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Viewing Mickalene Thomas at The Hayward

Mickalene Thomas’ work is an act of joyful reclamation—one that tugs at the seams of historical representations until they unravel. As this newly-opened two-storey UK debut of the American artist at the Hayward proves, Thomas’ has radically insisted on love, on beauty, and on female empowerment.

Black female agency is at the centre of Thomas’ work and in this show, her figures – usually based on women in the artist’s own life and inner circle – are larger than life, and literally dazzling, rhinestones embedded in their surfaces.

Beyond these better known sides of Thomas’ work this show also delves more into her sculptures and installations, positioning her within a tradition of Black American artists experimenting with unconventional materials and forms. Thomas’ personal references are often cribbed from the 1970s, the decade of her childhood and one she often returns too, replicating furnishings, wallpaper and bric-à-brac to restage domestic environments that evoke comfort and safety.

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Dates
11 February 2025 — 05 May 2025
All About Eve, is co-curated by artist Soheila Sokhanvari and gallery director Kristin Hjellegjerde, and references the 1950 film of the same title, which follows the tale of Margo Channing, an aging Broadway star, whose career is threatened by the younger, more ambitious Eve. From this premise of female rivalry, power and patriarchy, this exhibition is a thrilling look at gender-based inequality through the ages.

Sokhanvari and Hjellegjerde have drawn together some incredible works by leading contemporary artists, such as the vibrant, cosmological Kamasan cloth paintings of Balinese artist Citra Sasmita (currently showing at the Barbican’s Curve gallery) and the groundbreaking images of Lindsay Seers who turns herself into a camera by placing light-sensitive paper in her mouth, confronting the medium’s long history of objectification, especially of women.

Elsewhere, encounter extraordinary, arresting pieces on childbirth and motherhood by Sutapa Biswas, and the beautiful nacre sculptures of Zayn Qahtani, approaching the female body as a vessel not only for birth, but as a portal between the earth and cosmos. Through works by fourteen artists, this group show is revelatory and empowering, an original and compelling exploration of female creativity and triumph.

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Dates
07 February 2025 — 08 March 2025
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Viewing Thomas Ruff: expériences lumineuses at David Zwirner

In his astonishing career – spanning from the 1970s to today – the German photographer Thomas Ruff has covered many of art’s major genres, from the nude to landscape to architectural photography, working in series, attempts to understand and unravel the ‘grammar of photography’. Photography, in essence, is Ruff’s subject and muse.

At this new exhibition – Ruff’s first London solo since his 2017 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition – Ruff unveils two recent series for the first time, explorations into photographic abstraction. At first, they look like charcoal drawings – as Susanna Brown, curator, points out. A staggering two metres tall, they reveal themselves as smoky, hazy photographs only on closer inspection.

Ruff employed an experimental process to produce these giant photographic abstractions, in a purpose-built studio. He arranged compositions of glass objects, such as mirrors and lesnes, on a whiteboard before exposing them to multiple beams of light. Working more like a scientist than an artist, Ruff explains ““There’s not one way of making photographs. There are thousands of possibilities you can choose from…. I am just interested in the result and if the result is worth discussing.”

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Dates
30 January 2025 — 22 March 2025
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The Wick Culture - Anuk Rocha, 2026
Spotlight

Spotlight Anuk Rocha creates patchwork portraits from fleeting feelings

The Wick Culture - Yeonjoon Yoon, Gavin Poole, Conrad Shawcross, Tristram Hunt at UMBILICAL

Happenings Conrad Shawcross: UMBILICAL at Here East

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Gallery view of the 2025 Summer Exhibition
Photo: © David Parry/ Royal Academy of Arts

Happenings RA Summer Party

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Katy Wickremesinghe at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings Rachel Jones at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Happenings
The Wick Culture - The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
Storehouse, including over 100 mini
curated displays ‘hacked’ into the ends
and sides of the storage racking. Image by Hufton + Crow for V&A

Happenings V&A East Storehouse

Happenings