The Amazing World of M.C. Escher, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Over a 100 prints and drawings by the surrealist Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972), presented in collaboration with the Escher in Het Paleis, a museum of Escher’s work in The Hague. Described as ‘a one-man art movement who created some of the most famous and popular images in modern art’, the exhibition spans Escher’s entire career from the 1920s to 1969 and is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the UK.
Until 27 September 2015, www.nationalgalleries.org
Thomas Hirschhorn, South London Gallery, London
Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s installation, In-Between, transforms the gallery into a scene of mangled metal and collapsed masonry, drawing on three years of research studying bomb-damaged locations around the world. Taking its cue from Antonio Gramsci’s quote, “Destruction is difficult. It is as difficult as creation,” Hirschhorn explains that he wants to propose “an art-experience in the range of ‘successes’, failures and in-betweens.”
Until 13 September 2015, www.southlondongallery.org
Ben Rivers, Television Centre, White City, London
Ben Rivers’ The Two Eyes Are Not Brothers is a site-specific, multi-projection work created for the vacant Drama Block at Television Centre. This Artangel/BBC Radio 4 commission is set among the spaces used in the 1960s to construct scenery and props, with the film itself – filmed in hand-processed 16mm cinemascope – shot in wildness of Morocco’s Atlas Mountains. Fact and fiction merge as Rivers’ interrogates behind-the-scenes footage on two recent productions filmed in Morocco by Shezad Dawood and Oliver Laxe.
Until 31 August 2015, www.artangel.org.uk
Images Moving Out Onto Space, Tate St Ives, Cornwall
Tate St Ives’ summer show brings together work from eight artists spanning 50 years, and takes its title and inspiration from a series of psychedelic kinetic sculptures made by Cornwall-based artist Bryan Wynter in the 1960s. Other featured artists include Bridget Riley, Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander, Dan Flavin, and the UK-based, French sculptor Nicolas Deshayes, Tate St Ives’ artist in residence from October to December 2014.
Until 27 September 2015, www.tate.org.uk
Fragile?, National Museum Cardiff, Wales
Billed as the biggest contemporary ceramics exhibition ever held in Wales, Fragile? showcases diverse nature of current ceramic practice. As well as drawing on the National Museum Wales collection, the show – which fills all six of the museum’s gallery spaces – features specially commissioned installations by Phoebe Cummings, Clare Twomey and Keith Harrison. There’s also work by four Wales-based artists – Claire Curneen, Walter Keeler, Lowri Davies and Adam Buick.
Until 4 October 2015, www.museumwales.ac.uk
Selections chosen by Chris Sharratt
