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Encompassing diverse contemporary art practices – from Seth Price’s films to Haroon Mirza audio-visual installations and Iman Issa’s minimalistic sculptures, the festivities bring in London new and exciting exhibitions. Covering several commercial galleries and London institutions ATP Diary, in collaboration with Giulia Ponzano, takes a look at some of the most exciting art offerings taking place this month

Alex Da Corte — Bad Lands
Josh Lilley
17 November 2017 – 23 December 2017

Bad Lands is the first large-scale solo presentation in the UK of the Venezuelan-American artist. The gallery environment is transformed to create a vibrant and fully immersive installation, with works unfolding themes of power, identity, desire, and memory though the language of commercial culture and consumerism. Three new films, alongside seemingly disparate sculpture and wall works, are placed in uncanny relationships with each other, forming a vibrant theatrical assemblage. Da Corte takes us on a journey through familiar imagery and obscure biographical reference, confronting us with complexities, desires, and illusions.

Alex Da Corte – Bad Land – Installation view – Courtesy Josh Lilley, London

Alex Da Corte Bad Sign, 2017 Double-sized perspex lightbox, vinyl, internal transformers and LED elements, aluminium, neon 125 x 127 x 22 cm – Courtesy Josh Lilley, London

Seth Price — Circa 1981
Institute of Contemporary Arts
4 October 2017 – 7 January 2018
The first UK exhibition of US artist Seth Price focuses on his film and video work stretching from the early 2000s to the present day, offering a comprehensive overview of his oeuvre so far. Engaging with issue of production, post-production and contamination, he investigates how culture is generated and distributed in a highly mediated present. More than 30 films, spanning the entirety of the Institute of Contemporary Arts building, which negate narrative, performance and conventional signification to give us a portrait of contemporary Western life.

Seth Price, still from Triumf, 2000, 19.18 min., color:sound (single-channel video)

Seth Price, still from Digital Video Effect: “Chords”, 2007, 12:48 min., color/sound (three-channel video installation)

Beatriz Olabarrieta — The only way out is in
The Sunday Painter
24 November 2017- 6 January 2018

Beatriz Olabarrieta’s sculptural interventions uses the new two-story gallery (which recently relocated from its space in the Peckham neighbourhood to the Vauxhall district) as a site for exploring the complexities of written and verbal articulation: text, objects and images activate a playful and dynamic practice of heterogeneous possibilities. Her simple and suggestive shapes become the horizon between object and thought, stasis and movement. The installation is accompanied by a sound piece made in cooperation with Harriet Pittard and a text written by George Vasey.

Beatriz Olabarrieta – The only way out is in – Courtesy The Sunday Painter, Lodon – Installation view

Beatriz Olabarrieta – The only way out is in – Courtesy The Sunday Painter, Lodon – Installation view

ESSEX ROAD IV
Edwina Ashton, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Benedict Drew, Judith Goddard, Matthew Noel-Tod, Paul Tarragó, Richard Wentworth and Xiaowen Zhu
Tintype
8 December 2017 – 13 January 2018

This is the fourth edition of the Tintype commissions, which each year see a number of artists creating moving image pieces to be projected in the shop’s window, on a loop from dusk to 11pm, highly visible to the general public who pass by the gallery. From Benedict Drew’s fantastical and hallucinatory view, to the underground experimentation and meta-fiction of Paul Terragó and to Edwina Ashton’s animated prehistoric vision, the exhibition represents an immersive, interactive and interdisciplinary experience.

Edwina Asthon, Forest Bred Lions, 2017, HD video still  © the artist, courtesy Tintype

Paul Tarragó, gadabout (guided by pigeons), 2017 © the artist, courtesy Tintype

Iman Issa — Heritage Studies
Rodeo
16 November 2017 – 23 December 2017

This is the second exhibition of the Egyptian artist at the gallery in London, bringing together a selection from the ongoing body of work that Issa began in 2015. In Issa’s presentation, her Minimalistic objects lie on the floor – ‘HS30’ (codes are based on chronology and seriality) is a white cylinder form which meets its red counterpart. Next to it lies an ‘HS12’, formed by two spirals connected via a copper stick that moves from polished to oxidized. Sculptural objects and text explore the limits of language, the one of art’s history and the language of forms, creating narratives, displays and genres that exist outside of a particular time or place.

Installation View, Iman Issa, Heritage Studies, Rodeo, London

Iman Issa, Heritage Studies #26, Brass, white wooden plinth, vinyl text, 176 x 20 x 161.5 cm, 2017

Sophie Jung — Come Fresh Hell or Fresh High Water
Blain|Southern London
29 November 2017 – 13 January 2018

Sophie Jung transforms Blain|Southern’s lower gallery into a complex environment made of drawings, texts, sculptures and photography – resembling at once a bunker, an ice cellar, a Brechtian stage set, and a dressing room. Through sharply funny narratives beyond the limits of linearity and meaning, Jung explores the ambiguity of language, advancing propositions for freely articulating her own abstract system. Next performances are scheduled on Saturday 16 December 2017, 5pm, Saturday 6 January 2018, 5pm – Saturday 13 January 2018, 5pm.

Sophie Jung, Come Fresh Hell or Fresh Hell Water, Installation View, 2017, Courtesy the artist and BlainSouthern, Photo Peter Mallet

Sophie Jung, Come Fresh Hell or Fresh Hell Water, Installation View, 2017, Courtesy the artist and BlainSouthern, Photo Peter Mallet

Haroon Mirza — HRM199: FOR A PARTNERSHIP SOCIETY
Zabludowicz Collection
28 September 2017 – 16 December 2017

Marking the tenth anniversary of the Zabludowicz Collection’s home at 176 Prince of Wales Road, London, Haroon Mirza’s exhibition is structured around the re-imagining of two major works by the artist: The System, (2014) and Adam, Eve, others and a UFO, (2013). Mirza delves into our understanding of the relationship between matter and consciousness, truth and belief, focusing on the notion of coexistence as a vital and positive force in a healthy society. The result is a unique environment intersecting art, architecture, sculpture and sound, which intend to ignite a physical response in the viewer through advancements in audio and visual technology.

Zabludowicz Collection Annual Commission 2017 – Haroon Mirza / hrm199: For a Partnership Society
28 September–17 December 2017 / Photo: Tim Bowditch, courtesy the artist and Zabludowicz Collection

Zabludowicz Collection Annual Commission 2017 – Haroon Mirza / hrm199: For a Partnership Society
28 September–17 December 2017 / Photo: Tim Bowditch, courtesy the artist and Zabludowicz Collection