The summer is over, hurray! Gone are the group shows filled with inventory leftovers or half-baked curatorial experiments—and “closed” signs on gallery doors. The British art world is finally waking up from its seasonal torpor, and great exhibitions are opening up and down the country.
artnet News has compiled its own idiosyncratic list of favorites, from Rembrandt’s late works at the National Gallery to the quirky sculptures of the young American Matt Paweski, and pretty much everything in between. There are shows of the all-time greats (Anthony Caro, Gerhard Richter, Francis Bacon, and Lee Bul), artists to watch (Sophie Michael, Ran Huang, Pio Abad, and Kate Newby) and many others we simply can’t get enough of (Glenn Ligon, Walead Beshty, Ryan Trecartin, Fiona Banner, Nina Beier, and Pierre Huyghe).
Of course, we also couldn’t forget the Folkestone Triennial, an unmissable rendezvous, which in just three editions has managed to put a quaint Kentish seaside town on the art world map. The more design-minded should head to the Mayor Gallery for its presentation by the Italian grande dame Nanda Vigo.
John Cage’s first and only feature film, Phillip Allen’s new experiments in abstraction, and Mike Nelson’s take on the collection of Russian gas baron Leonid Mikhelson are also among the highlights of the motley assortment of exhibitions compiled in the slideshow above. The festivities kicked off last weekend in Folkestone, and these shows see us through until mid-October, when things get seriously busy.
Until then.
Folkestone Triennial 2014, Lookout, throughout Folkestone, August 30–November 2
Former Liverpool Biennial director Lewis Biggs takes over the Kentish seaside town with artworks by the likes of Yoko Ono, Pablo Bronstein, and Ian Hamilton Finlay.
Neither, Sophie Michael, Harun Farocki, and John Cage & Henning Lohner at Seventeen, London, September 4–October 4
The young Sophie Michael’s film 99 Clerkenwell Road is in good company, shown alongside John Cage’s only feature film One11 and 103 and a video essay by the late Harun Farocki.
Ran Huang at Simon Lee Gallery, London, September 5–October 4
Beijing-based Ran Huang debuts in London with a series of self-portraits, and The Administration of Glory, a film nominated for the Short Film Palme d’Or at the Cannes Festival earlier this year.
Phillip Allen, Tonic for Choice at The Approach, London, September 5–October 5
Allen takes his abstraction in a whole new direction, showing that he’s far from having exhausted the possibilities of the genre.
Matt Paweski at Herald Street, London, September 6–October 5
Hailing from Los Angeles, artist-to-watch (and one half of the design studio spruzzi) Matt Paweski takes his alluring wooden sculptures to London for the first time.
Gert and Uwe Tobias at Maureen Paley, London, September 8–October 6
The art world’s favorite twins take over the East London grande dame’s gallery.
Mike Nelson from the V-A-C collection at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, September 9–November 30
Mike Nelson was let loose in the collection of Russian gas baron Leonid Mikhelson. He’s imagined a modernist studio, stuffed with the works of Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brâncuși, and Alberto Giacometti.
Nanda Vigo, Chronotops at Mayor Gallery, London, September 10–October 24
Mayor gives the year’s top exhibition slot to a top name in Italian design, as well known for her quirky furniture as she is for her involvement with European avant-gardes, including the Zero Group.
Mary Reid Kelley, Pasiphae at Pilar Corrias, London, September 10–October 7
The maverick American continues her trilogy on the legend of the Minotaur in an absurdist film that tackles the Greek myth of Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios who was cursed with the insatiable urge to mate with a bull.
Anthony Caro, The Last Sculptures at Annely Juda Fine Art, London, September 11–October 25
Few know that Sir Anthony Caro experimented with Perspex for the first time towards the end of his life.
Lee Bul at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, September 11–November 9.
An ambitious retrospective by the Korean superstar, including a survey of her practice since the 1990s and a yet-to-be-announced new commission.
Pierre Huygheat Hauser & Wirth, London, September 13–November 1
This selection of new works by the sensation of dOCUMENTA (13) preludes the opening of Huyghe’s retrospective at LACMA next November.
Nina Beier at David Roberts Art Foundation, London, September 12–December 13
A focus on the sculptural strand of Nina Beier’s practice, including a major 125 square meter-wide installation of tiles digitally printed to imitate rugged textures such as mud and gravel.
Pio Abad, Some Are Smarter Than Others at Gasworks, London, September 12–November 16
Rising star Pio Abad continues to make waves, this time tackling the cultural legacy of former Filipino dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
Ben Rivers, Things at Kate McGarry, London, September 19–October 25
The poetry of the everyday abounds in Ben Rivers’ latest film Things, focusing on the artist’s immediate surroundings in an introspective mise-en-abîme.
Fiona Banner, WP WP WP at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, September 20, 2014–January 4, 2015
After shoehorning fighter jets into Tate Britain, Banner is suspending two sets of helicopter blades at YSP’s Longside Gallery.
The Nakeds at The Drawing Room, London, September 25–November 29
The nude as seen by the likes of Joseph Beuys, Paul McCarthy, Tracey Emin, and Franz West.
Conflict and Collisions: New Contemporary Sculpture at the Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield, October 1, 2014–January 25, 2015
To coincide with WWI commemorations, The Hepworth Wakefield commissioned new pieces reflecting on contemporary combat from the German Alexandra Birken, the Dutch Folkert de Jong, and the Brit Toby Ziegler.
Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin at Zabludowicz Collection, London, October 2–December 21
Art world darlings Trecartin and Fitch are finally getting their first UK show: a reconfiguration of their video installation Priority Innfield, a highlight of the 2013 Venice Biennale.
Walead Beshty, A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench at The Curve, London, October 9, 2014–February 21, 2015
Along the 90-meter-long wall of the Curve Gallery, the artist is set to plaster more than 12,000 cyanotypes, each based on one object from the artist’s studio.
Glenn Ligon, Call and Response at Camden Art Centre, London, October 10, 2014–January 11, 2015
For his first solo show in a UK institution, Ligon presents a new series of neon pieces and paintings inspired by one of Steve Reich’s taped-speech works, itself based on the testimony of young black men arrested during the Harlem Race Riots of 1964.
Self: Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Pablo Picasso at Ordovas, London, October 14–December 13
Self-portraiture and existential angst as experienced by four towering figures.
Rembrandt, The Late Works at the National Gallery, London, October 15, 2014– January 18, 2015
A substantial show mapping the Dutch master’s outburst of creativity in his latter years, which were plagued by personal and financial difficulties.
Kate Newby at Rokeby, London, October 15–December 12
For her first solo show in the UK, New Zealander Newby has developed an immersive installation during a summer-long residency at the gallery.
Gerhard Richter at Marian Goodman, London, October 15–December 20
The American grandee launches her London venture with the German giant.