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.

After years spent as a specialist at Sotheby’s Old Master Sculpture Department, Samantha Thornton decided to try her own hand at creating striking sculptural works — a cancer diagnosis inspired her to waste no time. Now, a selection of her bronze and stone creations are on view at Bernard Chauchet Contemporary Art, demonstrating her interest in exploring different techniques and effects with the alternating materials. With her bronze works, Thornton starts with wax, building realistic figures whose fluid body movements contrast with the rigidity of the medium. However, her stone carvings are far more abstract, painstakingly hammered, chiseled and hand polished with sandpaper to create curving arcs with unexpected angles and points. Through these two styles, Thornton meditates on her interest in the human form, prompted by her illness and her experience of using that time to focus on her body and its healing.