December

Quiet month, mostly. Milan picks up the slack with two openings that matter.

December runs thin on openings, which suits the season. Fondazione Prada takes over the Osservatorio with Hito Steyerl. Lafayette Anticipations reopens its workshop programme. Centre Pompidou, now closed for its long renovation, decants 300 drawings into the Grand Palais. The gallery dinners happen; the walls mostly wait.

Show of the month

Hito Steyerl: The Island

Hito Steyerl

4 DEC Osservatorio, Fondazione Prada Milan

Two floors above the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Steyerl builds a site-specific piece around flooding and four interlocking stories (Lucciole, The Artificial Island, The Birth of Science Fiction, Flash!). A new 26-minute HD projection anchors it. The origin: Darko Suvin, age eight, projecting himself into Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars during a 1941 bomb raid in Zagreb. On the way out, objects and interviews continue the argument.

Gallery site ↗

Also this month

16 DEC · PARIS · GRAND PALAIS (CENTRE POMPIDOU OFF-SITE)

Drawings Without Limits

The Pompidou's drawing collection takes a room under the glass while the building itself sits shut until 2030. Over 300 works, 120 artists. A hang that reads as a case for the medium rather than a best-of, and lines held against the scale of the nave.

Gallery site ↗

17 DEC · PARIS · LAFAYETTE ANTICIPATIONS

Ciel clair / Eaux troubles

A material-led group show with workshops running through the space. Paper pulp, dyed cotton, wet clay at the back. Entry is free subject to capacity, which is part of the point.

Gallery site ↗

3 DEC · LONDON · JAPAN HOUSE LONDON

Hyakkō: 100+ Makers from Japan

A Japanese craft survey in Kensington. Lacquer, cast iron, indigo, one tea caddy behind glass that doesn't photograph. Free.

Gallery site ↗

10 OCT · LONDON · THE COURTAULD GALLERY

Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life (final weeks)

Wayne Thiebaud

Cakes, lent for the first time out of Washington, stays on the third floor through the holidays. Four Pinball Machines hangs across from it. Thiebaud, first UK museum show, closes in mid-January. See before the panettone wears off.

Gallery site ↗

Wayne Thiebaud, Boston Cremes, 1962, oil on canvas.

11 OCT · MILAN · PIRELLI HANGARBICOCCA

Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well (continuing)

Nan Goldin

Still the best reason to be in Milan in December. Sirens plays on a loop in Wardé's freestanding pavilion; the Soundwalk Collective piece, Bleeding, greets you at the threshold. Go weekday afternoon, stay two hours.

Gallery site ↗

Screen from Nan Goldin's Sirens slideshow inside a dedicated pavilion at HangarBicocca.

12 OCT · RIEHEN/BASEL · FONDATION BEYELER

Yayoi Kusama (closing weeks)

Yayoi Kusama

The pond glints all winter thanks to Narcissus Garden. Timed entry to the two new Infinity Mirrored Rooms, booked out most weekends. Go midweek, early.

Gallery site ↗

Footnote

— The Pompidou's last night was 25 October. Because Beaubourg closed the building with a 36-hour party. By December, the shutters were down and the collection was scattered to Grand Palais, Metz, and a dozen partner venues across France. The crane went up on 12 December.