How to spend it in August

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FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

EAT

A Sri Lankan supper club in London’s Borough Market

British-Sri Lankan chef and food writer Cynthia Shanmugalingam opened her first restaurant, Rambutan, in Borough Market, to great acclaim last year. This summer, Shanmugalingam is launching a series of dinners at the restaurant. She is inviting some of her favourite cooks to explore the rambutan larder and create their own Sri Lankan-accented menus. On 11 August, Will Gleave, co-founder of celebrated north London venues Bright, Peg and P Franco, will be cooking. His menu includes haddock in prawn head curry, grilled black Tamworth pork with tamarind and coconut and roasted fig leaf ice cream. Baya Simons

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SEE

Abstract art by black artists in Beverly Hills

Writer Antwaun Sargent has curated an exhibition at the Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills that brings together several black artists making abstract works. Some explore the meanings behind specific materials, such as Kevin Beasley’s chromatic paintings, which use raw Virginia cotton, or Lauren Halsey’s wall relief, made from cascading synthetic hair. Others explore the meaning of color, such as Cy Gavin’s sprawling celestial scenes, which show starlight shining in deep black skies. A second edition will open at the Gagosian gallery in Hong Kong in the fall. Agnes Cross

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trade

St John’s latest clothing collaboration with Drake’s

London institution St John is once again collaborating with another very British establishment, the soft haberdashery and tailoring brand. From drakeWhile the first collection imagined a lunch-table wardrobe, the second part is a look at what St John co-founders Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver might wear while wine-tasting at a vineyard or visiting farms. The collection includes a green work jacket, a Breton jumper and sweatshirts with “Nose II Tail” emblazoned across the back. Jessica Beresford

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SEE

Guy Bourdin on the coast of Sardinia

The town of Porto Cervo, on Sardinia’s chic Costa Smeralda, is perhaps best known for its nautical culture, but go beyond the coast and you’ll find it also boasts a micro-art scene. This summer, Louise Alexander Gallery, the first contemporary gallery to open in the town, is hosting an exhibition of subtly surreal works by emerging and established artists. The curation of works by Guy Bourdin, Charlie Engman, Amy Bessone and others “seeks to reveal the beauty in the unconventional: the grotesque, the decadent and the repurposed,” as co-curator and co-founder Ayse Arnal puts it. Baya Simons

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trade

The Marbella Club smells like Loewe

The renowned Andalusian hotel Marbella Club turns 70 this year. To celebrate, it has welcomed Loewe on its premises to run a pop-up perfumery. Guests can purchase the brand’s Botanical Rainbow fragrance line, which highlights notes ranging from green apple to guava, and a collection of twelve exclusive home scents inside a Victorian greenhouse. Table decoration workshops are also being held, using fruit and vegetables from the hotel’s gardens, including the tomato patch, home to more than 100 heirloom varieties. Agnes Cross

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SEE

Sir John Soane’s Museum gets a sparkling new look

British-Liberian artist Lina Iris Viktor’s latest exhibition has been set up in the Bloomsbury terraced houses of 18th-century architect Sir John Soane, with her canvases arranged amongst his Grand Tour collectibles and imported antiques. Viktor draws from equally eclectic sources, her paintings are stamped in 24-carat gold leaf and use symbols from Australia, Mesoamerica and West Africa. In the crypt of Soane’s house, Viktor’s work ritual throne The works glow against the dark stone and statues, while on the upper floor the works are brighter, integrating pale silks, ceramics and plains of red gouache. Marion Willingham

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TO DRINK

North London welcomes a new natural wine bar

London’s De Beauvoir neighbourhood is now home to Goodbye Horses, a new natural wine bar and restaurant from Alex Young and George de Vos, former employees of the Dalston-based Japanese restaurant. Bright cornersThe space, designed by Swiss architect Leopold Banchini, features murals by Cornwall-based artist Lucy Stein, an audiophile-grade sound system and a 10-metre-long wooden bar made from a single oak tree. The wine cellar is stocked with natural European wines and the food menu changes from week to week – the current list includes sardine toast, oxtail ragout and broken rice. They have also opened a café, Day Trip, next door, and will open an ice cream shop later this month. Ines Cruz

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trade

Bavaria by Ellen von Unworth

What happens when fashion photographer Ellen von Unwerth, known for her playful and glamorous style, takes the green fields and humble wooden houses of Bavaria as her subject? Homea new book of naughty, erotically tinged images taken in the German state’s dramatic rural landscape. Von Unwerth takes readers on “a tour of the dairy” where maids “still enjoy fresh morning milk,” opens the door to the “homely, typical” German kitchen where fräuleins play with sausages, captures the “hard but honest work” of farm girls in Dirndl dresses and lace lingerie, and moments of “outdoor bonding” as they sled down snowy slopes and frolic behind barns. Von Unwerth moved to Bavaria from Frankfurt when she was 12, and at the time found that her “hippie” nature clashed with the region’s conservative traditions. Home became the photographer’s way of exploring this conflict, delicately parodying the pastoral idyll of her childhood. The result is an unofficial, humorous guide to her homeland. Annachiara Biondi

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SEE

Hospital Rooms and the Hauser & Wirth Mental Health Initiative

Sue Dunkley was known for the pop art-flavoured, primary-coloured paintings she made at her home in Islington during the 1960s and 1970s. The artist, who died in 2022, often painted women (as in this image of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) in states of repose: in the car, at home, walking along the beach arm in arm, or gathered around a table. Her interest in the mundane was said to have been inspired by her love of Vermeer. Until 10 September, this painting is on display in a new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London in collaboration with Hospital Rooms, a charity working to bring art into mental health hospitals. The show, which also features works by Do Ho Suh, Nengi Omuku and Sutapa Biswas, will culminate in an auction to raise funds for the charity’s work, including a new initiative offering artist-led workshops in all NHS inpatient mental health facilities in England. Baya Simons

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BUY

A colorful art auction in Aspen

The annual Aspen Art Week returns for its fourth edition with pomp and ceremony. Hosted by the Aspen Art Museum, the program of events includes a party hosted by Bottega Veneta and a performance by artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin atop Aspen Mountain. The week will culminate with an auction with more than 70 works of art up for grabs, including My Mountains Vase works designed by the late Gaetano Pesce and colorful paper works by multimedia artist Betty Woodman. Ines Cruz

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SEE

Delve into reading at Queen’s Park

Queen’s Park, the leafy corner of north-west London named after Queen Victoria, has been home to many writers over the years, from Barbara Pym to Zadie Smith. The area’s annual book festival, held in the park from 31 August to 1 September, celebrates its literary history and welcomes a host of contemporary writers for a weekend of talks. This year, Elif Shafak will be speaking about her new novel, There are rivers in the sky, From ancient Nineveh to Victorian London, Alan Bennett reflects on life in his 90s and Jay Rayner reveals which restaurant dishes he’s trying to recreate at home. Baya Simons