Art Cities to Visit in 2022

we’d go as far as saying that you’ve never truly discovered a destination until you’ve delved deep into its arts and culture. Yes, we’re all for a city break crammed with sea, sand and sun-worshipping. Yes, we’re guilty of long, lazy lunches spent scoffing half of the local taverna’s menu. But, there’s something truly magnificent about exploring a city’s history through its art.

Boraq Hamim Art News Website Reported: Take Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, showcasing the rolling hills of rural Provence, or John Constable’s The Hay Wain, featuring Suffolk’s shrouded meadows. The point is, regardless of the age of an artwork, generations continue to recognise and appreciate a landscape based on its association with art. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up our nine favourite cities to satisfy your artistic desires.
Culture connoisseurs: nine art destinations to visit in 2022

Isfahan
Iran
Isfahan is a city in central Iran, known for its Persian architecture. In the huge Naqsh-e Jahan Square is the 17th-century Imam Mosque, whose dome and minarets are covered with mosaic tiles and calligraphy. Ali Qapu Palace, built for Shah Abbas and completed in the late 16th century, has a music room and a verandah overlooking the square’s fountains. Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque is known for its intricate tiling.

Vienna
Austria
Vienna is not known primarily as a home of epoch-defining modern art, but that all changed in 2020, when the city welcomed the Albertina Modern to its roster of art institutions. Built within the shell of the city’s 19th-century Künstlerhaus at an expense of €50 million, this architectural collage of white space and renovated baroque-style rooms form the background to a 60,000-piece collection of modern art by some of the 20th century’s most illustrious names, including Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman and Gerhard Richter. The Albertina’s Schiele and His Legacy exhibition remains open until 23 January.

Oslo
Norway
Norway’s long, daylight-filled summer days make it a prime spot for gallery-hoppers with stamina. Want to discover Norwegian artists? Try Standard (Oslo), Galleri Riis and Galleri Brandstrup. On a clear day, you can’t go wrong with a tour of the pine-studded Ekebergparken Sculpture Park, either (our tip: bring binoculars and look up). This year’s favourite gallery is the 2020-launched Munchmuseet, which was relocated from an unassuming 1960s gallery east of the city centre to a teetering glass edifice on the waterfront in Bjørvika. The museum showcases some 1,150 paintings and 18,000 prints and features a staggering seven-metre-high bronze Tracey Emin statue at the entrance. Insider tip: visit on a Sunday to catch classical music sessions. We’re sold.

Cairo
Egypt
After 18 years of plans and disruption, the Heneghan Peng-designed Grand Egyptian Museum is well and truly open. Among other gilded artefacts, it contains all 5,400 precious objects unearthed from Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. But, Cairo is not all about ancient history. Inquisitive travellers with a penchant for snooping out arty enclaves can find treasures of their own. The Townhouse Gallery’s crumbling facade might be off-putting, but inside, you’ll find a complex of multi-use art spaces. The same goes for Room Art Space, a DIY performance venue hidden in the basement of a deceptively officious-looking building in the Garden City. Wander the city streets and you can expect to come face-to-face with Mohammed Mahmoud’s street art. It’s politically motivated, ever-changing (to the ire of local authorities) and distinctly Egyptian. The pyramids can wait.

Cluj-Napoca
Romania
Don’t be deceived by Cluj-Napoca’s apparent Transylvanian folksiness: this city is alive with the same post-Soviet, get-up-and-go attitude found in Berlin. Subject to the whims of its dense student population, the city’s museums are constantly in flux and refreshingly unpretentious. Visit the National Museum of Transylvanian History and you’ll likely find students or gallery assistants mid-installation. At the post-industrial Paintbrush Factory, ambitious students present their meditations on theatre, dance and contemporary art, while at the Matthias Corvinus House, the Art and Design University’s most talented members of staff present their works.

Ghent
Belgium
There’s something about canalside cities that results in both a tremendous café culture and effervescent art scenes. If you like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, try Ghent. For those with a finger on the pulse of contemporary art, there’s KIOSK, a launchpad for young artists housed in a creaky, neo-gothic lecture theatre; the Herbert Foundation, a souped-up warehouse sparsely filled with Annick and Anton Herbert’s private collection of avant-garde art, and Kunsthal Gent, a church-turned-artists’-residency.

Kyoto
Japan
It’s near impossible to not fall head over heels for Kyoto. This is a city that’s virtually spilling with Buddhist temples, botanical gardens, shinto shrines and majestic machiyas, so it’s for good reason we’re booking a one-way ticket (as soon as our purse permits). Karate Kid fanatics should make a beeline to the Kyoto Samurai and Ninja Museum. Okay, this isn’t exactly the most serene setting, nor is it home to pristine paintings, but this place offers an insight into real-life samurai materials alongside intricate details of their history. Rest assured, if a front or side kick isn’t exactly your vibe, there’s plenty of other locations to discover: Kyoto Railway Museum, Kyoto National Museum and the Museum of Kyoto are all well worth a look.