South London Gallery, 65-67 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH
Despite the show’s title, which has been taken from Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Knock, Knock Poster’ (1976) and which appears in the main gallery, the exhibition refuses the monotony of formulaic joke-telling and instead employs irony and cynicism to create moments of discomfort and menace. Review by Olivia Aherne
Campoli Presti, 223 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 0EL
Bringing together a new body of work created this past year, the exhibition makes two opposing propositions, each one presented in one of the gallery’s two rooms. The propositions are based two formal devices: the rainbow and the calendar. Review by Edmée Lepercq
Humber Street Gallery, 64 Humber St, Hull HU1 1TU
Raised as a socialist and a druid and initiated into political activism at a young age, Jamie Reid blames his parents for his rebellious streak; which at the age of 71, shows no sign of abating. The self-described anarchist uses iconoclastic collages and seditious ransom note-style idioms to marshal a cultural insurgence against the status quo; while his kaleidoscopic paintings reject materialism and individualism through a meditative connection with nature. Review by Christopher Little
LADA
Instant Dissidence/Rita Marcalo’s One Last Dance – An Chéad Damhsa, a perambulating dance taking place between Guildford (the place Rita lived in when she arrived in the UK as an Erasmus student in 1994) and Cloughjordan (the rural Irish village that she is moving to post-Brexit).
Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Via Chiese, 2, 20126 Milano MI, Italy
Curated by Vicente Todolí, Pirelli HangarBicocca Milan is currently presenting the iconic Igloos of Mario Merz (1925–2003) - a key figure of Arte Povera, and considered to be one of the most important post-war Italian artists; the exhibition brings together his most iconic oeuvre of work, the igloos, which date from 1968 until the end of the artist’s life. Review by Paul Black
Blain|Southern, 4 Hanover Square, London W1S 1BP
The show provides an interesting point of entry to the work of this Irish-born American-based painter. Split across two rooms, ‘Uninsideout’ asks us to focus on the musicality of Scully’s work; the artist is quoted as saying ‘one stripe is a note, many are a chord, all are played by hand.’ Review by Clare Robson
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, S Shore Rd, Gateshead NE8 3BA
Phillipson also throws a good measure of animal love into this heady mix, and none are more receiving of this affection than the colony of Kittiwakes that nest on BALTIC’s exterior. Their distinctive squawks are mixed into the electronic trance music, while wall-mounted television screens show ‘live’ feeds of the birds and a downloadable app reveals their ‘augmented reality excrement’. Review by Christopher Little
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, 337-338 Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XX
Featuring work from over twenty artists, this final show of the Hayward’s 50th season hopes to alter your perception of space, sometimes dramatically, sometimes subtly. But, as objects in a rear-view mirror may in fact be larger than they appear, the reflective experience can be diminutive. Absorbing, yes. Engaging, yes. But shallow. Just ask Narcissus. Review by Adam Heardman
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Albers didn't settle, she was intellectually and physically restless in her bid to elevate her discipline in the world of art and architecture. Review by Selina Oakes
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG
The fact that the show extends throughout all the galleries of the institution functions as a clear statement that the artist has disembarked in the UK – ‘Landline’ is her first institutional exhibition in the country. This also, however, allows visitors to view the breadth of Sillman’s artistic landscape: one where abstraction and figuration coexist, through her multifarious drawings, print works and pieces executed with oil and a variety of media. Review by Carolina Mostert
Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Dropping Ln, Bruton BA10 0NL
Each is a pallet with layers of folded and stacked hide, forming their own contours and falls, where the odd pinks, yellows and blues of these objects speak of the fatty animals these hides once were, and the treated material they will become. Review by Stan Portus
William Benington Gallery, Unit 3, 50 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 4TR and Upfor Gallery, 929 NW Flanders St, Portland, OR 97209, USA
Each work across both shows and throughout Stephens’ practice exists as part of an interlinking chain. She continually returns to and reuses ideas, allowing them to land and re-land, resisting the ossifying force of finitude and following the fluidity of nature’s endless cycles. Review by Sara Jaspan
Studio Voltaire, 1a Nelsons Row, London SW4 7JR
Referring to martyrdom’s queer capacity, McDermott & McGough’s ambitious installation ‘The Oscar Wilde Temple’ at Studio Voltaire promotes an awareness of cross-generational queer activism. Review by Ryan Kearney
