The Practice of Theories, Wysing Art Centre, near Cambridge
Launching Wysing Art Centre’s programme for 2016, this group exhibition features works by ten artists who seek to make visible the intangible, or to share knowledge or complex theories through their work and methods. Among them, David Osbaldeston presents a series of drawings that propose fantastical storage systems for works to be produced in the future, David Toop explores his musical interests and relationships over a 20-year period through a sonic diary of nearly 200 home-made audio tapes, and Heather Phillipson compounds the language of reportage, advertising, overheard conversation and interior monologue into a digressive audio work.
Until 10 April 2016. www.wysingartscentre.org
British Art Show 8, various venues, Edinburgh
For the second leg of its tour, the British Art Show 8 takes up residency in Edinburgh shared between Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Inverleith House, and Talbot Rice Gallery, with highlights including Rachel Maclean‘s hour-long film, Feed Me, and Ciara Phillips‘ lively poster installation. Visitors should also look out for an off-site project popping up around the city by Ahmet Öğüt who invited Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller and Goshka Macuga to each produce sculptures that function as public donation boxes for student loan debt relief, with income generated through this project redistributed by the Jubilee Debt Campaign.
Until 8 May 2016. britishartshow8.com
The Imitation Game, Manchester Art Gallery and Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
Inspired by the Turing Test, which was devised by computer scientist and code breaker Alan Turing to test a computer’s ability to imitate human thought, The Imitation Game features works by eight artists and includes three new commissions. Yu-Chen Wang developed her installation and live performance Heart to Heart when she was artist in residence at the Museum of Science and Industry in spring 2015, while Ed Atkins presents the final video work from the durational project a he undertook as part of last year’s Manchester International Festival, Performance Capture.
Until 5 June 2016. manchesterartgallery.org
Albers and the Bauhaus, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
It’s Albers plural here, with works by husband and wife Josef and Anni exhibited alongside Bauhaus colleagues including Marcel Breuer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. While it’s great to see a number of Bauhaus design pieces, such as a Breuer Wassily chair, and photos documenting the Bauhaus masters’ domestic habitats, it’s Anni who steals the show with her gouache on paper studies exhibited against a backdrop of her beautiful geometric patterned wallpaper, inspired by the trips to Mexico made by the couple after they left Germany and settled in the United States.
Until 11 March 2016. www.stephenfriedman.com
Figure Three, BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne
Selected from open submission, Figure Three is a series of week-long slots offering artists a chance to test works and ideas, or develop works in progress, within the public context at Baltic’s Project Space in Newcastle. The fifth and final week sees Luke McCreadie working with sculpture, film, performance and music to produce …together with the obligation to express, a work that uses the face as a system within which to categorise moving images and text. Meanwhile, Mohammad Namazi has turned the gallery into an artist’s studio where he is constructing new installations and sculptural structures that explore issues such as the rights of individuals, consumerism and hospitality.
Until 21 February 2016. www.baltic39.com
