April marks the start of art, design and photography fair season. These events are staples in the creative calendar. Discover our round-up of five to know.

Emma Kalff is an American visual artist based in Colorado. A classically trained oil painter, she layers multiple scenes to create surreal collages. A road trip across the USA inspired a series of works that resulted in her first solo exhibition.

Dr. Omar Kholeif’s new book occupies a place where creativity, politics and activism coalesce, made possible by vast networks of cables connecting us.

The new Ai Weiwei exhibition at Design Museum comprises a 650,000 LEGO-brick painting – engaging with ideas of consumerism and production.

Serbia-born Iliya Fonlamov Francisković is a figurative painter, predominantly inspired by the belief that human beings and the world in which we live are the most beautiful creations, whilst art exists to preserve beauty in its original form.

Must-see exhibitions this Spring navigate the impact of the digital realm on portrayals, experiences and perceptions of the world.

Hew Locke’s large-scale installation at Baltic looks to the past, present and future, bringing people together in an age of social and political divide.

As humans, we are always looking for something else, and it is this curiosity that makes us create. This issue is dedicated to the evolution of ideas.

Thomas Demand highlights the fiction beneath attempts to document the truth, questioning the power and responsibility behind art and its maker.

Amy Harrity distils subjects’ personal experiences into compositions that evoke honesty and clarity, capturing the diverse breadth of human emotion.

Vertical stripes transform serene coastlines into two-dimensional kaleidoscopes in Niall Staines’ natural seascapes, creating new order from chaos.

Summer Wagner’s “visual poems” depict figures fixed to the light of their phones. Fantasy and reality combine to hold a mirror up to life online.

Vibrant landscapes, mysterious, lively figures and pulsing colour palettes collide in Sanja Marušić’s portraits, debating the body and female identity.

Yannis Davy Guibinga evokes Gabonese folklore, science fiction and cultural astronomy in portraits rich with narrative and expansive bold backdrops.

Reflection is a metaphor for cultural and financial value to conceptual artist Sarah Meyohas. Light bounces between mirrors in bright, endless loops.

Federica Belli’s minimalist portraits become an effective visual language to communicate and understand questions about humanity’s future.

Gareth Iwan Jones’ fascination with woodland ecocystems inspired enchanting scenes that document the beauty and mystery of forests.

Refik Anadol crafts mesmerising installations with AI and data-driven algorithms, leading to speculations on the future of human-made art.

Izumi Miyazaki is a Japanese self-portrait artist best known across the Internet for crafting surreal, thought-provoking and humorous visual worlds.

Sem Langendijk’s solo exhibition at FOAM focuses on the redevelopment of former port cities, exploring the history of waterfront developments.