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


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Viewing Epic Iran, V&A London

Epic Iran is the first UK exhibition in almost a century to explore 5,000 years of Iranian art, design and culture. Featuring ten immersive sections, it brings together over 300 objects ranging from sculpture, ceramics and carpets to textiles, photography and film that celebrate the country’s vibrant culture, history, architectural splendours, myths and poetry.

This landmark survey opens with striking images of Iran’s dramatic and varied landscapes and concludes with works by modern and contemporary artists, including Sirak Melkonian, Monir Farmanfarmaian and Shirin Neshat. In between, you’ll meander through time, empires, faiths, royal rulers and more.

What strikes is the variety and quality of works on display. You’ll encounter everything from a gold model of a chariot from the Persian empire to Parthian and Sasanian sculpture, gold and silverware. The Shahnameh or Book of Kings, arguably the world’s greatest epic poem written at the start of the 11th century by the poet Ferdowsi, is without a doubt among the star exhibits. Elsewhere, spectacular religious pieces — including illuminated manuscripts, prayer rugs and Qur’ans — that chart the place of Islam in Iranian culture are shown alongside architectural drawings from the 19th century, exquisite textiles and watercolours that show Iran’s modernisation.

There is a lot to gallop through here but persevere and you’ll leave feeling enriched and enlivened — and no doubt wanting more.

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Dates
29 May 2021 — 12 September 2021
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Viewing Alexander Nolan at Crean & Co

The New York-based artist Alexander Nolan is developing a name for himself as an exciting new painting talent. Often inspired by scenes of city life, his works spanning oils, acrylics, pastels, watercolours and inks on paper conjure a colourful world of fantastical realism, fusing the satirical, the surreal and the salacious. (Think wine-swigging monks, candlelit dinners with skeletons and violin concertos attended by cats and dogs.)

His first solo viewing room of works at online gallery Crean & Company includes 31 new works that draw on a range of styles and movements, from the genre scenes of Old Masters to the darkly comic storytelling of Tom & Jerry. ‘I enjoy walking through my mind as if it were a forest,’ Nolan says. ‘There is something mesmerising about the appearance of things — drawing the world around me stimulates the world within me’.

Online highlights include Stocking Up On Toilet Paper (2020), which references the pandemonium of 2020; and On Nancy’s Couch, which evokes the tedium of self-isolation. Needless to say, this one should provide ample lunch-time distraction.

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Dates
12 August 2021 — 24 September 2021

Viewing Yoko Ono at Whitechapel, London

Now’s your chance to participate in an interactive installation by Yoko Ono. The work comprises broken fragments of pottery, two white tables, materials for repair — glue, twine, scissors and tape — and a set of simple instructions provided by the artist: ‘Mend carefully. / Think of mending the world at the same time.’ Once finished, objects repaired by gallery-goers will be displayed on shelves nearby.

Ono first presented this work as Mending Piece I at her 1966 solo exhibition at Indica Gallery in London. The installation takes inspiration from the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, the art of repairing broken pottery using lacquer mixed with precious metals such as gold and silver. The practice nurtures breakage as an important part of an object’s history and celebrates the idea that something new can be created from something broken.

Participation and collaboration, which are central to Ono’s artistic practice and campaigns for peace and universal creativity, are also at the heart of Mend Piece for London. If you’re in need of a dose of mindful relaxation, look no further than his mediative, free exhibition.

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Dates
25 August 2021 — 02 January 2022
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