In our list of recommended exhibitions opening this week you will find the Parasol Unit offering traditional danzón lessons by three amateur dancers from Mexico, architects and designers reimagining beach huts at Oriel Mostyn, and hyperreal landscapes animated by Kelly Richardson at the Northern Gallery in Sunderland.
Showcasing the creative energy of the UK's art scene is one of the benefits of an overview of exhibitions, and evidences the curatorial ambition which extends from the nurturing advantage of our commercial galleries to the network of public collections. Artists within our own network also promote their exhibitions, so there's a real diversity to connect with.
To see the slideshow overview, which we put onscreen each morning to make sure we're not missing anything, just click here.
My highlights include the chance to see Jane Simpson's frozen sewing machine, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, at Blain Southern. Louisa Buck described her work as "sometimes grand, sometimes modest, sometimes fantastic, sometimes cheeky, often unstable and always formally acute" (Tableau, CAC Malaga). With new work by artist and curator Rachel Howard and sculptor Amelia Newton Whitelaw, this exhibition opens early next week.
As well as some interesting new shows opening in Bristol this weekend, and a must-see Bruce Lacey exhibition in Camden, you can also catch Charlie Tweed's latest work in the London Open at Whitechapel - here's a link to an interview by Liz Bruchet from my Proof publishing days.
We keep the exhibition list updated throughout the week, and often tweet the latest news over on @isendyouthis - you're always welcome to join us / KJ
exhibition: opening highlights
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 | Gravity and Disgrace - Rachel Howard, Jane Simpson and Amelia Newton Whitelaw Blain Southern
London W1S 1AL 11/07/2012 to 25/08/2012 Gravity and Disgrace brings together work by Rachel Howard (the curator), Jane Simpson and Amelia Newton Whitelaw. Initially inspired by the Hayward Gallery’s 1993 exhibition Gravity & Grace: The Changing Condition of Sculpture, 1965-75, this exhibition offers an exploration of materiality through painting and sculpture and celebrated the transitional nature of sculpture during the late 1960s and early 1970s by presenting some of the most important and provocative works made during these years.
This new exhibition encapsulates the idea of opposition, which is present in various configurations in all of the featured works. |
 | Julian Opie - new work Lisson Gallery
London NW1 5DA 11/07/2012 to 25/08/2012
Open Monday-Friday 10-6, Saturdays 11-5 In the broadest single display of his practice to-date, Opie employs the concise vernacular of modern media, depicting new subjects in previously unexplored mediums as well as self referentially developing ideas from his early works.
The exhibition includes a series of walking figures which have become an important part of the artist’s practice. Simplified to the point of becoming human ‘logos’, walkers in vinyl are displayed in an extended line, recalling Egyptian friezes. In an intriguing and radical development for the artist, he has captured unknown passers-by from the streets of London rather than working with personally known subjects. The unwitting subjects reveal themselves in movement, captured in the moment, exhibiting their own idiosyncrasies in the way they carry themselves. Walking figures are also captured as still images on inlayed granite and stone. |
 | Metamorphosis - Titian 2012 National Gallery
London WC2N 5DN 11/07/2012 to 23/09/2012
Open Daily 10am–6pm, Fridays 10am–9pm Featuring new work by Chris Ofili, Conrad Shawcross and Mark Wallinger in an unique collaboration with The Royal Ballet, the exhibition brings together a group of specially commissioned works responding to three of Titian’s paintings – Diana and Actaeon, The Death of Actaeon and the recently acquired Diana and Callisto – depicting stories from Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses. The three paintings displayed at the heart of the exhibition will be seen together for the first time since the 18th century.
The display, which includes sets and costumes for three new ballets at The Royal Opera House, reveals how they have responded to Titian’s masterpieces. |
 | The Bruce Lacey Experience Camden Arts Centre
London NW3 6DG 07/07/2012 to 16/09/2012 Bruce Lacey (born 1927) is one of Britain's great visionary artists. His lifetime pursuit of eccentric ‘making and doing’ has been a cathartic working-through of his experiences. This survey of a rich and diverse artistic production is a celebration of both his vibrant life (which includes working with Spike Milligan, The Beatles and Ken Russell) and his art which reveals telling links with the visual culture of the last 60 years.
Co-curated by artist Jeremy Deller and art historian Professor David Alan Mellor, the exhibition charts Lacey’s artistic development in a career encompassing painting, sculpture, robotised assemblages, theatrical performances and installations, as well as community arts and ritual action performances. |
 | The London Open Whitechapel Art Gallery
London E1 7QX 04/07/2012 to 14/09/2012
Open Weds-Sun, 11am - 6pm The London Open provides a snapshot of art in London, showcasing some of the most dynamic work being made across the capital. Artists include Charlie Tweed, Sarah Dobai, Mark Harris, Arnaud Desjardin, Alice Channer. |
 | Kelly Richardson - Legion Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art
Sunderland SR1 1RE 05/07/2012 to 29/09/2012 Canadian artist Kelly Richardson is one of the leading representatives of a new generation of artists working with digital technologies to create hyper-real, highly charged landscapes, alongside figures such as John Gerrard and Saskia Olde Wolbers. Legion is her first solo show in the UK, and provides a retrospective of over a decade of her work, including 3 large-scale projections. Her works are created by combining high-tech animations with footage of some of the world's most spectacular wildernesses. They ask us to imagine what future mankind can shape for itself and the planet when environmental meltdown seems, to many, to be all but unavoidable. |
 | Richard Wilson - Hang On A Minute Lads, I've Got A Great Idea... De La Warr Pavilion
Bexhill on Sea TN40 1DP 07/07/2012 to 01/10/2012
Open 10am - 5pm Weekdays 10am - 6pm Weekends The De La Warr Pavilion presents its most ambitious commission to date: Hang On A Minute Lads, I've Got A Great Idea... by artist Richard Wilson. Based upon the iconic final scene of the film The Italian Job, this feat of engineering sees a full-sized replica coach balance on the DLWP's rooftop. Click here for the link to BBC Front Row interview |
 | Anouk Mercier - Excursus Antlers
Bristol BS1 3BZ 06/07/2012 to 29/07/2012 Anouk’s drawings combine elements of myth, references to antique images and fragments of the natural world to depict melancholic landscapes and characters. Relying on the nostalgia of Romanticism, her work addresses a contemporary resurgence in the need for escapism through the imaginary; celebrating both the power of the imagination to escape the quotidian and the mundane, whilst also exploring the mysterious, the abysmal and the uncanny that often lurks behind idylls. |
 | New Visions II Grant Bradley Gallery
Bristol BS3 4AQ 07/07/2012 to 01/09/2012
Open Monday -Saturday 10am-4pm New Visions II showcases the work of established and emerging artists following a rigorous and competitive selection process. Lesser known artists exhibit alongside established and professional artists. |
Click here to see the full list
