Tabish Khan, the @LondonArtCritic, picks his top museum exhibitions to see across London in August. If you are looking for more exhibitions, check out his previous top 5.
This is a fantastic and diverse collection of photographers, including some you may not have come across before. I’ve always been a fan of Mari Katayama’s often elaborately staged self-portraits that prominently feature her prosthetic limbs, and Rinko Kawauchi’s experiments with light. I also enjoyed discovering Miwa Yanagi’s eye-catching take on the role of women in Japanese society, and the brightly coloured assemblage of Mika Nawagawa. Until 27th September, ticketed.
What a great concept: to place your work among those of artists who have inspired you. We travel through art history from ancient Egyptian artefacts through to modern and contemporary artists, including Lucio Fontana, Jacob Epstein, and Marisa Merz. All alongside Houseago’s own works in a cabinet-of-curiosities-style arrangement in what must be any contemporary artist’s dream. Until 19th September.
This exhibition about the movement of women and bodies across water reflects the artist’s own background as a Kurdish-Iraqi refugee who once again had to flee her home in the wake of the recent LA wildfires. Her signature white eyes fly in the face of how we’re all being surveilled, and iris recognition controls access to new places. It reflects the world around us and the waterline along the walls makes us think about how the climate crisis is also adding to the mass migration of people. Until 29th August.
It’s hard to fathom that it’s been over four years since the late Queen’s lying-in-state, and this exhibition inside Parliament pulls together artists who were commissioned to make works in response to it. Dryden Goodwin sketched the faces of those in the queue, Tina Crawford sewed images based on her sketches of the event, and Eleanor Crook created an angelic sculpture loaded with Royal symbolism. These are just three of the six commissioned artists. Until 2nd October, booking is required.
The exhibition is split across two rooms in the building that used to house the national archives, with an audio piece in an old storage space, complete with empty shelves and darkened passages between them. The work concerns the invasion of Quebec (now part of Canada) by US forces. Covering multiple perspectives, including the Indigenous populations, who had little say in what was essentially a war between two British colonies at the time. It’s a fascinating slice of history I knew little about and another Artangel project in a fantastic location. Until 18th October.
All images are copyrighted and courtesy of the respective artists and galleries. Lying-in-state image copyright of the House of Commons. Artangel photo: Thierry Bal.
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Art Critic for both FAD and Londonist. See as many exhibitions as possible and write reviews, opinion pieces and a weekly top 5 for FAD.