Edward Burra, Tate Britain review - watercolour made mainstream

★★★ EDWARD BURRA, TATE BRITAIN Social satire with a nasty bite

Social satire with a nasty bite

It’s unusual to leave an exhibition liking an artist’s work less than when you went in, but Tate Britain’s retrospective of Edward Burra manages to achieve just this. I’ve always loved Burra’s limpid late landscapes. Layers of filmy watercolour create sweeping vistas of rolling hills and valleys whose suggestive curves create a sexual frisson.

Ithell Colquhoun, Tate Britain review - revelations of a weird and wonderful world

★★★★ ITHELL COLQUHOUN, TATE BRITAIN Revelations of a weird and wonderful world

Emanations from the unconscious

Tate Britain is currently offering two exhibitions for the price of one. Other than being on the same bill, Edward Burra and Ithell Colquhoun having nothing in common other than being born a year apart and being oddballs – in very different ways. And since both reward focused attention, this makes for a rather exhausting outing – I’m reviewing them separately – so gird your loins.

Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - teeth with a real bite

★★★★ RACHEL JONES: GATED CANYONS, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY Teeth with a real bite

Mouths have never looked so good

I first came across Rachel Jones in 2021 at the Hayward Gallery’s painting show Mixing it Up: Painting Today. I was blown away by the beauty of her huge oil pastels; rivulets of bright colour shimmied round one another in what seemed like a joyous celebration of pure abstraction.

Yet hidden within this glorious maelstrom of marks were brick-like shapes representing teeth; Jones is fascinated by mouths and the dentures that, literally and metaphorically, guard these entry points to our interior being.

Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery review - sickeningly cute kids

★ YOSHITOMO NARA, HAYWARD GALLERY How to make millions out of kitsch

How to make millions out of kitsch

It’s been a long time since an exhibition made me feel physically sick. The Hayward Gallery is currently hosting a retrospective of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara and the combination of turquoise walls and oversized paintings of cute kids turned my stomach over. Kitsch has that kind of power.

Hamad Butt: Apprehensions, Whitechapel Gallery review - cool, calm and potentially lethal

★★★★★ HAMAD BUTT: APPREHENSIONS, WHITECHAPEL GALLERY The YBA who didn’t have time to become a household name

The YBA who didn’t have time to become a household name

Hamad Butt studied at Goldsmiths College at the same time as YBAs (Young British Artists) like Damien Hirst and Gillian Wearing; but whereas they would become household names so their work is now familiar, he disappeared from view. It makes his Whitechapel retrospective feel like a rediscovery – incredibly fresh and immediate.

Bradford City of Culture 2025 review - new magic conjured from past glories

★★★★ BRADFORD CITY OF CULTURE 2025 City, mill and moor inspire the city's visual arts offering

City, mill and moor inspire the city's visual arts offering

Botanical forms, lurid and bright, now tower above a footpath on a moor otherwise famed for darkness and frankly terrible weather. But the trio of 5m-high contemporary sculptures grow in place here, drawing life from limestone soil. These metallic buds, blooms and supersize tubers reflect a deep, tropical past that predates the very English landscape we now associate with this part of the world.

Bogancloch review - every frame a work of art

★★★★ BOGANCLOCH Living off grid might be the meaning of happiness

Living off grid might be the meaning of happiness

Director Ben Rivers is primarily an artist, and it shows. Every frame of Bogancloch is treated as a work of art and the viewer is given ample time to relish the beauty of the framing, lighting and composition. Many of the shots fall into traditional categories such as still life, landscape and portraiture and would work equally well as photographs.

Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, Tate Modern review - memories are made of this

★★★★ DO HO SUH: WALK THE HOUSE, TATE MODERN Memories are made of this

Home sweet home preserved as exquisite replicas

A traditional Korean house has appeared at Tate Modern. And with its neat brickwork, beautifully carved roof beams and lattice work screens, this charming dwelling looks decidedly out of place, and somewhat ghostly. Go closer and you realise that, improbably, the full-sized building is made of paper. It’s the work of South Korean artist Do Ho Suh (main picture).