To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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Riotous colour and queer resistance from the Maghreb
LEO BOIX recommends a refreshing, non-Western and subversive look at what it means to be LGBTQI+ in Morocco
Soufiane Ababri Bedwork, 2023 (L to R) Men in the sun; La Reparation
[Rebecca Fanuele]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
Soufiane Ababri: Their mouths were full of bumblebees but it was me who was pollinated
The Curve, Barbican
SINCE the so-called Arab Spring of 2011, Morocco has seen a growing social movement that has managed to mobilise large numbers of citizens around socio-economic, political and identity demands.
Within those groups, activists who identified as LGBTQI+ brought forward necessary discussions around sexual orientation and the rights of that specific community within contemporary Morocco and in the wider Arab world.
Moroccan artist Soufiane Ababri (b1985) has added his own voice to the struggle with a dazzling art commission currently at the Barbican’s Curve Gallery — his first solo exhibition at a major British institution.
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MIRANDA RICHMOND relishes the gloriously liberated art of Roy Oxlade, and traces his method back to the thinking of David Bomberg, his acknowledged teacher
SIMON PARSONS applauds an artist who rescues and rehumanises stories of women, the victims of violence, from a feminist perspective
MARJORIE MAYO welcomes an account of family life after Oscar Wilde, a cathartic exercise, written by his grandson
Forward’s rise as the tournament’s leading scorer reflects a journey shaped by heritage and belief as Morocco reach the final, writes JAMES NALTON