NOW SHOWING #222: The week’s top exhibitions

Gestured, Chetham’s Library, Manchester
Brass Art, a collective featuring artists Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz and Anneke Pettican, present a new installation at Chetham’s Library. The group spent time researching the library’s collection and were particularly drawn to the various forms of gesture they found. Influenced by anatomical reference books, the prints of William Hogarth and the tiny ink drawings of John Dee, Brass Art created casts of the hands of all three artists, replicated at different scales. Using both traditional casting and 3D printing technologies, they have created a series of artworks that can be found throughout the presses and hidden spaces of the 15th century library.
Until 8 December 2017, www.library.chethams.com

Ken Currie: Rictus, Flowers Gallery, London
Scottish artist Ken Currie is known for his often unsettling portrayals of the body, depicting the damage inflicted by war and conflict, illness and decay as a response to his perception of the sickness of contemporary society. His latest series of paintings depict the figure transformed by acts of unseen violence or engaged in mysterious medical procedures. It’s often nightmarish stuff, but as an allegory for the current state of the world, Currie’s work really hits home.
Until 9 December 2017, www.flowersgallery.com

Haim Steinbach, White Cube, London
Anyone familiar with American artist Haim Steinbach‘s work since the 1970s will know the importance shelves have played in his output, often utilised to display arrangements of mass-produced objects. For his latest show, Steinbach is re-exhibiting his 1981 piece, Display #15 – Design for a Yogurt Bar, which has been reconfigured for the White Cube’s gallery space. The work includes a spray painted wall and a handcrafted shelf on which sits a group of objects: a wooden doll’s chair, a potted flower, and a Moroccan coffee pot.
Until 20 January 2018 www.whitecube.com

Ages of Wonder, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
This packed exhibition includes over 450 works by over 270 artists and architects. It essentially acts as a history of the Royal Scottish Academy’s collecting, building on the moment in 1910 when it transferred a number of works to the National Collection, thereby securing exhibiting rights within the building still shared by the two institutions today. The show charts a significant chunk of time, ranging from works such as Jacopo Bassano’s The Adoration of the Magi from 1540 through to more recent work by Callum Innes and Alison Watt, plus special commissions for the exhibition by Calum Colvin, Kenny Hunter and Richard Murphy.
Until 7 January 2018 www.royalscottishacademy.org

Hannah Ryggen, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
Swedish-born Hannah Ryggen (1894-1970) was one of Scandinavia’s most significant artists of the 20th century. This exhibition is the first major survey of her work in the UK, charting her work from an early painted portrait created in 1914, to the tapestries that characterised her output from the 1920s onwards. It demonstrates her responses to the socio-political events of her time, including the rise of fascism and the Nazi occupation of Norway, the post-war growth of nuclear power, and media coverage of the Vietnam War.
Until 18 February 2018, www.modernartoxford.org.uk

Images:
1. Brass Art, installation detail of ‘Gestured’. Photo: Jonathan Turner
2. Ken Currie, Hiroshima Smile 1, 2015, Oil on gesso panel. Courtesy: Flowers Gallery London and New York
3. Haim Steinbach, jaws. Photo: White Cube (George Darrell)
4. Sir James Guthrie HRA PPRSA HRHA (1859-1930), Midsummer, 1892. Oil on canvas, 101.8 x 126.2cm. Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture (Diploma Collection), RSA Diploma Deposit, 1893. Image credit: Andy Phillipson
5. Hannah Ryggen, 6 October 1942 / 6. Oktober 1942, 1943. Photo: Anders S. Solberg / Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, © Hannah Ryggen / DACS
2017; Courtesy: Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum / Museene I Sør-Trøndelag

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