Cindy Sherman, artist and subject, at the National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery’s retrospective of Cindy Sherman’s work includes 190 photographs from the 1970s to the present, most of which use the artist as the subject. It starts with her first major series Untitled Film Stills, which shows her as dressed as different characters from 1950s-60s Hollywood film noir and B movies. It also includes her Cover Girl series, a digital version of A Cindy Book and a recreation of her New York studio.
“No other artist interrogates the illusions presented by modern culture in such a penetrating way - or scrutinises so tellingly the façades that people adopt,” says NPG curator Paul Moorhouse.
Cindy Sherman is at the National Portrait Gallery from June 27 – September 15.
Women photographing landscape at Flowers Gallery
Her Ground: Women Photographing Landscape, which runs Cork Street’s Flowers Gallery until August 31, comprises the works of nine international artists. Pieces address issues of identity, specificity of viewpoint and human relationships to place and environment.
Among them are British artist Lisa Barnard, whose recent project The Canary and the Hammer traces the history of gold, Mona Kuhn of LA whose works are often abstracted with a sense of modernism, and Dutch photographer Scarlett Hooft Graafland, who uses sculpture and installation in her works.
Erwin Olaf’s women at Hamiltons Gallery
“With female talents I can be fairly critical and say exactly what I want them to do, whereas beautiful boys can throw stardust in my eyes,” says photographer Erwin Olaf, whose 60th birthday is celebrated with an exhibition at Hamiltons Gallery. Women gathers works from across his long career, encompassing subjects of all ages and shapes. His earliest works addressed works such as race, class, sexuality and beliefs, while recent scenes tend to resemble paintings or cinematic scenes.
Olaf has worked for Louis Vuitton and Vogue and in 2018 the Rijksmuseum acquired 500 of his works. Earlier this year he released a new monograph with Aperture, Erwin Olaf – I Am. The Hamiltons Gallery show runs until August 16.
Manolo Blahnik at the Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection’s showcase of Maonolo Blahnik shoes incorporates its permanent collection, featuring a pieces from the designer’s archives specially selected by him. They include the candy-coloured shoes designed for Sofia Coppola’s award-winning film Marie Antoinette, seen above alongside Fragonard’s Swing. Each room in the gallery explores a particular theme associated with Blahnik’s work and the influences on his designs. An Enquiring Mind runs until September 1.
Huge headphones at Gagosian
Michael Craig-Martin’s monumental renderings of everyday objects include headphones and safety pins at his current exhibition in London’s Gagosian gallery, which has its final day tomorrow. Six new sculptures made of power-coated steel are arranged to appear like drawings in the air. Each stands between 3-4 meters high, and visitors can walk not just around but under and through the pieces.
