Exhibition of the week
Victoria Crowe: Shifting Surfaces
To mark the 80th birthday of this Scottish artist, this evocative survey brings together some of her rural portraits and wintry landscapes.
• Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, until 11 October
Also showing
Paule Vézelay: Living Lines
Survey of this British abstract painter who was strongly influenced by French modernism and changed her name accordingly (she was born Marjorie Watson-Williams in 1892).
• Towner, Eastbourne, until 31 August
Nkem Okwechime: Okolo
An installation exploring the artist’s alter ego, including artist-made wallpaper and tiles, created with community groups.
• National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, until 22 August
Dr Esther Mahlangu: Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu
A bold open-air mural paying homage to Ndebele cultural traditions by this South African artist.
• Serpentine Gallery North Garden, London, until 28 September
Permindar Kaur: Mirror, Mirror
Ordinary domestic objects including toys become surreal artworks, set against Sir John Soane’s Romantic architecture.
• Pizthanger Abbey, London until 21 Setptember
Image of the week
LensCulture’s Critics’ Choice awards featured striking photographs, from hazardous trips through the Kurdish mountains to a queer journey into the heart of Americana. Pictured above is Florida Boys by Josh Aronson. You can see more images and read all about them here.
What we learned
A huge ‘protest artwork by Anish Kapoor was installed on North Sea gas rig by Greenpeace
The Trump administration is to ensure exhibits are ‘patriotic’ at 19 museums
A Chris Ofili painting featuring elephant dung could be sold for £1.5m at auction
A Sudanese exile turned to photography as an outlet for trauma
In Ghana, coffins can be very stylish
A London sewer project has generated dramatic new public spaces with giant artworks
Early Beatles photos by Paul McCartney are to go on show in London
Sensuous art nouveau is “ripe for revival” in the age of AI
The exhibition Saved Treasures of Gaza is a hit in Paris
Masterpiece of the week
Pan Pursuing Syrinx by Hendrick van Balen the Elder and a follower of Jan Brueghel the Elder, possibly after 1615
The book that has had the biggest influence on European and American art, from Botticelli to Rauschenberg, is not an artistic manual or work of theory, but the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This Latin epic poem tells the Greco-Roman myths around the theme of transformation or metamorphosis: love and desire, fury and grief can all change your very nature. In this painting, just one minor example of the many inspired by Ovid’s tales, Syrinx is about to be turned into reeds, to rescue her from the aggressive lust of Pan. It’s a collaboration between a figure painter and nature specialist: Jan Brueghel the Elder painted flowers and landscapes and his follower gives this scene finely observed natural details including a dragonfly and frogs.
• National Gallery, London
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