Wondering what to see this November? We've hand-picked a selection of the most interesting art shows and exhibitions happening this month that deserve a spot on your must-see list.
ROTIMI FANI-KAYODE: THE STUDIO - STAGING DESIRE
AUTOGRAPH
Old Street I 31 October to 22 March
In a space where the barriers between difference and fantasy are dissolved, Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s photographs are a spirited exploration of culture, intimacy, desire and pain. From 1983 until his death in 1989, the artist lived and worked in Brixton, where his studio transcended into a sanctuary visualising black queer self-expression. The Studio – Staging Desire is the culmination of meticulous research into the artist’s archives, presenting never-before-seen works. These photographs reveal what it meant for Fani-Kayode to negotiate the status of ‘outsider’, turning this into the generative force that has defined the artist’s practice.
Find all information and book free tickets here.
HOW TO DESTROY ANGELS
THE HORSE HOSPITAL
Russel Square I 8 November to 30 November
Bringing together artists from across disciplines and eras that share sensibilities with the various aspects of The Horse Hospital's rich and complex 31-year history, this exhibition will be a tribute to the radical power of subculture, underground movements, and DIY culture, reflecting on the legacy that has defined the venue for over 3 decades. The exhibition will feature the works of artists who have embraced the fringes of mainstream culture to push boundaries and experiment with new forms and narratives.
Find all details here.
DANIEL SHANKEN: THE PITS
CHEMIST GALLERY
Lewisham I 25 October to 4 December
The Pits is a new installation by Daniel Shanken that descends through tiers and levels: the pit in your stomach, in the ground, and in your brain. It uses eating as a crux, imagining the digestion, assimilation, offloading, and onboarding that occur when giving yourself to be devoured by technologies or entities with their own agency and agendas. The work shifts between different perspectives—human, non-human, pizza box, and microwave—exploring the pleasure and horror of willingly opting in and zoning out. At the center of the installation is a conversation pit constructed in the gallery, allowing you to physically enter the work.
Find all information here.
PARKER ITO: THE PILGRIM'S STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING GESAMTKUNSTWERK IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON, À LA MODE
ROSE EASTON
Bethnal Green I 2 November to 14 December
Rose Easton presents a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based multimedia and digital artist Parker Ito, accompanied by a text by Philippa Snow. Ito has said: "I am passionate about the internet, and making work about the effects that the internet has had on traditional objects is the most honest thing I can do", and he is known for creating sculptures, paintings, and video works that draw upon his experience online.
Details here.
KEVIN KLAMMINGER: PROMETHEAN APPROACH
UNIT
Oxford Circus I 6 November to 8 December
Kevin Klamminger’s debut UK solo exhibition explores an interplay of contradictory forces. Influenced by a balance between conscious and unconscious minds, Promethean Approach presents a series of paintings that combine an almost hyperrealist visual language with a surreal atmosphere.
Find more information here.
DOMINIC MYATT: SHOT AND BOTHERED
NEVEN
Bethnal Green I 9 November to 14 December
Dominic Myatt is an artist living and working in London. His practice moves between drawing, painting, sculpture and photography, referencing autobiography, sexuality and the everyday in work that oscillates between humour and anxiety. His solo exhibition at Neven will be accompanied by a text by P. Eldridge.
Find out more here.
TAYLOR WESSING PHOTO PORTRAIT PRIZE 2024
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Charing Cross I 14 November to 16 February
The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize returns for its 17th year, showcasing the work of talented young photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals in the very best of contemporary photography. The competition celebrates a diverse range of images and tells the fascinating stories behind the creation of works, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family.
Find more information and tickets here.
ERWIN OLAF: BIGGER THAN LIFE
HAMILTONS
Bond Street I 14 November to 1 Februrary
Erwin Olaf, who passed away in 2023, was internationally renowned as an artist whose diverse practice centred around society’s marginalized individuals including women, people of colour, and the LGBTQ+ community. Influenced by artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Helmut Newton, Olaf’s early works were marked by a distinct subverting of social norms, challenging of taboos, and exploration of sexuality in modern society. The exhibition is a celebration of Olaf’s life and photographic oeuvre and presents important works from across his four-decade career.
Find all details here
LOG 3: INTERCEPTOR
PLICNICK SPACE INITIATIVE
Deptford I 9 November to 21 December
You are invited to LOG 3: Interceptor, with works by Beatrice Vorster, Szilvia Bolla, Sabrina Ratté, and Evangelia Dimitrakopoulou. The events in LOG 1 through 3 are based on the experiences of an unknown agent, following the traces of a lost entity through spacetime, profiling its trajectory in the process. It has reconstructed this moment within its limited ability, piecing together fragments to form a whole. Housed in a site-specific AI-assisted mise en scène, the exhibition aims to open questions on data harvesting, digital profiling, contemporary mass categorisation, and the resulting data chimera. This show is the final in a three-part story; an experimental curatorial project led by Melle Nieling and Amélie Mckee.
More information here.
ALEX GIBSON: GLASS CANNON
PUBLIC
Aldgate I 30 October to 7 December
Glass Cannon is the first UK solo exhibition by New York-based artist Alex Gibson, whose paintings on panel exercise a type of compositional mapping, balancing the instantaneously recognisable with the abstraction of accumulation. Gibson’s compositions puzzle together scattered annotations with episodic sequences that spill onto the surface and sink beneath a confluence of superimposed characters. Across thirteen new works, the artist slips between gesture, symbol and image, toying with our desire for narrative resolution in a game of resistance and restraint.
Find out more here
MEITAO QU: IT'S A SMALL WORLD (AFTER ALL)
PUBLIC
Aldgate I 30 October to 7 December
Meitao Qu's practice examines how urban architecture and lifestyle attractions shape the conditions that reproduce and disguise ideologies as collective fantasy. This exhibition presents a large-scale kinetic installation of an urban landscape, producing a miniature world that interrogates how ideologies materialise into objects, commodities, and the built environment. Taking global spectacles such as World's Fairs and consumer capitals like Disneyland as sites of inquiry, Qu examines how objects and symbols carry a visual economy that mobilises ideological narratives for popular consumption, reproduced under the guise of entertainment and play.
All details here.
THE 80s PHOTOGRAPHING BRITAIN
TATE BRITAIN
Pimlico I 21 November to 5 May
Explore one of the UK’s most critical decades, the 1980s.This exhibition traces the work of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications –creating radical responses to the turbulent Thatcher years. Set against the backdrop of race uprisings, the miner strikes, section 28, the AIDS pandemic and gentrification – be inspired by stories of protest and change.
All details here.
