If you’ve ever had the chance to handle a bejewelled Wallace Chan creation, you’ll know that they entrance and intrigue in equal measure. Usually crafted from titanium and the world’s finest gemstones, his daring high jewellery designs are inspired by everything from nature and Greek mythology to auspicious Chinese motifs. The same can be said of his sculptures.

Currently on display at One Canada Square in Canary Wharf are 10 of Chan’s large-scale titanium and iron sculptures that explore the dialogue between materials, space and time.

‘These sculptures come from a lifetime of memories and experiences, including my early years creating carvings and sculptures inspired by Greek mythology,’ says Chan. ‘TITANS, named after a group of super-strong giants, connects my present to my past. The series also acts as a passage to the future; carved and sculpted with a material as strong and resistant as titanium, my sculptures act as time capsules.’

The central motif of many of these works, including Titans I shown here, is an elongated head whose facial features are serene yet strong. With its extensively carved and modelled surfaces that can be viewed from multiple angles, the large freestanding sculpture calls to mind Chan’s innovative ‘Wallace Cut’, an illusionary three-dimensional carving process applied to gemstones which he developed in 1987.

Like Chan’s majestic, mysterious jewellery, this new body of work reveals his ingenuity, confidence and experimental impulses to dazzling effect. It’s a joy to see his accomplishments in sculpture being celebrated in London.

In 1993 Nick Knight made fashion history by taking a sumptuous ring-flash shot of Linda Evangelista for a cover of British Vogue. Since then, he has been exhibited widely and collaborated with some of the world’s leading designers, notably Alexander McQueen and John Galliano.

Captured in 2008, this striking image shows model Lily Donaldson in a whimsical pink dress from Galliano’s Spring 2003 Ready-to-Wear collection. ‘For his finale, he sent out girls whose voluminous outfits were covered in coloured powders used in Indian festivals,’ said a Vogue review of the show. ‘As the models twirled, the audience was showered – and, incredibly, responded with laughter.’

Here, Knight immortalises that runway moment. As the powder and fabric whirl together, Knight creates an ebullient fusion of pinks and reds. Lily appears to float in ecstasy, her arms in perfect poise. ‘It signifies my strength while at the same time reminding me of my own fragility and how important that balance can be,’ said Donaldson.

Tim Yip is a man of many talents. As well as working as an art director and costume designer, he is a world-renowned visual artist, working across photography, video, art and fashion. He has collaborated with industry heavyweights like Vivienne Westwood and Gilbert & George and enjoyed solo exhibitions around the world. In 2008, Yip was invited to stage a special exhibition at the Shin Kong Place in Beijing in celebration of the Chivas 25 series. Among the treasures on display was this dazzling vermilion dress, complete with stiff ruff, hooped skirt and sequins. Now this is an outfit to fall in love with.

‘People say – and I’m quite willing to believe it – that it’s difficult to know oneself – but it’s not easy to paint oneself either,’ Vincent van Gogh once said. And he would know. Over the course of his short but prolific career, Van Gogh painted 35 self-portraits. The majority of these show him looking restrained and serious with bright red hair, green eyes and an angular face. Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (1887) is one of Van Gogh’s boldest colour experiments from his formative period in Paris. The short stripes of blue and orange paint follow the outline of his head, creating a kind of halo, while the daubs of red and green intensify his piercing gaze and thick beard. On loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, it will highlight the forthcoming Van Gogh self-portraits exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery in London.

Frank Stella is one of America’s greatest living artists. Born in Massachusetts in 1936, he is best known today for his vibrant geometric patterns, monumental prints and revolutionary approach to materials. It was in the 1960s that Stella first began to remove sections of paintings and experiment with shaped canvases, as seen in Untitled (Kufa Gate Shape) from 1967. This geometric riot of colour belongs to Stella’s Protractor series, which consists of 93 paintings based on 31 distinct formats, each one rendered in three different designs. It is named after the Great Mosque of Kufa in Iraq, one of the earliest and holiest mosques in the world.

Joel Mesler was a successful art dealer before becoming a painter. He ran galleries in both Los Angeles and New York and championed African-American artists like Henry Taylor and Rashid Johnson early in their careers. Having left the city for the Hamptons, he now spends much of his time painting. He finds inspiration in everything from childhood memories to addiction and attributes his recent success to his knack for locating what he calls ‘the story beneath the work’.

His most recognisable paintings combine verdant flora that evokes both Eden and the wallpaper of the Beverly Hills Hotel, a letter formed by a slithering snake and short phrases that call to mind the work of artists like Ed Ruscha and Christopher Wool. Johnson thinks Mesler’s ‘palette is beautiful’ and that ‘he’s at that point where he’s finding his voice.’ With recent solo shows around the world and works such as We are the World (2019) selling for six figure sums at auction, it seems Johnson’s right on the money. Watch this space.

The art world is abuzz with talk of Flora Yukhnovich, the British artist behind the flamboyant Rococoesque paintings that have likely flooded your feed in recent months. Fluctuating between figuration and abstraction, Yukhnovich’s indulgent canvases fuse art historical and contemporary references spanning film, food and consumerism, while exploring the expressive tactility of paint. ‘I always want people to have an “a-ha” moment, where you recognise something, but you can’t quite place it,’ she has said. ‘A familiarity that offers you access to the work.’ Featuring her signature pastel palette and thick, gestural brushwork, Thank Heaven for Little Girls (2019) is a sumptuous vision of 18th-century whimsy and drama. No wonder she’s the art market’s new darling.

Refik Anadol is a leading figure in the world of digital art and crypto collectibles, minting the first fully immersive digital artwork in September 2021.

Since the inception of his Machine Hallucinations project in 2016, the Istanbul-born, Los Angeles-based artist has employed machine-learning algorithms and quantum computing to transform vast datasets such as wind patterns and Bluetooth signals into mesmerising, immersive moving artworks – or ‘data paintings’, as he calls them.

The AI algorithms employed in his Nature Dreams series scan the pigments, shapes, and patterns present in millions of images of nature to generate new virtual landscapes.

Offered for sale via OpenSea — the world’s leading NFT marketplace — this unique digital artwork shows snow-capped mountains morphing into wetlands, which then transform into forests and rocky planes. Sunrises change seamlessly into sunsets.

Anadol sees the hypnotic result as a collective memory of nature. ‘I think data is a form of memory, and I’m profoundly asking myself and the team, how we can reconstruct it,’ he has said.

The photographer Ron Galella is widely recognised as the ‘Godfather of American paparazzi’. He is perhaps best known (and reviled) for his unflinching and unapologetic images of celebrities, from Marlon Brando to Grace Jones — and relentless pursuit of Jackie Kennedy (which ended in multiple lawsuits). He stopped at nothing to get the perfect picture, often shooting a whole role of film to get one frame.

Among his most iconic images of New York’s club scene is this 1978 snapshot of Dolly Parton at her farm-themed afterparty at Studio 54. Organised by Steve Rubell (Studio 54’s co-founder), it featured horses, donkeys, chickens and haystacks. Unfortunately, the Queen of Country was less than amused. ‘Dolly came and was completely freaked out at the number of people there,’ recalls journalist Michael Musto. ‘She was real nervous about this whole deal and went up to the balcony and sat up there for a while.’