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


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Viewing FIAC

With Frieze Week over, all eyes are on Paris. For FIAC is back. After a year-long hiatus, the French capital’s leading contemporary art fair returns to the Grand Palais Ephémère for its 47th edition, bringing together over 170 galleries from 25 countries.

Among the leading blue-chips are Hauser & Wirth, Xavier Hufkens, Thaddaeus Ropac and Victoria Miro, which shows a two-person presentation of works by Paula Rego and Chantal Joffe. Of the 10 exhibitors in the Young Galleries Sector, we’re most excited about Los-Angeles based Bel Ami and Öktem Aykut from Istanbul whose booth includes works by the celebrated multi-media artist Dorian Sari.

Then, there’s FIAC Hors les Murs, a brilliant (and free) exhibition of outdoor sculptures and installations dotted around the city. For those unable to travel, look to the online viewing rooms, presenting an additional 43 galleries including Pippy Houldsworth, Tiwani Contemporary and David Lewis from New York.

Beyond the fair, museums and galleries across Paris are staging fabulous new shows. Highlights include the major Georg Baselitz and Georgia O’Keeffe exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou; Marlène Dumas at the Musée d’Orsay; and Fondation Louis Vuitton’s landmark exhibition dedicated to the Morozov Collection. Make sure to peek inside the freshly refurbished Bourse de Commerce too before hopping on the Eurostar home. Bon voyage.

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Dates
21 October 2021 — 24 October 2021
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Viewing Wangari Mathenge

Vivid colours, expressive brushwork and figures surrounded by everyday objects characterise Wangari Mathenge’s figurative paintings, often based on herself or family members. ‘I’ve heard comments about how empowering and inspiring it is for black people to see themselves reflected this way,’ Mathenge once said. ‘However, for me, painting is merely an expression of myself, a form of catharsis.’

Mathenge’s first solo exhibition in the UK, now on display at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, draws on her early memories and personal observations to address the diasporic experience of home and identity. Central to the exhibition is Mathenge’s first large-scale installation, incorporating her first stop-motion animation, showing a family living space from the 1970s, replete with retro furniture, books and music. Hanging inside are paintings from The Expats, a series that responds to photographs from her childhood.

Also on display are new large-scale paintings depicting intimate scenes within the home. Some of her figures are at rest. Others are reading, sipping coffee or braiding hair. In this series, Mathenge reclaims the domestic sphere — traditionally a space for labour — as a place of sanctuary and learning. Add to your autumn agenda sharpish.

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Dates
12 October 2021 — 13 November 2021
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Viewing Superblue London

Flooding Instagram feeds across London is Superblue’s latest immersive installation by artist duo A.A. Murakami. Created specifically for the gallery’s new digs in Burlington Gardens, Silent Fall prompts us to contemplate nature and our relationship to it. As you meander around the dark, mirrored room, you’ll encounter artificial, bone-white trees dripping smoke-filled bubbles which you can touch, pop and blow. (Thanks to the mirrors and lighting, which morphs from white to red, the effect is infinite.)

As each bubble bursts, forest-like aromas such as moss, rain and pine are released. Though critics have panned the venture, with many struggling to see its conceptual links to nature, it’s a fun, multi-sensory experience worth investigating if you’re in or around Mayfair.

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Dates
11 October 2021
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