The Approach, 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY
In the delicate space of The Approach Gallery, group show ‘Shapeshifters’ initially seems a suitably lightweight fit with pastel images and objects tiptoeing across the room. In direct opposition, heaviness slowly wades in through the details, as pinks shift from candy fluorescent to wet plasticky sludge and blood clot red. Review by Jillian Knipe
John Hansard Gallery, 142-144 Above Bar Street, Southampton, SO14 7DU
The ground level of John Hansard Gallery plays host to the recent productions of Irish artist Siobhán Hapaska. Four large sculptures zigzag the length of the room, while the world outside becomes part of the exhibition, like a film projected through the gallery’s giant windows. The artist’s work prompts a wake-up slap as it translates Greek tragedy-scale despair into our current day goings on. Review by Jillian Knipe
Jerwood Visual Arts, Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, Bankside, London SE1 0LN
For its spring show, Jerwood Visual Arts has commissioned new bodies of work from three artists at pivotal points in their careers: Kitty Clark, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Sofia Mitsola. This is the fourth iteration of Jerwood Solo Presentations, and the guidance notes explain that there is no curatorial theme uniting the chosen artists; these are three very different offerings, but each is powerful in its own way. Review by Anna Souter
mother’s tankstation, 41- 43 Watling Street, Usher’s Island, Dublin, D08 NP48, Ireland
As you enter Dublin’s mother’s tankstation and Lee Kit’s ‘Banal’ you are greeted by Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 hit song ‘Crazy’. A search for the source of ‘I think you’re crazy’ (2017) reveals a pair of headphones overhead, dangled upside down and tantalisingly out of reach - and out of use. On the wall Kit has, through a plastic storage container, projected a video that has some of the song’s lyrics overlaid, with others missing. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy
Secession, Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Wien, Austria
Endeavouring to create yet another enhancing experience, the Austrian artist Philipp Timischl, in his exhibition ‘Artworks for all Age Groups’ at the Secession Wien, addresses questions of belonging, roots and queerness. Review by Alexandra Gamrot
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
In the single-room space Tate Britain has devoted to the current ‘Art Now’ exhibition, there’s a crooked forest made from crutches and open ring-binders, clustered in front of a wall with a large, cartoonish hole punched through it. The piece is Jesse Darling’s ‘St Jerome in the Wilderness’ (2018). Walking between the sticks and peering into the gap in the wall, you’re confronted with the slapstick tragedy of physical existence. ‘Brazen Serpent’ (2018), a walking-stick coiled to look like a snake, seems to follow you through the “trees”. In trying to protect or medicate ourselves, perhaps we’re in fact acknowledging our own fragility. You can’t avoid the threat implicit within contingency plans. Review by Adam Heardman
Artist and Delphian Gallery Director and Founder, Benjamin Murphy, speaks with artist Igor Moritz about his expressive approach to painting.
Workplace, The Old Post Office, 19-21 West Street Gateshead, Tyne & Wear NE8 1AD
Hesse’s questioning of her own proximity to the notional centre of the art is illustrated by the circle drawn on the gallery floor that the pin hangs above - is she inside or outside the circuit of acceptance? The artist can be heard reading from her book ‘Black Birds Born from Invisible Stars’ which details touchingly her frequently disenchanting encounters with art institutions. Review by Piers Masterson
MCA Denver, 1485 Delgany Street, 80202, USA
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On a physical and material level, but most crucially on a metaphysical and referential plane, Donovan's works multiply, fold and expand beyond the sum of their parts. Review by Rosanna van Mierlo
Thomas Dane Gallery, 3 Duke Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6BN
Amie Siegel’s exhibition ‘Backstory’ at London’s Thomas Dane Gallery opens with an unassuming series of works on paper. ‘Body Scripts’ (2015) consists of framed pages from a novel by Italian novelist Alberto Moravia that was the inspiration for Jean-Luc Godard’s classic film ‘Contempt’ (1963). Using only pages that feature the female protagonist, the artist uses sea-blue paint to erase phrases and sentences that don’t directly refer to the character. The result is an architectural geometry that flows from frame to frame and creates a visual context for the actions of the protagonist. Review by Anna Souter
William Benington Gallery, unit 3, 50 Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 4TR
This is a show in two parts, the first of which blurs the artistic personas of the two artists in displaying a deconstructed functionless kit of parts throughout the gallery space, before – in part two – being reconfigured into a bench and other wall-based pieces, at which point the two artists’ practices are clearly delineated. Review by Matthew Turner
LADA
Barflies present representations of different femininities embodied by transvestites and cross-dressers performing the pleasures, fears and dangers of being in public ‘en femme’.
