Arnolfini, Bristol, 31 July – 15 November 2015
Bristol-born artist Richard Long RA has a longstanding love affair with the landscape. Inspired by solitary walks in rural and remote areas of Britain, and as far as Alaska, Mongolia and Bolivia, Long records his experiences of geography, movement and measurement by rearranging the natural materials around him.

In Long’s first show in Bristol since 2000, Arnolfini is bringing together a significant body of sculpture, drawing, photography and text works from 1967 to the present, celebrating the city’s year as European Green Capital and Long’s important contribution to conceptual art and Minimalism.

Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, 7 August – 7 November 2015
During the 1970s and 80s American artist Robert Mapplethorpe was testing the boundaries of photography with his arresting, often homoerotic, images. The artist’s oeuvre is being reassessed in a new retrospective touring across the UK as part of Tate’s Artist Rooms. Featuring a number of flower and still life works alongside his powerful black-and-white portraits, the show introduces the viewer to the most meaningful steps in Mapplethorpe’s artistic career, such as his close friendship with musician Patti Smith (below).

The Queen’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, 6 August – 7 February 2015
This summer The Queen’s Gallery delves into its illustrious Royal Collection to unearth over 80 works exclusively by Scottish artists, including paintings and drawings by the greatly admired artists Allan Ramsay and David Wilkie. From Ramsay’s commissioned portrait of King George III in sumptuous gold robes (below) to Wilkie’s depictions of the everyday, which received high praise at the Royal Academy, the works on display trace a history of royal benefaction and the development of Scottish art between the years 1750 and 1990.

Gagosian, London, 6 August – 26 September 2015
German photographer Thomas Ruff brings his unique take on the photogram process to London audiences. In his new series, Nature Morte, the artist makes the transition from the marble skin tones of his nude subjects to the white and slate-blue inversions of plants, drawing out an unexpected sculptural quality in his prints and leaving the viewer uncertain of both their subject matter and medium.

Tate Modern, London, until 9 August 2015
Sonia Delaunay’s first retrospective in Britain throws into relief the abstract artist’s deft use of colour across a wide range of media, from painting to textiles design. Works such as Syncopated Rhythm (1967; below) encompass all of her signature elements, from the bold use of kaleidoscopic shapes to pioneering colour combinations, based on a theory that the artist had developed with husband and member of the Orphism movement, Robert Delaunay, termed “simultanism”.