5 to See: This Weekend

The selection for this weekend responds to the immediate environment. Through documenting and evoking a sense of urban, natural or individual landscapes, the exhibitions meaningfully comment on society’s relationship with its surroundings, creating platforms for thoughtful discussion and change.

Michel Comte: Light, MAXXI Museum, Rome

Comte’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, photography and video installation. The artist’s commitment to depicting the unpredictable nature of glacial forms spans 10 years, and often manifests itself in unexpected, abstracted ways. Juxtaposing the sublime and fragile qualities of the monumental structures, the work invites reflection upon the erosion and loss of these sites. Until 10 December. www.maxxi.art.

The 2017 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Shortlist, Aperture Foundation, New York

This show highlights the integral contribution of the art form to wider dialogues, celebrating the importance of the photobook to the evolving story of the medium. For example, Mathieu Asselin’s Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation – a project for which the artist is also shortlisted for the 2018 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize – is an in-depth and strikingly human critique of the international biotech company. From 9 December www.aperture.org.

John Davies: The British Landscape, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York

Parker Stevenson Gallery reflects upon the changing state of the nation’s cities and countryside. Davies’ large-scale black and white images are concerned with the impact of human activity on the land, capturing the effects of industrial activity from 1979 to the present day. Featured images include Westgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station, Snowdonia. Until 25 February. www.lparkerstephenson.nyc.

COS/ New Spring By Studio Swine, Design Miami, Miami Beach

Both inspired by Milanese architecture and presenting a futuristic vision of nature, this collaborative project creates blossoms, impregnated with mist, which evaporate on contact with skin. Lingering upon collision with fabrics, the bubbles – produced by a tree-like centrepiece – can be held by visitors wearing special gloves. Until 10 December www.designmiami.com.

Cig Harvey: You An Orchestra You A Bomb, Robert Mann Gallery, New York

Appearing in the current issue of Aesthetica Magazine, Harvey pays attention to the fragile present. Each vignette captures moments of awe, resting in the threshold between bewitchment and disaster. Each image nestles within split seconds where beauty mingles alongside an arresting sense of danger – dripping with sensory information and visceral consideration.Until 27 January www.robertmann.com

Credits: 
1. Michel Comte, Light series, MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts Archive
2. Mathieu Asselin, Sauget, Illinois 2012. © Mathieu Asselin
3. Westgate, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 2001 © John Davies
4. Studio Swine x COS, New Spring © Cos
5. Cig Harvey, Blizzard on Main Street, 2017, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery.