Sgàire Wood
Glasgow-based Sgàire Wood first made her name as a key figure behind the city’s sorely missed club night Bonjour. Since her 2023 debut solo show at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, the Northern Irish artist has now firmly established her practice within the contemporary art world. Following her popular “Sgàireoke” performances at Edinburgh’s Jupiter Artland, she returns to the sculpture park with a major solo exhibition, In Pride, In Piety, In Vigilance, at Steadings Gallery until October 18. Channeling her roots in drag, Wood reinterprets traditional heraldry to interrogate heritage and the rising tide of conservatism, delivering an urgent, visually striking call to action.
Tanoa Sasraku
A recent graduate of the Royal Academy, Tanoa Sasraku has already exhibited at a number of leading British institutions, including Spike Island and Tate Liverpool. She was recently shortlisted for the Turner Prize in recognition of Morale Patch, a solo exhibition at London’s ICA that used crude oil to examine fragile systems of power and warfare. Born in Plymouth to a Ghanaian father, Sasraku’s research-led film installations, sculpture and works on paper are deeply informed by her heritage and her experiences navigating rural England as a queer woman. You can see the Turner Prize exhibition at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art from September 26 to March 29.
Emii Alrai
British Iraqi artist Emii Alrai explores memory, ruins and the Western historical gaze. Her atmospheric installations often mimic traditional museum displays, featuring patinated clay sculptures that cleverly subvert and critique the entrenched hierarchies of institutional power. Following her ambitious outdoor sculpture on Calton Hill for the Edinburgh Art Festival (which provided a striking backdrop to this summer’s solar eclipse), there are several opportunities to see her work this autumn. Alrai features in Listening to the Earth at London's Drawing Room (September 24 to December 13), alongside her solo exhibition Lures at Carl Freedman Gallery in Margate (September 27 to November 8).
This article originally appeared in issue 5 of Broadsheet London's print magazine. Find out where you can pick up a copy here.
