Four exhibitions celebrating summer | financial times

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Setsuko: Into Nature in Gagosian, Gstaad

The sculptural terracotta forests of Rola artist Setsuko Klossowska have sprung up in Gagosian gallery outposts in Paris and Rome in recent years. She is now expanding her horizons with In nature in Gagosian Gstaad, which will see the trees accompanied by flowers, landscapes and still lifes, made both in sculpture and on paper.

De Rola draws inspiration from the pine-dotted countryside that surrounds her home at the Grand Chalet de Rossinière, near Gstaad. “I live in the mountains, surrounded by cows and forests, so nature is like my air,” he says of Rola. The new exhibition will show the blooming magnolia of him, an experiment in “putting[ting] something very fragile like ceramic in combination with bronze. I only did one because it’s too complicated to do.” And though rows of cats line the walls of his Paris studio (prototypes for the ceramic workshop astier de villattewhom she designs for) this is the first time a cat has made its way into one of her tree sculptures, kicking up the white enamel trunk of a cherry blossom tree, where a bird perches high in the branches. marionwillingham
Setsuko: Into Nature is on gagosian in Gstaad from July 1 to September 10

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Maresias by Beatriz Milhazes at Turner Contemporary, Margate

In Brazil, Maresias refers to the salty air that washes in from the Atlantic Ocean and over Rio de Janeiro. The word has inspired the new exhibition by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes at Turner Contemporary in Margate, conceived to connect two coastal landscapes and “celebrate the experience of being by the ocean”. It will be Milhazes’ first solo institutional outing in the UK in over 20 years, and charts the evolution of the artist’s swirling, kaleidoscopic paintings and works on paper from 1989 to the present day. “I am an artist from the tropics,” she says.

“The context in which I grew up, live and work makes me think differently. Baroque, popular art, the carnival parade and nature are sources of contrast and beauty that you can find in Rio de Janeiro”. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of carnival-themed events in the run-up to Margate Carnival in August. simons berry
Beatriz Milhazes: Maresias is in Contemporary TurnersMargate, until September 10

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Mirror by Jean-Luc Mylayne in Sprüth Magers, London

Once he’s settled on a bird to capture, French photographer Jean-Luc Mylayne begins a waiting game. By placing his medium format camera in the same spot each day, he hopes the bird will get used to his presence and even the sound of the camera shutter. Sometimes it takes months before the creatures are relaxed enough for him to take a picture. The resulting images of Eurasian wrens, goldfinches, or mountain bluebirds, captured in flight, at rest, or gathered around a water barrel as if in conference, become glimpses, won rather than stolen, in a world that usually not seen.

Seventeen of Mylayne’s photographs, selected around the idea of ​​a fragile ecosystem, are now on display at the Sprüth Magers gallery in London. In one, a delicate red-breasted bird (Mylayne leaves the species of his subjects a mystery) perches on a log, staring directly into the lens. In another, a spring landscape reveals, on closer inspection, a small feathered creature hanging from a branch, perhaps about to take flight. degree
Mirror by Jean-Luc Mylayne is on Spruth MagersLondon, until July 29

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Bathers at Saatchi Yates, London

From the Renaissance paintings of Ovid’s Diana bathing with her nymphs to Cézanne’s bucolic lake scenes and Picasso’s cubist nudes, the tradition of painting swimmers runs a rich vein. London’s Saatchi Yates presents a deep dive into the genre for its summer exhibition, with works by Renoir and Hockney alongside more unorthodox “bathers”, including a 3000-year-old Egyptian spoon in the shape of a swimming girl and the painting of Neil Stokoe. of a serene swimmer, floating in an expanse of turquoise.

To complement the works, six of the gallery’s artists have reinterpreted the theme, including Angela Santana, who reuses material from pornographic magazines and advertising campaigns to create oversized swimmers. The magic of the theme lies in the fact that “it can continue to amaze artists and viewers alike,” says gallery co-founder Phoebe Saatchi Yates. megawatts
Bathers is in Saatchi YachtsLondon, until August 10