Tabish Khan, the @LondonArtCritic, picks his top gallery exhibitions to see within walking distance of each other. If you are looking for more exhibitions, check out his previous top 5.
Low Life: Derrick Guild & Katrin Moye at James Freeman Gallery
Katrin Moye creates fantastic, detailed ceramics but gives them a playful twist: weeds grow all over the weedkiller container, and she has immortalised the viral raccoon that broke into a supermarket, drank the alcohol, and passed out in the toilet. There’s also a playful side to Derrick Guild’s work, where he’s placed a saddle on a cassowary, a bird that’s also become Internet-famous for how violent it can be; no chance anyone is riding one of those. Additionally, he has placed human eyes over a bull and a rhino, and placed multiple versions of the bull’s eye around the gallery, which follow us as we explore the exhibition. Until 14th November.
Romuald Hazoumè: My Blue Period at October Gallery
Working with found canisters, used to smuggle petrol across borders in West Africa, Romuald Hazoumè adorns them with found objects including feathers and netting, referencing traditional African masks. He has also photographed some of the smugglers who partake in this highly dangerous endeavour, just so they can stay afloat. Many of the containers are blue, which he also uses to reference the Blues as a musical genre, Picasso’s blue period, and the general malaise the world is feeling. Until 21st November.
Annie Trevorah: Dolly’s Clinic at Coningsby Gallery, presented by Mandy Zhang Art
Step inside a beauty clinic for animals, named in honour of the world’s first cloned sheep. We encounter patients and all the surgical enhancements they’ve undertaken to feel self-confident and not play into the human gaze. The playful anthropomorphism results in a wicked satire on the beauty industry and the pressures it places on humans … I mean animals. Until 14th November.
Anna Sebastian: The Same Dust at IMT
Are these two circular landscapes real or imagined? Are we looking through two circular windows or is that a pair of eyes, and are those rocks actually teeth? Drawing inspiration from science fiction and sitting within the dream and waking world, earth and another planet, there’s something uncanny about these landscapes. Alongside paintings of a waterfall and a ghostly skeletal figure, we have to decide whether to immerse ourselves in the dream or step back from it. Until 15th November.
Anna Samoylova and Zulfia Spowart: Power to Care at Arc Space
What does it mean to care for something or someone, knowing it’s not about preservation as the object of care will change and perfection is impossible? Anna Samoylova looks at motherhood through hand embroidery, painting and printmaking on raw calico in tender works. While Zulfia Spowart draws our attention to a Soviet-era mosaic in Tashkent in a more abstracted piece, but also carves icons out of soap in works that will degrade over time. Until 12th November.
All images are copyright and courtesy of the respective artists and galleries. October Gallery photo by Jonathan Greet.
