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In 2003 lokal_30 opened in Warsaw and rapidly established itself as one of the most important contemporary art spaces in Poland. While other galleries are closing or downsizing, this autumn lokal_30 is expanding with a new gallery in London's East End.

Maps provide the inspiration for the 2008 incarnation of the Bucharest Biennale. In their apologetic for this concept, curators, Jan-Erik Lundström and Johan Sjöström's claim: 'maps are keen on upsetting or unsettling our faith in representations... they construct and deconstruct realities... they are never perfect, never final, always tentative...and versatile, illuminating and life-saving.' ... read more...

Zsolt Bodoni, Roland Horváth, Péter Sudar and Dorottya Szabo are part of a unique generation that knew communism in childhood, witnessed its disintegration during adolescence and experienced Hungary's transition into democracy in early adulthood. Yet while it is possible to find evidence of how such an eventful growing up has shaped and influenced the artists' awareness of the changing world around them (most notably perhaps in Horváth's sensitive, even reverential treatment of the most munda... read more...

Tessa Farmer, who has been nominated for The South Bank Show/The Times Newspaper breakthrough artist award, makes strangely unsettling tiny creatures out of skulls, pieces of skeleton and insect wings. She began making what she calls her 'fairies' nine years ago while taking anatomy classes at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, and was recently offered a residency at the Natural History Museum in London that has culminated in an exhibition inspired by parasitic wasps w... read more...

The final generation to have been partially brought up under Eastern European 'really existing socialism' has now reached adulthood, and young painters from the former Soviet bloc and non-aligned communist states alike have begun to reflect on their formative experiences in an attempt to excavate that which has vanished irretrievably. Although Nicolae Ceausescu's vile US-backed regime always was unlikely to inspire anything like the much-noted wave of nostalgia - or 'Ostalgie' - that followed th... read more...

Shay Kun's idyllic landscapes complete with their snowy mountains and winding rivers are unashamedly nostalgic. On first viewing, they seem to be hearkening back to German Romanticism and even further back to Neo-Classical longings for Arcadia, so full are they of serpentine squiggles, classical bridges and gently swaying trees. But into these idyllic landscapes the artist incoporates wrecked cars, irresponsible tourists and inappropriate contemporary interventions.... read more...

This year's biennale continues to focus on two distinct areas - a thorough investigation of painting 'today' and socially-committed art - but while it is possible to seek out a handful of exception works, most is disappointing with the painting section failing to pick up on significant trends and some of the most exciting artists currently making paintings. ... read more...

Critic and curator Jane Neal reports on her recent trip to LA and Austin, Texas where she went to install an exhibition by East European artists, Adrian Ghenie, Serban Savu, Slawomir Elsner and Wojciech Zasadni.

'Across the Trees: Romanian Art Now' features the work of six young artists from Cluj, the capital city of Transylvania (literal translation: 'across the trees') and reputed as one of today's most compelling centres of emerging art. Adrian Ghenie, Ciprian Mureşan, Cristi Pogăcean, Serban Savu (below), Miklos Szilard and Gabriela Vanga represent a unique generation that occupies a fascinating position in Europe. ... read more...

For their 2007 interim show, the fine art students from St Martins put themselves into the hands of the curatorial students from Goldsmiths. The team of young curators were initially stumped as to how to order and arrange 120 works by 65 students. They gave up on what they describe as 'accidental' criteria such as 'colour, shape or material', and decided instead to turn to mathematics and proportion for inspiration - the proportions of the students that is - not the works - and more specifically... read more...

Newly graduated with distinction from her MA at Goldsmiths, Jennifer Allen is currently combining her artistic practice with research for her PhD by observing the unspoken but carefully policed rules and rituals that exist between clients and girls in pole-dancing strip clubs.

A new exhibition curated by Predrag Pajdic grew out of his response to the break-up of the former Yugoslavia: 'Around the time of the NATO bombardment of Serbia in 1999, I experienced for the first time what it means to be paranoid. Being a former Yugoslav emigrant to the UK I felt helpless, almost paralysed while watching live TV coverage of bombs hitting the place where most of my family still was. The seeds of paranoia were sown. Then came 9/11, and then the invasion of Iraq, which became liv... read more...

Nessie Stonebridge's first solo show is the product of four years of dialogue, support and collaboration with Debbie Carslaw, the livewire owner of young gallery, Madder Rose, that opened in June this year. Stonebridge's work comprises a mixture of delicate but dramatic charcoal drawings and paintings that veer widely in scale from small works measuring no more than 20 x 20 cm to gargantuan triptychs almost 3 x 2m. Jane Neal reports on Stonebridge's first exhibition in London which is on view un... read more...

Young, Berlin-based artist Alexej Meschtschanow is beginning to earn himself a reputation as one of the most intriguing artists of a generation of sculptors now emerging on the Berlin scene. The art world began to realize that something new and exciting might be afoot earlier this year when leading German gallery, Eigen+Art, decided to devote their entire booth at Art Forum Berlin to sculpture. Jane Neal reports. ... read more...

Guy Allott's series of paintings and sculptures entitled 'The Space Race', reviewed here by Jane Neal, owe as much to Poussin, Lorrain, Gainsborough or Friedrich, as they do to the celestial visions of John Martin that have inspired hundreds of 'wannabe' sci-fi illustrators.

Don't miss the chance to see Anj Smith's exquisite paintings reviewed here by Jane Neal. Smith's tiny, detailed landscapes, featuring taxidermied animals, extinct exotic plants, strange hybrid creatures, mosaic-covered ruins and high-fashion accessories, are on view until 5 November.

Museum 52 is fast building a reputation as one of the most exciting young galleries in London. Co-directed by Chris Taylor and Matthew Dipple, the gallery is in the heart of London's East End and can be easily located thanks to its innovative artist-designed sign. Currently on view are photographs by Nick Waplington, and in 2007 the gallery will present for the first time in London the American artists Valerie Hegarty and Kon Trubkovich. ... read more...

On Monday 'Your Gallery @ the Guardian', the first reader-curated exhibtion, unveiled the work of the 10 most voted-for artists at the Guardian's gallery in London. The 10 artists - Sarah Jeffries, Amy Stein, Peter Root, Lotta de Beus, Robin Cracknell, Elena Bajo, Joshua Hagler, Paul John Taylor, Claire Morgan and Anthea Bush - were all at the opening, the culmination of a groundbreaking project launched this summer by the Saatchi Gallery and the Guardian. ... read more...

A new exhibition in Burgos, Spain, curated by Paco Barragan, wrestles with the question of what it means to be European in the 21st century, while down the road the beautiful city of Salamanca is hosting a festival of photography and film - highlights include two emerging artists, Charlie White and Janieta Eyre (below).

The autumn fair season got off to a mellow start in Berlin at this year's ArtForum with highlights including Kai Schiemenz and Stella Hamberg (below) at Eigen + Art, and Ryan Mclaughlin at Groeflin Maag Galerie from Basel.

Jane Neal first heard about the Transylvanian city of Cluj in 2005 when she was covering the Prague Bienniale. Since then she has come to know the contemporary art scene in Romania well and in particular a group of artists from Cluj - Mircea Cantor, Adrian Ghenie, Victor Man, Ciprian Muresan, Cristi Pogacean, Serban Savu and Gabriela Vanga - whose work will feature in a forthcoming exhibition curated by Neal. She explains here how she met the artists and why she thinks their work is so remarkab... read more...

One of the highlights of the 2006 Liverpool Biennial is Austrian artist Hans Schabus's project reconnecting Liverpool with Savannah in the US, two cities that are historically linked via the cotton trade and an intriguing use of stones... Jane Neal reports.

Jane Neal reports on the autumn openings in the Quartier des Bains district of Geneva, home to 22 galleries showing work by, among others, Jan Fabre (right), David Casini, Ruth Claxton and Virginie Morillo.

Jean-Marc Bustamante's current exhibition at Timothy Taylor in London is made up of a series of vibrant sculptural plexiglass works hung on the walls of the gallery like paintings. Jane Neal was given a preview of the exhibition by the artist himself.

Polish-born artist Anna Orlikowska is still only 27 yet the intensity of her large-format, richly detailed photographs and surreal films suggests a far more experienced eye.

Tim Marlow, one of the judges for the forthcoming 'Your Gallery @ theguardian' exhibition, discusses White Cube's new West End gallery, which opens on 28 September with new work by Gabriel Orozco, and the gallery's determination to work with more emerging artists, such as the young American painter Ellen Altfest, a recent addition to its stellar list of artists.
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Andrew Perchuk, assistant director for Contemporary Programs and Research at the Getty Institute, talks to Jane Neal about the Institute's acquisition of the Long Beach Museum of Art's legendary collection of video art in December 2005, the complications of conserving video work and the Getty's exhibition plans for the future.

Idris Khan pays homage to the protagonists of photography's history, such as Bernd and Hilla Becher and Roland Barthes, by layering their images or texts to create multiple palimpsests. The resulting works, which can be see in Khan's first London solo show opening next week, more closely resemble hand-made drawings than photographs.

The art world could soon have its own comedy star: Canadian-born Judy Batalion - who by day researches, writes and curates for the Tate, the Design Museum, the Science Museum, the Wellcome Trust and the Geffrye Museum - has been busy playing the London comedy circuit by night.

"It's Thursday evening, the 'Miniature World' Show is about to open, and Tessa Farmer, one of the participating artists, is discussing the exquisite little creatures she calls 'my fairies'. I ask Farmer whether the fairies are straight out of hell. 'I'm not sure. I mean maybe they are. Ooh, I hope they're not from my mind. I just know they're evil and they keep getting more evil..."

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Jane Neal talks to the Ikon Gallery's curator, Nigel Prince, about a major new commission by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, entitled Your Uncertainty of Colour Matching Experiment
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For its summer blockbuster show, the ICA asked artists to present one or several works they regarded as atypical of their practice; the question was, would their work even be recognisable? Jane Neal was at the opening.

'So....when is it going to launch?' quipped one of the Tate's ex-curators at the party to celebrate the Serpentine's new pavilion with its much talked about vast, inflatable canopy. Will it achieve lift-off in time for the official opening to the public on 13 July? Jane Neal went along to find out.

Bleached-out landscapes, monochrome skies and moonlit seas make up the sensitive and evocative practice of London-based artist Marguerite Horner.

Dr Lakra's work hovers between two realms - not simply the spheres of the living and the dead, but between the worlds of high art and the tattoo.

Jane Neal visited Warsaw last week to check out its contemporary art venues and meet the city's most exciting artists post-Sasnal.