The Shock of the Now - Issue #231

Afternoon All - Welcome to Issue 231 of The Shock of the Now! I hope you’re having an enjoyable week.

This week, the full issue includes eighteen Recommended Exhibitions, as well as nineteen fresh Artist Opportunities.

Additionally, tomorrow morning I’ll be publishing The Shock of the Now’s Guide to Backyard Biennial East for paid subscribers. That in-depth issue will provide a comprehensive break-down of the inaugural Backyard Biennial East, the new 8-week summer arts festival initiated by Whitechapel Gallery, celebrating the culture and creativity of East London. With over forty participating partners presenting exhibitions, installations, screenings, performances, panel discussions, workshops, residencies, walks and open studios, all free and open to all, you won’t want to miss it!

I hope you enjoy Issue 231, and if so do forward it along! As always, questions and comments are welcome, so feel free to get in touch, H x

Ana Mendieta - Solo Exhibition - Tate Modern, Bankside (15th July - 17th January)

Tate Modern presents the first major UK show of Ana Mendieta’s work in over ten years.

“This major exhibition dedicated to Ana Mendieta presents many of her iconic works alongside newly remastered films, early paintings, and late sculptural pieces, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. The show will continue outside the museum walls, embracing Mendieta’s deep relationship with the natural world. Mendieta is best known for her Silueta Series, exploring the presence and absence of the human body using a number of natural materials including fire, water and flowers. These ephemeral works were recorded as photographs and films. Active in the 1970s and early 80s, Mendieta posed profound questions throughout her work around displacement and identity which remain highly relevant today. This exhibition shines a light on Mendieta’s trailblazing practice, reinforcing her standing as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.” - Tate Modern

‘Of Minor Importance’ Group Exhibition - Alice Amati, Fitzrovia (16th July - 15th August, opening Wednesday 15th August, 6-8pm)

Alice Amati presents ‘Of Minor Importance’, a group exhibition in two parts across the gallery’s location in London and their project space Domus Nostra in Rome, featuring works by Helene Appel (above), Silas Borsos, Fernando Botero, George Braque, Giorgio De Chirico, Sebastián Espejo, Danielle Fretwell, Johnny Izzat-Lowry, Scott Kahn, Giorgio Morandi, Amedeo Polazzo, Miranda Webster and Andreas Zampella.

“Rooted in the 17th-century European hierarchy of genres – a system that placed history painting at the summit of intellectual and moral value while relegating still life, landscape, and animal painting to the margins – the exhibition revisits and unsettles this inherited order. Bringing together works of modern masters alongside contemporary painters, the exhibition traces a lineage of attention to the so-called “minor.” In these artists’ hands, what once were considered modest subjects – such as fruits, flower, common tableware and everyday objects etc– are used to address the urgencies of the present and our place in this everchanging world. Rather than reversing the classical hierarchy, Of Minor Importance attempts to dissolve it, proposing a different set of values in which quiet observation, humor, intimacy, and persistence rival spectacle and narrativism. What emerges is a space where the overlooked becomes essential, and where painting speaks most acutely to the conditions of its time.” - Alice Amati

‘London Writes Itself’ Group Exhibition - LBF Contemporary, Fitzrovia (17th July - 8th August, opening Thursday 16th July, 6-8pm)

LBF Contemporary presents ‘London Writes Itself’, a group exhibition showcasing sixteen fine art graduates from 2026, featuring work by Maria Andrievskaya, Sunkyung Baek, Ksenia Dermenzhi, Neequaye Dreph Dsane, David Hanes, Rose Electra Harris, Dora Lam, Ruowei Liu, William Lowry, Anna Lugovska, Ruarí Milne, Rhiannon Salisbury (above), Victor Šcheibler, Jiatong Yuan, Ajea Zahid and Guangyu Zhang.

“Every summer, London’s art scene turns a new page as a freshly graduated generation of artists steps forward. ‘London Writes Itself’ is LBF Contemporary’s response to that moment - a selection of artists drawn from this year’s cohorts at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art. The works on view trace sixteen distinct visual languages, united by the city that formed them and their shared moment of stepping out of education and into the world. More than ever, London continues to generate energy and cement its position as a dominant cultural hub for emerging creatives - and this show is a first look at some of the artists who will carry that forward.” - LBF Contemporary

‘Between Here and the Rest of the World’ Group Exhibition - Metroland Cultures, Kilburn (17th July - 15th August, opening Thursday 16th July, 6-8pm)

Metroland Cultures presents ‘Between Here and the Rest of the World’, a group exhibition featuring work by Heiba Lamara, Francesca Telling and Nathaniel Télémaque. The exhibition is framed by ‘Voices of Places’ – an ongoing research collaboration between Metroland Cultures and The Open University responding to the work of Doreen Massey (1944–2016).

“As a radical geographer, feminist, theorist, political activist and long-standing Kilburn resident, Massey developed profoundly influential ways of thinking space, place, and power. Working with selected pedagogical and political resources, this project interprets Massey’s ideas through visual culture to explore themes of displacement, resistance and belonging in London today. Doreen Massey’s work was deeply interdisciplinary, publicly-orientated and politically-engaged. She collaborated with key figures in politics and visual culture, and co-founded the journal, Soundings, with Stuart Hall and Michael Rustin. In the aftermath of the 2007/8 global financial crisis, Soundings published After Neoliberalism? The Kilburn Manifesto, a collection of essays together seeking to interpret the turbulent present and help support the kinds of cultural and political alternatives so urgently needed.” - Metroland Cultures

Ian Waelder - ‘insert’ Solo Exhibition + Kate Mosher Hall, Hanna Hur, Beaux Mendes - Group Exhibition - Modern Art, Bennet Street, St. James’s (17th July - 15th August, opening Thursday 16th July, 6-8pm)

Modern Art presents Ian Waelder’s debut London solo exhibition ‘insert’ (above) at the galleries Bennet Street location. Alongside, they present a group exhibition of works by Kate Mosher Hall, Hanna Hur and Beaux Mendes.

“Ian Waelder was born in 1993 in Madrid, Spain. He lives and works between Mallorca and Frankfurt am Main, where he graduated in Fine Arts at the Städelschule as a Meisterschüler under Prof. Haegue Yang. Waelder’s practice deals with trace, memory and the latency of images. Conceived as a site-responsive environment, this presentation is centered on three large-scale works first encountered from behind. Together, they form a dividing wall and makeshift corridor bisecting the space, a passage that acts much like an insert in a book, a separate, partial layer interrupting the whole.” - Modern Art