I never thought I’d have either the desire or the occasion to write about the paintings of Hans Hartung. No desire, because the few paintings I’d seen from his heyday in the 1950s, either on the walls of European museums or in the pages of art-history books, always struck me as brittle and overagitated in their choppily repetitive linear gestures. No occasion, because it hardly seemed likely that I would ever cross paths with a significant show of work by the Leipzig-born School of Paris abstractionist, he having become little more than a faint whisper in the historical memory.

Well, that’s all

Cascades of white silk satin drop from ceiling to floor to form Alice Channer’s sculpture Tight Skin (all works 2011). Printed on the semitransparent fabric in delicate colors are enlarged images of snakeskin and lizard print, one borrowed from a stretched sleeveless undershirt, the other from a skirt. Set on either side of this curtainlike structure in Channer’s recent exhibition “Body Conscious” were two shimmering metal sculptures, each about human height. To the right, Shift is a lean, irregular steel cylinder, sizable enough to conceal a tall person standing inside—a beautiful woman,

Stepping into Bangalore-based Sheela Gowda’s first solo show in London, “Therein & Besides,” organized by Iniva’s senior curator, Grant Watson, one had to abandon the pose of the casual bystander. Two installations—Of All People, 2011, and Collateral, 2007/2011—occupied the ground and second floors, respectively. Of All People is architectural bedlam in the prettiest of hues: Cream pillars stand around aimlessly; pale pink windows are placed on walls so that they reveal no outside; cracked turquoise doors hinder rather than facilitate movement; the display is littered with wooden chips

Cinenova is a UK-based distributor of films and videos by women. Its complete collection—with works dating from 1920 to 2000 and ranging from artist’s films to documentary and educational videos to narrative feature films—was presented for viewing in the exhibition “Reproductive Labour: An exhibition exploring the work of Cinenova.” Visitors could choose works from shelves of VHS and U-matic tapes and DVDs and watch their selections in the dimly lit, editing-suite ambiance of the show. Throughout the space were film posters, flyers, and pamphlets promoting the works and activities of