Spaceship Unbound, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Co-curated with MadLab, Spaceship Unbound uses Margaret Atwood’s seminal post-apocalyptic novel The Year of the Flood to explore issues of survival in a world turned back to year zero. Artists including Ellie Harrison, Rowena Hughes, and Aliyah Hussain present story telling, writing, gaming, performance and sculpture.
Until 28 July, www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk
Magic Eye, Grand Union, Birmingham
Seeking the eternal and ephemeral in the nonsensical, abstract and mythical, Grand Union presents Magic Eye: a group exhibition of sculpture, installation and video, activated by a festival of performance, screenings and music. Works by Goodiepal, Luke McCreadie, Plastique Fantastique, Alexander Stevenson and Jennet Thomas, have in common a self-consciously progressive reaching for the transcendental and a questioning of scientific or rational methodology and conventional ideas of knowledge.
Until 10 August, http://grand-union.org.uk/gallery/magic-eye
Spring Rain, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
Artist Becky Beasley is holding her first major solo show in the North of England at Leeds Art Gallery. ‘Spring Rain’ looks at the relationship between photography and objects, in particular those that highlight the intricacies of daily life and the nature of growth. Includes sculpture, photography and work from the gallery’s permanent collection that reflect the artist’s interest in still life and the domestic.
Until 22 September, www.leeds.gov.uk/museumsandgalleries/Pages/leedsartgallery/Becky-Beasley.aspx
Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life, Tate Britain, London
Tate Britain presents a major exhibition of landscapes by the much-loved British painter LS Lowry – the first of its kind held by a public institution in London since the artist’s death. Focusing on the best of Lowry’s urban scenes and industrial landscapes alongside significant loans, this timely and carefully selected exhibition aims to re-assess Lowry’s contribution to art history and to argue for his achievement as Britain’s pre-eminent painter of the industrial city.
Until 20 October, www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/lowry-and-painting-modern-life
Life’s an Illusion Love is a Dream, Royal Standard, Liverpool
This exhibition investigates what constitutes the ‘epic’ within a work of art. Exploring the impact of the viewer’s lofty expectations of the artist and the artist’s desire to accomplish something that extends beyond the usual, the artists featured go some way to achieving a sense of the epic, colossal, magnificent, and heroic within art. Featuring David Osbaldeston, Roderick Maclaclan and Kaye Donachie.
Until 27 July, www.the-royal-standard.com/programme/lifes-an-illusion-love-is-a-dream
Don Celender: Surveyed Part 2, Crate, Margate
Second part of the first European solo exhibition of the American conceptual artist Don Celender (1931 – 2005). Celender was a master of asking questions, his work taking the form of mass mailed out questions and surveys to specific groups of people or professions (chefs, prison guards, museum directors, daytime TV actors, for example) asking them what they think about life, work, art and often, ultimately, death. The responses were then collected together and displayed as, what Celender called, ‘Conceptual Documentation’.
Until 11 August, http://cratespace.co.uk/modules/news
Selection compiled by Jack Hutchinson
