Art shows to see in LA, London, and New York in November 2023

Love, loss, change, and grief are beautifully intertwined in London-based photographer Jesse Glazzard’s debut solo exhibition, For Love or Nothing, inviting contemplation on the diverse facets of intimacy among friends and lovers. It explores shared spaces during times of change and joy while tenderly meditating on the essence and complexities of love.

From November 2 – 30, 2023.

Exploring notions of being seen and hidden, this exhibition examines art that features partially obscured or hidden figures by artists employing techniques like shadowing and digital technology as a means of what artists call ‘going dark’ and challenging visual perception. More than 100 works from 28 artists, predominantly Black artists, with over half of the 28 artists also women. Works primarily span from the 80s to the present day, there are some works from the 60s and 70s as a nod to Conceptual art's influence on contemporary exploration of the ‘edge of visibility’, including David Hammons, Faith Ringgold, and Charles White. It’s an unmissable role call of artists under one roof, from Ming Smith to Kerry James Marshall, Dawoud Bey, Lyle Ashton Harris, John Edmonds, Lorna Simpson, Sable Elyse Smith, and more.

From October 20, 20230, until April 7, 2024.

Exploring the interplay of beauty, art, and aesthetics while drawing from centuries of philosophy and art history, Canon of Beauty, curated by Fousieh Mobayen, features four emerging artists: Antonia Nannt, Murat Önen, Victoria Pidust, and Lola Stong-Brett. Through sculpture, painting, and photography, they offer new perspectives on our modern world, asking, “how strongly does the western gaze influence these theories” as to what makes something, or someone, aesthetic, and what doesn’t?

Until November 12, 2023.

The UK's inaugural skateboard design exhibition traces skateboarding’s journey from the 1950s to today, celebrating design, performance, and community – with added on-site ramp. Curated and designed by Jonathan Olivares, it delves deep into skateboard evolution. It features around 90 unique boards – such as vintage gems like Tony Hawk's debut pro model – hardware, safety gear, and cultural artefacts, shedding light on technical advancements and its eventual, although not entirely, societal acceptance.

Until June 2, 2024.

Tokyo-born and New York-based artist Hiroshi Sugimoto's 50-year journey through photography is a blend of thought-provoking reflection and subtle subversion. Featuring pivotal works from all his photographic series, showcasing his philosophical exploration of time, memory, and photography's dual role in documenting and inventing. It also unveils lesser-known pieces that reflect his fascination with photographic history, mathematics, and optics. Sugimoto's work, often using large-format wooden cameras, harks back to 19th-century photography, reshaping our perception of time, space, and light. An important exhibition to see in an age that forces us to question everything we see.

Until January 7, 2023.

Sir John Akomfrah unearths the hidden historical forces, extending beyond human control, reminding us of the multifaceted influences shaping our world in a new multi-screen film titled Arcadia. Transporting viewers to The Columbian Exchange a profound historical transformation between the New World and Old World, characterised by “the widespread transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, commodities, populations, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas, Afro-Eurasia and Europe”. The film juxtaposes visuals of our beautiful world with manmade destruction to “evoke ideas of migration, journeys, colonial encounters, how things travel and spread, growth and decay.”

From November 30, 2023, until June 2, 2024.

British artist Rene Matić’s inaugural solo show in New York is taking place across November – officially the final iteration of her ongoing series flags for countries that don’t exist but bodies that do. kiss them for me captures ephemeral moments that bridge the personal and the societal through photographs and handwritten notes – a self-portrait signifies a moment of reflection and pause as this chapter concludes. Over six years, Matić has immortalised their and their friends’ lives as they navigate grief, messy truths, and the spaces where love can flourish. It’s beautiful to know that our friends across the pond can experience Matić’s brilliance too.

Until December 9, 2023.

MoSEX’s latest exhibition, brilliantly titled Radical Perverts, is curated by Alexis Heller and delves into the transformative sex culture and activism of LGBTQIA+ public spaces (such as BDSM bars, bathhouses, porn theatres, parks and tearooms). It also highlights the mutual aid these spaces provided during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s by developing safer sex education – critical in the face of a government failing even to acknowledge the virus publicly. Examining the intertwined histories of pleasure, community, pain, and public health in these disappearing revolutionary spaces, Radical Perverts memorialises the queer kinship and loss within these sites while emphasising their role in protest and political action, defying discrimination and grief. Featured artists include Nayland Blake, Tom Burr, Phyllis Christopher, and more, along with archival ephemera from the Leather Archives & Museum to reflect the eroticism and urgency of the 25-year period from 1975-2000.

From October 12, 2023 – April, 14, 2024.

If you’re at London’s Tate Britain and feeling a bit peckish, you’ll want to head over and see the revival of Bobby Baker's 1970s groundbreaking artwork “An Edible Family in a Mobile Home”, which has been unseen for almost five decades. Baker's prefab East London house replica, stationed on the museum’s South Lawn, will host life-sized edible sculptures representing a family, symbolising the passage of time as visitors consume them. The installation coincides with Tate Britain’s exhibition Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990, which also opens in November (read on for more information) celebrates women artists’ contributions to an industry that has done its darndest to erase them. Tate Britain, thanks to public funding via Arts Council England, is making this installation possible. After its Tate Britain run, the “Edible Family” will embark on a UK tour, with the final presentation at Idle Women, a social justice collaboration in Lancashire. Note that the work will take a mini break between December and March, dates below.)

From November 8, 2023 – December 3, 2023, March 8 – April 7 2024.

Charlie Phillips is a living British photography legend whose latest solo show How Great Thou Art: 50 Years of African Caribbean Funerals in London offers a moving photographic journey through the traditions of the African Caribbean community surrounding death, notably funerals held in west London, starting in the 1970s. In 2014, I was lucky to interview Phillips about the series – its title, inspired by a hymn sung at funerals – which pays tribute to the African diaspora's rich cultural traditions in the UK. The first solo show in the Centre for British Photography, it’s an immersive exhibition featuring photographs, video, and music, to offer a profound celebration of life and heritage.

Until December 17, 2023.

Many conversations are being had about AI and how it is slowly/quickly taking over/destroying the world. US artist, writer, and filmmaker, Zach Blas’, CULTUS is an exhibition that frankly scares the shit out of me as it explores the intersection of technology and spirituality by delving into the growing religiosity surrounding artificial intelligence in the tech industry, where AI takes on god-like attributes. Its installation features a pantheon of AI gods, each with its own unique domains and prophets – take, for example, Expositio, which challenges our tech dependence and creates “a new form of exhibitionism where algorithmic governance, security, and surveillance are recast through BDSM and ritual”. Or ludicium, an AI arbiter “not unlike Christ in Michelangelo’s Last Judgement”. It's a fascinating exhibition that draws parallels between fringe religious practices and the development of AI in Silicon Valley. In doing so, it provokes thought on the ongoing influence of these AI deities in our lives (cue spooky music).

Until February 17, 2024.

Women’s Work is Never Done is a retrospective curated by renowned Belgian curator Catherine de Zegher, who lends her brilliance to London gallery Richard Saltoun for this group exhibition. Spanning three decades across three gallery spaces, the show explores the subversion of political oppression in art, the expanded role of drawing, and the intersection of art and ecology, and showcases de Zegler’s crucial contributions to art theory, curation, and institutional history, underscoring her dedication to the feminine principle, environmental, and socially conscious art. Expect works from Bracha L. Ettinger, Eva Hesse, and Louise Bourgeois, amongst other legendary women who have done and are still doing the work.

From November 14, 2023 – January 27, 2024.

Emerging London-based photographer Tami Aftab’s The Rice Is on the Hob is a captivating photography project and accompanying book that captures intimate moments in her family's life. It spotlight her father, who migrated from Lahore, Pakistan ‘decades ago’, and is often the star of Aftab’s work. The Rice on the Hob explores themes of identity, heritage, and belonging through her lens, highlighting the significance of food, traditions, and familial connections while emphasising the warmth, love, and cultural richness within her Pakistani family, and also touching on the universal aspects of family bonds and daily rituals.

From November 3 to November 5, 2023.

If you’re noticing a theme this month it’s because artists are doing the work to try and save this burning world by engaging in conversations of climate and ecology in new ways. RE/SISTERS is a significant group exhibition from the Barbican which looks at the intersection of gender and ecology, underscoring the intricate ties between the subjugation of women and environmental degradation. It features approximately 50 (!) international artists, both emerging and established, from across photography and film. The artworks challenge the capitalistic exploitation of the planet while emphasising women's role as environmental advocates. By addressing topics like extractive industries and caregiving politics, RE/SISTERS underscores the inseparable fight for environmental and gender justice and seeks to combat prevailing power structures endangering our fragile ecosystem.

Until January 4, 2024.

Cinephiles listen up! Legendary director Spike Lee gives us a rare glimpse into his personal life with an immersive installation, Creative Sources in his native New York City at the Brooklyn Museum. Featuring items from his personal collection of over 450 objects, including art, musical instruments, historical photographs, memorabilia, and more, each item relates to ideas explored in his films, about Brooklyn, music, and Black culture. A rare opportunity to get into one of the greatest minds in film in the past half century.

Until February 4, 2024.

The hits keep on coming at Tate Britain. Hot off the heels of Sarah Lucas’ Happy Gas, the museum is readying itself to launch a major survey of feminist art from over 100 British women artists and their often-overlooked influence on the UK and beyond during the upheavals of the 70s to the 90s. From feminist movements, women’s liberation, punk, motherhood and domesticity, the AIDS epidemic, and LGBTQIA+ activism, Women in Revolt! Is a powerful tribute to the resilience and creative force of women throughout. From Sonia Boyce to Eileen Cooper, Linder, the Hackney Flashers, Penny Slinger, and many more – many of the works will also be showing for the first time since the 70s.

From November 8, 2023 – April 7, 2024.

US artist Adrian L. Burrell’s solo exhibition, Venus Blues, examines history amidst adversity and erasure through sculptures, life-sized photos, and a new instalment of an ongoing film project, The Saints Step in Kongo Time. The exhibition fills the entire MSP Foundation space, showcasing the importance of preserving cultural heritage and family legacies in the post-slavery era. It also pays tribute to the powerful matriarchs, or ‘Venuses’, at the heart of Burrell's extended family, reimagining their stories and journey across generations and geographies. The exhibition creates an environment that acts as a roadmap for building new worlds, rooted in Black radical feminist theory.

Until December 3, 2023.

Five decades of artists' zines in North America are getting their props with Copy Machine Manifesto, which opens at the Brooklyn Museum next month. Often a tool for marginalised and underground voices, zines have empowered those outside of the mainstream for the last six decades. This expansive exhibition celebrates the zine’s influence on various subcultures, avant-garde practices, and their intersections with diverse art mediums. With nearly 1,000 zines and artworks by 100 artists on show, Copy Machine emphasises the humble zine’s pivotal role in art production and reception. Phaidon Press will also co-publish a comprehensive publication that explores the artist zine with over 800 images alongside essays by renowned writers. For those who can’t make the show, grab one via the museum’s online store or via Phaidon.

From November 17, 2023 – March 31, 2024.

When she was 17, Vinca Petersen moved into a London squat that would influence her photography work over the next two decades and beyond. Her 14-year immersion in the free party and Traveller scenes, from 1990-2004, Petersen is behind some of the most enthralling photographs that documented British subculture. After the ridiculous crackdown on 'repetitive beats' in the 1994 Criminal Justice Act, Petersen and her mates went nomadic life, travelling across Europe until 2005. This new series organises photographs and memorabilia into thematic clusters, blending the old with contemporary images amongst the artist's own reflections. The diary-like assemblies contain over 100 previously unreleased shots, conveying narratives or embracing abstract connections between memory, image, and archive.

From November 3 – December 16, 2024.