2021 has been an excellent year for art as museums and galleries reopened after their COVID-induced hiatus. To round off the year and to set the stage for 2022, I’ve gathered some of the best events that you can attend in the UK this month as well as some must-see art events happening in Canada. Expect heartfelt discussions about climate change with Inuit communities, art that grounds visual language in both modernist and digital traditions, and art situated at the cutting edge of technology.

Angela Bulloch: Rainbow Unicorn Rhombus

Simon Lee Gallery in London, until 15 January 2022

If you’re picking up luxurious gifts in Mayfair this time of year, be sure to pop into Simon Lee Gallery for sculptures, wall paintings and videos that blur the lines between digital and physical. Canadian artist Angela Bulloch works across multiple disciplines, yet the motifs and forms used are consistent throughout each. Her work calls upon the visual language of 20th-century modernist art movements as well as digitality and employs geometry to produce artwork that investigates dimension and physicality. Angela’s work feels especially poignant in our current age where the digital realm is slowly usurping physical spaces as what is considered “real”.

Oxford Tire Pile, Westley, California, USA, 1999. Image by Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London / Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto. Waste Age: What can design do? at Design Museum from 23 October 2021.

Waste Age: What can design do?

The Design Museum in London, until 20 February 2022

Waste is one of the many pillars of environmentalism that has caught our collective attention in recent years, and one that just might be addressed through design innovation. It is with this in mind that the current exhibition at the Design Museum in London presents designers who are tackling the question of waste through new processes and materials previously unseen by commercial industries. In addition to these practical interventions from design, artworks that are on show as a part of the exhibition include an installation by artist Ibrahim Mahama made from e-waste in Ghana and photographs from renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky.

Bill Vorn, 4 Humanoid robots, life support systems, lights, audio, haze.

5th International Digital Art Biennial (BIAN)

Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal, until 2 January 2022

Organized by ELEKTRA, a Montreal-based organisation promoting events and works that have a stake in both contemporary art and new technologies, the International Digital Art Biennial has been taking place every year since 2012. This year, after being postponed due to COVID-19, the Biennial is taking place at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal, with the theme of Metamorphosis. Expect Canadian and international artists whose practices range from the aesthetics of artificial intelligence to the formation of celestial bodies.

Our People, Our Climate, 29 October 2021 – 18 December 2021. Film still.

The Word for World is Forest

Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, until 11 December 2021

If you’re in Glasgow from now until 11 December, stop by the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow for a three-part exhibition featuring important perspectives on the climate crisis, including moving image by Our People, Our Climate, a documentary film initiative working with youth and young adults from Nunavut to develop storytelling skills. This project brings together the younger voices of Inuit communities to present perspectives that have been sorely lacking in the conversation about climate change and offers intriguing narratives that aren't often shown in Contemporary art spaces.

Charles Stankievech, Nº6092 (The Law of the Good Neighbour) Screenshot. Digital Work. 2021

Charles Stankievech and The Double Agent

Online via The Courtauld, 29 November 2021

Open after a 3-year hiatus, the gallery at the Courtauld is finally open, featuring renovated interiors that are worth visiting on their own, but that also offer new and exciting exhibitions. If you can’t make it to the physical location just yet but have some time in the afternoon of 29 November, you can join in on a fascinating talk online featuring Canadian artist, writer and curator Charles Stankievech to discuss an art world mystery: the contested authorship of Augustus and Cleopatra, and its eventual owner Sir Anthony Blunt, who was both curator and spy.

Paul Walde, Requiem for a Glacier, Site-Specific Performance, 2013. Photo: Douglas Noblet.

Coventry Biennial 2021

Coventry, until 23 January 2022

Characterised as the UK’s Social Biennial, the Coventry Biennial showcases socially, politically and critically engaged artistic practices from the UK and international artists. This year, you can see the works of two popular and groundbreaking Canadian artists, including nonbinary performance artist Sin Wai Kin and composer Paul Walde.

Bambitchell, Bugs & Beasts Before the Law, 2019, film still.

Repeated Apparitions: Screening

The Horse Hospital, 26 November 2021

And if you’re in London tonight and looking for some culture to consume, I recommend this event at the Horse Hospital, which includes a sound installation and three film screenings, one of which is by artistic collaboration Bambitchell, formed of Canada-based artists Sharlene Bamboat and Alexis Kyle Mitchell. Part of the Repeated Apparitions programme, this event is the second of four which explores the creative prowess of repetition.

Have an arts-related event that’s coming up that you think we should know about? Contact us to let us know!

What's on: Canadian arts and culture in the UK in December