NOW SHOWING #221: The week’s top exhibitions

Monochrome: Painting in Black and White, The National Gallery, London
This intriguing show explores the tradition of painting in black and white over 700 years, from its beginnings in the Middle Ages through the Renaissance and into the twenty first century. Featuring 50 works painted on glass, vellum, ceramic, silk, wood, and canvas by artists including van Eyck, Dürer, Rembrandt, and Ingres alongside works by contemporary artists including Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, and Bridget Riley. Also on show is Olafur Eliasson’s immersive light installation Room for one colour.
Until 18 February 2018 www.nationalgallery.org.uk

NOW, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
At the heart of this exhibition is a major five-room presentation of work by Susan Philipsz, alongside individual presentations by Yto Barrada, Michael Armitage, Hiwa K, Sarah Rose, and Kate Davis. Philipsz’ work, Seven Tears, features seven synchronised record players, each playing a single tone taken from Lachrimae, a collection of instrumental music composed in 1604 by John Dowland. The work continues her long standing interest in the histories of particular modes of communication, especially radio.
Until 18 February 2018 www.nationalgalleries.org

Laura White, The Agency Gallery, London
British sculptor Laura White’s first solo exhibition explores the ‘inherent and contingent’ qualities of various materials and objects. The show asks us to think about how we use our hands, how a skill is acquired, and the rich experience of understanding through direct hands-on engagement. Informing this approach, White has undertaken a number of different skill-based courses such as butchery, fish knife skills, sushi making, baking, bread making, glass blowing and blacksmithing. Included are White’s process based pieces alongside performative interactions.
Until 12 December www.theagencygallery.co.uk

Jessica Warboys: Echogap, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
Jessica Warboys’ large scale Sea Painting, Birling Gap, specially commissioned for Towner Art Gallery, was made on the shoreline of an enclosed beach set below the white chalk cliffs near Eastbourne. Created by casting pigment onto lengths of raw canvas that are then submerged and pulled from the sea, the resulting swathes of colour echo the water’s ebb and flow. The work acts as the focal point for this show, which also includes film works and sculpture.
Until 4 February www.townereastbourne.org.uk

On the heights, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
Earlier this year, four artists undertook a residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, creating work in response to the park and Bretton Estate and exploring the history and landscape of the area. Included in this resulting exhibition, Frances Scott’s 16mm projection, written score and sound installation Its soil was a plot she do the tree in different voices references the Domesday survey of 1086, whilst Sam Belinfante’s audio-visual work explores a disorientation of the senses through storytelling. Tom Lovelace has created a large sculptural work and a series of photographic, assemblage works designed to prompt moments of uncertainty and doubt across various locations in the park, and Miriam Austin’s work takes folkloric narratives as a focus to explore the history of text and sculpture within the Yorkshire landscape.
Until 3 December www.ysp.org.uk

Images:
1. Olafur Eliasson, Room for one colour, 1997. Courtesy: the artist, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Photo: Anders Sune Berg
2. Susan Philipsz, Seven Tears, 7 channel sound installation, vinyl records, 17min, loop, 2016. Installation view Kunstverein Hannover 2016. Courtesy: Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Photo: Raimund Zakowski
3. Laura White, Rookie, plastic, chamois leather, wooden kitchen utensils and mixed media, 142x115x62cm, 2015.
4. Jessica Warboys, Sea Painting, Birling Gap, 2017
5. Miriam Austin, Sequence for White Wells, digital video still, 2017. Courtesy: the artist and Art Licks

More on a-n.co.uk: