Irish folk music has played an intrinsic part in the socio-political history of the Irish working-class. Through this medium an injured party could publicly express their frustrations at the hardship.

Marcus Coates is best known for his shamanistic performance works in which he channels and consults animal spirits. This element of his practice has already found its way into Tate Britain’s Triennial.

Song Dong’s current installation, Waste Not, at the Barbican Curve Gallery, stands as the culmination of the hoardings of the artist’s mother, Zhao Xiangyuan.

War, violence, death – these aren’t pretty topics. Nevertheless they’re topics that are explored in Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, an exhibition of artwork by Adel Abdessemed.

Yayoi Kusama is Japan’s best-known living artist. Since the 1940s, she has produced a wealth of work encompassing painting, drawing, sculpture and collage as well as large-scale installations.

Thomas Zipp borrows Sigmund Freud’s Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (1920) for the title of this show at Alison Jacques Gallery in London.

You can’t help but feel like you are disturbing a sense of stillness as you enter the Japan House Gallery at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.

There are a lot of projects that get the go-ahead in the name of regeneration, and the savagely debated Jerwood Gallery in Hastings is no exception.

Dan Flavin was an American minimalist artist famous for creating objects and installations from light fixtures. His work focused on drawings and paintings influenced by Abstract Expressionism.

Now in its second year after a successful launch, the Roundhouse’s Reverb Festival aims to dismantle the stuffy, jargon-loaded image of classical music.

Richardson has been inspired by the multiple facets of Hollywood life. In his latest show, TERRYWOOD, at OHWOW, he unveils a series of images of the famous city, as seen through his eyes.

A Special Form of Darkness at Tramway is an open, convivial music/ performance/ ideas hybrid – a cross between a festival, magazine and discussion.

You wouldn’t be to blame if you assumed the banner above the Hayward were a David Shrigley piece. It has the immediacy of his work, and none of the seriousness that represents Jeremy Deller.

Cotton. You’re probably wearing it now. You probably sleep on it every night. The sheer abundance of this material all around us means it usually remains ignored and under-appreciated.

Short & Sweet is a travelling short-film series: an international community of film lovers who father for lively events of short films and socialising. This winter Short & Sweet returns to London.

Canary Wharf Screen is a motion picture screening programme that will launch at Canary Wharf Tube station at the beginning of next month. The project has been initiated by Art on the Underground.

Lynda Benglis’ name has taken on mythical connotations in the art world. Her photographic spread in Artforum sparked controversy at the time, and has been awarded verbal accolades by artists.

Campbell’s soup cans, exclamation marks, kissing couples. Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente. The works of three legendary artists are currently being displayed at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn.

Mitchell’s installation arrived in Leeds on 14 February, and just as the carousel in the city’s Valentine’s Fair carries happy lovers of all ages, Mitchell reminds us of an obverse mental maelstrom.

The Japan Foundation has hosted an annual touring film programme since 2004. This year, between 10 February – 28 March, a set of 9 contemporary Japanese films will tour seven UK cities.

When Nalini Malani was invited to create a large-scale new media installation for presentation in India Contemporary at the Venice Biennale, her response was the enigmatic video play Mother India.

The opening of Interplanetary Revolution may feature a cocktail bar, a chorus of ice cream vans, the introduction of another currency and a song by The Factotum Choir that they never quite cracked.

Slows is an exhibition of paintings by the Brooklyn artist, Ridley Howard. Howard’s second show at Leo Koenig Inc. marks both a new direction in his artwork and a continued exploration of his typical style.

The family is unique as a social institution: it functions largely in private, while at the same time has a public character; it may be defined one way for political purposes, yet assume any number of forms.

In his first UK solo exhibition, Silver Lion Award winner of last year’s Venice Biennale, Haroon Mirza unfolds the map of an uncharted soundscape at once inviting and forbidding.

In Numbers does not claim to be an exhaustive survey of serial publications since 1955, but aims to provide the contours of the genre.

Colchester is known as being the oldest documented town in the UK. A visit to this city is likely to include a tour of the castle, a pint in a pub and a building showcasing cutting edge contemporary art.

Dana Schutz has developed a distinctive visual style characterised by vibrant colour and raw and tactile brushwork. If the Face Had Wheels is a survey of the artist’s work, spanning 2001 – 2011.

We speak with the winner of the 2011 Creative Works Competition, Julia Vogl, an installation artist whose public artwork challenges the role of the artist and art in relation to political events.

Peintures Carrées is an exhibition of works on square, screen-reprinted Plexiglas by artist Jean-Marc Bustamante. The artist incorporates design and architectural space into his work.

The show’s title puts in mind an idea of declassification and redefinition. It is borrowed from Bataille, whose Critical Dictionary was printed as a section of his surrealist journal Documents.

Helen Carmel Benigson is media-savy that is for sure; her work layers colour, print and sound to create immersive, dreamlike and hyper-sensual installations that explore themes of female empowerment.

Diane Arbus revolutionised the art she practised. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are.

Aesthetica has featured Coggles’ new campaign, Street Styles Series, which aims to promote the brand’s primary mission of including personality into their designs for people not models.

The seaside town of Margate boasts Turner Contemporary, a gallery that celebrates JMW Turner, who made Margate his home for a number of years, and international artists from abroad.

Gupta uses interactive video, websites, objects, photographs, sound and public performances to probe themes such as desire, religion, security on the street and on the imagined border.

Set during the Korean War and based around the final and decisive moments between North and South, the battle rages in the Aerok Hills.

Following hard-bitten Police Sergeant Gerry Boyle as he closes in on a group of drug smugglers, The Guard’s action takes place on the west coast of Ireland.

As the third instalment in Gary Hustwit’s trilogy on the impact and function of design in the modern world, Urbanized is a concise exploration of the urban habitat of the Homo sapien.

Paddy Considine’s directorial debut about two lonely, damaged people brought together by circumstance is a powerful drama about violence and loss.

When Russell heads out to a nightclub, he picks up Glen, and after a brief encounter, the pair experience an intense relationship that lasts only for 48 hours.

Beginning with a car chase, the film is packed to the brim with action shots and gunfire. It’s more than your standard action film though, with a gripping story and some stunning cinematography.

Black Light is singer-songwriter Sam Genders’ first album as Diagrams, dubbed a “solo project of sorts” but also one embracing the numerous collaborations.

Team Me might just be the happiest band we’ve ever come across. Actually, happy isn’t the right word. This Scandinavian six-piece is joyous, jubilant, flamboyant.

If you’re feeling the winter blues and need a musical pick-me-up, this sparkling debut from London-based trio Flash Fiktion will propel you towards spring with new gusto.

Here are some facts about David Bramwell. He runs a Victorian freakshow. He runs a folk club night. He “recently presented a radio program for BBC3” and also hosts a Wickerman tribute show.

Throughout his adult life, what interested the band’s namesake, André Breton, was less an author’s work per se than the human attitude behind it.

The Aviary is multi-instrumentalist and singer Ana Silvera’s debut album. A talented and diverse musician, Ana imbues the album with drama.

Now in its second edition, Graphic Design A History is a weighty compendium that charts the history of graphic design from the 19th century to the present day.

Filled with a generous selection of works across a variety of disciplines, David Shrigley: Brain Activity highlights the artist’s ability to cross boundaries.