Art

Emma Crichton-Miller

Theaster Gates: Amalgam

Tate Liverpool, 13th December to 3rd May

Malaga is an island off the north-east coast of Maine, in the US. From the mid-19th century it was home to an ethnically-mixed community, eventually forcibly expelled to the mainland. Many Malagans were left without housing or jobs, and some ended up in asylums. Theaster Gates, a politically engaged artist based in Chicago, best known for his community-based restoration projects, mines this story with wit. From this forgotten history he has produced three installations embracing sculpture, archaeology, film and dance. A potent amalgam.

Theaster Gates’s Amalgam

Judy Chicago

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 16th November to 19th April

In its eightieth year, the Baltic is honouring the pioneering American artist Judy Chicago with her first major UK survey. The environment has been a consistent source of inspiration: from her earliest Atmosphere photographs (1969-74), presenting a feminist approach to land art, through her smoke performance “actions” in the desert from the 1970s, to The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction (2013-8), including 40 pieces of painted porcelain and glass.

George IV: Art & Spectacle

The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 15th November to 3rd May

In many ways ridiculous, George IV was also a prodigious collector, commissioning and buying houses and paintings, metalwork, textiles, furniture, watercolours, books and ceramics in vast numbers—many by the finest artists of the day. Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, grand portraits by Thomas Lawrence and Joshua Reynolds, fine French porcelain and the virtuosic gold work of Paul Storr—today we can marvel at his acquisitions and expansive patronage.