Joe Fletcher Orr: Mummy’s Boy, The International 3, Salford
Birkenhead-born Joe Fletcher Orr continues a family collaboration project developed for his first show at International 3 in 2014, when he exhibited a rug made by his father. For current show Mummy’s Boy, he worked with his mum to create a series of plant pots at a local pottery class, while fruit bowls from the family home have been photographed by a professional photographer and the results exhibited against walls painted in a colour chosen by Mrs Orr during a trip to B&Q.
Until 29 April www.international3.com
Maud Sulter, Impressions, Bradford
Scottish-Ghanaian artist, poet, and curator Maud Sulter (1960 – 2008) famously declared that she wanted ‘to put black women back in the centre of the frame’ and sought to bring to light the histories of those women – real or imagined – whose contribution to culture she felt had been erased. This major survey features a series of colour portraits, including 16 large-scale images being shown in their entirety as a set for the first time in 20 years.
Until 4 June www.impressions-gallery.com
Alison Watt: The Sun Never Knew How Wonderful It Was, Parafin, London
For this new series of paintings, Edinburgh-based Alison Watt has taken a work by Peter Paul Rubens, the Venus Frigida, as her starting point. Whilst the human figure is merely implied by the swathes of draped and folded fabric that fill many of the paintings on show here, in the work Bolt, Watt has faithfully transcribed part of the Ruben’s painting and allowed the figure – in the form of a Cupid – to appear back in her work for the first time since the 1990s.
Until 7 May 2016 www.parafin.co.uk
Act: Art and Comedy, Bluecoat, Liverpool
Curated by David Campbell and Mark Durden of Liverpool-based artists’ group Common Culture, this group show explores how comedy helps us to shape meaning and negotiate the complexities of everyday life. Included are works by Sarah Lucas, Bill Woodrow, Mel Brimfield and Kara Hearn that reflect on how comedy brings people together by providing consolation, a sense of shared experience and a powerful weapon of resistance.
Until 19 June www.thebluecoat.org.uk
Dolly Mixtures, The Nunnery, London
This intriguing and highly varied show presents work by tenants of the Notting Hill Housing association in London, many of whom create art to relax or escape. Including painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture and installation, the exhibition illustrates how the tenants use creative means to both respond to and find relief from an often isolating world, whilst also telling stories about themselves and their relationships to the city.
Until 12 June www.bowarts.org
Images:
1. Joe Fletcher Orr, Mummy’s Boy installation. Photo: Simon Pantling
2. Maud Sulter, Duval, from the series Syrcas, 1993. Copyright Maud Sulter, courtesy the Estate of Maud Sulter
3. Alison Watt, Venus, oil on canvas, 152x152cm, 2015.
4. Wendy Helm, Trevor.
