Five International Exhibitions Spotlight Collaborative Art Practices

Five current exhibitions internationally demonstrate the enduring power of artistic collaboration. At Messums London, Yan Wang Preston's solo show 'Three Easier Pieces' restages canonical works like Zhang Huan's 'To Add a Metre to an Anonymous Mountain' (1995) and Édouard Manet's 'Olympia' (1863) until 25 May. Charleston presents 'Duos: The Art of Collaboration' featuring 16 artistic pairs including Virginia Woolf & Vanessa Bell and Lee Miller & Roland Penrose, running until 8 September. The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation hosts Alessandra Sanguinetti's 'The Adventures of Guille and Belinda,' documenting two cousins from rural Argentina, through 19 May. Joanne Coates, winner of The Vasseur Baltic Artists' Award 2024, exhibits new work in 'Middle of Somewhere' at Baltic until 17 November, exploring social histories through community participation. Fotografiska Shanghai presents 'Sirens' by Cooper & Gorfer (Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer), who have collaborated since 2006 on works examining identity through layered collages, until 4 August. These exhibitions reflect Maria Lind's 2018 observations about collaboration as a central contemporary art method, with examples ranging from Bieke Depoorter and Yao Yuan's photographic relationships to collectives like Tropico Photo and Marshmallow Laser Feast.