London art exhibitions: Plaster staff picks

Maria Szakats, ‘Romance Apocalypse’, Brooke Benington

It looks like the kind of wet surface, soft focus, hazy painting style popular at the moment with many still life and portrait artists. It’s not. Maria Szakats’ artworks are made of brushed mohair yarn. The former fashion designer turned artist was inspired by the kitschy art and crafts of her grandmother’s home. She turns to similarly unfashionable imagery: dogs, birds and flowers. This show shows her weird side, with imagery drawn from ancient myth and computer animations. – Jacob Wilson

Until 25th January 2025 at 76 Cleveland Street, London W1T 6NB

‘Barbara Hammer’, Champ Lacombe

Barbara Hammer practically invented lesbian cinema with her now-legendary experimental films, but her early photographic work deserves its own spotlight. This exhibition dives into the images she took in the 1970s while travelling around the U.S., Africa and Europe. Hammer documented friends, lovers, collaborators and strangers, capturing raw and tender moments during an era when images like these were shaped by the pornographic lens of male artists. – Izzy Bilkus

Until 9th January 2025 at 1 Woburn Walk, London WC1H OJJ

Jeff Wall, ‘Life In Pictures’, White Cube Bermondsey 

If you go through my camera roll you’ll see that my life in pictures is basically just a load of screenshots of outdated memes and pictures of my average-looking lunch. But luckily, it’s not me who’s had a show open at White Cube this week, it’s Jeff Wall. Wall’s ‘Life In Pictures’ marks thirty years of collaboration between the photographer and the blue chip gallery. Wall’s show collates his ‘near documentary’ photographs, ranging from early lightbox transparencies to more contemporary prints. If a picture tells a thousand words, Jeff Wall’s got a whole library. – Dora Densham Bond

Until 12th January 2025 at 144-152, Bermondsey St, London SE1 3TQ

 Louis Morlæ, ‘Aut-OOO-Arcadia’, Somerset House Studios

The culmination of Somerset House Studios and UAL Computing Institute’s 12-month Creative Technologies Fellowship, ‘Aut-OOO-Arcadia’ serves up a vibrant mix of robotic sculptures, videos and interactive media. Morlæ’s imaginative showcase examines how automation is poised to shake up the world as we know it – think work, play and labour norms, all on the brink of reinvention. It’s a playful yet incisive glimpse at what could be just around the corner. – Izzy Bilkus 

Until 23rd February 2025 at G31, New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA

Letizia Battaglia: ‘Life, Love and Death in Sicily’, The Photographers’ Gallery

Bullets, bombs, blades, electrocution, exhaustion – there are many ways to die in Sicily and Letizia Battaglia photographed them all. Battaglia was a housewife turned crime photographer who worked throughout the 70s-90s for the Palermo daily paper l’Ora. She was first on the scene for many of the murders and assassinations of the city’s notorious gangsters and politicians. Between those moments of action, she shot street scenes and society balls. Her ability to mix with the best and worst of people created some of the richest and most profound crime reportage since Weegee. However, Battaglia never thought much of her work, saying, “photography changes nothing. Violence continues, poverty continues. Children are still being killed in stupid wars.” – Jacob Wilson 

Until 23rd February 2025 at 16-18 Ramillies Street, London, W1F 7LW

‘Medieval Women: In Their Own Words’, British Library

I never thought I’d read a 12th-century skincare recipe but it’s one of the 140 objects currently on display in the new exhibition at the British Library. Illuminating the complex lives of medieval women, the exhibition also includes a letter sent by Joan of Arc, a manuscript of protective prayers and charms for childbirth and a skull potentially belonging to Margaret of Anjou’s pet lion. – Emma Ralph

Until 2nd March 2025 at 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB

Max Richter’s world tour

You could go to church, but you could also see Max Richter at the Royal Festival Hall. The composer and pianist is on the early stops of his first ever world tour, on which he is pairing his new studio album, In a Landscape with his epic The Blue Notebooks. The albums are 20 years apart, but are both conceived as anti-violence protests. Yes, it’s the hypnotic poignancy of the score, the quality of the string ensemble, Es Devlin’s altar-like neon stage set, oh, and Tilda Swinton’s guest appearance to read Kafka’s aphoristic text – all of which makes the hairs on your arms sing, or scream. But it’s the sheer choreography of it all. After the concert, I ask Max how he holds so much in his head: “I need three brains.” – Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Richter’s world tour will run until May 2025, with concerts in the UK, US, Europe and Australia.

‘Welcome To The Island Of Misfit Toys⁣⁣’, Soup Gallery

It could be argued that the armchair in the corner of my room covered in Jellycats (yes, I’m 27) is my own ‘Island of Misfit Toys’. But it’s nothing quite like Soup’s latest show. Featuring DaddyBears’ plush, satin sculpture, Dean JF Hoy’s distressed teddy bear and Ted Le Swer’s CGI ‘happenings’ of decay, the show promises a “a multiverse, caught between fantasies.” A nostalgic space to reconnect with your inner child or an eerie shrine to what once was? – Izzy Bilkus 

Until 14th December⁣⁣ at 227 East St, London SE17 2SS

André Butzer, Galerie Max Hetzler

André Butzer’s paintings remind me of the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared YouTube videos I watched as a teenager. The cartoonish eyes are as amusing as they are unsettling. – Emma Ralph

Until 14th December 2024 at 41 Dover Street, London W1S 4NS