Kaye Donachie at Maureen Paley and Paul Noble: Past the Future, Tate Britain

Responding to popular demand, here is my first Friday Dispatch: a couple of pointers each week to suggest shows that might otherwise escape your attention. Departing from the previous model, I am going to select some museum shows occasionally as well as commercial gallery shows, to make sure your art ‘diet’ includes all the major ‘food groups’.

First off, a gentle start to the New Year, in case you are tottering under the weight of unfulfilled resolutions already:

This is almost the last chance to catch painter Kaye Donachie at Maureen Paley. Donachie was born in Glasgow in 1970 and paints with a delicacy and evocative literary reference that has reminded critics of Luc Tuymans and Karen Kilimnik. The new work on show until January 26 is inspired by Marguerite Duras’ novella, The Maladie of Death, and has all Donachie’s characteristic esoteric romanticism and dream-like ambiguity.

And if you are taking a second look at Tate Britain’s new hang, be sure not to miss the show in the small, new Open Archive gallery on the way to the Djanogly Café. A completely intriguing selection of objects drawn from Tate’s archive collection by artist Paul Noble, entitled Past the Future, brings together such disparate works as a wonderful mescalin-fuelled ink drawing by Henri Michaux with classic mid-60s Robert Morris, surprising (almost unrecognisable) late Caro, a chewing gum brain by (Noble’s long time partner) Georgina Starr and relatively recent, deliciously rude Sarah Lucas. A meditation on the history of Tate Britain’s site, from swamp to prison to gallery, the show is a dense, high-protein hit that could only have been composed by an artist.

Caroline Douglas
Director

Kaye Donachie, Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street, London E2 6JT. Open Wednesday – Sunday 11.00-18.00, until 26 January.www.maureenpaley.com

Paul Noble: Past the Future, Open Archive gallery, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Open Daily 10.00-18.00, until 14 April. www.tate.org.uk