David Shrigley, 'I'm Dead', 2007
Taxidermy kitten with wooden sign and acrylic paint, Overall: 94.5 x 50 x 50cm
David Shrigley, Stephen Friedman
Until 19 January
One glance through the gallery window will lead you to believe it's more of the same from home grown funny man Shrigley whose art brand now extends to a range of greetings cards. But move in closer to the familiar collage of deliciously dark and myopically mundane imagery artfully plastered to the wall and you realise his ability to discern the current political mood in Britain remains acute. An additional array of artworks and props offer more tawdry territory - mannered pastiches of contemporary art describe the notion of the art object from both sides of the creative/commercial divide - but are still likely to raise a titter. It's true, he is deadpan, but this overused adjective falls short in describing the myriad ways Shrigley picks at the edges of our sense of humour and self.
Artists Anonymous
Artists Anon, Maddox Arts
Until 30 January
"Big tits everywhere, what do we do with all these tits", asks a German female member of the Artist Anonymous crew from a bleached out video screen set into the rocky external recess of a Gaffer-taped grotto. Often a tit is exactly what you feel when negotiating one of the collective's sillier projects, and this particular combination of high art and low expectation is no exception but it does pose some interesting questions about the nature of making in the current data-saturated moment. This painting-inspired installation includes a fur-lined rabbit hole, highly saleable customised furniture and a corner office-cum-gallery complete with trademark bloodied gallerist dummies. All the while, the woman in the video witters on about art and society in a roundabout, at times embarrassingly uninformed, Emin-esque way that curiously brings a sense of humanity to the political agenda. Artists Anonymous like making us squirm - here they do it rather well.
Sandra Vasquez de la Horra
Sandra Vasquez de la Horra, Sprovieri Progetti
Until 31 January
In antique nursery rhymes vinegar and brown paper was the cure all for bumps and scrapes. The buff hue and pre-empirical charm of the Chilean artist's wax dipped drawings might initially bring childhood matters to mind but the surface-sealed creatures she describes are born of dark, fantastical material and the residual memory of Pinochet's dictatorship during her formative years. Pinned up in clusters, they appear like wonky storyboards from the subconscious or a visual library of characters from a fire and brimstone Latin-American novel. The maggoty, rootoid human hybrids, hung, strung and copulating at every turn, seem mildly accepting of their social fate. There may be little in the way of scene to each image (plus the small matter of this very personal story being told in another language) but recurring religious motifs, textual instruction and unspecified insignia serve to press the point home.
Dan Rees
Alan Brooks/Dan Rees, MOT
Until 3 February
This quiet show of drawings and video works featuring familiar artist figures provides a welcome antidote to the January sales drive (though rumour has it that pretty much everything was snapped up on the opening night). These very different works trade on the (albeit here, fairly niche) notion of celebrity. The hypnotic quality of Dan Rees's ping-pong tournaments with British artists Jonathan Monk and Turner-winner Simon Starling become that bit more compelling when we find out who they are (he wins one, loses the other). Though unashamedly copied from published images, the exquisite formal execution of Alan Brooks's pencil drawings of post-modern luminaries such as Barnett Newman and Andy Warhol promote a sense of intimacy with the subjects that belies the perfunctory nature of the source. Artistic rivalry is essentially packaged as homage in this context, but it's hard to suppress a secret thrill at the possibly coercive or unwitting nature of these artists' collaborations.
Andrey Bartenev at the Russian Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2007
Andrey Bartenev, Riflemaker, Beak Street
Until 8 February
One of the first (of likely many) gallery re-staged Venice shows, this colourful camp spectacle requires the presence of its PVC-coated host for maximum impact, as the mix of collage and light fantastic extends from the alter ego of the creator. Bartenev whipped up a disco storm with his 'Connection Lost' dance floor at the Russian Pavilion last summer and though now scaled down and re-jigged as 'Disco-Nexion' the revolving LED light window display still harnesses that perfectly pitched sense of being alone in a crowd. Inside, the kitsch collages of wrestlers and other chaps are materially very seductive, yet, given that Bartenev's sculptures and performances are all about recognising the apparent lack of self-expression in contemporary art, rather reliant on the mood of the crowd. No doubt Bartenev (who on the opening night appeared like a 'Willo the Wisp' reincarnation of Leigh Bowery) will bring them dancing back to life during his gallery performance on January 14th (7pm & 9pm).
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Gagosian, Davies Street
Until 23 February
That these canny collaborators should choose to display the divine symbol of Catholicism - the Sacred Heart - in a gallery-cum-shop window at the height of Christmas consumer madness could be seen as a slap in the face of the religious community. But situated just off one of London's busiest bargain-hunter thoroughfares this revolving bulb- and sword-punctured heart appears as a warning beacon to shopper ships who have drifted offshore. Flickering in and out of illumination, like a faulty fairground attraction, it plays with the short-lived anticipatory thrill of the unwrapped gift and the curious marketability of theological symbols beyond the borders of faith. Post seasonal stuffing, the dystopic Baz Luhrman-style theatricality of this sculpture simultaneously highlights and feeds off our unwavering devotion to shiny things.
Carlos Noronha Feio
The Painting Room, Transition
12 January -10 February
As a traditional art form the position of painting in the creative status quo is often up for debate. Transition plans to address this issue with an extensive group show of works by some 70 contemporary painters. The gallery will become intimate salon in this showcase celebrating the transformative quality of the medium and diversity of its exponents. It will be interesting to see how they organise such a large exhibition in this pretty compact space. Amongst the mix, expect to find works by familiar London figures (Adam Latham's and Harry Pye's very different graphic caricatures of social and art-referential stereotypes, Mimei Thomson's visceral otherworldly sites), alongside rising international artists such as Portugal's Carlos Noronha Feiro who in controlled paintings and performances explores the relationship between the individual and the systems within which they live.
Darren Almond, 'Night + Fog (Monchegorsk 17)', 2007
Darren Almond, Parasol Unit
18 January -30 March
In Darren Almond's films, sculpture and photographs the passage of time becomes a temporarily tangible process or visible entity. He is perhaps best known for his 2003 Turner nominated film 'If I had you', a tender, personal work about the reminiscences of his Grandmother upon revisiting Blackpool, the place of her courtship, 20 years after her husband's death. This big solo venture at Parasol situates Almond in a much wider international context with the inclusion of three new films through which he presents politically contentious facets of life in Tibet, Indonesia and Siberia, as experienced during his recent travels. Almond will also show a new sculpture, 'Tide', consisting of a digital 'Master' clock and 576 'Slave' clocks that respond collectively to the passing of each minute.
Juan Muñoz, 'The Wasteland', 1987
Juan Munoz, Tate Modern
24 January -27 April
'Double Bind', the second commission for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2001, was Spanish sculptor Juan Munoz's last completed work before his death in August of the same year, aged just 48. This ambitious installation, incorporating lifts and his trademark melancholy figures, utilised the different dynamics of the bridge and ground floor spaces to create a pervasive sense of drama. Munoz's exploration of the point of tension between architectural structures and the figure will be centre stage in this major retrospective of more than 90 works: from seminal sculptural pieces such as the 1996 'Conversation Piece' depicting an eerie group of round-bottomed punch-bag clowns and less well-known installation works that incorporate sound and mechanical elements to describe the human void within.
Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery
25 January - 13 April
There are jokes and sensibilities that transcend international borders just as many nuances of cultural specificity get lost in translation. The Hayward's first blockbuster of the year (developed by newly appointed International Curator Mami Kataoka) is focused on laughter as a global phenomenon and will explore the different ways in which contemporary artists have incorporated humour within their work - whether as a means of critique or explanation. This significant international group of 30 includes Germany's irrepressible John Bock, whose outlandish performances question the way that society is structured and British master of the mockumentary, Marcus Coates, who assumes the role of contemporary shaman in his film 'Journey to the Lower World'. It's inevitable that our tastes for humour will grow ever closer as globalisation gathers apace, but as this diverse group of works will likely show, finding something funny is as specific to the hard-wiring of the individual as the mapable factors of their cultural geography.
Rebecca Geldard is a freelance writer and critic living in London.
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