Frieze week is fast approaching and London is abuzz with artistic activity as the smaller galleries and fairs open their doors alongside the biggest event of the year.
There's an awful lot to see, so we've put together a list of the shows to keep on your radar if you're soaking up culture in the capital during the art world's most hotly anticipated seven days.
American artist Doug Aitken is fascinated by our relationship with technology and the way that screens change how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Through disquieting soundscapes and eerie glowing sculptures, he represents our shifting psychological reality with theatrical aplomb. This show at Victoria Miro promised to be a beautiful, immersive and even unsettlingly experience.
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Lisson Gallery is set to host a major exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The show will feature monumental sculptural works in iron cast from giant tree roots sourced in Brazil, as well as more delicate bamboo and silk structures. The works engage with both the fragility of the rainforest and those who are 'uprooted' by political and environmental issues.
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Encompassing painting and film, Mark Bradford's work engages with ancient mythology and in-between places. For this exhibition he explores the Hades, the underworld of ancient Greece, taking the title from the many headed dog that guard that place.
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There are a lot of shows opening on 2 October, but this is also the day that Kara Walker's commission for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall will be revealed to the public. Walker does not hold back on scale and her work for this space is hotly anticipated.
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If you are heading to 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair don't miss Mary Sibande’s exhibition I Came Apart at the Seams. Sibande is one of South Africa's most celebrated artists, but this will be her first solo show in the UK. Her installations chart the progress of her alter-ego, Sophie, from servitude to empowerment.
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Venture beyond the white tents of the Frieze fairs and take in the surrounding sculptural delights. Frieze Sculpture has brought a roll call of exciting names and some truly monumental offerings to Regent's Park this year. Stake out works by Tracy Emin and Barry Flanagan and feel dwarfed by Robert Indiana's large-scale ONE through ZERO work.
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Chinese artist Song Dong is fascinated by the fleeting nature of things. Inspired in part by the rapid modernisation of China, of the destruction of the old and the building of entirely new cities, he works with materials that reflect the transient nature of life. For this exhibition he will be building a city of biscuits, which visitors are invited to consume.
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One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Joseph Beuys was fascinated by the role of the artist as a shamanistic figure and continuously explored the mediatory capabilities of art. Displayed in the UK for the first time, at Bastian London, are five of his sculptures which reveal the German artist's interest in early religious and mythic imagery.
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The House of African Art represents the rising artistic stars of Africa and the African diaspora. Their latest exhibition, Seeing Sounds, invites visitors to discover the creativity of the continent through emerging artists including Ghanaian photographer Derrick Ofosu Boateng and Nigerian mixed media artist Dennis Osadebe. Soak up art alongside talks, spoken word poetry and live music.
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An exhibition of works by 11 artists, including Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye will explore black empowerment through figuration, abstraction and self-representation. 'Without self-esteem,' black feminist scholar Bell Hooks once said, 'everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power.' The surviving works by artist Khadija Saye, one of the victims of Grenfell Tower, will also be included. This is set to be an inspirational show.
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The demilitarised zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is paradoxically one of the world's most heavily militarised areas. A group exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre showcases artistic responses to this strange no man's land which has divided the country for 66 years across installation, sculpture and photography.
Born in fascist Italy and later a refugee from the Brazilian dictatorship in the late 60s, Anna Maria Maiolino is an artist whose life-long experience with exile and displacement heavily informs her oeuvre. She is known for her often unsettling bodily works which provide a deeply personal map of her remarkable life. The long-awaited first UK retrospective of the South American artist comes to Whitechapel Gallery, and is not to be missed.
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Documents, found objects and photographs feature heavily in the work of Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo who often explores the overlap between private and personal histories in his practice. Vo assembles these highly charged materials to set his own biography (he fled his native Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War) against broader historical, social or political events. Don't miss out on the chance to see one of the most acclaimed artists working today, at his first major solo exhibition in London.
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Decorative arts and interior design also receives special attention in the capital at this time of year with the prestigious art and design fair PAD London pitching its famous black tent once again in chic Berkeley Square, Mayfair. Discover ancient antiquities and vintage jewellery as well as kooky modern and contemporary objets d'art. If you're not in the mood to get the wallet out, then simply enjoy perusing a phenomenal panorama of art history.
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The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair is returning to Somerset House for its seventh London edition this autumn. This year’s programme is more packed than ever with 45 exhibiting galleries showing art hailing from 19 countries. The 54 in the art fair’s title refers to the 54 countries that make up the African continent. There will be work from 140 artists on display, in addition to an expanded programme of events.
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