SHOWNews: Your Weekly Arts Bulletin

ART FAIR

London Original Print Fair at Somerset House

With so many different art events and fairs to look out for in the capital - all boasting different milestones and achievements - it can be hard to keep up and know where to turn your attention. Our advice would be to start with the oldest; legitimacy never fails, right? By those measurements, London Original Print Fair takes home the trophy by a safe country mile, helped along by its achievement of also being the world’s oldest specialist print fair. Big deal. Even bigger deal when you realise this year marks the fair's 40th anniversary, which will be taking place at Somerset House (also celebrating its 25th anniversary). Championing printmaking in all its forms, names exhibiting at LOPF this year are just as varied as the six centuries of art history offered up. From the usual suspects (yes, there will be Picasso and Hockney prints available in the dozens) to some newer names - did you know Brian Eno and Radiohead's Thom Yorke aren't just musicians now? There is truly something for everyone, young and old. Highlights include new print launches by Peter Blake, Chris Levine, David Shrigley and Gavin Turk, all of which are cunningly placed beside more iconic pieces courtesy Warhol, Basquiat, Bridget Riley and Tracey Emin. Oh yes, Picasso and Hockney too.

London Original Print Fair at Somerset House will be open to the public between 20 and 23 March. For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

Up Close by Tom Wesselmann at Almine Rech

It shouldn't take you a while before realising the Cartoonish nature embedded in Tom Wesselmann's body of work, a characteristic that can be explained by the artist's two years spent in the army - which also marked the beginning of Wesselmann's journey in art. Stare at a Wesselmann for a little longer and you may also notice how, for much of the artist's work, there lies an answer in the psychological, especially concerning the nature of the objects that centre his paintings - telling us about the society Wesselmann was governed by but also his own subconscious. Such interpretations may warrant an eye roll or two but when you look into the artist's biography, the pop art puzzle suddenly becomes much more streamlined (Wesselmann also studied psychology at the University of Cincinnati before turning to art completely). Feel like you need to know more? Take yourself along to Grosvenor Hill for Up Close at Almine Rech this weekend, where you can indeed get a close-up look at Wesselmann's paintings and in particular, his titillating penis studies, many of which were made amidst the backdrop of the Sexual Revolution between 1967 and 1970. The exhibition also presents an array of paintings and preparatory sketches that don't just embrace hair-rising objects, but rather a whole host of still life elements, often the ones that accompany an image of an erect (but horizontal) closeup of a penis with a lotion bottle, an ashtray with cigarette, light switch, vase of flowers and a tissue box all making an appearance. You don't need to use your imagination to infer what this witty selection of objects entails. The maths is done for you, you just need to get Up Close.

Up Close at Almine Rech is open to the public until 12 April.

FILM FESTIVAL

BFI Flare Film Festival Returns For 2025

If you're late to the party and wondering where you can get tickets to see film screenings at next week's BFI Flare Film Festival then you may be out of luck - tickets went on sale in February and they were eagerly snapped up (although there are some left so hurry). If you're not as quick as others then fear not, there are plenty of talks and events you can still attend - many of which have their heart set on educating as they do inspiring - this is Europe's only LGBTQI+ film festival, after all. As for the film debuts we're most excited about? We encourage you to browse SHOWstudio's top picks here for a better informed take on this year's festival and the new releases that need adding to your cultural calendar.

BFI Flare Film Festival will take place at BFI Southbank between 19 and 30 March.

EXHIBITION

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy of Art

Sometimes the best markings on a page don't form just a string of words but pictures, too, and every once in a while, those who like a good book are also treated to a wealth of illustrations by their favourite author as much as they are sentences worth their weight in gold. Whoever has read Alasdair Gray's literary masterpiece Poor Things (or any of the Scottish author's work for that matter) will know what I mean. But it wasn't just Gray who was blessed with artistic talent, so was Victor Hugo, and as proven by the Royal Academy's latest exhibition of his work titled Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo, he had it in abundance. Now is your chance to discover the imaginary worlds of one of France’s most famous writers, at this exhibition of his rarely-seen works on paper.

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy of Art is open to the public between 21 March and 29 June.

FILM SCREENING AND PERFORMANCE

Bodies in Motion at Shoreditch Arts Club

Cinema and dance share more commonalities than just being forms of expression. Both delight in story-telling through movement and both rely on bodies (whether actors or dancers) to tell such stories. Exploring these familiarities and more, London-based collectives Girls in Film and WMN* have united to present Bodies in Motion, an evening of cinema delighting the language of dance and movement. Through a curated selection of short films, the audience will be encouraged to take a look at how the body can express life’s moments and emotions without words, as themes of vulnerability, identity, self-expression, and body image are communicated in avant-garde ways - revealing how there is more than one way to tell a story. Finding synergy between the two mediums, this one-off specialist film screening will also include a live performance so ticket holders can be treated to art (and dance) on and off the screen.

Bodies in Motion will take place at Shoreditch Arts Club on Wednesday 19 March.

EXHIBITION

Remembering by Arpita Singh at Serpentine North Gallery

Is it just me or is the fashion industry lost in a permanent cycle of nostalgia and remembrance? Whether it be fashion looking to the past to recreate spectacle (sans talent) or the art industry constantly pivoting to further analysing the 1990s YBAs rather than looking to the new. 'It's because everything is so bad at the moment people don't want to wake up' someone told me recently, implying the past was better than it is now. But was it, really? An artist who is more qualified to talk about this than most is Arpita Singh whose UK debut show Remembering specialises in doing exactly that. Featuring key works selected in close collaboration with the artist from her prolific career spanning more than six decades, Singh’s paintings centre on her emotional and psychological state, using inspiration from Bengali folk art and Indian stories to interpret the effects of social upheaval and global conflict. Resisting singular interpretation, Singh's art offers food for thought when it comes to how we deal with global crises as well as our own observations of unsettling historical events and everyday life.

Remembering by Arpita Singh at Serpentine North Gallery is open to the public between 20 March and 27 July.