This weekend (and beyond), commercial galleries across the city are showcasing work from their most important artists – and admission is free. Here are 10 great shows to catch when you’re in the capital, from a Nan Goldin film to footage of Palestinian youth.
Kiki Kogelnik: The dance
In the paintings and sculptures of the late Kiki Kogelnik, floating female silhouettes and celestial orbs have bold billboard appeal and come in solid candy-colored shades. But spend time with her flattened, fragmented people and her vision of the future looks less than rosy. This show focuses on the potential of space travel for freedom and alarm. From her contours of people cut from smooth, glossy vinyl to bodies decorated with kitschy love hearts, Kogelnik suggests that human depth is in danger of being lost in a technologized world. This weekend’s special exhibition guides include top Polish artist Paulina Olowska, a Kogelnik fan whose work is also based on images from women’s magazines. Pace Gallery, W1, until August 3
Matthew Barney: Secondary: Light Lens Parallax
Shown in four galleries around the world with accompanying exhibitions, Barney’s film Secondary is a beautifully bold addition to his canon of grand cinematic projects that explore physical extremes through strange, wild costumes. In it, dancers portray an infamous American football tragedy from 1978, in which player Darryl Stingley became paralyzed. Reflecting the associated media spectacle and the public’s fascination with violence, new sculptures based on forms of athletic equipment explore the vulnerability of sports stars’ exploited bodies. These include a spine-like ceramic work deflected by barbells and two power racks (a weightlifting cage) that reflect the battle between the film’s two footballers. Sadie Coles Headquarters, W1, until July 27
Adam Rouhana: Before Freedom, Part 2
Young Palestinian-American Adam Rouhana’s photographs celebrate everyday life in Palestine that is overlooked by the news. His latest works were created in the spring of this year during an artist residency, and depict children playing on a farm, teenagers cooling off in a river, lush fruit trees, carpets being beaten on a sunny day and an elderly man enjoying an outing to nature. Barber. It’s not that he ignores the reality of a country at war. Rather, the barbed wire and soldiers, when they appear, are in the background. New life is central here. TJ Boulting, W1, May 30 until June 22
Nan Goldin: Sisters, Saints, Sibyls
The leading chronicler of 1980s New York’s queer subcultures has found an evocative location for this screening of her 2004 three-channel film, which explores her sister’s troubled teenage years and suicide. In the deconsecrated Welsh Chapel of Soho, this typically raw work begins with Saint Barbara, beheaded by her pagan father. This offsets the story of the short life of Goldin’s rebellious sister Barbara, who was committed to psychiatric institutions by her parents before dying at the age of 18. It is a heartbreaking study of secular martyrdom and cultural misunderstandings between generations, which shaped the artist’s vision. The Welsh Chapel, 83 Charing Cross Road, WC2, May 30 until June 23
Nil Yalter: In the land of the troubadours
Eighty-year-old Turkish artist Nil Yalter, the co-recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Biennale, has spent her career exploring exile and immigration. Complementing a capsule overview of works from the 1970s to the present at Ab-Anbar, she stages her first-ever live performance with the help of a group of Anatolian bards at an East End community centre. It is a tribute to her friend, the poet and folk singer Nesimi Çimen, who was killed during the infamous Sivas massacre in 1993, targeting Alevi intellectuals, artists and musicians. Traditional Anatolian nomadic oral traditions are explored through poetry and music, followed by a conversation with the artist. Halkevi – Turkish and Kurdish Community Center, E8, June 2
Otobong Nkanga: We CUncle of Fire and Return to Fire
Nkanga is a leading figure in a new wave of can-do environmental artists. Her work is not content with simply outlining the eco-crisis, but suggests solutions that she implements in real life, such as the organic farm she has set up in Nigeria. Following a major museum show in Europe, her first UK solo exhibition introduces her holistic vision of carpets, rope and ceramic sculptures, sound and more. While towers of raku-fired ceramics suggest burned trees, the destruction is offset by potential innovation in the form of herbal remedies in hand-blown bottles, a tapestry sprinkled with minerals, ritual offerings of oil and seeds. Lisson Gallery, NW1, until August 3
Harminder Judge: A ghost dance
The lush color fields of 20th century American abstract painting merge with the meditative forms of Indian tantric art in this emerging artist’s works. However, they are not traditional paintings on canvas. Judge paints on quick-drying wet plaster, then polishes and abrades it to create layers of pigment and texture. His new works, on display in two galleries in south London, reference Native American ceremonies to summon spirits to help the living reclaim land occupied by settlers. New sculptures are reminiscent of urns and a dead body, while his plaster works allude to transformation and a glimpse into hidden worlds. Matt’s Gallery, SW11, and the Sunday Painter, SW8, until July 7
Can Altay: I waited for the rain to pour
Headlines about polluted rivers and failing water companies, not to mention floods and droughts, have given new impetus to questions about how to access clean water. With this in mind, Altay, an artist with a background in design and architecture, has explored the fountain as both an urgent form of public sculpture and an important part of regenerative technology, collecting and redistributing water for communities. This exhibition builds on his presentation at last year’s Coventry Biennale and includes his signature drawings on newsprint, water-processing sculptures-cum-prototypes and research into buried urban rivers, rainwater harvesting and the path to renewable energy. ArcadeFlat time house, SE15, May 31 until July 7
Dean Sameshima: Being alone
In the post-digital world, a visit to an IRL gay porn theater almost sounds strange. It’s exactly the kind of fringe that interests photographer Dean Sameshima, whose other recent series focused on glory holes and the use of condoms in trash cans, forcing us to think about the human encounters that animated them. The photographer’s latest work, Being Alone, first seen at this year’s Venice Biennale, muses on these hidden cinemas in deliberately unrevealing black and white. While people can be seen here, the screen itself is an imageless whiteout and the lone viewers are little more than black outlines. True to the spirit of the branches, their anonymity is preserved. They seem both protected and isolated. Soft opening, E2, until June 8
Adelaide Cioni: Touch song
This young artist’s installations used previously simple shapes – from basic geometric shapes such as circles and triangles to the more whimsical lightning strikes or bananas – to explore the human tendency to make patterns. Her new exhibition of enormous drawings on loose cotton in the Approach gallery reduces ancient headless and limbless figurines to their essential elements. An accompanying performance featuring two giant hands, music and slapstick humor in Piccadilly, explores another way we make our mark on the world, through our desire to connect with others. Southwood Garden at St. James’s Church Piccadilly, W1, May 31
• The London gallery weekend takes place from May 31 to June 2