This salivating show by the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson—which opened yesterday (14 July-4 September) at the Barbican Art Gallery—includes videos of his mother spitting in his face, live guitar-playing, installations and “a never-ending Edwardian lesbian kiss” (so says the Telegraph). The latter is a new performance piece titled Second Movement (2016), which takes place every weekend on a rowboat in the Barbican’s small lake.
Mary Heilmann: Looking at Pictures (until 21 August) at the Whitechapel Gallery celebrates the New York-based artist's 50-year career and includes 45 paintings as well as ceramics and works on paper. Heilmann’s works are awash with bright colours and many are inspired by her Californian childhood.
The fashion-designer-turned-curator Duro Olowu has hung together work by more than 70 artists in Making & Unmaking (until 18 September) at the Camden Arts Centre. The show explores the use of textiles in a number of media ranging from the Claude Cahun’s photographs and Alice Neel’s Richard with Dog (1954) painting to Dorothea Tanning’s surreal soft sculpture, Etreinte (1969).
