Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic picks his favourite exhibitions to see in London where an installation or installations are the major part of the show. Each one comes with a concise review to help you decide whether it’s for you. Those looking for more exhibitions should check out his top museum exhibitions, where all but one remain open.
Dawn Ng: Into Air @ St Cyprian’s Church, Marylebone
Instead of meditating in prayer we get to meditate over these slow artworks that have been created using ice layered with pigment, both photographed and allowed to melt and ‘paint’ a double sided canvas. Some are situated for us to look up to or down at as if we’re kneeling over them, in keeping with the religious location. It’s an ideal setting for these contemplative works. Until 24 July.
Libby Heaney: The Evolution of Ent-:QX @ Arebyte
Stand surrounded by a landscape and start to feel dizzy as the immersive digital installation flies through realistic visions into something far more abstract. It’s a real head trip of a show, based on Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and projected into the quantum realm. Until 20 August.
Graham Martin: Portals @ Huxley-Parlour
Urinals installed in the space and paintings of open toilet cubicles are part of Graham Martin’s exhibition that focuses on the queer activity of cruising, including a performance that has been printed on ceramic and exploded so we can only see fragments in an exhibition that both celebrates queer culture and recognises that it’s often had to remain hidden*. Until 12 August.
Mariella Senatore: Afterglow @ Mazzoleni
Words light up the darkness of the gallery exclaiming ‘Dance first, think later’ or ‘I contain multitudes’, in a show that also contains her sculpture. It’s a fun and uplifting exhibition of light art, and it’s part of a wider programme that spread the joy with light installations across the city. Until 26 August.
Future Shock @ 180 Strand
180 Strand has developed a knack for delivering immersive art installation showing what technology can do. This time it’s no different with intense music accompanying a fly through a wire frame house, spinning beams of light that make you worried they’ll slice you in half and stories that evolve by scanning a QR code. Until 28 August.
All images copyright artist and gallery. Dawn Ng photo: James Retief. Libby Heaney image: commissioned by Light Art Space. Image Max Colson. 180 Strand image: Nonotak Studio.
* The author of this piece was part of the judging panel that awarded this exhibition.
