Bungalow from 1899, featuring still turquoise waters, tropical sunlight and lush vegetation. Seemingly innocent at first glance, a closer look reveals a lone figure in frantic motion, surely symbolic of human isolation in remote nature.