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


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We saw, experienced and touched less art in 2020 than (almost) ever before. But just how much did this affect you? Did you miss it? Did you seek solace in it? Are you now more sensitive to it?

Time Takes a Cigarette, the first group exhibition at Josh Lilley’s recently expanded gallery in Fitzrovia, brings together works by 14 international artists that address our complex relationship with art and art making.

Highlights on display include Brandi Twilley’s theatrical tableaux, Kathleen Ryan’s mouldy fruit sculptures made from gemstones and Gareth Cadwallader’s pressure-formed miniatures.

The gallery is currently closed but works can be browsed online. You can also take a virtual tour of a slimmed-down show via the Vortic App.

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Dates
12 February 2021 — 25 March 2021
Location
Josh Lilley Gallery

Viewing Idris Khan, The Seasons Turn at Victoria Miro

In lockdown Idris Khan produced a new body of work exploring the tumult of 2020. Now it’s the subject of an IRL solo show at Victoria Miro London.

The Seasons Turn includes two distinct installations. The largest comprises a suite of 28 watercolour and oil collaged works on paper that are stamped with fragments of the score of Vivaldi’s baroque masterpiece The Four Seasons.

There are seven works illustrating each season. As you move around the gallery, the colours change to reflect subtle seasonal shifts: lush greens and yellows of summer give way to the burnished hues of autumn.

Elsewhere, there is a series of mesmerising blue paintings — a colour the artist describes as having ‘an immediate effect on emotion’ — which are layered with the artist’s thoughts, feelings and responses to 2020. This show advocates for a slower, more considered way of looking. Just what we need.

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Dates
13 April 2021 — 15 May 2021
Location
Victoria Miro

Viewing dear moon by Shota Nakaruma at Peres Projects

This exhibition of new paintings by the Japan-born, Berlin-based artist Shota Nakamura explores dreaming, dream images and our subconscious desires. It also looks at dreamscapes as a bridge between our domestic spaces and the natural world.

Taking centre stage is the sleeping figure, sprawled out across bedroom and forest floors. They are painted in loud colours but embody a stillness that encourages quiet reflection. Time is suspended: Shota cultivates space for our fantasies to evolve.

You’ll also see Shota’s signature motifs: birds, trees and flowers. ‘I try all that I can in order to draw nature,’ he once said. ‘I simply find it beautiful.’

For dear moon, Shota looked to European modernism and found imagery in painting, photography, tapestry, craft and film for inspiration. Of his distinctive creative process, he has said: ‘Sometimes I just pick up the images from a catalogue that I have in my bookshelf and add my interpretation by recreating the work.’

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Dates
12 March 2021 — 13 April 2021
Location
Peres Projects
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