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
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, 5-9 Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland
Mid-way through ‘A Game of Chess’, the second section of T. S. Eliot’s 1922 poem ‘The Waste Land’, come the words that have lent themselves to the title of ‘staring forms’, a new group exhibition in Dublin’s Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. In these lines Eliot references the ancient (and violent) Greek myth of King Tereus and the sisters Philomela and Procne, all three of whom were turned into birds by the gods. Review by Aidan Kelly Murphy
Kohta, Teurastamo inner yard, Työpajankatu 2B, building 7, 3rd floor, 00580 Helsinki, Finland
How strange to step from snow-filled streets and the twilight of a late winter afternoon in Helsinki into Kohta’s radiant space and find oneself confronted by scenes executed in similarly atmospheric and subdued tones. Looking reveals an unfamiliar world, fashioned by Britta Marakatt-Labba’s unique cultural background and artistic approach. Review by John Gayer
TJ Boulting, 59 Riding House Street, Fitzrovia, London W1W 7EG
In 1984, feminist art historian Rozsika Parker published ‘The Subversive Stitch – Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine’, in which she explored the sociocultural and gendered connotations of sewing and stitching across Western history. Now in 2019, TJ Boulting presents 'Subversive Stitch', a group show examining the legacy of embroidery today – another step in the creation of a contemporary canon of fabric as a serious artistic medium. Review by Anna Souter
The Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Laura Mulvey is best known for her essay describing the phenomenon of the 'male gaze,' where the act of looking in visual media is coded as male, or specifically for heterosexual male viewers, leaving women as passive objects that are meant to be looked at and desired. While not directly referencing Mulvey, Suzanne Bocanegra investigates this concept of women as the target of the gaze in 'Poorly Watched Girls,' using multiple media to question whether the performance of watching women can ever truly be enough to understand them as subjects in their own right. Review by Deborah Krieger
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
Assembly Point, 49 Staffordshire Street, London SE15 5TJ
The city is striated into manifold ordered grids that similarly control our movements. The Nevada desert on the other hand, one of the locations Lilah Fowler explored for her show at Assembly Point, has no such boundaries and borders – it has an order more in common with a modulating weather system than any Cartesian geometry. Review by Matthew Turner
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke St, Oxford OX1 1BP
Six years before her death in 1970, Ryggen became the first female artist to represent Norway at the Venice Biennale, and, in more recent years, has been the subject of several important retrospectives. As the relationship between politics and the public continues to find its twenty-first century feet, the uncompromising boldness of Ryggen’s tapestries, seen in her current exhibition, Woven Histories, at Modern Art Oxford, and their gentle interrogation of questions concerning nationality, identity, inequality and storytelling seem all too strangely close to home. Review by Rowland Bagnall
Centro de Cultura Contemporânea de Castelo Branco, Campo Mártires da Pátria, S/N (Devesa) 097, 6000 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Cristina Rodrigues’ retrospective at Centro de Cultura Contemporânea in Castelo Branco sits well in the historic Portuguese town that boasts of a rich and varied textile heritage. While reviving the declining age-old tradition, Rodrigues brings into the mix a cross-cultural confluence that bring to the fore diverse contemporary concerns. Review by Ambika Rajgopal
