Patrick Staff: On Venus, Serpentine, London
For their newly commissioned work at Serpentine, Patrick Staff has created a site-specific installation that explores ‘structural violence, registers of harm and the corrosive effects of acid, blood and hormones’. It includes architectural intervention, video and print which looks at the way in which history, technology, capitalism and the law have transformed the social constitution of our bodies. Staff has altered the lighting and flooring of the space, whilst a piping network suspended from the ceiling of the gallery slowly leaks natural and synthetic liquids into steel barrels. The results suggest the sharing of intimate fluids or the movement of viruses and data, raising questions about gender, debility and biopolitics.
Until 9 February 2020 www.serpentinegalleries.org
The Extended Mind, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
This group exhibition explores the notion that our thoughts, reasoning, perception, imagination, intelligence, and emotions do not just take place in our brains. ‘The Extended Mind’ features a wide variety of different work, ranging from videos that explore the impact of electromagnetic waves on our thoughts, to robots that learn through contact. Artists include: Gianfranco Baruchello, Marcus Coates, Marjolijn Dijkman, Nikolaus Gansterer, Joseph Grigely, Agnieszka Kurant & John Menick, Myriam Lefkowitz, Daria Martin, William McKeown, Goro Murayama, Angelo Plessas, and Magali Reus.
Until 1 February 2020 www.trg.ed.ac.uk
Radical Women: Jessica Dismorr and Her Contemporaries, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
This timely show explores the connections between women artists of the early 20th century, with particular focus paid to the pioneering work of Jessica Dismorr. It highlights how these artists engaged with modernist literature and radical politics, including their contributions to campaigns for womens’ suffrage and the anti-fascist organisations of the 1930s. 80 works are on show, including paintings, sculptures, graphic art and archival materials, some of which have never been exhibited before. In addition to Dismorr, there is also work by fellow Rhythmists Anne Estelle Rice and Ethel Wright, plus Helen Saunders, who was the only other female founding signatory of the Vorticists, Paule Vezelay, who showed with Dismorr with the London Group, and Sophie Fedorovitch and Winifred Nicholson who exhibited at the Seven and Five Society in the 1920s.
Until 23 February www.pallant.org.uk
Bridget Riley, Hayward Gallery, London
This major retrospective of British painter Bridget Riley is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date. It brings together the artist’s iconic black-and-white paintings of the 1960s, expansive canvases in colour, early figurative works and recent wall paintings. Charting the evolving nature of her practice, the exhibition also features various rarely-seen drawings, studies and preparatory materials that offer further insight into the Riley’s working methods from 1947 to the present day. Other highlights include Continuum (1963/2005), the only three-dimensional work that the artist has ever realised.
Until 26 January 2020 www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Fanspeak, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
This intriguing group show features work that appropriates fan-like production, emulating the content, objects and homages produced by fans of movies, music, sports, celebrities, and TV shows. It includes sculpture, painting and video that examines pop and sub-cultural references in order to question our relationship with them. Artists include: Kurdwin Ayub, Lydia Blakeley, Maya Ben David, Graham Dolphin, Ashley Holmes, Owen G Parry, Beth Emily Richards, Rosa-Johan Uddoh, and Salford Zine Library. They were selected from proposals by guest selector Sam Thorne, Director Nottingham Contemporary and Castlefield Gallery Curator Matthew Pendergast.
Until 24 November www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk
Images:
1. Patrick Staff, On Venus, 2019. Courtesy: the artist and Commonwealth and Council
2. Nikolaus Gansterer, untertagüberbau, 2017, 3 channel HD video installation, stereo soundtrack. Courtesy: the artist, Gallery Marie-Laure Fleisch and Galerie Crone
3. Jessica Dismorr, Self-Portrait, c.1928, oil on board, 750 x 600mm. Private Collection
4. Fanspeak
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