Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3QD
Cy Twombly’s sculptures are mostly created from materials such as wood, plaster, iron and other objects that might be found in an artist’s studio. Every piece is individually assembled displaying a sense of historic meaning. Review by Alexandra Gamrot
iMT Gallery, 210 Cambridge Heath Rd, Cambridge Heath, London E2 9NQ
Drew’s current exhibition ‘Trapped In A Sticky Shed With Side Chain Compression’, at iMT Gallery is a combination of material mayhem that is crudely enigmatic. The message is hardly exact upon entrance. However, Drew’s constructed chaos is compelling once the viewer mentally submits to the stroboscopic anxiety that the exhibition elicits. Review by Sheena Carrington
Humber Street Gallery, 64 Humber St, Hull HU1 1TU
In ‘Equanipolis', Aniara Omann has created two distinct yet coherent spaces. The Glasgow-based artist uses sculpture, textiles and animatronics to–in the tradition of science fiction–imagine the forms which might populate a version of our future where, according to the gallery’s information, “the boundary between symbol and material is blurred”. Review by Lucy Holt
Various locations, Coventry
The figure of the twin is one that resonates with the history of Coventry, one of the first cities to form an international partnership, first twinning with Volgograd 75 years ago. The Biennial draws on this theme, showing work from artists based in several of these twinned cities, alongside recent graduates from the area, and both local and international artists. Besides exploring international relations in the current political moment, themes of the Anthropocene, nature and technology, pairing artistic practice and academic research and acts of repetition emerge throughout the exhibitions. Review by Emily Hale
A.P.T, Harold Wharf 6 Creekside, Deptford, London SE8 4SG
The group painting exhibition ‘The World Without Us’ is based on the book by Professor Eugene Thacker at The New School, New York, called: ‘In the Dust of This Planet’. The nihilist book is a meditation on the meaning of life, or rather re-imagines a world where life has no purpose. A world plagued by catastrophe, suffering, threats of war and extinction — this isn’t a world of fairy-tales and happy endings but daily horrors created by man’s destructive nature and incessant consumption. Review by Sara Makari-Aghdam
New Art Exchange, 39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 6BE
The opening titles to John Akomfrah’s ‘Mimesis: African Soldier’ (2018) state that “six million colonial subjects fought and served in the Great War” and that three-hundred and fifty-thousand died in Europe. Akomfrah’s three-screen installation interweaves archival footage with new material that commemorates those conscripted into the First World War by colonial powers, to fight for a cause not their own. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran
mother's tankstation London, 58 - 64 Three Colts Ln, Bethnal Green, London E2 6GP
Layers of time, economic systems and environments tightly interconnect in Yuri Pattison’s new exhibition. ‘to-do, doing, d̶o̶n̶e̶’ explores the narratives embedded in time-based technologies and the very fabric of reality. A combination of existing and newly-made works shows the connection between seemingly unrelated worlds, by turning to the ineffable world of toxins, waves and frequencies. Review by Giulia Civardi
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Early photographs of Paik at his studio in New York City show him smiling, like a kid in a sweet shop, in a room filled with clutter. The antique technology that blankets the floor arguably appears as rubbish to most. However, to Paik, broken-down technological devices were inspiration. Review by Sheena Carrington
Spike Island, 133 Cumberland Road Bristol BS1 6UX
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In his new film ‘the destructors’, Imran Perretta uses narrative and visual storytelling to articulate his personal experiences with physical and structural violence. The result is a sensitive and poignant indictment of the British governmental policies, Austerity and the War on Terror, which have served to exacerbate the marginalisation and oppression of Muslim communities living in the UK. Review by Julia Schouten
The Hepworth Wakefield, Gallery Walk, Wakefield WF1 5AW
Entering Christina Quarles’ first European exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, the viewer is greeted with a number of large-scale paintings and an architectural intervention, which includes a window revealing further works. Quarles’ arresting paintings depict female bodies that stretch, contort and intertwine. They are ambiguous and only barely legible as bodies, found somewhere in the liminal space between depiction and abstraction. Review by Joshua Lockwood-Moran
Lane Meyer Projects, 2528 Walnut Street, Denver, CO 80205, USA
The exhibition title alludes to the ways in which capitalism has become intertwined with a looming sense of environmental disaster in the age of the Anthropocene. Through collage, installation and sculpture, ‘Green Gra$$’ examines our cultural longing for a future that is already lost. Review by Rosanna van Mierlo
Central Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
The feature film ‘Dream Journal’ presented at the Venice Biennale is the result of three years of exploration into 3D simulated environments (2016-2019). Throughout an extremely dense 94 minutes, Rafman radically experiments with imaginary worlds populated by a plethora of obscene biotech mutants. CGI reveals the dark vitality of techno-materialism that melds post-human forms with chimerical beasts, monstrous insects and Japanese sexual perversions. Review by Piotr Bockowski
Matt's Gallery, 92 Webster Road, London SE16 4DF
At the time of Susan Hiller’s death earlier this year, she was working on a new show for Matt’s Gallery, the tiny Bermondsey gallery with which she had a decades-long working relationship. The resulting show has come about in collaboration with Hiller’s son, Gabriel Coxhead. Review by Lucy Holt
Belvedere 21, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Wien, Austria
Placed in the pavilion designed by Karl Schwanzer, Monica Bonvicini takes over the impressive open-plan ground floor of the Belvedere 21. Bonvicini’s pieces redirect the viewer’s experience towards a performative space that welcomes the outside world, touching on questions of politics and society. Using institutional ways of conditioning her subject, the artist highlights the impact of societal structures. Through her work, Bonvicini reflects on the relationships between this space and the viewer. Review by Alexandra Gamrot
