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

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Viewing Art in Flux: Reclaimed

The Wick Culture - Art in Flux: Reclaimed. Virtual Exhibition. Curated by Aphra Shemza, Maria Almena, Olive Gingrich. Designed by Chris MacInnes. www.artinfluxlondon.com 2021

Above Art in Flux: Reclaimed. Virtual Exhibition. Curated by Aphra Shemza, Maria Almena, Olive Gingrich. Designed by Chris MacInnes. www.artinfluxlondon.com 2021

Art in Flux: Reclaimed
with National Gallery X

Until 30 April
Currently online.

Established in 2016, Art in Flux champions artists from underrepresented groups to ensure diversity within the art world. ‘As an artist and curator, I believe that contemporary art has a responsibility to contribute to societal change,’ explains María Almena, the co-founder of Art in Flux. ‘By curating events that reclaim space for talented but underrepresented groups, I am hoping to lead the way towards a more thoughtful and inclusive way of experiencing art.’

This new virtual exhibition, launched in collaboration with National Gallery X, celebrates the most radical and innovative mixed media artists working today, among them Aminder Virdee, Camille Baker and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley.

Baker’s INTER/her, for example, spotlights post-reproductive issues in women over 40, while Brainf*ck, a playful reactive brainwave sculpture by Olive Gingrich and Shama Rahman, responds to states of sensualisation using 3D bodyscans.

Though galleries and museums around the world are preparing to reopen their doors, virtual viewing experiences are here to stay. And this is one of the very best. Just make sure to browse in Chrome.

Viewing Shara Hughes at the Garden Museum

The Wick Culture - Shara Hughes
Pop, 2021
Oil and dye on canvas
248.3 x 182.9 cm
96 x 72 in
Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Pop, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

The Wick Culture - Shara Hughes
Attraction Contraption, 2021
Oil and dye on canvas
248.3 x 182.9 cm
96 x 72 in
Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Attraction Contraption, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

The Wick Culture - Shara Hughes
Hard Hats, 2021
Oil and dye on canvas
248.3 x 182.9 cm
96 x 72 in
Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Hard Hats, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Pop, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Attraction Contraption, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Above Shara Hughes Hard Hats, 2021 Oil and dye on canvas 248.3 x 182.9 cm 96 x 72 in Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London

Shara Hughes
Garden Museum, London

17 May – 5 June

Shara Hughes has devoted her career to painting invented landscapes that ‘use every trick in the book to seduce’. Imagined hills, rivers, trees, shorelines and flowers executed in her signature palette of bold, clashing colours draw the eye across the canvas, challenging conventions of space and perspective.

For her first UK museum exhibition, presented in partnership with Pilar Corrias Gallery, the Brooklyn-based artist has created four site-specific flower paintings. The large-scale works show oversized orchids, dandelions and poppies as well as fantastical foliage conjured entirely from her imagination.

‘Generally, flowers have been seen as a symbol of beauty,’ Hughes explains. ‘When I first started working with flowers, I wanted to break that idea. And have them be seen as not just beautiful but as powerful and scary, something delicate but also something strong.’

To allow these works to evolve instinctively, Hughes approached the canvas with no expectations or judgements. The resulting paintings are a riot of colour and serve as intriguing portraits of the painter herself.

Viewing Arturo Herrera: From This Day Forward at Thomas Dane Gallery

The Wick Culture - Arturo Herrera
Untitled, 2020
mixed media collage
50 x 30 cm.
19 3/4x 11 3/4 in.
© Arturo Herrera, Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery
and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Above Arturo Herrera Untitled, 2020 mixed media collage 50 x 30 cm. 19 3/4x 11 3/4 in. © Arturo Herrera, Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Above Arturo Herrera Untitled 2020 mixed media collage 50 x 30 cm. 19 3/4x 113/4 in. © Arturo Herrera, Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Above Arturo Herrera Untitled, 2020 mixed media collage 50 x 30 cm. 19 3/4x 11 3/4 in. © Arturo Herrera, Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Above Arturo Herrera Untitled 2020 mixed media collage 50 x 30 cm. 19 3/4x 113/4 in. © Arturo Herrera, Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Arturo Herrera: From This Day Forward
Thomas Dane Gallery

Until 6 June
Currently online. IRL at first opportunity

Born in Venezuela in 1959, Arturo Herrera is celebrated for his cartoonish collages, felt sculptures and wall paintings that fuse popular cultural imagery, historical source material and elements of abstraction. ‘I am attracted to juxtaposing invented images and readymade images without establishing explicit relations between elements,’ he once said.

This brilliant show, his fourth at Thomas Dane Gallery, brings together new works, immersive wall painting and bookmaking shaped by the lived constraints of isolation. Central to the exhibition is the fine line mural that spans the gallery walls, echoing elements from Herrera’s 2020 hand-made book From this day Forward. It also includes several of his distinctive collages composed of photographic fragments, vibrant figurative strokes, animation and cultural and historical references that chart his continued investigations into modernist legacies and layering.

What strikes is his desire to distort meaning: ‘Can I make something so clear ambiguous? Can I uproot it?’, he asks. His work, particularly his collage, straddles that fluid border between legibility and abstraction — and is all the more entrancing for it.