London

1: Hyundai Commission 2015: Abraham Cruzvillegas: Empty Lot
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The Mexican artist, Abraham Cruzvillegas will be the inaugural artist for the Hyundai Commission to transform Tate Modern’s monumental Turbine Hall. Empty Lot is still shrouded in secrecy, yet supposedly has a very London focus – we can see for ourselves from this Tuesday 13th.

Tate Modern, 13 Oct – 20 Mar.
For more information check out www.tate.org.uk

2: Frieze London
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Fair season is in full-swing; the UK’s largest and iconic contemporary art fair, Frieze London is back for its 13th Edition from 14th – 17th October in Regent’s Park, to present the crème de la crème of today’s artists and galleries from across the globe.

Regent’s Park, 14 Oct – 17 Oct.
To book tickets and find out more information check out www.friezelondon.com

3: SUNDAY Art Fair
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SUNDAY Art Fair is London’s budding art fair, supporting young and emerging artists and the galleries that nurture them during the developmental stages in their careers. This year SUNDAY will take place from 14th – 18th October at Ambika P3, right around the corner from Frieze.

Ambika P3, 14 Oct – 18 Oct. Entrance is free to SUNDAY Art Fair.
To find our more information check out www.sundayartfair.com

4: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair
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Fresh from its successful New York debut earlier this year, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair resumes its annual takeover at Somerset House this October, 15th – 18th, to unveil its most substantial showcase yet of contemporary African art.

Somerset House, 15 Oct – 18 Oct.
To book tickets and find out more information check out www.1-54.com/london

5: Dressed By Angels
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Currently on at The Old Truman Brewery, this revealing exhibition tells the story behind the world’s greatest costume house, Angels Costumiers – presenting visitors with an irresistible mix of clothing from film, TV, theatre and radio.

The Old Truman Brewery, 1 Oct – 3 Jan.
To find out more information check out www.trumanbrewery.com
New York
1: Isa Genzken
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The solo exhibition of the hugely influential German artist Isa Genzken features a plethora of eerie mannequins clothed with personal item’s of the artist, as well as collages of found materials. A pioneering contribution of sculptural eccentricity not to be missed.

David Zwirner Gallery, 16 Sept – 31 Oct.
To find more information check out www.davidzwirner.com/exhibition/isa-genzken-3

2: New York City Ballet
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The notable dance company of New York City Ballet will entice you in their captivating performances of Peter Martin’s Swan Lake, Jerome Robbins N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, two Balanchine Programs, all under the guidance of talented choreographers orchestrated to epitomise a night of performing arts.

David H. Koch Theatre (at Lincoln Center), 13 Oct – 18 Oct.
To find out more information check out: www.nycballet.com

3: Open House New York
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The annual tour, New York Open House, allows exclusive access to nose around over 150 of the coolest architectural masterpieces, historical buildings and private houses New York has to offer. An exploration of the grandeur behind-the-scenes of some the most exciting hidden gems within the Big Apple.

Various Venues, 17 Oct – 18 Oct.
To find out more information check out: www.ohny.org

4: Sara Sze
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The anticipated show of Sara Sze is now on display at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, in the artists first major showing in the U.S. The body of work encompasses an array of sculptural work and installations, engaging the viewer’s senses through her use of sound, light, and paint.

Tanaya Bonakdar Gallery 10 Sept – 17 Oct.
For more information check out: www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/exhibitions/sarah-sze_3

5: Back To The Future Live
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Three decades and counting, Back to the Future is here to transport us, once again, to Marty McFly’s past, where he saves himself from being born. Radio City Hall provides this trip to a nostalgic time-travelling with the HD screening of the classic movie, alongside an exclusive performance by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Radio City Music Hall 15 Oct- 16 Oct
For more information check out: filconcertslive.com

Ryan Gander is giving new meaning to the saying, ‘everything but the kitchen sink’, because the sink is actually to be found at his new solo show Fieldwork at Lisson gallery.
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Things only get more and more absurd as a baseball bat covered with nails, a dead pigeon and a decapitated teddy-bear passes our gaze. This collection of bizarre and crafted objects travel along a conveyer belt, only made visible through a small window. He has created a memory game of strange associations and a prism of connections to mull over for the rest of the exhibition.
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Gander is exploring the battle between concealment vs. reveal, by tempting, tantalising and giving the viewer just enough to satisfy their curiosity. Think of that niggling frustration of desiring to see something in full… but you are left longing. He stimulates this sensation more subtly with a mirror draped by a marble cloth, where we can just glimpse our reflection, and an internally lit tent in a remote courtyard, as we are left wondering what’s going on inside. For the final piece Never Enough, Gander has relocated a shingle beach to take over the entire downstairs space, but alas, we can only peer down at the pebbles.
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Sealed off worlds and suggestive sculptures, Gander is such a tease. Through an uncomplicated idea, explored in a diverse array of engaging works, we see his prowess as a complex conceptual artist. Gander’s practise is rooted in the potential of the ‘what-ifs’, and plants within the viewer that same seed of speculation of endless possibilities.
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Ryan Gander, Fieldwork, at Lisson gallery is on until 31st October.
For more information check out www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/ryan-gander

What is happening this week in London: Damien Hirst is putting his wealth to good use, opening his new space Newport Street Gallery, Eddie Peake brings us sheer-suited roller-skaters and never-seen-before portraits by Goya come to the National Gallery.

1. John Hoyland at Newport Street Gallery
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“I’ve always loved art and art deserves to be shown in great spaces, so I’ve always dreamed of having my own gallery where I can exhibit work by the artists I love”. Damien Hirst is proving he not just a money-making-contemporary-art-juggernaut and is giving back. His long awaited, Newport Street Gallery, opens with a solo show of paintings by John Hoyland. We did expect a tribute to his fellow YBA’s but Hoyland’s paintings are bold, abstract and geometric enough to stand against such a pristine space. Anyway, we want to see how Hirst has spent his £25 million.

Open to the public from Thursday 8th at Newport Street Gallery.
For more information check out www.newportstreetgallery.com

2. Eddie Peake at the Barbican Curve
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Eddie Peake is one of London’s biggest and brightest contemporary artists, and if you have seen his art, chances are you have seen him nude. Extraordinarily, he is not naked this time. This week he takes on the Barbican Curve Gallery with an extravaganza of sculpture, installation and roller-skaters in transparent onesies. If that does not tickle your fancy, what will?

Open to the public from Friday 9th at the Barbican Curve.
For more information check out www.barbican.org.uk

3. Alex Gardner at The Dot Project
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What is your reason for visiting? The Dot Project presents a solo exhibition of work by Los Angeles based artist, Alex Gardner. Stripping back and simplifying the human form, bodies are intertwined in dance-like poses – his paintings tell a narrative that is just as ambiguous as the figures. This obscurity is the key to his work, and makes this exhibition one not-to-miss.

Open to the public from Tuesday 6th at The Dot Project.
For more information check out www.thedotproject.com/alex_gardner

4. Goya: The Portraits at the National Gallery
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Providing penetrating insight into the public and private aspects of his life, ‘Goya: The Portraits’ traces the artist’s development, from his first commissions to more intimate later works painted during his ‘self-imposed exile’. Goya is one of Spain’s most celebrated painters, yet until now, the National Gallery shows his prowess as a portraitist.

Open to the public from Wednesday 7th at the National Gallery.
For more information check out www.nationalgallery.org.uk/goya-portraits

5. Einat Amir at Triad Gallery
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We have all got a little too close to a stranger on the tube (for our liking), but now experience that in Einat Amir’s participatory performances at the Triad Gallery. Amir will select pairs to enter a booth and they must talk to each other as guided by a pre-recorded conversational structure. He tests our comfort zones, our ability to converse and the constructs of social relationships in a time where we are much more comfortable talking through our screens.

Open to the public from Friday 9th at Triad Gallery.
For more information check out www.thetriad.org.uk

Think of Tate Sensorium or Carsten Holler, there is presently a trend for hyper-interactive sensory art.

Accordingly, Jennifer Rubell asks a lot of her viewer at her current solo show Not Alone at Stephen Friedman Gallery. You hold a baby, eat an egg, and undress in front of a film (where the artist is also in the buff, riding a horse, of course).

Glass involves an invigilator handing over a slumbering crystal child and, like most millennials, we had to set aside the phone to switch one precious belonging for another. Cradling this gift, our hands get worryingly sweaty and as we stare through this very much breakable babe, we chant a silent prayer not to drop it.
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All that pent-up tension is soon realised. For Them, we crack open the shell of a hard-boiled egg, season it with super kitschy salt and pepper shakers, before finally eating it. The princess and the frog, the hunter and the rabbit, the drunkard and the bottle; it dawned on us each pairing is a couple – one cannot be without the other.

The princess and the frog, the hunter and the rabbit, the drunkard and the bottle;

Rubell really requests our intimacy. Posing invites the viewer to disrobe whilst watching a video of the artist herself nude astride a horse. Admittedly, we did not bare all, but the experience itself is truly memorable – as we emphasise with Rubell whilst pushing the limits of our own comfort zones.
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Through this exhibition, Rubell is exploring the themes of parenthood, co-dependency, companionship and origin – which is far more pertinent since the recent birth of her second child. She throws us into situations that make us feel at once uncomfortable, vulnerable and yet liberated. We are being mothered, and weirdly begin to feel motherly.

Not Alone triumphs at engaging the viewer with new and remarkable experiences. Certainly, we will not forget hyperventilating over smashing a glass child anytime soon.

Jennifer Rubell, Not Alone, is on at Stephen Freidman Gallery only for one more day!
So head over to the space ASAP.
For more information, check out www.stephenfriedman.com

Pop art: we have seen it all before and most probably studied Marilyn Monroe’s face (courtesy of Warhol) in school. However, this is not quite the pop art you know – it’s the stuff the history books left out. The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop, at Tate Modern, really does pack a punch.
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Blindingly bright colours, hard-hitting opinions and refreshingly revolutionary; what this exhibition does best is prove that pop art is not just synonymous to Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. In fact, the phenomenon was much more universal spreading from Peru to Japan and not just limited to the male gender.
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Female artists from the 1960s and 70s were often marginalised and shrugged off by their sexual counterparts – so let the ladies take their well-deserved spotlight. The show features car hoods strikingly embellished with female anatomy by Judy Chicago, washing machines spliced with bare bums in Martha Rosler’s collages and woman-shaped television cabinets from Nicola L. This piece really hit home, such a frank reduction of women into just a passive, domestic, source of entertainment – the ultimate objectification of women.
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The feminist angle is not the only political agenda at play – much of the work addresses conflicts like the Vietnam War or the Brazilian military dictatorship, but in the characteristic colours. Colin Self’s Leopardskin Nuclear Bomb No. 2 is a phallic bomb-like sculpture in tacky leopard print; at once perfectly commenting on the Cold War and consumer society. Everywhere you look; the work is jumping out and confronting social, cultural and political wrongdoings.
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The triumph of Pop Art is its relatability. We live in a society proliferated with media, so by mimicking the adverts and brands we all recognise has a clear subversive message. From the begrudging teenager to camera-happy tourist, The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop reaches us all and finally makes Pop Art exciting again.

The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop is on at Tate Modern until 24th January 2016.
For more information check out www.tate.org.uk

What to expect from the days ahead: staged sets, alter egos, flyposting, a little bit of the ordinary and some rubbish – but nothing is really ordinary or rubbish for that matter.

1: Juno Calypso at 71a Gallery
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Where is love found best? At honeymoon hotels of course. Under the guise of her persona named Joyce, Juno Calypso explores rituals of seduction and beauty. Why, on some days, we look in the mirror and just see a gargoyle. Calypso is a young artist to keep an eye on, taking the world one heart-shaped bath at a time, so head over to 71a Gallery to catch this 4-day exhibition.

Open to the public from Friday 2nd at 71a Gallery. Private View 1st October.
For more information check out www.71alondon.com

2: Flyposting at Cass Bank Gallery
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Poster and billboard interventions (appropriately named flyposting) by artist Mustafa Hulusi, are removed from its guerrilla context and placed into the ‘white cube’. We are relieved to hear the confinements of the gallery are not confining the work. The images will stay true to their nature, being flyposted to the walls. We wonder whether the most accurate description is contained rebellion.

Open to the public from Tuesday 29th at Cass Bank Gallery.
For more information check out www.thecass.com

3: Ilona Sagar, Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye, at Tenderpixel
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The links between technologies and the body is the basis for Sagar’s research – how does one affect the other? Her new film, Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye, unpicks the messy physiological residue that advancements in technology and the virtual realm have left us in. We are all but screens with hands.

Open to the public from Saturday 3rd at Tenderpixel. Private view 2nd October.
For more information check out www.tenderpixel.com

4: Cydney Cossette Holm, These Small Things, at Stour Space
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These Small Things zooms in on the littler details that make up the bigger picture. Holm pays attention to the [in]significant and mundane to digest her surroundings, the world we live in. Through her work do we realise the eternity of small things in our vastness, and how little we each are in the grand scheme of things.

Open to the public from Friday 2nd at Stour Space. Private View 1st October.
For more information check out www.stourspace.co.uk

5: Votives at Space In Between
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The best things are always found in charity shops and skips – Votives presents a series of sculptures installed alongside three large-scale photographs by the ARKA group. Taking inspiration from the accidental arrangements on the streets, the sculptures are bright, instantaneous and a whole lot of fun.

Open to the public from Friday 2nd at Space In Between. Private View 1st October.
Votives is a part of Art Licks Weekend – running between 2nd Oct to 4th Oct across London.
For more information check out www.artlicksweekend.com

Ai Weiwei is arguably the most famous living artist, but for what reason? He is commonly known for his relentless insurgence against the Chinese government (and that time our own government did not let him into the country). Now, he has came and conquered the Royal Academy of Arts with a vast array of sculptures and installations that left us in awe. This is an exhibition of ginormous proportions, matched only by its powerful emotions and political bite.
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Ripples of rusted steel rods form a rising landscape on the floor; Straight is a poignant and solemn commemoration to the 5,000 children who died in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake – each rod, collected from the ruins of the schools, is devotedly straightened to monumentalise the tragedy. A hush falls over the gallery, as we all share an intense moment of empathy.

Ai is at his best on a grand scale – but we mean stupendously big. In the rotunda, Bicycle Chandelier suspends above you, an unbelievable blend between a crystal chandelier and bicycle that proves Ai can do more than activist mode. He is master of repetition, engineering and material – we had to take a step back out of sheer wonder.
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Brave, honest, and defiant. In essence, that is what Ai Weiwei stands for and we see that purest in S.A.C.R.E.D, a portrayal of his time in captivity. Six cells stand, each with a grille to peer through, where inside you see half-sized models of Ai and two guards, scrutinising his every move. You become witness and spy to scenes of intimate surveillance and an undying struggle for freedom.
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There are instances where the trope is too obvious or overused for it to be impactful, like CCTV cameras in marble or a 2,000-year-old bowl with Coca-Cola crassly scrawled across it – so what? However, you leave the show with a sense you have truly just experienced something, and there are not many exhibitions you can say that about.
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Ai WeiWei is currently on at the Royal Academy of Arts
between 19 September to 13 December 2015.
To book your tickets and more information check out
www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/ai-weiwei

After last week’s extravaganza of blockbuster openings (need we mention Ai Weiwei), this week may seem a little slower. However, do not fret – there is plenty still to see as London’s autumn season of art is just kicking off.

1: London Design Festival, various locations around London
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We are possibly cheating because LDF started Saturday but regardless, this is the week to catch a whole host of exciting events and exhibitions by world-renowned designers, all across the city. There is an upside-down telegraph pylon by Alex Chinnick, a Tower of Babel made from tiny bone china shops, and so much more to see. We suggest downloading the guide and planning your journey to discover as much as possible.

Running between the 19th to the 27th at various locations around London. For more information on programmed events check out www.londondesignfestival.com

2. Tetsumi Kudo at Hauser and Wirth London
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Grotesque renderings of the body and objects that look like sci-fi props; Kudo’s sculptures explore the themes of pollution and decay – on nature and on humanity, the two seeming to go hand-in-hand. We expect to encounter a post-apocalyptic world where nature has lost the battle to the machine – a hint of a future yet to come.

Open to the public from Tuesday 22nd at Hauser and Wirth London. Private View 21st September.
For more information check out www.hauserwirth.com

3. Prem Sahib at ICA
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For his first institutional solo show in London, Prem Sahib will present new and recent work at the ICA. Sahib’s multi-disciplinary practise looks at the relationship between public and private spaces – community and intimacy – with club culture as a source of inspiration. Hosting the exhibition party, contemporary peers Eddie Peake and George Henry Longly will be DJs, to launch Sahib’s show into the early morning.

Open to the public from Thursday 24th at ICA. Exhibition Party 23rd September 7pm – 1am.
For more information check out www.ica.org.uk

4. Robert Irwin / Cerith Wyn Evans at White Cube Bermondsey
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White Cube Bermondsey is opening its doors Tuesday night to present two separate shows by two of its represented artists, Robert Irwin and Cerith Wyn Evans. We think this may be a match made in heaven, as both artists create light installations to a minimal effect and focus on the notion of perception. We anticipate from both exhibitions super sleek design and out-of-body experiences.

Open to the public from Wednesday 23rd at White Cube Bermondsey. Private View 22nd September.
For more information check out www.whitecube.com

5. Kemang Wa Lehulere at Gasworks
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The renovated Gasworks will be reopening with a solo exhibition by South African artist, Kemang Wa Lehulere. Unravelling the relationships between personal and collective histories, amnesia and the archive, Wa Lehulere’s practice explores how South Africa’s past continues to haunt its present (Also, we are very excited to see the Gasworks in all its new glory).

Open to the public from Friday 24th at Gasworks. Private View 23rd September. For more information check out www.gasworks.org.uk

The sun may be leaving us in London, but Ugo Rondinone is bringing back the brightness with his current show clouds + mountains + waterfalls at Sadie Coles HQ.

Rondinone has long been obsessed with geological forms, and this exhibition is no different – there are three new bodies of work on display, which you guessed it, are based on clouds, mountains and waterfalls. But forget all the romantic connotations, what Rondinone has created is a surreal territory that is simply spectacular.
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The mountains are towers of stones painted in vivid colours, precariously poised one on top of each other – defying and relying on gravity. The fear was real that if a single tremor shook, the towers would come tumbling down. Then, in the corner of the eye, the towers began to take on human form and you suddenly become very aware of their presence.
The cloud paintings are large canvases painted in pale and muted blues with cartoonish contours. They depict an illusionary, immeasurable and infinite space. Then, much like real clouds, Rondidone’s clouds are phantasmal images – where in the canvases you can see whatever form you want.
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The third and final series in the exhibition consists of waterfall sculptures – thin, freestanding lines made in clay and cast in raw aluminium, like spurts of water immortalised in time. Get up close and you can still see the fingerprints.

Rondidone’s paintings and sculptures may be referring strictly to the natural world, but the effect is much more subjective. Stepping into the space, it felt as if we were entering a kid’s drawing and that is in no way a criticism. We were filled with a childlike wonder and our imagination began to run wild – although do not actually run, just in case.
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Ugo Rondinone, clouds + mountains + waterfalls is currently on at Sadie Coles HQ between 11 September to 24 October 2015.
To find out more information check out www.sadiecoles.com/artists/rondinone#ur-clouds-mountains-waterfalls-sept-15

Contorted limbs and oblique lines, Asymptote, an ongoing photographic series by Evelyn Bencicova in collaboration with Adam Csoka Keller, is hauntingly eerie and beautifully alien. And we are utterly absorbed by her nightmarish scenes, even if we are a little disturbed.
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Taking inspiration from a history of communism in the now democratic Slovakia, these extraterritorial worlds reflect the residue of such a regime on Slovakian art, architecture and its people. In this project, we see pale bodies employed as compositional forms and masked faces in repetitive poses – it is quite literally attack of the clones. This fusion of humanity with geometrics just speaks sorrow, and yet we do not feel hopeless.
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Each man, woman and child is stripped of their individuality, instantly merging into one and vanishing into nothing. Such bleakness, such despair is only made worse by the clinical backdrops. There are ordered hallways and sterilised swimming pools – you can smell the chlorine. Then, here dwelling are the miserable figures, as if waiting for their victims to arrive.
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Asymptote is full of contradictions: at once tragic, we are inspired and, despite the austerity, the images are filled with emotion. Though we want to run, the creepy allure and beguiling beauty of Bencicova’s photographs just keeps on pulling us back and back.
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www.evelynbencicova.com
www.evelynbencicova.tumblr.com
www.behance.net/evelynbencicova

Only in its second edition, START Art Fair has already made a big name for itself, as a platform that brings together only the best of emerging artists and galleries from around the world. Setting itself apart from the mega-fairs like Frieze and Basel, our experience of START was very one of discovery – we left feeling refreshed and pumped up.

Here, are ARTCUBE’s highlights of the top five artists you need to keep an eye on:

1. DAVID BEN WHITE
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Based in London, White’s work is like IKEA gone wrong. Lumpy lamps and architectural paintings come together to construct spaces of modernist intention, which are also delightfully vivacious. This is the kind of interior design we want to step into.

Represented by l’étrangère Gallery, London.
www.letrangere.net

2. ZSÓFI BARABÁS
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Soft and sharp: subtle hues meet straight lines. Zsófi Barabás paintings are geometrically intricate and femininely delicate. At ARTCUBE we do love our cubes and we were excited to see the cube invasion in landscape form. Her work is open enough to allow for individual interpretations – and we did spend a long time staring wistfully.

Represented by Alludo Room Gallery, Austria.
www.alludoroomgallery.com

3. HANNAH QUINLAN ANDERSON & ROSIE HASTINGS
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It was surprising at an art fair marketing itself on the emerging art scene that video work was in such short supply. So, when we came across the Arcadia Missa booth, we were drawn like a moth to a flame to the work by Hannah Quinlan Anderson & Rosie Hastings. Do not be deceived by the pinks, their work has a critical bite relevant to the internet age, and it was refreshing to see work genuinely current.

Represented by Arcadia Missa, London.
www.arcadiamissa.com

4. CHIMîPOM
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At Chim-pom’s exhibition, the Japanese art collective, we befriended ‘Super Rat’, a taxidermy rat painted up like Pikachu, and we created an origami crane. Although, behind all the fun, Chim-Pom are referencing the somber history of Japan, of nuclear bombs and chemical contamination. For work that is not so subtle, we enjoyed this subtle balance between light and dark.

www.chimpom.jp

5. Suh Jeong-Min
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Neither painting nor sculpture, Jeong-Min’s tactile surfaces appear like swaying seaweed under the sea. He uses a process of densely rolling paper scraps to build up layers of mass and detail; such a simple method employed rigorously to produce complexity. His work grabbed our attention and kept us wondering how patient a person can be (we’re not).

Represented by Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts Gallery, Hungary.
www.kalmanmaklary.com

Another week means another list of openings in London. Although, this one is particularly good because perhaps the most anticipated exhibition of the art calendar is finally here: we are of course talking about Ai Weiwei’s solo exhibition at the Royal Academy.

1. Ai WeiWei at the Royal Academy of Arts
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The legend that is Ai Weiwei was last seen on British soil when he covered the Turbine Hall in Tate Modern with sunflower seeds. Now, he has returned with full-force to take over the four gallery spaces at the Royal Academy to house a major collection of some new and some old works. What to expect – big, brave, and provocative. There will be nothing tame about this show.

Open to the public from Saturday 19th September at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Book your tickets now from www.royalacademy.org.uk

2. Jerwood Drawing Prize at the Jerwood Visual Arts Centre
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The Jerwood Drawing Prize is the most renowned of open submissions for drawing in the UK, and shows only the most talented and contemporary of drawing practitioners. A total of 60 works by 58 artists have been selected by this year’s panel to showcase the diversity and breadth of drawing practises in the UK. As always, this will be a popular and well-executed exhibition not to miss.

Open to the public from Wednesday 16th September at Jerwood Visual Arts Centre.
Private View RSVP 15th September.
For more information check out www.jerwoodvisualarts.org

3. The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern
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(Perhaps in competition with Ai Weiwei) The Tate Modern is presenting all that goes pop, bang and kapoow – a visual punch to the eyeballs. This exhibition will reveal how the pop-art phenomenon spread all across the globe and how different cultures/countries responded to the movement. We anticipate a whole lot of colour and revolt – a language that is relatable today more than ever.

Open to the public from Thursday 17th September at Tate Modern.
Book your tickets now from www.tate.org.uk

4. Jumana Manna at Chisenhale Gallery
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Merging politics and music, Jumana Manna is exploring the cultural traditions of Jerusalem in her first solo show in the UK. Chisenhale always has a knack for picking and commissioning the freshest of contemporary artists, and so we expect nothing less from Manna – this will surely be a conceptual and current treat.

Open to the public Friday 18th September at Chisenhale Gallery.
Private View RSVP 17th September.
For more information check out www.chisenhale.org.uk

5. MERGE Festival, various locations along Southwark Street
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Celebrating the rich culture and heritage of London’s Bankside, Merge Festival breathes life back into Southwark Street. With a variety of events, art installations, performances, this festival will be inspiring and full of unexpected happenings for those that are seeking something to do over the weekend.

Starting this Friday 18th September at various locations along Southwark Street, London Bankside.
For more information on programmed events check out www.mergefestival.co.uk

First, you just looked at art, then we needed audio guides and now, Sensorium at Tate Britain takes this one step further for those who have ever wondered what it would be like to taste a Francis Bacon painting (FYI you will neither be eating any artwork nor bacon).

‘Flying Object’, the creative geniuses behind Sensorium and winner of the Tate IK Prize, have united technology and art to immerse visitors in a multi-sensory experience. You smell, hear, touch and even taste whilst viewing the four paintings on display, to comprehend the work in an entirely new way.
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Led around in intimate packs through blackened rooms, it is easy to feel a little awkward when smelling walls. However, the experience of encountering Richard Hamilton’s Interior II with the accompanying aromas is profound; you can imagine stepping into the painting. For John Latham’s Full Stop the effect of booming noises bursting through your headphones is jolting, and the haptic impression of pressure is curious. Then, to complement David Bomberg’s In the Hold there are barely detectable scents and clanking sounds that attempt to transport you to a ship’s hold – but somehow falls short. Finally, as you stare at Francis Bacon’s Figure in the Landscape, you get chocolate. We did expect something porkier, but the chocolate provides a definite hint of smokiness.
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The power of Sensorium lies in its revolutionary and exciting concept. Although, we did anticipate more sensations, all your senses are challenged to engage with art, which normally you could disregard. So, for Sensorium, slow down and really look – but not just look.

Sensorium is on at Tate Britain between 26 August to 4 October 2015.
For more information check out: www.tate.org.uk