Exhibitions
In The Levinsky Gallery
Featuring exhibitions from world-renowned artists alongside new arts stars of tomorrow; based in the University's Roland Levinsky Building, The Levinsky Gallery offers a sometimes provocative, sometimes beautiful and always thought-provoking experience.
All exhibitions are free and include associated events for you to learn more about the artists and exhibits through gallery tours and artist and curator talks, as well as fun events for all the family.
Previously featured artists include Turner prize winning artists Lubaina Himid and Douglas Gordon, award winning artists Tacita Dean and Vija Celmins, leading graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff and internationally acclaimed artist and sculptor Peter Randall-Page.
The Arts Institute is committed to supporting artist development and the creation of new work, regularly commissioning artists working across all art forms.
Tuesday - Friday 10:00 - 17:00
Saturday - Sunday 12:00 - 17:00
Closed Mondays (including Bank Holiday Mondays)
The Arts Institute's public programme promotes audience engagement, access to the arts, and directly supports emerging and established artists' careers. Please consider a donation to support development and delivery of our programme.
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Upcoming exhibitions
British Art Show 9
Held every five years to showcase work of British artists who have made a significant contribution to international contemporary art, British Art Show will be in Plymouth – for the second time in its history – from 8 Oct until 23 Dec 2022. It will be shown across four venues, The Box, KARST, Mirror at Plymouth College of Art and here at The Levinsky Gallery.
"In framing the exhibition, we have grouped practices into three expansive categories: healing, care and reparative history; tactics for togetherness; and imagining new futures. While these themes were shaped at the end of 2019, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests against racial injustice, make them even more urgent. ‘British Art Show 9’ will be responsive to each city’s local collections, communities, urgencies and histories, enabling meaningful engagement for its local audiences." Irene Aristizábal, BAS9 curator.
Visit the British Art Show 9 website
Hetain Patel - Don’t Look at the Finger, 2017 © the artist
Previous exhibitions
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters
21 October 2021 – 27 February 2022 | The Levinsky Gallery and The Box
This award-winning exhibition took visitors on an epic journey that traversed three states, three deserts and some 500,000 square kilometres, travelling from west to east: to places in the deserts of the Martu, the Ngaanyatjarra and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) peoples. Using the power of contemporary art, performance, song, photography and multimedia, Songlines shared ancient stories from the world’s oldest continuing culture.
Seven Sisters Songline 1994 by Josephine Mick, Ninuku Arts © the artist/Copyright Agency 2020. Image: National Museum of Australia
This, the third Plymouth Contemporary exhibition since its launch in 2015, continued to support new ideas and a risk-taking approach across all art forms. Themed 'Making it' the chosen artists were invited to open up, interrogate, unpick and shake out what does it might mean to ‘make it’ as an artist in 2021.
Delivered in partnership with The Box, Plymouth. Find out more about the exhibition.
Photography by Helge Mruck.
What might the future look like in our littered world? Are there ways that humans, animals and plants can co-exist with or even prosper amongst the rubbish? And what will it take to clean up our act?
Launched alongside the international conference MICRO2020 which explored the fate and impacts of microplastics in the environment. Visit the exhibition archive to find out more.
Kehinde Wiley is a world renowned Nigerian-American artist whose naturalistic portraits challenge the conventional view of power, taste and privilege by portraying black people of disparate origins and social status as celebrated figures.
Curated by The Box in partnership with The Arts Institute and Royal Museums Greenwich. Find out more about the exhibition.
More from The Arts Institute
Word is...
- f "A fantastic opportunity to see established and upcoming artists. An amazing space!"
- . "Beautiful and inspiring work by Jem Southam!"
- t "One of my favourites! Beautiful, subtle and atmospheric." (on Birds, Rocks, Rivers, Islands: Jem Southam)
- i "An incredibly uplifting yoga session in the gallery this evening, amongst some of Trevor Bell's finest works!"
- . "Absolutely stunning exhibition. Thank you so much for bringing it to Plymouth." (on Thinking Tantra)
Visit The Levinsky Gallery
The Arts Institute, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 7LG
Tuesday – Sunday 10:00–17:00 (closed Mondays)