This month’s Cultural Diary is hot on fairs, with days and weeks devoted to craft, sculpture and African art. Here are new gallery and exhibition openings in October 2020, from London to Cambridge and the Cornish coast. Plus, a couple of books for you to leaf through at home. Autumn, we’re ready for you.

London Craft Week, London
This year’s celebration of all things creative sees more than 250 established and emerging artists, makers, designers, brands and galleries from around the world come together in London. Visitors are encouraged to concoct their own itinerary across the city, popping into exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops along the way. Don’t miss Manchester-based artist Vic Wright’s new collection of sustainable sculptures, which will be on show at Paul Smith’s Albemarle Street and Coal Drops Yard stores until 19th and 30th October respectively. Inspired by the natural world, the unique pieces are made from fine casting cement and various metal powders and pigments.

The Fine Art Society, London
While you’re strolling through London, be sure to drop by the new Soho outpost of one of the oldest fine art dealers in the UK. Established in 1876, and with an existing gallery in Edinburgh, The Fine Art Society has opened a second space across three floors of a sensitively renovated Grade-II-listed Georgian townhouse on Carnaby Street. The opening exhibition, Twenty Twenty London, which runs until 14 November, pairs pieces of interwar British design with artworks by James McNeill Whistler, Walter Sickert, Jessica Dismorr and more. Moving forward, the new London gallery will continue to focus on 19th- and 20th-century British art and design while the Edinburgh gallery will keep its focus fixed on the Scottish arts scene.

Bruce Nauman, Tate Modern, London
Running from 7 October until 21 February is a blockbuster show devoted to the sculpture, sound, video and neon art of the ceaselessly inventive Bruce Nauman. Tracing his disruptive work from the mid-1960s to the present, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with the contemporary artist’s wild imagination via a series of immersive installations, each of which pushes the limits of creativity. On show are major works such as Double Steel Cage Piece (1974) – a walk-in steel sculpture best avoided by the claustrophobic – and Clown Torture (1987), a relentlessly repetitive work that toggles between humour and horror. An electrifying exhibition for anyone interested in what art can be.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House, London
Like many fairs in 2020, the eighth edition of 1-54 is taking place both on and offline. All 36 international exhibitors will show their works in virtual booths via an online platform hosted by Christie’s, this year’s partner, while 29 of those exhibitors will also have the chance to put together physical presentations at Somerset House. A special exhibition of works by the late great French-Moroccan photographer, video artist and activist Leila Alaoui will open to the public during the fair and run until January 2021. And don’t miss the stellar line-up of talks put together by the 1-54 Forum, which will engage with Afro-Latin American, African and Caribbean perspectives and pose questions about shared histories and cultural production.

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman by William Paice
“What good is a dream house,” said Julius Shulman, “if you haven’t got a dream.” The American architectural photographer would have turned 110 on 10 October, and to celebrate his birthday a new book about his life and work is hitting the shelves. Written by the author and film-maker William Paice to accompany a new release of the documentary of the same name, directed by Eric Bricker and narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman provides fresh insight into Shulman’s contribution to photography, film, architectural conservation and the preservation of the natural environment.

Frieze Sculpture, Regent’s Park, London
Another fair returning to London this October is Frieze, which has exhibitions, talks and events to attend both online and in person. One arm of the fair that’s keeping it real is Frieze Sculpture, which will see the English Gardens in Regent’s Park dotted with a dozen outdoor works by internationally acclaimed artists from 5 to 18 October. Chosen and curated by Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s Clare Lilley, the line-up includes Gavin Turk, Sarah Lucas, Rebecca Warren and Eric Fischl. A recent commission by Lubaina Himid, created last year for the High Line in New York, unpicks issues around equality and art as a vehicle for change, while pieces by Patrick Goddard and Richard Long home in on our relationship with nature.

Life Meets Art by Sam Lubell
It’s only natural when moseying around an art fair to imagine how the works on show might look in your house. For inspiration, have a leaf through Life Meets Art – a book that invites you to peer inside the homes of some of the most creative folk in the fields of art, architecture, fashion, music and design. Published by Phaidon on 15 October, and written by architectural journalist Sam Lubell, it collates interiors from across six centuries and more than 30 countries. Featuring the private residences of past masters, including Raphael and Rubens, 20th-century trailblazers such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Eileen Gray, and contemporary talent from Diana von Furstenberg and Marc Jacobs to Cornelia Parker and David Bowie.

Alfred Wallis Rediscovered, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
From one private residence to another. Opening on 24 October in the former home of Jim and Helen Ede is an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the British artist and fisherman Alfred Wallis. It was only when he was in his 70s, after the death of his wife, that Wallis taught himself to paint. He’d spent his life in Cornwall, working on fishing boats and as a marine scrap merchant, and now he was capturing on scraps of cardboard and wood the experience of being at sea. Lifted from the Kettle’s Yard Reserve Collection, more than 60 works showing the Cornish landscape and ships in the harbour will be on show in the gallery. And when you’re done with the temporary exhibition, take a tour of the house, where many more of the artist’s paintings are on permanent display. 

Haegue Yang: Strange Attractors, Tate St Ives, St Ives
Last but not least is the UK’s biggest exhibition to date of the work of South Korean artist Haegue Yang. Comprising new and existing sculptures, performance art, paintings and drawings, Strange Attractors will take over both the sea-facing gallery in the original Tate St Ives building and the top-lit gallery in its 21st-century addition. With every show, Yang likes to engage with the local context, and in this instance she’s found inspiration in the Cornish landscape and imagined encounters with the modernist artists, including Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo, who worked in and around St Ives. Oh, and while you’re there, be sure to check out the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, right nearby.

Photographs © Louise Long, courtesy of The Fine Art Society