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

Viewing Hiroshi Sugimoto at the Hayward Gallery

The Wick Culture - Hiroshi Sugimoto in the Hayward Gallery, with his Opticks series.
Photography: Rachael Smith

Above Hiroshi Sugimoto in the Hayward Gallery, with his Opticks series. Photography: Rachael Smith

The Wick Culture - Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Union City Drive In, 1993. Gelatin silver print. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

Above Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Union City Drive In, 1993. Gelatin silver print. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

The Wick Culture - Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sea of Buddha. Gelatin silver prints. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

Above Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sea of Buddha. Gelatin silver prints. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

Above Hiroshi Sugimoto in the Hayward Gallery, with his Opticks series. Photography: Rachael Smith

Above Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Union City Drive In, 1993. Gelatin silver print. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

Above Installation view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sea of Buddha. Gelatin silver prints. Photography: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre

11 October 2023 — 7 January 2024

Over the last 50 years, the Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto has stubbornly resisted the rise of digital technology, instead pushing the craft of analogue photography to the max – with radical results. Sugimoto often uses a large-format wooden camera, mixing his own darkroom chemicals and developing his black-and-white prints by hand. The quality of his work has to be admired in person – no insta snap will do.

The artist collapses time and stretches space in his work, making the Hayward Gallery’s survey show a mesmerising journey. It includes seminal pieces such as Theaters (1976 – ), a series shot in movie palaces and drive-ins, in which he captures entire films with a single long exposure, rendering all the dramatic action into one image of radiant whiteness. Also shown is Architecture (1997 -), his out-of-focus studies of iconic modernist buildings around the world, in which all their detail is blurred out, leaving behind just their ghostly silhouettes. Sugimoto shakes up both our understanding of the medium, and how we look at the world around us.

Viewing Remi Rough at the House of St Barnabas

The Wick Culture - Remi Rough, installing his work at the House of St Barnabas

Above Remi Rough, installing his work at the House of St Barnabas

Above By Remi Rough

Above Remi Rough, installing his work at the House of St Barnabas

Above By Remi Rough

Remi Rough: What Colour Does For The Fragile Mind
House of St Barnabas, Soho

14 October 2023 – 30 April 2024

Londoners needing their spirits lifted should make a beeline for the House of St Barnabas to see the work of Remi Rough. His colour-saturated, abstract compositions are just the tonic. The hypnotic choreography of line, geometry and colour in his work recalls late 1980’s ‘wildstyle’ graffiti and his own street art beginnings. In ‘What Colour Does For The Fragile Mind,’ some pieces spring forth from the walls of the members’ club, while other works on paper bring a sense of the sculptural to the flat page.

Remi’s joyous compositions are a balm to the weary soul, which will be warmed further still by the fact that proceeds from the exhibition will go towards The House of St Barnabas’ charity, working to empower those affected by homelessness. Art for the heart in more ways than one.

Viewing The Cult of Beauty at the Wellcome Collection

The Wick Culture - 12 Reasons You’re Tired All The Time, Juno Calypso, 2013, courtesy the artist and TJ Boulting. Image: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

Above 12 Reasons You’re Tired All The Time, Juno Calypso, 2013, courtesy the artist and TJ Boulting. Image: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

The Wick Culture - The Disobedient Nose: Fig. 1. The reconstruction of a nose 2022, Shirin Fathi, 2022 © Shirin Fathi. Image credit: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

Above The Disobedient Nose: Fig. 1. The reconstruction of a nose 2022, Shirin Fathi, 2022 © Shirin Fathi. Image credit: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

Above 12 Reasons You’re Tired All The Time, Juno Calypso, 2013, courtesy the artist and TJ Boulting. Image: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

Above The Disobedient Nose: Fig. 1. The reconstruction of a nose 2022, Shirin Fathi, 2022 © Shirin Fathi. Image credit: Courtesy of Wellcome Collection

The Cult of Beauty at the Wellcome Collection
Euston Road, London

26 October 2023 to 28 April 2024

Beauty is a slippery idea, something that philosophers, mathematicians, scientists and the rest of us have spent centuries obsessing over and trying to define. The Cult of Beauty at the Wellcome Collection shows how it is not – as the saying goes – in the eye of the bolder. In fact, the objects and artworks in this thought-provoking exhibition reveal how standards of beauty have been set by dominant groups within the rigid boundaries of status, wealth, race, age and gender, among others.

The show will make you question beauty norms and consider more inclusive definitions. Along the way you’ll discover some surprises, like, did you know that beauty spots are thought to have evolved from ‘mouches’ worn by men and women to hide syphilis scars? The height of fashion, apparently.

Some of the intriguing contemporary artworks include The Disobedient Nose, in which Shirin Fathi explores the pressures Iranian women face to undergo cosmetic surgery, and Xcessive Aesthetics’ experiential installation, which shows the opportunities nightclub bathrooms can offer as spaces for experimentation and community building. Next time you hit the town, perhaps you’ll look at your own perfectly imperfect face in the mirror anew.