A hand-curated list of wonderful ways to spend your November, from a seafood pop-up on a Paddington canal to exhibitions from Nan Goldin, Tim Burton, Martine Syms and more
Exhibitions
The acclaimed Nan Goldin retrospective This Will Not End Well is headed for Berlin or, more specifically, for the Neue Nationalgalerie, the third stop on its international tour. The show will be displayed within six structures, each designed by architect and frequent Goldin collaborator Hala Wardé in response to a different slideshow by the American photographer. These include The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Goldin’s magnum opus, featuring startlingly candid images made in the 70s and 80s; The Other Side (1992–2021), a decades-spanning ode to Goldin’s trans friends, and Sirens (2019–2020), a work that explores drug addiction, made entirely from found video footage.
Read our recent interview with Nan Goldin here.
Martine Syms: Total at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris: Until February 9, 2025
“What if we were all actors in a film in perpetual production? What if ‘reality’ was written by images?” So asks American artist Martine Syms in her first French retrospective, now on display at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris. Syms’ shrewd, humorous brand of social commentary extends across publishing, moving image, photography, installation, performance and software programming, often blurring the boundaries that divide them. This show has been envisioned as a total work of art that transforms the gallery space into a store of sorts (many of the pieces on display have been turned into editions that visitors can buy), resulting in a thought-provoking “meditation on consumption as performance, but also on the performance of consumption”.
At the Saatchi Gallery in London, a new photography exhibition will soon platform an impressive selection of work from across African Diasporic culture, with featured artists ranging from established image-makers such as James Barnor, Gordon Parks and Liz Johnson Artur to ascendant talents like Texas Isaiah and Arielle Bobb-Willis. Organised by Aperture and curated by Elliott Ramsey, the exhibition will “centre the familial alongside the familiar”, with an overarching focus on “concepts of community, identity, and power [while recognising] the complex strength, beauty, vulnerability, and diversity of Black life”.
One of the final exhibitions to mark Surrealism’s centennial, Hepworth Wakefield’s upcoming show Forbidden Territories will take a deep dive into the oneiric realm of Surrealist landscapes, exploring how the movement’s ideas can “turn landscape into a metaphor for the unconscious, fuse the bodily with the botanical, and provide means to express political anxieties, gender constraints and freedoms”. Expect to see works by André Breton’s inner-circle – Salvador Dalí, Eileen Agar, Max Ernst et al – alongside later Surrealists such as Leonora Carrington, Edith Rimmington and Marion Adnams, and contemporary artists working within the legacy of Surrealism, like Shuvinai Ashoona, Wael Shawky, María Berrío and Ro Robertson.
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The World of Tim Burton at the Design Museum, London: Until April 21, 2025
For UK-based Tim Burton fans, the long wait is over: The World of Tim Burton, an exhibition tracing the marvellously madcap filmmaker and artist’s creative output from childhood to the present day, has finally arrived at London’s Design Museum, the last stop on a ten-year global tour. Made up of more than 600 objects and artworks, including films, illustrations, paintings and photographs, as well as costume and set designs, puppets and other imaginings made in collaboration with a skilful cohort of artists and designers, the show transports viewers straight to the heart of Burton’s eye-popping, mind-bending universe. Explore Burton’s childhood doodles, learn about his formative influences and early years as a Disney animator, discover early iterations of some of his best-loved characters and see such iconic paraphernalia as Michelle Pfeiffer’s latex Catwoman costume up close.
Fashion in the Making at Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris: November 6, 2024 – January 26, 2025
Timed to coincide with this year’s Paris Photo, a new exhibition at the city’s Musée des Arts Décoratifs will bring together over a hundred photographs, drawings, films and haute couture dresses to foreground the best of Parisian fashion from 1917 to 1939. The Roaring Twenties was a time of great sartorial innovation and imagination with couturiers such as Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, Madeleine Vionnet and more conceptualising exquisite designs, which they would then have photographed as an early means of copyright protection. But with image-makers such as Man Ray and Thérèse Bonney behind the lens, this soon gave rise to some of the finest early fashion photographs in history – a perfect storm of creativity.
Electric Dreams at the Tate Modern, London: November 28, 2024 – June 1, 2025
Later this month at the Tate Modern, a mesmerising new show will take a look at the intersection of art and technology before the internet age. A wide-ranging curation of artworks by more than 70 artists, working across Asia, Europe and the Americas from the 1950s to the early 1990s, will reveal the idiosyncratic blend of science, technology and material innovation that first brought optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art to life. Billed as “a rare opportunity to experience incredible vintage tech art in action”, the show promises everything from trippy psychedelic installations to early home computer and video-synthesiser experiments.
At the Berlinische Galerie in the German capital, an upcoming display will spotlight the still and moving portraits of the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra, taken between 1992 and 2024. Dijkstra’s distinctive oeuvre often depicts figures in a state of transition – be they tweens or new mothers, bullfighters or a young refugee girl (Almerisa, 1994–2008) – and it is these works that form the show’s focus. By removing her subjects from their everyday environments, the artist hones in on individual character traits, resulting in photographic series and video portraits that are as nuanced and intimate as they are evocative.
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Shuang Li: Distance of the Moon at Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai: November 6, 2024 – January 12, 2025
Rising Chinese artist Shuang Li creates interactive websites, sculptures, moving images and multimedia installations that investigate “the diverse forms of interaction and intimacy” that exist between the digital landscape and its users – with thoroughly engaging results. For her first institutional solo show in Asia, taking place at Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai, Li will present a series of work that stems from her experiences growing up under China’s one-child policy, and the complicated bond between mother and child. Visitors to the exhibit can expect to encounter a rich multimedia narrative, at once personal and universal, that highlights the “dilemma of communication” in today’s highly mediated world.
Shifting Landscapes at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: November 1, 2024 – January 2026
The Whitney Museum has just lifted the curtain on its latest show, offering a fresh perspective on the landscape genre from the 1960s to the present day. Uniting some 120 photographs, installations, films, sculptures, paintings and digital pieces from the Whitney’s collection, the display considers how shifting political, ecological and social issues have affected artists’ representations of their surrounding environments. “Whether depicting the effects of industrialisation on the environment, grappling with the impact of geopolitical borders, or proposing imagined spaces as a way of destabilising the concept of a natural world, the works gathered here bring ideas of land and place into focus,” the New York institute explains, “foregrounding how we shape and are shaped by the spaces around us.”
Sung Neung Kyung: Off the Beaten Track at Lehmann Maupin, New York: Until November 9, 2024
Also in New York, don’t miss your chance to see the latest exhibition from the radical South Korean performance artist Sung Neung Kyung at Lehmann Maupin until this Friday. Sung was one of the first Korean artists to engage in performance, photography and archival methods, using a mixed-media approach to challenge the constructs of knowledge and power. Off the Beaten Track is the artist’s first solo show outside of Korea and provides a comprehensive survey of his illustrious career, featuring works from the 1970s to the present day that cement Sung’s status as an avant-garde pioneer.
Radical Modernity: From Bloomsbury to Charleston at Sotheby’s London: November 9–26, 2024
Good news for Bloomsbury group devotees. Sotheby’s will soon host a two-part exhibition of works by the free-spirited circle of 20th-century British intellectuals and creatives, curated by none other than Kim Jones, who will loan items from his own personal collection for the purpose. Also on display will be a number of significant pieces from Charleston, the group’s beautifully decorated Sussex bolthole, many of which are not usually on public view. So head down to the London auction house from November 9 to revel in paintings, drawings, furniture, ceramics and literature galore by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf and co.
Events & Performances
If you are looking for rousing live entertainment to dispel the incoming winter blues, we have just the tickets to book. At the Royal Opera House from November 14–30, see the inimitable British choreographer Wayne McGregor transpose Magaret Atwood’s MADDADDAM trilogy – a “dystopian epic of annihilation and survival” – into a visionary new ballet, with a live score by Max Richter. While at Sadler’s Wells from November 12–13, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will present Exit Above, a hypnotic work that “explores the tension between marching together and stepping out alone, as well as walking as a primary form of movement”.
“Do not research into You Me Bum Bum Train,” warns the team behind the much-buzzed-about immersive theatre show: “the less you know about it the better”. That said, they would certainly advise attending their latest performances, which begin this month in Covent Garden, following an eight-year hiatus, and promise to carry you away to somewhere entirely new.
A new production of Oscar Wilde’s sublime comedy of errors The Importance of Being Earnest arrives at the National Theatre on November 21, directed by Max Webster. A story of “identity, impersonation and romance”, it sees Jack and Algernon, two men about town, dream up a rakish figure named Ernest to aid them in their respective quests for love. Needless to say, mayhem ensues. If a mafia take on Verdi’s Rigoletto sounds more up your street, make your way to the London Coliseum for the English National Opera’s latest revival of Jonathan Miller’s Olivier-award-winning production. Running from November 7–21, the show transports the classic 19th-century saga of jealousy, love and revenge to Little Italy in 1950s New York, envisioning the titular character, whose misplaced humour sparks a deadly vendetta, as a wise-cracking, Godfather-style mobster.
Last but not least, don’t miss the latest London edition of Pitchfork Music Festival, taking place in venues across the capital from November 5–10. Highlights include headline performances from Philadelphia rapper Tierra Whack at Village Underground, the mind-blowing US multi-instrumentalist Laraaji at the ICA, Irish-Chilean producer and NUXXE label head Sega Bodega at HERE at Outernet, and Honduran-American artist Empress Of, bringing her heady house-infused pop to Fabric.
Film
With the days getting shorter and the weather gloomier, a little cinematic escapism is definitely in order this November. Indie stalwart Sean Baker’s Palme-d’Or-winning Anora follows a Brooklyn sex worker as she meets and marries her very own price charming, the son of a Russian oligarch. An unforgettable performance by Mikey Madison as the titular character infuses this tragi-comedy with a rare authenticity as word of the marriage reaches Anora’s in-laws, and trouble looms overhead. In Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These – a powerful retelling of Claire Keegan’s Magdalene Laundries novel of the same name – a hard-working family man in 1980s Ireland is forced to confront the cruel realities at play in his local convent. In need of a solid dose of creepiness to brighten your mood? Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ Heretic finds Hugh Grant in the role of a seemingly mild man who invites a couple of door-knocking evangelical women into his home, where he puts their faith to increasingly sadistic tests.
In Bird, the latest film from Andrea Arnold, the British director adds a dash of magical realism to her signature social realist approach to tell the immaculately performed story of a 12-year-old girl, who, left to her own devices, goes out in search of adventure with help from her new kilt-sporting friend, Bird. From Hong Kong’s Anselm Chan, The Last Dance sees two mismatched business partners, played by Dayo Wong and Michael Hui, take on the running of a funeral parlour, providing a profound yet gently whimsical reflection on the human condition in the face of mortality. The mesmerising debut feature from Payat Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light follows three nurses living and loving in modern-day Mumbai. A compelling portrayal of contemporary Indian womanhood, it is documentary-like in its realism yet highly poetic in form.
This month’s best documentaries, meanwhile, include Witches by Elizabeth Sankey, a deeply personal study of the relationship between filmic depictions of witches and the ways in which society views women, motherhood and mental health. In No Other Land, Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra joins up with an Israeli journalist to meticulously document how his West Bank village is relentlessly, systematically and often violently seized from its Palestinian inhabitants. Finally, Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’État is a tour de force documentary that brilliantly blends archival artefacts of cold-war geopolitics and jazz-icon footage to tell the story of the CIA’s cover-up of its assassination of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.
Food & Drink
There are all kinds of exciting culinary experiences heading your way this November, beginning with a sublime-sounding seafood pop up on the Regent’s Canal, hosted by popular east London restaurant Angelina Dalston and Cornish fish supplier Flying Fish Seafoods. Inviting guests aboard a moored canal boat in Paddington every evening from November 13–16, Angelina Sull’Acqua (Angelina on the Water) will serve a tasting menu centred around the finest British seafood – including sardines, monkfish, scallops and lobster – yet inspired by Japanese and Italian cuisine. Picture focaccia with squid sausage, bluefin tuna, nduja and pickles, and a crab and mascarpone raviolo with soy cured egg yolk and lobster bisque butter.
If chicken is your ingredient of choice, be sure to head to Hotori, set to open in Holborn on November 18, where founders Mike Zheng and Kuangyi Wei will be delivering a classic Japanese yakitori experience, with a “beak to tail” menu of grilled chicken skewers and tempura. The 17 different types of yakitori on offer – made using free-range, slow-reared chicken from Fosse Meadows – will include engawa (belly), soriresu (chicken oyster), bonjiri (tail meat), kashiwa (thigh) and tebamoto (wing), served alongside vegetables and fish skewers and a selection of sake, Japanese whisky and wines.
N5 Kitchen, Finsbury Park’s fabulously cosy female-led deli and caterer is in the midst of a month-long collaboration with hand-crafted spelt pasta purveyors Northern Pasta Co. For the past three Fridays (with one more to go), N5 Kitchen has been whipping up and delivering flavourful, seasonal lunch boxes using a different pasta weekly – think: chicken Milanese with cavolo nero, rigatoni, rocket, shaved fennel and ricotta salata; and roasted pumpkin with cima di rapa, casarecce and black olive gremolata. This marks the start of a longer partnership, with Northern Pasta Co’s artisanal products – rigatoni, radiatori and more – now featuring among the N5 deli’s curated pantry essentials.
If you’re looking to preemptively ignite the holiday spirit, there are plenty of delightful new opportunities for festive feasting and quaffing. Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan, has just launched a tantalising new menu at East London cocktail hotspot Seed Library, where you can now enjoy eight fresh conjurings, from the reviving Kasu Verde Sour (made with Patrón tequila, young coffee, curacao and lime) to the singular Greenhouse Highball (feat. Aberfeldy 12, technicolor tomato, cricket garum, apricot and bubbles), plus three equally delicious boozeless iterations, including an alcohol-free take on both aforementioned drinks.
Each year, the storied champagne house Krug organises a special dinner series in tandem with its international array of world-renowned ambassador chefs. The chefs have one task: to craft a menu around a single ingredient, with each plate designed to be paired with a glass of the maison’s Grande Cuvée or Krug Rosé. This year the ingredient is edible flowers – a surprising yet joyful choice. “Edible flowers in the kitchen heighten the aromatic expression of a pairing, infusing entirely new flavours and unexpected aromas,” explains Krug cellar master Julie Cavil. “They offer chefs a blossoming spectrum of diversity, adding refinement and a touch of the unexpected to any culinary creation.” This year, Londoners can enjoy exceptional Krug x Flower extravaganzas conceived by Jacqueline Kobald, who will be hosting a sumptuous dinner at the Lanesborough; Simon Attridge, who’ll be demonstrating his floral flare at Claridges, and Adam Handling, who’ll be hosting diners at his raved-about restaurant Frog. For those in Glasgow, meanwhile, Lorna McNee and Michael O'Hare will be whipping up a five-course dinner at Glasgow’s Cail Bruich.
At Canary Wharf's convivial new brasserie Marceline, you can now enjoy the most lavish of brunches, featuring classic dishes curated by Robert Aikens. Spanning eggs benedict and French toast through steak tartare and a full breakfast grill (for those in search of something more hearty), you can opt to wash these down with a refreshing Bloody Mary or partake in Marceline’s new Champagne Cellar Raid, wherein every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, an extensive selection of the restaurant’s sparkling wines can be enjoyed at remarkably reduced rates. Let the good times roll.
