SHOWnews: Your Weekly Arts Bulletin
Inner Child at Opera Gallery, New Bond Street
You don't have to have an education in art history to know the names Niki de Saint Phalle and Yayoi Kusama - both of whom are all-time heavyweights in the pop art world. What you do have to have is a resounding appreciation of - or at the very least, curiosity in - the colour, form and composition of their enigmatic works; without this, you're screwed. Lucky for you, a new exhibition opens at Opera Gallery this week titled Inner Child, which showcases 41 artworks in total where just seven paintings will be outweighed by a whopping 34 sculptures. Tapping into the jubilant nature of Saint Phalle's sculptures while also providing a stage for Kusama's near-hypnotic use of dotted repetition to entrance gallery-goers once more, Inner Child, characterised by a vibrant array of colour and imagination, is exactly what you think it is; an innocent yet divine exploration of these two artists' inner worlds - and their inner child.
Inner Child at Opera Gallery is open to the public from 3 April until 5 May.
The Paris of Agnes Varda, From Here to There at Musée Carnavalet, Paris
The Centre Pompidou may be closed until 2030 but don't be fooled, Paris' cultural quarter is far from lacking in the exhibitions department and Musée Carnavalet has stepped up to the mark with their upcoming show The Paris of Agnes Varda, From Here to There. Comparing her photographic and cinematic work through an ensemble of 130 prints, the exhibition highlights Varda's idiosyncratic offbeat, humorous, and eccentric gaze through which she observed the people and streets of Paris throughout much of her life's work. Whether you're a francophile or cinephile - or just a huge fan of Varda (aren't we all?), this one is for you. We've also heard Eurostar Snap is back up and running making it easier and cheaper than ever before to get to Paris ... any takers?
The Paris of Agnes Varda, From Here to There at Musée Carnavalet is open to the public between 9 April and 24 August.
Ed Atkins at Tate Britain, Pimlico
What does it mean to be moved and confused simultaneously? We don't have the answer just yet but artist Ed Atkins does. Or, to be more specific, his latest exhibition at Tate Britain - the largest UK survey of his work to date - does. In true Atkins style, this show attempts to trace the dwindling gap between the digital world and human feeling. Easier said than done, we know, but when you have an assembly of paintings, writing, embroideries, sketches and moving-image works to draw meaning from, Atkins' deeply unsettling, hyper-surreal world begins to take shape - just not in the ways you'd expect. Pitting a weightless digital life against a corporal world of craft, and touch to ask 'What impact has modern technology really had on our sense of selves?', this exhibition couldn't be any more relevant in today's world, where our URL personas are just as active and present as our IRL ones - you've seen Severance, right?
Ed Atkins at Tate Britain is open to the public until 25 August.
William S. Burroughs at October Gallery
On 6 September 1951, the critically acclaimed Beatnik novelist William S. Burroughs tragically killed his wife Joan Vollmer during a drinking game. The death was an accident that left Burroughs emotionally scarred for the rest of his long life but the notorious shotgun series of paintings he made in the wake of her death are everything but accidental. The making of such works saw Burroughs repetitively line up spray paint cans in front of wooden boards to then fire, hypnotised by the exploding paint that ruptured the surfaces only to then further inspect it in the days afterwards, his attention stolen by the action of analysing where the shrapnel had escaped to. I am no psychologist but the connection between Burroughs' wife's death by shotgun and the gravitational pull that resulted in the creation of these works is nothing but a minefield - one you can get your teeth into this weekend at October Gallery with the exhibition WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS which includes a selection of works made with spray paint, ink, gunshots and more, open to the public for extended hours on its final day this Saturday.
William S. Burroughs at October Gallery is open to the public until 5 April.