Exhibitions to see in 2015

What follows is a very personal list of exhibitions that have caught my eye, coming up in 2015 in Liverpool and beyond. Most but not all of them fall in the first half of the year.

• Listening

Hayward Curatorial Open Exhibition at Bluecoat, Liverpool

24 Jan – 29 March

Endeavouring to help us distinguish between hearing and the more deliberate activity of listening. Includes the work of Haroon Mirza and Laure Prouvost.

• History is Now

Hayward Gallery

10 Feb – 26 April

Artists curate sections of the show in response to recent history.

• Magnificent Obsessions: Artist as Curator

Barbican

12 Feb – 25 May

Objects from the collections of Hanne Darboven, Damien Hirst, Sol le Witte and others.

• Whitworth Art Gallery re-opening

Cornelia Parker / Thomas Shutte / Cai Guo-Qiang

14 Feb

Opening weekend of events

• Leonora Carrington / Cathy Wilkes

Tate Liverpool

6 March – 31 May

Concurrent exhibitions of prolific surrealist Carrington and Turner Prize nominated contemporary artist Wilkes.

• Ahead of the curve: New china from China

Potteries Museum Stoke on Trent

14 March – 31 May

Touring show of contemporary ceramic and glass, developed by the Two Cities Gallery, Shanghai.

• Venice Biennale

Launches 9 May

56^th edition

• Maya The revelation of an endless time

World Museum Liverpool

June-October

400 objects from museum collections and Mayan sites in Mexico

• Manchester International Festival

2-19 July

Ballet, theatre, music and secrets of the universe.

• Ai Weiwei

Royal Academy of Arts

19 September – 13 December

First significant survey of the artist’s work in Britain.