NOW SHOWING #218: The week’s top exhibitions

In the Peaceful Dome, Bluecoat, Liverpool
Concluding Bluecoat’s 300th anniversary year, this exhibition brings together historic and contemporary art, new commissions and archival material. It traces the venue’s connection to the city of Liverpool, and by extension the wider world, and how it has reflected both local and global developments through the years. Highlights include Jacob Epstein’s Genesis, first exhibited at Bluecoat in 1931 when 40,000 visitors paid six pence to see what was at the time seen as ‘Britain’s most controversial sculpture’. Other artists on show include Grace Ndiritu, Roderick Bisson, Fanny Calder, Edgar Grosvenor, Janet Hodgson and Uriel Orlow.
Until 25 March www.thebluecoat.org.uk

A post shared by Tate St Ives (@tatestives) on Oct 16, 2017 at 12:55am PDT

Rebecca Warren: All That Heaven Allows, Tate St Ives
Tate St Ives is reopening after a four-year building project which has doubled its space for showing art, adding almost 600 square metres of galleries. Rebecca Warren’s first major UK solo exhibition in eight years marks the event, with her roughly-worked sculptures and neon vitrines drawing connections between her practice and the geographical context and artistic legacy of St Ives.
Until 7 January www.tate.org.uk

Legacies: JMW Turner and contemporary art practice, New Art Gallery Walsall
This bumper exhibition considers the impact of JMW Turner on contemporary art, highlighting the ongoing relevance of his work for artists practising today. It includes a selection of oil paintings, sketchbooks and watercolours from the Turner Bequest, alongside work by contemporary artists who have made work after Turner or evoke Turnerian subjects and themes in their work. Artists include: Christopher Le Brun, Cornelia Parker, Gerry Fox, Idris Khan, Susan Hiller, Bob and Roberta Smith, John Smith, Elizabeth Magill, Dorothy Cross and Jonathan Wright.
Until 14 January www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk

Raqs Media Collective: Twilight Language, The Whitworth, Manchester
Founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Raqs Media Collective is a group of artists, curators, researchers, editors and ‘philosophical agents provocateurs’. For its first major UK exhibition, the group explores how histories and ways of thinking about emancipation intersect. New work includes video portraits, 3D printing and a lighthouse installation.
Until 25 February www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk

Nicola Tyson, The Drawing Room, London
Although British born, New York based artist Nicola Tyson is predominantly known as a painter, but she also works with photography, performance, the written word and more recently sculpture. However, drawing is the foundation of all her work and it is explored in this solo show. Included are two new large-scale works on paper, a series of new colour monotypes plus recent drawings, with Tyson’s gestural works offering a reimagining of the female body.
Until 12 November www.drawingroom.org.uk

Images:
1. Grace Ndiritu, Still Life / Textiles – White Textiles, 2005-07. Courtesy: Lux and the artist
2. Bob and Roberta Smith, I BELIEVE IN JOSEPH MALLARD WILLIAM TURNER, gloss paint on wood panel, 162.5×122.5 cm, 1998. British Council Collection. Copyright: Bob and Roberta Smith
3. Raqs Media Collective, Re-run, 2013. Courtesy: Frith Street Gallery
4. Nicola Tyson, The Gaze, graphite on paper, 19.1×19.1cm, 2015. Courtesy: the artist and Petzel, New York

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