Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt Street Manchester, M15 4GB

Ruth Barker & Hannah Leighton-Boyce

Set against the backdrop of the centenary celebrations of the suffragette movement, Castlefield Gallery's exhibition – which is co-commissioned with the University of Salford Art Collection – is the result of Ruth Barker and Hannah Leighton-Boyce's year-long research and production residencies. Throughout 2017, the two artists exchanged ideas from their respective locations in Salford and Glasgow; each delving into the long-standing archives of either the University of Salford Art Collection or the Glasgow Women's Library in order to formulate new visual narratives. Review by Selina Oakes

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Parc de la Villette, 211 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris, France

Interview: Will Ryman on his commission for Parc de la Villette

New York-based sculptor Will Ryman recently unveiled his first large-scale European presentation of work in La Villette, an expansive urban public park located in the northeast of Paris. Three sculptures, ‘Pac-Lab’, ‘Heads’ and ‘Sisyphus’ (all 2018), have been commissioned as part of the interdisciplinary Festival 100%. Made first in clay and then fabricated in painted resin and bronze respectively, the sculptures have a theatrical bent, something the artist is keen to connect to personal experiences of making processes, histories and audience dialogue. Anneka French speaks to the artist.

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Met Breuer, 945 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10021, USA

Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now)

Like Life, current on view at the Met Breuer, is a sweeping paean to historical contemporaneity, but where crowded chaos or a pandering sense of prurience could easily reign, co-curators Sheena Wagstaff and Luke Syson manage to imbue the eerie magic of mimesis with an academic bent that won’t intimidate fair-weather tourists. Review by Torey Akers

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Huxley-Parlour, 3-5 Swallow St, Mayfair, London W1B 4DE

Jocelyn Lee: The Appearance of Things

It would be hard for anyone, man or woman, to walk into the Jocelyn Lee’s exhibition at Huxley-Parlour and not feel surrounded by the regenerative power of nature and its symbiotic connection to the female body. Of course, these themes have walked hand-in-hand since the earliest forms of visual art, but Lee manages to shed a new light on this age-old allegory in her photography by capturing the physical world in all its transience and fragility. Review by Kristina Foster

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LADA

LADA Screens - Oozing Gloop

A film by Oozing Gloop made in 2017 using a selfie stick and a mobile phone.

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Large Glass, 392 Caledonian Road, London N1 1DN

Alice Channer: A Coin in Nine Hands - Part 5

'A Coin in Nine Hands - Part 5: Alice Channer (Carapaces)’ is a fascinating celebration of the elaborate figure of a shell. Inspired by Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel ‘A Coin in Nine Hands’ (1993), which recounts the journey of a ten lira coin through the hands of nine different people – a prostitute, an artist and Mussolini’s assassin – this exhibition is part of the gallery’s ambitious project of displaying the work of nine international artists in nine different solo shows over the coming months. Review by Fiorella Lanni

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Spanien 19C, Kalkværksvej 5A, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark

Mette Boel: Sunkissed

Trainers pair up with swimming pool noodles to create weird, often amusing pairings, as the noodles appear to be wearing shoes and claim the space for themselves. Posters look like tourist ads and then again not. Then there is the sand on the floor, which reminds us of relaxing days at the beach. Yet, here, the sand does not move; it has become like a carpet. Not a carpet to lie down upon, but something to investigate, to brush up against. Review by Rikke Hansen

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National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Pl, London WC2H 0HE

Tacita Dean: PORTRAIT

The glance, with its speed and lack of resolution, is probably the defining characteristic of contemporary vision. We see people with the same lack of depth, quickly skimming across their seemingly shallow surfaces. The experience of viewing Tacita Dean’s ‘PORTRAIT’ at the National Portrait Gallery, on the other hand, is more like the process of reading than the ways in which we usually contemplate visual art; the whole show seems to provide a slow, even still, contemplative corrective to the incessant pace of modern life. Review by Matthew Turner

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Alan Cristea Gallery, 43 Pall Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5JG

Christiane Baumgartner: Liquid Light

Light, so yielding it lies beyond our sense of touch, leaves its trace by an absence: expanses of white are produced by what has been cut away from the imprinting block. Review by Kevin Brazil

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Jerwood Visual Arts, Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, Bankside, London SE1 0LN

Jerwood/FVU Awards 2018: Unintended Consequences

This year’s Jerwood/FVU Awards sees Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta engage with the theme of ‘Unintended Consequences’ by considering, in very different ways, the complex nexus of vision, knowledge and representation. Review by Anya Smirnova

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Turf Projects, 46-47 Trinity Court, Whitgift Centre, Croydon CR0 1UQ

Bryony Gillard: A cap, like water, transparent, fluid yet with definite body

Calling you with rhythmic drums, panting and narration, the final room goes further to uncover the genesis of Bryony Gillard’s conflict within 'A cap, like water, transparent, fluid yet with definite body'. Review by Sophie Risner

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FOLD Gallery, 158 New Cavendish St, London W1W 6YW

Thomas Bang: States of discontinuity: New and recent work

Dominant in Thomas Bang’s exhibition of recent work at FOLD, where eight sculptures as upright as paintings are pinned to the walls, is a concern with how sculpture relates to its supports. In fixing all the works to the gallery walls he questions the distinction between those two most traditional of media: painting and sculpture. Review by Samuel Glanville

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kurimanzutto, Gobernador Rafael Rebollar 94, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, 11850 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

Sarah Lucas: DAME ZERO

Whilst firmly rooted in the irreverent humour of Britain, Sarah Lucas: DAME ZERO, currently on view at kurimanzutto, Mexico City, is able to securely locate itself within (as if emerging from) the context of Mexico. Review by Elliott Burns

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Exeter Phoenix, Gandy St, Exeter EX4 3LS

Young In Hong: The Moon’s Trick

In South Korean artist Young In Hong’s solo exhibition at the Exeter Phoenix, The Moon’s Trick, themes of censorship, authorship, and reinterpretation with a focus on Korea’s own cultural and historical struggle with similar issues are explored. Named after a Soo-Young Kim poem, Hong’s exhibition refers to the vortex created by a spinning top which poet Kim once watched and felt let him exist in a different sphere from our world and gave him a new level of perception. Review by James McColl

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