\section{Visual Arts}

\subsection{Turner in January}
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

This collection of nearly 40 fragile paintings bequeathed to the gallery by the collector Henry Vaughan a century ago only goes on show when the dim winter light poses minimal threat to them. The pieces span the artist’s career, from early wash drawings to sketches of Europe from the 1830s and 1840s. (0131 624 6200) to 31 Jan.

\subsection{Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures}
Tate, Liverpool

More than 40 works by the French artist and film-maker Fernand Léger (1881–1955), whose paintings, murals, film and textiles were infused with the bustle and rhythm of the urban environment and drew on the new forms of communication that blossomed during the first half of the 20th century such as photography, advertising and graphic design. The show includes his collaborations with architects Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand and his masterpiece \textit{Le Balai Mécanique}. (tate.org.uk) to 17 Mar.

\subsection{Anne Swynnerton: Painting Light and Hope}
Manchester Art Gallery

The first retrospective of the Manchester-born painter, a pioneering professional artist who challenged convention in art and life, featuring 36 paintings and drawings from her career, including rarely seen pieces on loan from private collections. This free exhibition brings together landscapes, allegorical works and later portraits, revealing the artist’s continuity of vision as she engaged with current art movements as well as forging an independent style shaped by her experience of light and colour in Italy. (0161 235 8888) to 6 Jan.

\subsection{Ribera: Art of Violence}
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21

The first UK show of work by Jusepe de Ribera (1591–1652), one of the giants of the Spanish Baroque, who spent most of his career in Naples, where he fashioned a distinctive style influenced by Caravaggio. This exhibition brings together loans from seven countries to explore, for the first time, an aspect of Ribera’s art for which he was renowned: violent depictions of saints and figures being flayed and tortured. (020 8693 5254) to 27 Jan.

\subsection{Arthur Mapplethorpe}
Ashmolean, Oxford

Images by the American photographer from the Artists Rooms collection, one of the world’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art. The show includes self-portraits, studies of flowers and portraits of artists and celebrities of the New York cultural scene in the 80s, including Patti Smith, Andy Warhol and David Hockney, as well as pieces from the late 70s and early 80s when Mapplethorpe was documenting the New York S\&M scene. (01865 278000) to 3 Mar.

\subsection{Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919–33}
Tate Modern, London SE1

A year-long free exhibition of German art from between the wars, drawing on the holdings of the George Economou Collection and offering the rare opportunity to see artworks not ordinarily on public display. Under the magic realist banner, used by the artist and critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe a shift from the art of the Expressionists era towards cool veracity and unsettling clarity. (tate.org.uk) to 14 Jul.

\subsection{Richard Pousette-Dart: Beginnings}
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge

The first solo exhibition in the UK of work by Richard Pousette-Dart, a key figure of Abstract Expressionism and an early influence on Jackson Pollock. New York School to work on a monumental scale, and while painting remained his primary medium he also made significant works in sculpture and on paper, as well as his photography. (kettlesyard.co.uk) to 3 Feb.

\subsection{Martin Parr: Return to Manchester}
Manchester Art Gallery

The photographer has revisited Manchester many times since he was a student at the Polytechnic in the early 70s, to document the ongoing evolution of the city. This free exhibition brings together a selection of his Manchester photographs, ranging from black-and-white images of Salford in 1972 and Yeats Wine Lodges in 1982, to colour photos of people enjoying themselves at the Manchester International Festival in 2018. (0161 235 8888) to 20 Apr.

\subsection{Artes Mundi 8}
National Museum, Cardiff

The UK’s most political art prize returns, with five shortlisted artists competing for the £40,000 Artes Mundi prize. Among the nominees are filmmaker Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul. (029 2057 3600) to 24 Feb.

\section{Comedy}

\subsection{Andy Zaltzman}
Soho Theatre, London W1

In \textit{The Certifiable History}, the political comedian, satirist and “Radio 4 irregular” attempts to get a handle on 2018, a year in which the world has “lurched furiously between hilarious and horrific”. (020 7478 0100) to Sat.

\subsection{Sam Simmonds}
Soho Theatre, London W1

Gleefully surrealist, wonderfully misanthropic Aussie Sam Simmonds invites you to “witness the miracle birth of the baby Greg” and plenty of other such gobbledegook. (020 7478 0100) to Sat.

\subsection{Comedy Club}
Hyde Park, London W2

Luisa Omielan’s ace latest show, \textit{Politics for Bitches}, focuses her smart, socially aware comedy.

\section{Theatre}

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics{figure_1.pdf}
\caption{Scene from the play \textit{Sweat}.}
\label{figure_1}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Sweat}
Donmar Warehouse, London WC2

Lynn Nottage, a master detailer of the lives of the dispossessed, won her second Pulitzer Prize for this play, which, by turns profound, terrifying, earthy and witty, details the decline of a Pennsylvania town that once boomed around industry. The tightly staged play collides recollection with flashbacks of female friends and their two twentysomething sons. (020 3282 3808) to 26 Jan.