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Viewing Erwin Wurm’s disembodied clothing and hybrid creatures at Thaddaeus Ropac

The Wick Culture - Breeze Small (Substitutes), 2022 Aluminium, paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Breeze Small (Substitutes), 2022 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Still Blue (Substitutes), 2024 Aluminium, acrylic paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Still Blue (Substitutes), 2024 Aluminium, acrylic paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Breeze (Substitutes) , 2022 Aluminium, paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Breeze (Substitutes) , 2022 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Mind Bubble Walking Pink, 2024 Aluminium, paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Mind Bubble Walking Pink, 2024 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Mind Bubble Standing, 2024 Bronze, patina
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Mind Bubble Standing, 2024 Bronze, patina Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Orange Step Small (Substitutes) , 2024
Aluminium, acrylic paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Orange Step Small (Substitutes) , 2024 Aluminium, acrylic paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

The Wick Culture - Balzac (After Rodin), 2023 Aluminium, paint
Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul
© Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Balzac (After Rodin), 2023 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Breeze Small (Substitutes), 2022 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Still Blue (Substitutes), 2024 Aluminium, acrylic paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Breeze (Substitutes) , 2022 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Mind Bubble Walking Pink, 2024 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Mind Bubble Standing, 2024 Bronze, patina Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Above Balzac (After Rodin), 2023 Aluminium, paint Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul © Erwin Wurm / Bildrecht, Wien 2023. Photo: Markus Gradwohl

Erwin Wurm: Surrogates
Thaddaeus Ropac, Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NJ
5 February—14 April 2024

Surrogates is the title of Erwin Wurm’s beguiling show at Thaddaeus Ropac, with the artist showing new work featuring painted aluminium sculptures of bodiless clothes that appear like 2D silhouettes. Are they harbingers of the post-human planet? “I am interested in everyday life,” says Wurm. “All the materials surrounding me can be useful, and the objects and topics can be involved in contemporary society. My work speaks about the whole entity of a human being: the physical, the spiritual, the psychological, and the political.”

Along the way, the Austrian artist toys with the boundaries between subject and object, and the human and the non-human, swelling the proportions of everyday items such as a high-heeled shoe and hybridising a figure and a pillow. Surrogates is playful, full of surprises and not to be missed.

Viewing A long overdue retrospective of conceptual art trailblazer Yoko Ono

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

Above Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016, at MAXXI Foundation. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini
Roma, MUSEO DEL MAXXI 18 12 2019
Il Segretario Generale dell'ONU António Guterres visita il museo accompagnato dalla Presidente Giovanna Melandri.
©Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini

Above Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016, at MAXXI Foundation. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini Roma, MUSEO DEL MAXXI 18 12 2019 Il Segretario Generale dell’ONU António Guterres visita il museo accompagnato dalla Presidente Giovanna Melandri. ©Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

Above Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

The Wick Culture - Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photo © Clay Perry

Above Yoko Ono, Cut Piece 1964. Performed by Yoko Ono in ‘New Works by Yoko Ono’, Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC, March 21 1965. Photo © Minoru Niizuma

Above Yoko Ono, Film No. 4 (Bottoms) 1966. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, FLY 1970-71. Courtesy the artist

Above Yoko Ono, Freedom 1970. Courtesy the artist

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
15 February – 1 September 2024

John Lennon once quipped that his wife Yoko Ono was “the world’s most famous unknown artist”. Tate Modern’s long overdue retrospective of her work rights this wrong. Born in Tokyo nearly 91 years ago, Ono was a pioneer of early conceptual and participatory art, film and performance, as well as being a musician and a campaigner for world peace. She invited gallery goers to cut her clothes off for “Cut Piece” in 1964 a decade before Marina Abramovic asked visitors to use scissors, wire and a gun “on me as desired” in “Rhythm O”.

That work and other seminal pieces, such as the once banned “Film No.4 (Bottoms)” from 1966-7 – starring a parade of bare buttocks – are explored in the show, which charts the development of her practice over the decades. Her “Refugee Boat”, which visitors are encouraged to cover with messages, from 1960 couldn’t feel more current. Tate Modern’s retrospective reveals that Ono has always been an artist ahead of her time.

Viewing: Join AI pioneer Refik Anadol’s digital voyage beneath the sea

The Wick Culture - Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

The Wick Culture - Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Above Refik Anadol by Efsun Erkilic

Above Refik Anadol, Artificial Realities: Coral, 2023. Courtesy Refik Anadol Studios

Refik Anadol – Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive

Serpentine North, W Carriage Dr, London W2 2AR
16 February – 19 April 2024

Visitors to Refik Anadol’s new London exhibition Echoes of the Earth: Living Archive will find themselves plunged into an underwater landscape and immersed in a forest inside the Serpentine North. The Turkish artist, technologist and AI pioneer trained a unique AI model with approximately five billion images of corals openly accessible online to create his new sound and video experience “Artificial Realities: Coral” (2023). The AI generates abstracted coral images to construct new visuals and colour combinations based on the datasets, transporting viewers to the sea’s watery depths.

Anadol’s Serpentine solo also includes the first UK showing of “Living Archive: Nature,” first exhibited at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, turning part of the gallery into the AI model’s interpretation of a rainforest, complete with data of flora, fungi and fauna from 16 rainforest sites around the world. Through these installations, Anadol explores the ways in which technology dominates our daily lives, transforming the ways we perceive and experience time and space. Prepare to be mesmerised.