CD: Flying Lotus - Flamagra

Californian beat scene monarch continues his cosmic drift

It's five years since Steven Ellison aka Flying Lotus released an album, and it's not entirely clear how far he's moved creatively. To be fair he's been busy branching out in other directions, producing for superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar, making short films, and helping members of his Brainfeeder stable like Thundercat and Kamasi Washington along to greater fame. But with this album he seems to have taken up precisely where 2014's “Your Dead” left off.

Dorothea Tanning, Tate Modern review – an absolute revelation

★★★★ DOROTHEA TANNING, TATE MODERN An absolute revelation

An artist with a unique voice eclipsed by her famous husband

Tate Modern’s retrospective of Dorothea Tanning is a revelation. Here the American artist is known as a latter day Surrealist, but as the show demonstrates, this is only part of the story. Tanning’s career spanned an impressive 70 years – she died in 2012 aged 101 – but as so often happens, she was eclipsed by her famous husband, German Surrealist Max Ernst. 

Blu-ray: De Niro & De Palma - The Early Films

★★★ DE NIRO & DE PALMA - THE EARLY YEARS Sometimes intriguing pre-fame work of two Hollywood giants

Sometimes intriguing pre-fame 1960s work of two Hollywood giants

If we think of Robert De Niro and Brian De Palma, we likely think of The Untouchables from 1987 with the great actor in his career pomp, chewing up the scenery in a memorable cameo as Al Capone. However, the pair had history.

Blu-ray: Daisies

★★★★ BLU-RAY: DAISIES Vera Chytilová’s surrealist gem from 1960s Czechoslovakia

Surrealist gem from 1960s Czechoslovakia

Věra Chytilová’s 1966 film Daisies almost defies description, though what initially seems like 75 minutes of plot-free silliness does coalesce into something bordering on the coherent. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld. Daisies is what it is, and approaching it with open eyes is a whole lot of fun.

Elmgreen & Dragset, Whitechapel Gallery review – when is a door not a door ?

★★★★ ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, WHITECHAPEL GALLERY Reality games in real time and space

Reality games played by this artist duo in real time and space

A whiff of chlorine hits you as you open the door of the Whitechapel Gallery. Its the smell of public baths, and inside is a derelict swimming pool with nothing in it but dead leaves and piles of brick dust. Damp walls, peeling paint and cracked tiles make this a sorry sight. The door to the changing rooms has been sealed shut and some joker has sawn through the wall bars. 

DVD/Blu-ray: The Miraculous Virgin

★★★ THE MIRACULOUS VIRGIN More than mystifying: Slovak Surrealism of totalitarian character

More than mystifying: Slovak Surrealism of totalitarian character

Slovak director Štefan Uher is often acclaimed as the figure who initiated the movement that came to be known as the Czech New Wave with his 1962 work, The Sun in a Net.

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Brighton Festival review - a dynamic dedication to an artist's muse

★★★★ THE FLYING LOVERS OF VITEBSK, BRIGHTON FESTIVAL Kaleidoscope of colour, sound

and the perfect love story

They say that behind every successful man is a strong woman. The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk is as much – if not more so – the championing of the unsung hero in this story of the famous early modernist artist, Marc Chagall. His wife, Bella – early muse, sharer of world views and buckets of milk and mother of their daughter Ida, is paid tribute to, for her devotion and dedication to her husband's art.