Hannah Clugston

The Whitworth’s Entangled and Woven brings together contemporary artists and collectives from Korea and India with historic Indian and Korean textiles. The exhibition celebrates the skilled communities behind textile production and emphasizes genuine cultural exchange, with artists developing new works through visits and collaboration across borders. Standout installations include Jounghye Yoo’s immersive gold-and-indigo veil, mirror-work pieces by Somi Ko and Young In Hong, Sumakshi Singh’s floating embroidered bridge, spiritually themed works by Kaimurai and Yeonsoon Chang, and Boito’s hybrid creature. Manchester’s textile-production history and the Whitworth’s extensive collection provide an important historical framework, while the contemporary works dominate through their scale, texture and emotional impact.

An exhibition at the Baltic pairs Tish Murtha’s historically grounded documentary photography of 1970s and 80s Newcastle with Kuba Ryniewicz’s colourful contemporary images, aiming to explore ideas of community and happiness. Murtha’s work, rooted in social struggle and industrial decline, establishes a powerful and somber tone that contrasts sharply with Ryniewicz’s playful, staged photographs. The curatorial approach mixes their pieces throughout the gallery, but the differing themes, styles and contexts prevent a coherent narrative from emerging. While both photographers are recognised for their strong engagement with Newcastle communities, the exhibition’s attempt to connect their work feels strained, leaving the two bodies of work aligned in space but not in meaning.

A wide‑ranging installation at the Whitworth by artist Delaine Le Bas uses fabric, folklore and a vibrant reworking of the museum’s own collection to explore boundaries, belonging and Romany heritage. The exhibition combines immersive rooms, layered textiles and disruptive wallpaper to question exclusion while offering a spirit of welcome. Works by artists such as William Blake, Joan Miró and Paula Rego are interwoven into Le Bas’s narrative, while later rooms introduce a more subdued atmosphere featuring pieces by other artists including Ana Maria Pacheco and Madge Gill. The show culminates in Le Bas’s Glastonbury mural, reframing the fairground motif as a symbolic space for connection and defiant joy.

Helen Chadwick’s retrospective at the Hepworth Wakefield highlights her use of unsettling materials and imagery to explore the tension between attraction and repulsion, drawing on themes of feminism, autobiography and bodily experience. Standout works include installations using chocolate, organic matter and self-referential sculptural tableaux. Presented alongside it, Caroline Walker’s Mothering documents the emotional and physical realities of maternity through attentive, atmospheric paintings informed by observations at UCL Hospital and her own experiences. Together the exhibitions underscore the importance of representing women’s perspectives and illuminate the complexities of desire, labour and care.

Jeremy Deller’s collaborative mosaic with Coralie Turpin forms the centrepiece of Scarborough’s Wild Eye coastal trail, blending Roman motifs with local marine life in a playful, speculative artwork designed to complement coastal views. The Wild Eye project, developed by Invisible Dust and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, commissions climate‑conscious, site‑specific works from British artists. Additional sculptures and installations by Paul Morrison, Shezad Dawood with Daisy Hildyard, Ryan Gander and Emma Smith explore marine ecology, imagined coastal futures and environmental change. The trail encourages slow engagement with the landscape, highlighting both the region’s biodiversity and the environmental vulnerabilities affecting its future.

More than 50 ceramicists exhibit diverse clay works across multiple venues in Stoke‑on‑Trent, reflecting the area’s pottery heritage and exploring themes of human connection and creativity. Installations range from mosaic‑covered cars to sensory video pieces, with contributions from both established and early‑career artists. The show emphasizes clay’s expressive potential and highlights enduring community ties to ceramic craftsmanship.

Artists, curators and critics select significant portraits spanning five centuries, highlighting works that convey emotional depth, cultural identity, historical context and personal resonance. The chosen pieces range from modern and contemporary self-portraits to iconic historical paintings, reflecting themes of resilience, identity, social struggle, artistic innovation and the evolving nature of portraiture.

The exhibition examines slavery and colonialism through installations spread across multiple Liverpool venues, juxtaposing the city’s historic role in the slave trade with contemporary explorations of trauma, memory, and healing. Works by artists including Torkwase Dyson, Binta Diaw, Albert Ibokwe Khoza, Nicholas Galanin, and Guadalupe Maravilla confront the brutality of enslavement, ethnological exploitation, and displacement while also presenting paths toward restoration and communal healing. Curator Khanyisile Mbongwa unifies these themes to create a reflective and forward‑looking biennial that balances painful histories with opportunities for renewal.

A retrospective at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery highlights Tom Wood’s five decades photographing everyday life across Merseyside, capturing intimate, dignified portrayals of ordinary people. The exhibition spans early works, street scenes, sensitive series from Rainhill psychiatric hospital, and personal collections, emphasizing Wood’s curiosity, rapport with subjects, and focus on communities often overlooked in mainstream media.

A multigenerational survey of women sculptors at The Hepworth Wakefield highlights how time shapes artistic practice, linking themes of caregiving, gendered constraints and material experimentation across decades. The exhibition’s diverse works form unexpected conversations, connecting domesticity, bodily experience and broader social issues while challenging expectations of women’s roles within sculpture. The show calls for sustained recognition of these artists and their expanded approaches to materiality and narrative.

Lucie Rie’s ceramics are celebrated in an exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, highlighting her continual experimentation and ability to reinvent form and technique throughout her career. After fleeing Nazi persecution, she rebuilt her life in London, absorbing diverse influences while maintaining a distinct style. The display showcases early works shaped by mentors, mid‑century collaborations, and increasingly experimental later pieces, though the use of glass vitrines is seen as diminishing their visual impact. Rie’s creations resonate more strongly within domestic settings, as demonstrated by the Edes’ longstanding admiration and thoughtful placement of her work, which reveals the depth and vibrancy of her craftsmanship.

Lakwena Maciver’s exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park uses laughter, bold slogans and colourful banners to question hidden social boundaries, protest language and the policing of public speech. Through visual references to ha-has, masks and revolutionary rhetoric, the work interrogates power structures, colonial histories and cultural gatekeeping while maintaining an undercurrent of joy and hope. The installation’s mix of humour, critique and exuberant visuals highlights the value of diverse voices and challenges rigid ideological directives.

An exhibition at Fruitmarket in Edinburgh showcases Hayley Tompkins’s transformation of everyday objects through paint, video and found materials, presenting chairs, shirts and mundane items in altered, vivid forms. Blurry toddler‑like films and colourful installations encourage viewers to see familiar objects anew, while upstairs abstract canvases reveal her shifting colour preoccupations. The show’s playful distortions heighten a sense of curiosity that lingers beyond the gallery.

An exhibition by four Barnsley artists presents a raw depiction of their struggles with addiction, violence and despair through reconstructed environments, photography, painting and collage. The works reveal the darkness of their pasts but move toward renewal through vulnerability, friendship and recovery, culminating in symbols of acceptance and hope.

Tracey Emin’s exhibition at Jupiter Artland explores recovery and intimacy through monotypes, paintings, and a monumental bronze sculpture created after her bladder cancer treatment. Centered on themes of vulnerability, desire, and renewal, the works revisit familiar motifs such as the artist’s bed while shifting from the pain reflected in her earlier post‑illness show toward a future marked by connection and pleasure. The exhibition highlights the evolution of Emin’s emotional landscape through recurring paired figures, intimate bedroom scenes, and solitary sculptural forms that signal independence and resilience.

Two artists in the Vasseur Baltic artists’ award incorporate fermentation, with Ima-Abasi Okon presenting visceral sculptural work and Fernando García-Dory showcasing community-centered agricultural projects. While their installations offer rich ideas about nature, labor and community, they are described as visually restrained. Laleh Khorramian’s final-room presentation, featuring large monotype prints, textiles and light installations, is highlighted as the most striking, creating vivid, organic forms and an immersive environment. The exhibition runs at the Baltic in Gateshead until 2 October.

A multi-artist exhibition at FACT Liverpool examines how music and lyrics shape cultural identity through experimental operas, video works and sound installations. Themes of inherited trauma, displacement, Anglo-Indian heritage and Black trans identity are explored through pieces that foreground text and song. The show challenges viewers to reconsider familiar narratives and reflect on the stories carried through melody and spoken word.

A review of the Survey II exhibition at Site Gallery in Sheffield examines how works by 10 early‑career artists reflect experiences of lockdown and anxieties about domestic space and the outside world. Installations and films explore themes of safety, unease, adaptation, and distorted home environments, with pieces ranging from surreal textiles and manipulated objects to performative video works. The review highlights the show’s ability to provoke shifting interpretations and sustained curiosity through unsettling yet compelling imagery.

The review describes Betsy Bradley’s first solo exhibition at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, highlighting her vibrant use of colour, large-scale canvases and painted voile installations inspired by Buddhist rainbow theory and arte povera. The works emphasise spontaneity, energy and sensory presence, transforming gallery spaces into contemplative environments filled with sweeping neons and swirling pastels. While smaller pieces are described as less impactful, Bradley’s larger works are praised for their immersive, emotive qualities. The exhibition runs until 13 February.

Lord Whitney, the creative duo of Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney, unveil their immersive Christmas installation at Harewood House, blending historical details with poetic and sensory elements. Their collaborative process emphasizes emotional impact, mental well‑being, and playful engagement, positioning their artistic environments as spaces for calm, reflection, and imaginative escape.

Suzanne Lacy’s exhibition at the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery brings together socially engaged projects spanning three decades, exploring borders, community histories and inequalities. Works addressing the Irish border, cultural connections in Lancashire and youth empowerment in Oakland are presented through immersive installations, though some archival displays lose the vitality of the original interventions. Lacy’s long-term collaborations have influenced institutions and raised awareness of unpaid labour and representation, reinforcing her impact on shaping socially conscious communities.