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


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Viewing Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre: Movie Theaters

Movie Theaters is the culmination of a 15-year project between French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, capturing the once-grand “cathedrals of cinema” of the Golden Age of the American film industry. With many of these grand buildings dating from the 1910s-1920s Hollywood boom, their interiors are palatial, with opulent domed ceilings and cavernous seating structures made to sit hundreds. As the 1929 Great Depression and consequent years of wartime threatened their livelihood, these fantastic spaces became relics of a past era. With many hastily demolished to make way for growing retail centres and residential development, only a few slipped through the cracks to lie dormant or be converted into bizarre but beautiful amalgamations of their past and present selves.

These precious few feature in Marchand and Meffre’s exhibition, and the accompanying linen-bound hardcover book. Captured on large format 4×5 film using long exposures and existing light, the images present ghostly spaces frozen in time. With flashes of wry humour from those converted into ultra-modern basketball pitches and supermarkets, seemingly unaware of their lavish ceilings, this exhibition pinpoints a seemingly lost moment in American history.

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Dates
10 February 2022 — 11 March 2022
Further information

Viewing Daniel David Freeman: Biomech Changed My Life

Chelsea graduate Daniel David Freeman, aka DDF, has channelled his passion for sci-fi through a neo-futuristic painting practice. Inspired by the illustrative world of biomech (a surrealist style of art that combines elements of machines with organics), he creates graphic works and collages from a myriad of found sources. ‘The otherworldliness of the imagery is a suitable metaphor for my anxieties about fitting in with what people expect art in a gallery to be today,’ he recently told FAD Magazine.

Presented by Gallery 46 in collaboration with FAD Bazaar, Biomech Changed My Life features DDF’s experiments in printmaking across collages of former works and found printed matter. ‘These experimental pieces lead to my first works on canvas; something I don’t think I would have been ready for had I not taken this gradual approach,’ he said.

Also featured are works by some of DDF’s favourite graphic artists and designers who are using his imagery to embellish their practice. These include Jesse Pimenta, Toby Evans and Sara-Lovise Ewertson.

By illustrating the work of digital creatives DDF has been able to stamp his claim on new 3D worlds. ‘The space in which art is displayed is of course ever changing and I wanted to use this show as an excuse to experiment how my imagery could also illustrate the digital space,’ he said.


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Dates
11 February 2022 — 20 February 2022
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Viewing Ai Weiwei: The Liberty of Doubt

Ai Weiwei is one of the world’s greatest living artists. Over the course of his ground-breaking career, he has tackled some of the most urgent issues facing us today, from globalisation and immigration to identity, liberty, truth and surveillance. Never afraid to speak out, he is a leading example of free expression around the world.

This bijou exhibition at Kettle’s Yard features a single installation with 13 artworks by Ai exhibited alongside 14 antiquities which the artist bought at auction in 2020. A selection of Ai’s recent films, including Coronation (2020) and Cockroach (2020), will also be screened on each day of the exhibition’s run.

By displaying works from different periods together, Ai asks us to question the ways in which we attribute meaning and value to objects. In doing so, he prompts us to consider differing concepts of truth and authenticity in China and the Western world. As with most of Ai’s works, this installation will get under your skin.

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Dates
12 February 2022 — 19 June 2022
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