Now Showing #246: The week’s top exhibitions

Patrick Heron, Tate St Ives
This retrospective of paintings by Patrick Heron (1920–99) spans over 50 years from early work in the 1940s right up to 1996, three years before his death. Curated by Andrew Wilson, curator of modern and contemporary British art, Tate Britain, and Tate St Ives curator Sara Matson, with Sarah Martin, curator, Turner Contemporary, the exhibition takes place in Tate St Ives’ new top-lit gallery space and explores the full extent of Heron’s colour-saturated abstract aesthetic.
Until 30 September 2018. www.tate.org.uk

Ulrike Ottinger, Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow
Rarely exhibited in the UK – this is the first solo exhibition of her films and photography to be held here – ‘Still Moving: The films and photographs of Ulrike Ottinger‘ brings together work and archive material from 1977-2016. Curated by art historian and University of Glasgow lecturer Dominic Paterson and including a small screening room showing three of Ottinger’s films, it showcases the artist’s singular approach to filmmaking as she brings together historic and newly-shot footage to create a heady mix of visually dazzling and conceptually challenging works.
Until 29 July 2018. www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian

Neil Gall: Covers and Counterfeits, The MAC, Belfast
Neil Gall’s recent works appear at first sight to be large paper collages, but the paper cut-outs are in fact created from meticulously painted areas of colour, with holes, shadows and apparent kinks perfectly imitating the materiality of paper. The paintings are exhibited here alongside recent bronze sculptures, drawings, and a series of collages based on the covers of art magazine The Studio, made from a substantial collection of back issues of the magazine from the 1940s and 1950s given to the artist by his former secondary school art teacher.
Until 28 July 2018. themaclive.com

Carlos Garaicoa, Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London
Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa explores the city as a physical infrastructure, social network and political space in this exhibition of large-scale installation works. For Fin de silencio (End of silence), Garaicoa has filled much of the floor space in the ground-floor gallery with a series of digitally-printed carpets that appropriate terrazzo pavement signs from Havana’s once magnificent yet ‘decadent’ department stores. In the first-floor gallery, a series of 20th century painted tile advertisements for the Farmacia Juanse in central Madrid have been reworked, with Garaicoa’s contemporary versions that reflect upon recent Spanish political history presented alongside large photographs of the originals.
Until 20 July. parasol-unit.org

Oh, it is easy to be clever if one does not know all these questions, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Castlefield Gallery collaborates with guest curators Pavel Büchler (Manchester) and Mariana Serranová (Prague) for this group show involving artists from both cities. The exhibition focuses on work that ‘seeks to link instinct and imagination with perception and understanding, rather than indulging in critical analysis or the invention of metaphors’. Featured work spans drawing, painting, sculpture, performance and video from Czech artists David Fesl, Martin Kohout, Lucie Michnová, Vojtěch Novák / Andrew Jan Hauner, Pavel Příkaský / Miroslava Večeřová, plus UK artists Nina Chua, Nicola Ellis, Maeve Rendle and Evangelia Spiliopoulou.
Until 1 July 2018. www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk

Images:
1. Patrick Heron, Five Discs : 1963, 1963, Oil paint on canvas, Private collection, © Estate of Patrick Heron. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2018
2. Ulrike Ottinger, Superbia – The Pride, film still, 1986
3. Neil Gall, ‘Covers and Counterfeits’, installation Shot. Photo: Simon Mills
4. Carlos Garaicoa, installation view at Parasol unit, London, 2018. Photo: Benjamin Westoby; Courtesy: Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
5. David Fesl, showing as part of ‘Oh, it is easy to be clever if one does not know all these questions’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 18 May – 1 July 2018. Courtesy: Castlefield Gallery

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