Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.


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Viewing  The Ralph Saltzman Prize: an annual barometer of design ingenuity

London-based designer Attua Aparicio has scooped the Design Museum’s coveted Ralph Saltzman Prize 2024 for her ingenious confections of clay and borosilicate glass waste – a byproduct of scientific glass making. See her glistening furniture, vessels and lighting at the Design Museum.

The prize is an annual barometer of emerging design talent, awarded to mark the legacy of Ralph Saltzman, a design innovator who founded Designtex. Spanish-born winner Aparicio is a multidisciplinary artist whose work blurs the boundaries between design, craft and art with an inventive and playful spirit. The borosilicate glass gives a delicious lustre to her delightfully lumpen vases and towering furniture. Experience their charm at the Design Museum until 15 April.

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Dates
01 February 2024 — 15 April 2024

Viewing The inner workings of Douglas Gordon’s brain at Gagosian

Sentence fragments, questions and phrases in multiple languages seem to ricochet around the Gagosian gallery in Douglas Gordon’s All I need is a little bit of everything. “I am the author of my own addictions,” declares one English message inscribed in the gallery wall, while “It’s coming” asserts an ominous red neon Japanese sign. Roaming the gallery feels like inhabiting someone’s chaotic brain, with memories and anxieties bubbling to the fore.

This highly charged exhibition from the Scottish Turner Prize-winner also includes ‘2023EastWestGirlsBoys’, a transfixing video paean to Soho’s seedy past. Neon signage and words from bars, clubs and shops are reflected in a close-up of Gordon’s eyeball, which dilates and constricts in response, making a trippy tribute to the area’s erotic entertainment industry. The exhibition also coincides with the unveiling of a Douglas Gordon video work, ‘Undergroundoverheard’, at Tottenham Court Road station – one of several artworks commissioned by the Crossrail Art Programme for the Elizabeth line. The looped video builds on Gordon’s text-based artworks, while stopping commuters in their tracks.

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Dates
01 February 2024 — 16 March 2024

Viewing Antony Gormley’s search for inner peace

Early January is your chance to catch the best of the autumn shows before they close. Among those not to miss is Antony Gormley’s Body Politic at White Cube Bermondsey. Visitors have to navigate their way through a cast of concrete, clay and metal figures that populate the galleries, evoking a sense of sanctuary and control, freedom and discipline.

In the concrete figures that make up Retreat – each made to the scale of the artist’s body – small, square orifices allow you to peer into the void within. As Gormley puts it, “The only place where we can find true freedom is within the infinite darkness of the body available to us once the body is still.” It seems like a good motto for the year ahead. Let’s all look for inner peace and freedom this year…

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Dates
22 November 2023 — 28 January 2024
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The Wick Culture - Yeonjoon Yoon, Gavin Poole, Conrad Shawcross, Tristram Hunt at UMBILICAL

Happenings Conrad Shawcross: UMBILICAL at Here East

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The Wick Culture - Gallery view of the 2025 Summer Exhibition
Photo: © David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts

Happenings RA Summer Party

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The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

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The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

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The Wick Culture - The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
Storehouse, including over 100 mini
curated displays ‘hacked’ into the ends
and sides of the storage racking. Image by Hufton + Crow for V&A

Happenings V&A East Storehouse

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The Wick Culture - Shezad Dawood

Happenings Chain of Hope at Saatchi Gallery

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