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Visual Arts

Best art exhibitions Frieze week 2019

Frieze week is fast approaching and London is abuzz with artistic activity as the smaller galleries and fairs open their doors alongside the biggest event of the year.

There's an awful lot to see, so we've put together a list of the shows to keep on your radar if you're soaking up culture in the capital during the art world's most hotly anticipated seven days.

Doug Aitken: Return to the Real, Victoria Miro Gallery

Doug Aitken: Return to the Real, Victoria Miro Gallery

American artist Doug Aitken is fascinated by our relationship with technology and the way that screens change how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Through disquieting soundscapes and eerie glowing sculptures, he represents our shifting psychological reality with theatrical aplomb. This show at Victoria Miro promised to be a beautiful, immersive and even unsettlingly experience.

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WHEN
2 October – 20 December 2019
WHERE
Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, Islington, N1 7RW
All Fingers Must Point Down, 2015 (Detail) Bamboo, silk. Courtesy Ai Weiwei Studio Photo: Joshua White

Ai Weiwei: Roots, Lisson Gallery

Lisson Gallery is set to host a major exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The show will feature monumental sculptural works in iron cast from giant tree roots sourced in Brazil, as well as more delicate bamboo and silk structures. The works engage with both the fragility of the rainforest and those who are 'uprooted' by political and environmental issues.

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WHEN
02 Oct 2019 – 02 Nov 2019, Monday – Friday: 10:00am – 6:00pm Saturday: 11:00am - 5:00pm
WHERE
Lisson Gallery, 27 Bell Street, Lisson Grove, NW1 5DA
Mark Bradford, Cerebus, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London

Mark Bradford, Cerebus, Hauser & Wirth Gallery, London

Encompassing painting and film, Mark Bradford's work engages with ancient mythology and in-between places. For this exhibition he explores the Hades, the underworld of ancient Greece, taking the title from the many headed dog that guard that place.

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WHEN
2 October – 21 December 2019
WHERE
Hauser & Wirth, 23 Savile Row London W1S 2ET
Kara Walker awarded Hyundai commission at Tate Modern

Kara Walker awarded Hyundai commission at Tate Modern

There are a lot of shows opening on 2 October, but this is also the day that Kara Walker's commission for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall will be revealed to the public. Walker does not hold back on scale and her work for this space is hotly anticipated.

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WHEN
02 Oct 2019 – 05 Apr 2020, 12:00 AM
WHERE
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG
Mary Sibande. A Terrible Beauty is Born (Long Live the Dead Queen Series) 2013 (c) Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande: I Came Apart at the Seams, Somerset House

If you are heading to 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair don't miss Mary Sibande’s exhibition I Came Apart at the Seams. Sibande is one of South Africa's most celebrated artists, but this will be her first solo show in the UK. Her installations chart the progress of her alter-ego, Sophie, from servitude to empowerment.

Read more ...
WHEN
03 Oct 2019 – 05 Jan 2020, 12:00 AM
WHERE
Somerset House, Strand, Covent Garden, WC2R 1LA
Robert Indiana, ONE through ZERO, 1980-2002, Waddington Custot , Frieze Sculpture 2019  Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of Stephen White/Frieze.

Frieze Sculpture Park, Regent's Park 2019

Venture beyond the white tents of the Frieze fairs and take in the surrounding sculptural delights. Frieze Sculpture has brought a roll call of exciting names and some truly monumental offerings to Regent's Park this year. Stake out works by Tracy Emin and Barry Flanagan and feel dwarfed by Robert Indiana's large-scale ONE through ZERO work.

Read more ...
WHEN
3 July 19 – 6 October 19
WHERE
Regent's Park, Chester Rd, London, NW1 4NR
Song Dong: Same Bed, Difference Dreams, Pace Gallery

Song Dong: Same Bed, Difference Dreams, Pace Gallery

Chinese artist Song Dong is fascinated by the fleeting nature of things. Inspired in part by the rapid modernisation of China, of the destruction of the old and the building of entirely new cities, he works with materials that reflect the transient nature of life. For this exhibition he will be building a city of biscuits, which visitors are invited to consume.

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WHEN
01 Oct 2019 – 05 Nov 2019, 12:00 AM
WHERE
Pace Gallery, 6 Burlington Gardens, Mayfair, W1S 3ET
Joseph Beuys: Important Sculptures from the 1950s, Bastian

Joseph Beuys: Important Sculptures from the 1950s, Bastian

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Joseph Beuys was fascinated by the role of the artist as a shamanistic figure and continuously explored the mediatory capabilities of art. Displayed in the UK for the first time, at Bastian London, are five of his sculptures which reveal the German artist's interest in early religious and mythic imagery.

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WHEN
20 September – 16 November 2019
WHERE
Bastian, 8 Davies Street, Mayfair, W1K 3DW
Seeing Sounds, The House of African Art

Seeing Sounds, The House of African Art

The House of African Art represents the rising artistic stars of Africa and the African diaspora. Their latest exhibition, Seeing Sounds, invites visitors to discover the creativity of the continent through emerging artists including Ghanaian photographer Derrick Ofosu Boateng and Nigerian mixed media artist Dennis Osadebe. Soak up art alongside talks, spoken word poetry and live music.

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WHEN
1 – 7 October 2019
WHERE
Copeland Gallery, Copeland Park, 133 Copeland Road, Peckham, SE15 3SN
Rock My Soul, Victoria Miro

Rock My Soul, Victoria Miro

An exhibition of works by 11 artists, including Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye will explore black empowerment through figuration, abstraction and self-representation. 'Without self-esteem,' black feminist scholar Bell Hooks once said, 'everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power.' The surviving works by artist Khadija Saye, one of the victims of Grenfell Tower, will also be included. This is set to be an inspirational show.

Read more ...
WHEN
2 October – 2 November 2019. Monday - Friday: 10:00am - 6:00pm Saturday: 11:00am - 5:00pm
WHERE
Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, Islington, N1 7RW
The Real DMZ Project: Negotiating Borders

The Real DMZ Project: Negotiating Borders

The demilitarised zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is paradoxically one of the world's most heavily militarised areas. A group exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre showcases artistic responses to this strange no man's land which has divided the country for 66 years across installation, sculpture and photography.

WHEN
1 October – 23 November 2019
WHERE
Korean Cultural Centre, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, Covent Garden, WC2N 5BW
Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary, Whitechapel Gallery

Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary, Whitechapel Gallery

Born in fascist Italy and later a refugee from the Brazilian dictatorship in the late 60s, Anna Maria Maiolino is an artist whose life-long experience with exile and displacement heavily informs her oeuvre. She is known for her often unsettling bodily works which provide a deeply personal map of her remarkable life. The long-awaited first UK retrospective of the South American artist comes to Whitechapel Gallery, and is not to be missed.

Read more ...
WHEN
25 September – 12 January 2020
WHERE
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, Shadwell, E1 7QX
Danh Vo, South London Gallery

Danh Vo, South London Gallery

Documents, found objects and photographs feature heavily in the work of Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo who often explores the overlap between private and personal histories in his practice. Vo assembles these highly charged materials to set his own biography (he fled his native Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War) against broader historical, social or political events. Don't miss out on the chance to see one of the most acclaimed artists working today, at his first major solo exhibition in London.


Read more ...
WHEN
19 September – 24 November 2019
WHERE
South London Gallery, 65-67 Peckham Road, Camberwell, SE5 8UH
PAD London 2019, Berkeley Square

PAD London 2019, Berkeley Square

Decorative arts and interior design also receives special attention in the capital at this time of year with the prestigious art and design fair PAD London pitching its famous black tent once again in chic Berkeley Square, Mayfair. Discover ancient antiquities and vintage jewellery as well as kooky modern and contemporary objets d'art. If you're not in the mood to get the wallet out, then simply enjoy perusing a phenomenal panorama of art history.

Read more ...
WHEN
30 September – 6 October 2019
WHERE
Berkeley Square, Mayfair, W1J 6ES, UK
Aida Muluneh, 'Star Shine Moon Glow', 2018 (c) The Artist

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair is returning to Somerset House for its seventh London edition this autumn. This year’s programme is more packed than ever with 45 exhibiting galleries showing art hailing from 19 countries. The 54 in the art fair’s title refers to the 54 countries that make up the African continent. There will be work from 140 artists on display, in addition to an expanded programme of events.

Read more ...
WHEN
3-6 October 2019
WHERE
Somerset House, Strand, Covent Garden, WC2R 1LA
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