Arts Ahead: What's On In London 15 – 21 February

By Zoe Craig Last edited 157 months ago
Arts Ahead: What's On In London 15 – 21 February

It's a big week in the art world. Tomorrow sees the opening of three big new shows.

Be There First: London Shows Opening

Choose between the British Art Show 7: In The Days of the Comet at the Hayward (the first time in 20 years this survey of contemporary Brit-art comes to the Southbank venue), Watercolour at Tate Britain (looking at everything from medieval illuminated manuscripts to the present day by artists including Blake, Turner, Peter Doig and Tracey Emin), and Designs of the Year 2011 at the Design Museum, celebrating the most innovative and inventive design from the past year. This year's nominations include the iPad and six different apps (including Angry Birds!), Ikea's Homemade is Best ads and Jill Sander's +J collection for Uniqlo.

On Thursday, the National Portrait Gallery's new show Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Streets displaying 150 portraits and photographs of everyday British life by the German-born EO Hoppé (1878-1972). Look out for around 60 images of London, from waxworks being created at Madame Tussaud's to some Pearly Kings and Queens. From Friday, you can see Do Not Abandon Me, a collaboration between Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin at the Hauser and Wirth Gallery. And also on Friday, London Street Photography opens at the Museum of London; an exhibition of photographs from the 1860s to the present showing the development of street photography and the changing nature of London life.

We've got two suggestions for opera lovers: The Barber of Seville (Or Salisbury) opens at the Kings Head Theatre tonight, transposing Rossini's classic opera to Jane Austen's England, a world of rich bachelors, feisty heroines and snobbish relations. From tomorrow, you can see Nikolaus Lehnhoff's staging of Wagner's Parsifal at the London Coliseum, with a world-class cast led by Stuart Skelton.

Dance fans have another chance to see Shoes as it transfers to the Peacock Theatre from tonight.

It's quite a dark week if you're heading to the theatre! From tonight, you can see The Biting Point at Theatre 503, about hatred in the 1980s. Fatherland opens at the Gate Theatre tomorrow; the premiere of Tom Holloway's new play about a father who loved too deeply. Enda Walsh's play Penelope opens tomorrow at the Hampstead theatre, about the four ridiculous men who play for Penelope's unwinnable love while facing death in Homer's Odyssey. And Our Private Life opens at the Royal Court on Friday. Starring Merlin actor Colin Morgan and directed by Lyndsey Turner, this is another new black comedy, this time looking at the twisted moralities present in modern Colombia.

Last Chance to See: London Shows Closing

Closing on Saturday is As We Forgive Them at the Arcola Theatre, La Boheme at the Soho Theatre, the Flamenco Festival at Sadler's Wells, ballet Giselle at the Royal Opera House, and Little Platoons at the Bush Theatre.

Sunday is your last chance to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery and Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography at the V&A. Enjoy!

Top image shows production still from Anja Kirschner and David Panos: The Last Days of Jack Sheppard 2009. Second image of Jo Morris wearing Natacha Marro by Manuel Vason

Arts Ahead is brought to you by Kelkoo Select who are offering Londonist readers top-priced tickets to Blood Brothers for just £28.50 until midnight tonight!

Last Updated 15 February 2011