Tightrope Walk: Painted Images After Abstraction, White Cube Bermondsey, London
This group exhibition brings together paintings by almost 50 artists. Focusing on how the act of making a representational painting became redefined over the past century, the bumper list of practitioners includes heavyweights such as Matisse, Picasso and Lucian Freud alongside contemporaries Magnus Plessen (pictured above), Cecily Brown and Tracey Emin.
Until 24 January 2016, whitecube.com
Where is the line? Drawings from mima’s collection, The Granary Gallery, Berwick-upon-Tweed
Featuring works from Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art’s (mima) collection of drawings, this exhibition focuses on artists who use the medium as a tool to document and interpret their immediate environment. Alongside works by Norman Cornish, William Tillyer, George Shaw (pictured above), LS Lowry and David Hepher, which reflect upon urban, rural, real and imaginary landscapes, there’s also two new commissions by Jenny Purrett and Annie O’Donnell, who have created drawing interventions in the gallery space in response to both the town of Berwick and the collection.
Until 24 January 2016, www.berwickvisualarts.co.uk
Resistance and Persistence, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
Taking its title from an essay in which artist Sean Scully describes Giorgio Morandi’s work as ‘subversively resistant’ to modernist ideology, Resistance and Persistence looks to consider the idea of artistic positions that have been hard won. A group of Morandi’s paintings form the heart of the show, exhibited alongside a number of contemporary artists who all work in series with one work building on the last, including Richard Serra, Francesca Woodman, Richard Forster, Rachel Whiteread and Scully himself.
Until 30 January 2016, www.inglebygallery.com
Joel Tomlin: Calyx Horse, Belmacz, London
Joel Tomlin trained as a painter but subsequently worked as a blacksmith and it’s easy to see the influence of both on his sculptural practice, which mixes a modernist aesthetic with ideas drawn from the antique and mythology. For Calyx Horse, he presents a number of wall, floor and plinth-based objects and groups of sculptures, all of which fuse familiarity with a sense of mystery. The beautifully crafted objects are sometimes clearly recognisable, such as the cast bronze figs that punctuate the show, whilst the classification of others appear just out of reach.
Until 20 February 2016, www.belmacz.com
Pat Flynn: Half-life of a Miracle, Manchester Art Gallery
The objects, forms and surfaces that populate Pat Flynn’s images may at first glance appear to be photographic, but in fact everything has been constructed by the artist using 3D computer graphics software. For this comprehensive survey show, Flynn presents a number of works made over the last decade that draw on popular culture, art history and his own experience of growing up in Greater Manchester, to explore the idea that we tell ourselves stories in order to make sense of the ‘reality’ around us.
Until 17 April 2016, manchesterartgallery.org
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