Documenting the Political: Belfast Photo Festival, Various Venues.

Text by Angela Darby The Belfast Photo Festival is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland. The organisers have managed to encompass a large…

The Ethereal & Concrete: Structure & Material, Spike Island, Bristol.

Text by Regina Papachlimitzou Structure & Material brings together three artists who, although engaging in distinctly different sculptural practices, share a similar preoccupation with the…

Profundity & Play: Anish Kapoor: Flashback, Edinburgh College of Art.

Text by Colin Herd Following on from its first incarnation at Manchester Art Gallery in the spring, Anish Kapoor’s touring Arts Council-funded mini-retrospective Flashback is…

Lyrical Images of Life by the Sea: Sea Creatures, Joseph Bellows Gallery, San Diego.

Sea Creatures, an exhibition featuring work from Joni Sternbach, Dana Montlack and Liz Lantz, examines life above, below and around the sea. Featuring tintype portraits…

New Cinematic Experiences: Screen Arts Festival: Picturehouse Cinemas, Nationwide.

The Screen Arts Festival, a brand new cross arts initiative organised by Picturehouse Cinemas, opens this summer. Showcasing a wide range of arts content…

A World-Class City of Bad Taste: Patrick Dalton Explores London’s Darker Side

Understanding and exploring the role of street photography as an agent for social reflection and expression is now more important than ever. However, the dissemination…

Unpicking the Social Language of Music: A Fire in the Master’s House is Set, Chapter, Cardiff.

Text by Luke Healey A Fire in the Master’s House is Set, named after a lyric that is repeated hypnotically throughout Rage Against the Machine’s…

Japanese Modernism:Atsuko Tanaka: The Art of Connecting – Ikon, Birmingham.

Text by Matt Swain The Art of Connecting is the first solo exhibition in the UK by Atsuko Tanaka (1932-2005), one of Japan’s most renowned…

Mariah Robertson

In the run-up to their landmark hosting of the Turner Prize 2011, Baltic, Newcastle, hosted American artist Mariah Robertson’s first solo exhibition.

The Redstone Book of the Eye

Called “a compendium of visual surprise”, Julian Rothenstein’s collection of images is an interesting voyage of exploration.

See Yourself Sensing

Schwartzman has captured the present in this text. Exploring the relationship between the body, design and technology, the book is perplexing and provocative.

Contemporary Art: World Currents

In this comprehensive guide, Terry Smith lays the groundwork for a new approach to contemporary art, emphasising its relationships to all aspects of life.

Wild Abandon

Set on a communal farm in Wales, Wild Abandon follows Kate and her younger brother Albert as they deal with the day-to-day struggles of living in a community outside the status quo.

The Night Circus

A charming blend of fantasy and reality, Morgenstern has created a truly enchanting novel that is fiercely imaginative and cleverly developed.

The Artist of Disappearance

Set in modern India, The Artist of Disappearance is a triptych of novel­las, referring to shadows of the past, drawing on India’s recent history as a backdrop

Shen Wei Dance Arts

Shen Wei Dance Arts presents Re-Triptych as part of the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival, bringing the sentiments of Asia to the West.

Brian Olive

Two of Everything is an upbeat blend of funk, jazz, soul and psych, layered with rasping brass and syncopated drums.

Submotion Orchestra

Submotion Orchestra’s debut, Finest Hour, combines a sublime cinematic landscape providing a unique take on dubstep, soul and jazz.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme

The Voluntary Butler Scheme is the vehicle for Rob Jones, a singer-songwriter from Dudley. He accompanies himself, with help from friends and his mum.

Shimmering Stars

With an old school rock-and-roll style sound and a wistful, California-dreamy quality, the music of Violent Hearts transports us to the era of the high school dance and dates at the drive-in.

Astrid Williamson

The breathy, ethereal sounding vocals of singer-songwriter Astrid Williamson take centre-stage throughout Pulse – an album best listened to when in a reflective mood.

Roll the Dice

Having gained fans like Caribou and Kieran Hebden, Roll the Dice present an album that is intense and grand in its offering, with an overriding narrativeof urban exploration and experimentation.

FOUND

FOUND began as an art collective, who played music at their exhibition openings. This experimental spirit carried through to factorycraft, recorded at Chemikal Underground’s own Chem 19 studio.

App Music

Tablets like the iPad are changing the way music is made – not only how it’s recorded, but how it’s released and marketed. We look at a real game-changer.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

From the director of The Fifth Element, Leon and Joan of Arc, Luc Besson’s latest offering The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec is a movie based on a comic of the same name by Jacques Tardi.

Countdown to Zero

Lucy Walker’s documentary provides a terrifying insight into the world of nuclear weapons and offers a persuasive argument for disarmament.

Outside the Law

Outside the Law is a controversial revisiting of Algeria’s struggle for independence through the eyes of three brothers who lose their home in Algeria.

Bomb It

Bomb It explores the high octane and politically charged world of graffiti and the street artists who feel compelled to make their mark in the world.

My Dog Tulip

Ackerman’s dog, Queenie, came to represent the “ideal friend” who, as an openly gay writer in the 1950s, he was unable to find in the company of people.

No Limits

This year’s Rencontres d’Arles boasts 60 exhibitions and is themed around connections to Mexico from the revolution through to the present day.

Infinity in Miniature

The first major UK retrospective of work by French artist, Charles Matton, presents his miniature enclosures containing painstakingly exact reflections of reality.

Manipulating Light

A major survey into the understanding of light in the context of physical space and object opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.

Unknown

A Hitchcockian rollercoaster ride of blurred identities, cat-and-mouse pursuits and shifty characters who may not be what they seem.

Branchage

Now in its fourth year, Jersey’s annual Film Festival opened in September 2011. Director, Xanthe Hamilton, told us what to expect that year.

The Politics of Sustenance

The FACE Collection presents Investigations of a Dog. Using the analogy of a dog questioning the origins of food, the exhibition considers what sustains mankind in the 21st century.

Break My Fall

Break My Fall, the feature film debut from Kanchi Wichmann, explores the underbelly of a group of twenty-somethings in East London.

Building Momentum

Producing atmospheric works, Lara Jade is setting trends in the world of fashion, portraiture and commercial photography both in the UK and abroad.

A Survey of the Postmodern

With 20 years hindsight, the V&A’s autumn blockbuster is the first major show to survey the visual products from the postmodern era.

Risk & Experimentation in Video Art: Project 35, Gertrude Contemporary, Fitzroy, Australia.

Text by Emily Bour Melbourne’s icy months present the perfect occasion to nestle in the dark and spend some quality time with Project 35. The…

TEST Presents…The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Town Hall Hotel, London.

Text by Emily Sack TEST Presents… provides Londoners with a different take on an art event. The online fashion, photography, and film magazine provides monthly…

Literary Art: Covergence, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast.

Text by Angela Darby Literature has long been an essential driving force behind many contemporary visual artists’ practice. The exhibition Convergence at Golden Thread Gallery…

Three-Dimensional Bibliography: The Book on Books on Artists’ Books, Bloomberg Space, London.

Text by Lara Cory Arnaud Desjardin is a French-born, London artist and author of catalogue: The Everyday Press (2011) and Business as Usual (2010). He…

Performative Landscapes: Shaun Gladwell: Stereo Sequences, ACMI, Melbourne.

Text by Emily Bour Arriving at Shaun Gladwell’s Stereo Sequences exhibition, currently showing at the Australian Center for the Moving Image in Melbourne (ACMI), one…

Multi Sensory Experiences: InTransit Festival, 22-31 July, London.

Text by Nathan Breeze Built in 1962 by the Architects Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners, The Commonwealth Institute, characterised by a distinctive parabolic copper roof…

Scratch-and-Sniff: Celebrating the 2011 Vice Photo Issue

This July, VICE has surpassed itself. As the self-proclaimed coolest magazine in the world, Volume 18 Number 7 is a visually stunning compendium of photography…

1986 Chernobyl: Jane and Louise Wilson, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton.

Jane and Louise Wilson were born in Newcastle and currently live and work in London. Using film, photography and sculpture, the Wilsons have created a…

Urban Pagan – Kid Acne: Kill Your Darlings, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield.

Kill Your Darlings is Kid Acne’s (b.1978) first solo exhibition in Sheffield, where he has lived and works for the last 15 years. Kid Acne…

Call for Entries: Aesthetica Creative Works Competition

The Aesthetica Creative Works Competition is open for entries! With categories for artwork, poetry and short fiction, the Creative Works Competition provides a great opportunity…

Heather Ross: Constants in Practice, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh.

Review by Colin Herd In July 2010, the painter Heather Ross (b.1983) won the Alastair Salvesen Travel Scholarship, a funding opportunity aimed at young artists…

Challenging Perception: René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle, Tate Liverpool.

Review by Kenn Taylor The imagery of Belgian surrealist René Magritte has long become a part of popular culture. More importantly than that though, he…