Apollo Magazine

London Diary: 14 October

A bumper day for London exhibitions as work by Steve McQueen, Alighiero Boetti, Philippe Parreno and Jonas Burgert goes on show

Ashes (2014), installation by Steve McQueen © Steve McQueen. Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery

Every morning until the end of Frieze, we’ll be rounding up some of the latest exhibition openings in London. Click here to view the whole series.

Alighiero Boetti: i Colori
Until 13 December, at Luxembourg & Dayan
A series of Boetti’s systematic early monochromes from 1967, which set the tone for his whole career.

Rosso Gilera 60 1232 Rosso Guzzi 60 1305 (1967), Alighiero Boetti. Private collection, courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan

Steve McQueen: Ashes
Until 15 November, at Thomas Dane Gallery

The British artist presents a short new film projection, Ashes, in which idyllic footage shot in Granada in 2002 by Robbie Müller is cut through by a violent recorded narrative.

Ashes (2014), installation by Steve McQueen © Steve McQueen. Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery

Jonas Burgert: STÜCK HIRN BLIND
Until 22 November, at Blain|Southern

Burgert’s monumental paintings are an unsettling collision of traditional scenes (interiors, still lifes, full-scale portraits, art-historical quotations) and nightmarish visions. Rendered in an equally conflicting mix of old-fashioned glazes and graffiti-like scribbles, they are allusive, accomplished and grotesque.

licht und wind (2014), Jonas Burgert © the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Blain|Southern. Photographer: Gunther Lepkowski, 2014

Philippe Parreno: With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life
Until 14 November, at Pilar Corrias

A large LED installation dominates this varied exhibition of Parreno’s work: compiled from hundreds of the artist’s firefly drawings, it flashes powerfully in the opening room. Don’t miss the intriguing drawings, like scientific slides, in the downstairs gallery.

With a Rhythmic Instinction to be Able to Travel Beyond Existing Forces of Life (film still; 2014) © Philippe Parreno. Courtesy Pilar Corrias, London

Helen Chadwick: Bad Blooms
Until 28 November, at Richard Saltoun

Chadwick refers to her Wreaths to Pleasure (1992–93) series as her ‘Bad Blooms’. The images of flowers and fruits drifting on liquid are a curious blend of pleasure, poison, nature and artifice.

Wreath to Pleasure , Helen Chadwick

Tom Friedman: Gravity
Until 15 November, at Stephen Friedman Gallery

Friedman isn’t afraid to make light of a weighty concept in his latest exhibition. His new sculptures and paintings, which include a styrofoam boulder suspended in the gallery space, and paint seemingly spilling off a plinth, toys with the idea of gravity as both a physical and emotional force.

Tightrope Walker (2014), Tom Friedman

Alice Neel, Wangechi Mutu and Eric Fischl
Until 19 December, at Victoria Miro (Mayfair and Wharf Road)
Three new openings at Victoria Miro put painting and collage back into the frame. Alice Neel’s ‘My Animals and Other Family’ portraits in Mayfair are casual, direct and deceptively simple; Mutu’s unsettling collages, sculptures and videos at Wharf Road depict hybrid and mutating female forms. Meanwhile, Eric Fischl’s ‘Art Fair Paintings’ take a wry look at the Frieze week circus.

Mel Bochner: Going Out Of Business!
Until 14 November, at Simon Lee Gallery

Bochner started creating his word paintings on velvet out of necessity – it was one of the only unprimed fabrics the artist could find that would take the pigment – but came to view its kitschy effect as a ‘bonus’. He presents a new set of works this month.

Ha, Ha (2014), Mel Bochner © the artist and courtesy Simon Lee Gallery London, Hong Kong and New York

Andro Wekua: Some Pheasants in Singularity
Until 15 November, at Sprüth Magers

The artist’s first exhibition at Sprüth Magers will transform the gallery with a makeshift wall and life-sized sculptural figure, almost but not quite human, suspended within the space.

Untitled (2014) © Andro Wekua. Courtesy Sprueth Magers and Gladstone Gallery

Justin Adian: Strangers
Until 22 November, at Skarstedt

This display of Adian’s abstract canvas and foam sculptures is the artist’s first in London.

Neopolitan (2014), Justin Adian © the artist, courtesy of the artist and Skarstedt

Young Masters Art Prize 2014
Until 31 October, at Sphinx Fine Art and The Lloyds Club

Established by Cynthia Corbett in 2008, this prize celebrates the work of young artists who look back to the past for inspiration, reworking tradition instead of attempting to do away with it.

The Author (2014), Gillian Hyland

Public exhibitions opening today

Cybernetic Serendipity: A Documentation
Until 30 November, at the ICA

The ICA has mounted an archival display in its Fox Reading Room to celebrate Jasia Reichardt’s landmark exhibition ‘Cybernetic Serendipity’ of 1968. The exhibition was the first in the UK to look at how the arts and new technology could contribute to one another.

Richard Tuttle
Until 14 December, at the Whitechapel Gallery

This survey show of Tuttle’s work with coincides with the artist’s Turbine Hall commission at Tate Modern and is accompanied by a new publication I Don’t Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language.

MIRRORCITY
Until 4 January, at the Hayward Gallery

How has the digital age affected our experience and understanding of the world around us? A new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery presents work by London-based artists which responds to the dynamic and disorientating character of everyday cosmopolitan life.

Which exhibitions are you most looking forward to this month? Have we missed something? Let us know in the comments.

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