Visual Arts

Visual Arts previews from around the region

Mit Jai Inn: Dreamworld

Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, until Sun 21 November

“When I paint, ” explains Mit Jai Inn, “it’s not only with my eyes, but with all of my senses: touch, smell, movement. The whole entity. ” Mit’s art spans many forms and sees him using hands, fingers and palette knife to dab, slap and pull paint across his canvas. “For a long time, I never cared about going hungry or my security. I was more concerned about utopian things - a new age for society, humanity. For people in Thailand and Myanmar, the situation is getting worse and worse. There’s so much abuse of power and justice. Trying to confront these things matters more to me than my own life. My living this way has often worried my friends and family, especially my mother. She wondered how I could survive. But I lived happily. I was like a hippie. Something would always happen and I’d find some money. “I see art as a utopian dream within everyday life. Sometimes you want to practise but you can’t because the opposing structures are too strong. Making objects might seem conventional, but they really function. Painting is healing. It calms my nerves; like meditation.

Turner Prize 2021

Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until Wed 12 January

The 2021 Turner Prize exhibition is currently showing at the Herbert as part of Coventry’s ongoing UK City of Culture celebrations. This year’s show marks the first time a Turner Prize jury has selected a shortlist consisting entirely of artist collectives. The exhibition is showcasing work by five nominees, all of whom work closely and continuously with communities across the UK to inspire social change through art... Admission to the Turner Prize 2021 is free. Tickets can be booked by visiting coventry2021.co.uk

John Nash: The Landscape Of Love And Solace

Compton Verney, Warwickshire, Sat 23 October - Sun 23 January

Given that he was one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century, it’s somewhat surprising that the last major exhibition to pay tribute to John Nash took place more than half a century ago. Born in 1893 and the brother of fellow artist Paul - in whose shadow he often found himself - Nash was an ‘official war artist’ in both the Great War and the Second World War. It was in the final year of the Great War that he produced two of the paintings for which he is probably best known: Over The Top - which now hangs in the Imperial War Museum - and The Corn Field - which features in this show alongside a number of the artist’s other war-era works. Evidencing Nash’s versatility, the exhibition also includes a selection of his botanical artworks - he was a keen plantsman - which are here being displayed for the very first time.

Visual Arts

Kurt Jackson: Clay Country

Worcester Art Gallery, until Wed 20 November

A leading figure in contemporary landscape painting and a noted environmentalist, Kurt Jackson is exhibiting at Worcester Art Gallery for the third time, presenting a show that brings together wall pieces and ceramics centred around Cornwall’s industrial clay mines. “These paintings show the other side to Cornwall, ” says Kurt, “the less glamorous, industrial side; from the ‘washing’ of the clay from the face with high-pressure monitors, to the pumping, the blasting of the rock and breaking and transportation. “I am delighted to bring the Clay Country paintings from Cornwall to Worcester, echoing the journey that china clay made from the area around St Austell to the Royal Worcester Porcelain works for all those many years.

Gathering Light

Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, Shrewsbury, until Sun 12 December

It was in the Shropshire Marches back in Spring 2018 that an anonymous detectorist came across one of the most significant pieces of Bronze Age metalwork ever to be found in Britain. The sun pendant - also known as a bulla - would have been worn as a clothes accessory. It was purchased last year by the British Museum for £250,000 and is soon to go on permanent display there. The pendant’s temporary stay in Shrewsbury provides local people with the opportunity to view what is only the second bulla ever to be discovered in Britain.