Tabish Khan the @LondonArtCritic picks his top art exhibitions to see before and during Frieze Week. Each one comes with a concise review to help you decide whether it’s for you.
Hynek Martinec: Thank you for looking at me @ OHSH Central
We’re surrounded by landscapes drawn across the walls of the gallery, acting as the backdrop for Hynek Martinec’s hyper-real paintings that draw from historical vanitas paintings. The exhibition centres on the work downstairs – a painting of the back of a statue of Buddha that was exposed to the elements since 2015 and is shown here as art fully embracing the natural world. Until 22 October.
Jinjoon Lee: Audible Garden @ Korean Cultural Centre
A mobile with speakers spins in the space replaying the sounds of an urban garden so the songs of birds mix with sounds from babies and the occasional ambulance siren. Vases have been created in the shapes of brainwaves and in a case of science imitating life, it’s the one based on happiness that is the most fragile. Throw in an AI creating paintings by what it’s seeing via a camera pointed outdoors and we have a varied portfolio of work that bring together science and art. Until 13 October.
Xavier Robles de Medina @ Alice Amati
Recreating book covers through drawing, nature footage in large scale and a sculptured painting of an image from fairy tales, this layered exhibition looks at both the artist’s tragic personal history involving a plane crash but also his Surinamese heritage and how colonialism has affected his homeland as a country that has been colonised by the French, the British and the Dutch – plus its national flower originates in India. Until 8 October.
Trinity Buoy Wharf drawing prize
Whether it be a large scale drawing of the development at Battersea Power Station capturing it’s frenetic busyness or a hyper-detailed portrait of a sitter, the selection of works at this prize exhibition is diverse and impressive. It’s also at a fantastic location in an area that many are not familiar with. Until 15 October.
Art and Artifice: Fakes from the Collection @ The Courtauld Gallery
We may think of fakes in terms of forgeries but that’s not always the case as paintings have been misattributed in the past and making copies of works by Old Masters is a tradition stretching back centuries. This small exhibition looks at the nuances of ‘fakes’ and includes a spectacular Botticelli, that isn’t actually by him. Until 8 October.
Hynek Martince image: BJ Deakin photography. Jinjoon Lee image: Dan Weill photography. All images courtesy gallery and artist.
Art Exhibitions before and during Frieze Week
