Kara Walker's UK Commission and Global Sculpture Exhibitions Explore History, Trauma, and Legacy

Kara Walker, an American artist, has received a major commission in the United Kingdom to interrogate the history and enduring impact of slavery. Her retrospective also examines themes of feminism and fantasy. In Chelsea this winter, she presented an installation featuring bells and mirrors. Concurrent solo exhibitions at a new experimental venue in San José, Costa Rica, investigate the artifacts associated with collecting practices. Twin surveys of Bas Jan Ader's brief but influential career are being presented simultaneously in London and New York. An exhibition of new sculpture in an unspecified location advocates for artistic virtuosity. An Israeli sculptor and video artist grapples with the physical embodiments of war and trauma. In Greenwich, Connecticut, a show engages with contradiction, formalism, and political themes. A separate exhibition pays tribute to poets, a philosopher, and a martyr through structures resembling tombs and temples. The life, work, and estate of a significant West Coast Conceptualist are also highlighted.