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

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Viewing The Light Festival at Battersea Power Station

The Wick Culture - Digital Origami Tigers by LAVA

Above Digital Origami Tigers by LAVA

13 January — 27 February
Battersea Power Station, London
https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk/whats-on/detail/light-festival-2022

Brighten up cold dark evenings with a trip to Battersea Power Station’s winter ‘glow-up’, a Light Festival featuring six spectacular installations by celebrated artists from around the world. Curated in partnership with the Light Art Collection founded by Amsterdam Light Festival, the Battersea edition is free to attend and installed right across the swanky riverside neighbourhood.

Making their UK debuts are Italian lighting designer Michela Bonzi with Antenna Sud and Felipe Prado with his intriguing Picto Sender Machine. Featuring an enormous low-resolution screen of 1,200 enlarged pixels, the machine invites you to record a short video message using only movement, dance and gesture.

Also on display is Angelo Bonello’s mesmerising Run Beyond. ‘This work is about the power of imagination,’ says the artist, ‘a force that is so strong that it allows individuals to overcome their fears and limitations so that they can open themselves up to other cultures, new friendships and unknown worlds.’

Viewing Caro and North American Painters

The Wick Culture - Anthony Caro, Month of May, 1963 and Jack Bush, Brown Pole, 1967

Above Anthony Caro, Month of May, 1963 and Jack Bush, Brown Pole, 1967

Above Anthony Caro, “Smoulder”, 1965; Kenneth Noland, “Exmoor”, 1970–71,

Above Anthony Caro, Month of May, 1963 and Jack Bush, Brown Pole, 1967

Above Anthony Caro, “Smoulder”, 1965; Kenneth Noland, “Exmoor”, 1970–71,

27 January — 5 March 2022
Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill
https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2022/caro-and-north-american-painters/

Lauded as one of the greatest sculptors of his generation, Anthony Caro is best known for his large-scale abstract constructions made from steel, bronze, lead and wood. His breakthrough came in 1963 when he presented a series of brightly painted, abstract steel sculptures directly on the floor of the Whitechapel Gallery, prompting a radical shift in the dynamic between art and viewer.

This exhibition presents a selection of Caro’s floor sculptures from the 1960s and 70s alongside contemporaneous paintings by his American friends and peers including Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland and Larry Poons. Following a trip to America in 1959, Caro began welding and bolting together steel beams, plates, tubes and other elements, and experimenting with bold, flat colours. As seen here, Caro’s innovations in composition, geometry and the use of colour and space had echoes in the work of the ‘Color Field’ painters he admired. Add to your calendar now.

Viewing KAWS: New Fiction

The Wick Culture - KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. GETTING THE CALL (2018) and WHAT PARTY (2020). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

Above KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. GETTING THE CALL (2018) and WHAT PARTY (2020). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

The Wick Culture - KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. FAMILY (2021) and UNTITLED (2019). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

Above KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. FAMILY (2021) and UNTITLED (2019). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

The Wick Culture - KAWS, COMPANION (EXPANDED), 2020, augmented reality sculpture at Serpentine North Gallery. Courtesy of KAWS and Acute Art.

Above KAWS, COMPANION (EXPANDED), 2020, augmented reality sculpture at Serpentine North Gallery. Courtesy of KAWS and Acute Art.

Above KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. GETTING THE CALL (2018) and WHAT PARTY (2020). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

Above KAWS: NEW FICTION at Serpentine. FAMILY (2021) and UNTITLED (2019). © Jonty Wilde (courtesy KAWS).

Above KAWS, COMPANION (EXPANDED), 2020, augmented reality sculpture at Serpentine North Gallery. Courtesy of KAWS and Acute Art.

18 January — 27 February 2022
Serpentine North
https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/acute-art-presents-kaws-new-fiction/

Now’s your chance to see new and recent works by KAWS in physical and augmented reality. Developed in collaboration with Acute Art and the online video game Fortnite, the artist’s first major solo exhibition in London presents his paintings and celebrated toys, including KAWS WHAT PARTY (2020) and KAWS, FAMILY (2021), in an exciting new way. A virtual recreation of the show will launch simultaneously in Fortnite, allowing players from all over the world to engage with the exhibition.

What’s more, all the paintings and sculptures on display as well as a miniature version of the entire show will exist as AR works on an app developed by Acute Art. The works can be placed and viewed at home by viewers globally and shared on social media.

‘I always like exploring new mediums for my art,’ said KAWS. ‘I became interested in working with AR when I realized the quality that can be achieved now. Then came the invitation to work with Fortnite. Now all these things come together in a complex exhibition that takes place in parallel realities.’

For Daniel Birnbaum, Artistic Director of Acute Art and Curator of New Fiction, this ground-breaking exhibition marks ‘the beginning of a new chapter of art living in parallel worlds and reaching local and global audiences simultaneously.’ Get thee to the Serpentine sharpish.