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

All, Art, Auctions, Exhibitions, Travel & Hospitality, Initiatives

Doing Taste of London, Regent’s Park

The Wick Culture - Taste of London, Regent's Park

Above Taste of London, Regent’s Park

Taste of London
14-18 July (Final weekend)
Regent’s Park

Every summer, Taste of London transforms leafy Regent’s Park into a foodie’s paradise. The final weekend of this year’s festival (14-18 July) sees top chefs from London’s hottest restaurants serve up taster-size portions of their signature dishes, alongside food and drink stands touting the best artisanal produce, innovative cocktails and more.

With each dish priced at around £7, make sure to arrive hungry! Don’t miss the drippy egg sandwich (made with Clarence Court Burford Browns) from EggRun or La Tua Pasta’s Devonshire crab black ravioli with burrata. Equally delicious is the sweet chilli and miso glazed black cod at Sticky Mango.

For dessert, look to Freezecakes’ scoopable frozen cheesecakes or the super tangy, crisp lemon pie from Napoli Gang. Those with a super sweet tooth should hit up the Savvy Baker’s homemade brookies (yes, that’s a brownie-cookie hybrid). Pair with a glass of fizz from the Laurent Perrier Club House for the ultimate al fresco dining experience.

Once you’ve finished feasting, check out the extensive programme of live events, spanning cooking demonstrations, foodie masterclasses, wine tasting, live music, DJ performances and more. A must-do for any London foodie this summer. But hurry, tickets are selling fast.

Doing Liverpool Arab Arts Festival

The Wick Culture - The Perfect Candidate, Modern Films The Perfect Candidate (dir. Haifaa Al Mansour)

Above The Perfect Candidate, Modern Films The Perfect Candidate (dir. Haifaa Al Mansour)

Above Heya: Blue Spaces

The Wick Culture - Al Jahiz illustration by Noura Andrea Nassar, What Happened in Baghdad

Above Al Jahiz illustration by Noura Andrea Nassar, What Happened in Baghdad

Above The Perfect Candidate, Modern Films The Perfect Candidate (dir. Haifaa Al Mansour)

Above Heya: Blue Spaces

Above Al Jahiz illustration by Noura Andrea Nassar, What Happened in Baghdad

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival
16 July — 14 November 2021
Various locations, Liverpool and Online

The UK’s longest running festival of Arab arts and culture returns in July for its 23rd edition. Featuring the best UK and international Arab artists, the multi-artform programme of live and online events explores the complexities of the climate emergency in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region today.

Highlights of the launch programme include Eating The Copper Apple, a one-woman show exploring identity, culture and displacement by poet Lisa Luxx; and Grounds for Concern, a new installation by artist Jessica El Mal that questions the concept of land ownership and the boundaries enforced by human-made borders.

In August, Youcef Hadjazi’s poweful new performance film, Trauma Then, Trauma Now, will be shown at Liverpool’s Royal Standard. Taking as its subject the Algerian Civil War, it looks at collective and transgenerational trauma in post-colonial nations.

Not in Liverpool? Listen to What Happened in Baghdad, a new podcast by Kamel Saeed featuring creatives that once called the Iraqi capital home. There’s also a rich film programme to sink your teeth into.

The full schedule of events for September, October and November has yet to be released, but highlights include a new LAAF commission that brings together 22 Arab artists, activists and creatives from across the MENA region; and Threads, a new multidisciplinary performance and digital work that explores stories of migration, disability and the passage of time. With so much to see and do, it’s worth planning ahead. Enjoy!

Viewing IRL (In Real Life), Timothy Taylor London

The Wick Culture - Sahara Longe, Ejatu in Pink and Green, 2021

Above Sahara Longe, Ejatu in Pink and Green, 2021

The Wick Culture - Erin M. Riley, Alone in Seoul, 2021

Above Erin M. Riley, Alone in Seoul, 2021

The Wick Culture - Rebecca Ackroyd, Receiver, 2021

Above Rebecca Ackroyd, Receiver, 2021

The Wick Culture - Kesewa Aboah, Taking Up Space, 2021

Above Kesewa Aboah, Taking Up Space, 2021

The Wick Culture - Honor Titus, Brownstone Waltz, 2020

Above Honor Titus, Brownstone Waltz, 2020

Above Sahara Longe, Ejatu in Pink and Green, 2021

Above Erin M. Riley, Alone in Seoul, 2021

Above Rebecca Ackroyd, Receiver, 2021

Above Kesewa Aboah, Taking Up Space, 2021

Above Honor Titus, Brownstone Waltz, 2020

IRL (In Real Life)
Timothy Taylor London
8 July — 21 August 2021

Just as we embrace the new normal comes this group exhibition of paintings, sculptures and textile-based works, which celebrates the joy of social and sensory experience, while also considering the profound impact of Internet culture on the ways we work, socialise and connect with the world.

From textured tapestries to hand-painted canvas wall hangings, many of the works on display are characterised by heightened materiality — a nod perhaps to our collective longing for physicality in lockdown.

Antonia Showering, William Brickel and Honor Titus express their desire for touch and connection in paint, while Alma Berrow’s quirky plates of food pay homage to the hedonistic pleasure of eating and drinking among friends and family. (Her ceramic fried eggs look good enough to eat!)

Uncanny gouaches by Rebecca Ackroyd are shown alongside arresting self-portraits by Lydia Pettit and tapestries by Kesewa Aboah, who uses her own body as a tool during the creative process. After the year we’ve had, a show devoted to our lives online and off seems pretty apt.