Art in the city tonight

The 16-week event will see free exhibitions, events, performances, talks, tours, screenings and family activities take place across Liverpool’s spaces, places, galleries and museums.

Venues across the city are hosting exhibitions, installations and sundry arts events as part of the 8th Biennial Exhibition, titled A Needle Walks into a Haystack.

Curated by Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman, the event includes a group show at The Old Blind School, an exhibition of James McNeill Whistler at the Bluecoat, Sharon Lockhart at FACT, Claude Parent at Tate Liverpool and Jef Cornelis at St Andrews Gardens.

Also featured as part of Liverpool Biennial 2014 are the John Moores Painting Prize, Bloomberg New Contemporaries, a group show at Open Eye Gallery and Adrian Henri at LJMU’s Exhibition Research Centre.

In addition to these events, there will also be work by artists and curators throughout the city.

Highlights include:

The group show in the Old Blind School, a neo-classical building in the centre of the city.

Designed by Anthony Minoprio and Hugh Spencely, the building’s 1932 extension features art deco reliefs by John Skeaping, one of the leading figures of British modern sculpture in the mid 20th century.

A transformation of Tate Liverpool’s Wolfson Gallery by legendary French architect, Claude Parent, one of the avant-garde’s most revered and radical figures.

Slanted floors and ramps force visitors to experience the museum anew.

A new display in the second floor gallery featuring art from Tate’s collection, including work by Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield and Naum Gabo.

For more details including a downloadable festival guide go to www.biennial.com/2014