10 things to see, eat and buy in April

BID

Art on a Postcard x War Child

Art on a Postcard, the charity founded to raise funds for the Hepatitis C Trust, is dedicating its next auction of 4in-by-6in artworks to War Child, which provides aid to children caught in conflict zones. They are currently working to get steriliser, clean water, soap and other essentials to children in Gaza. Bidding starts at £50 for works including Dave Gamble’s polaroids of Andy Warhol’s possessions, abstract works by Mandy El-Sayegh and portraitist Sarah Ball’s close-up study of a face, its eyes looking steadily ahead. All proceeds go towards War Child. Baya Simons Bidding opens on 23 April. Original works can be viewed at The Fitzrovia Gallery on 30 April from 10am to 6pm. The auction closes on 7 May; artonapostcard.com

SEE

Willy Vanderperre at MoMu Antwerp

For almost three decades, Belgian photographer Willy Vanderperre has been documenting the fashion world’s up-and-coming youth. A new exhibition at Antwerp fashion museum MoMu celebrates his work. Alongside editorial work for AnOther Magazine, and campaigns for long-term collaborator Raf Simons, there will be a selection of five artworks that have influenced his visual world, from German renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Elder to the American late-20th-century artist Mike Kelley. Inès Cross Willy Vanderperre is at MoMu Antwerp from 27 April until 4 August

SHOP

The story of Issey Miyake

This new illustrated history of the late Japanese designer’s work starts with his first design commission for material manufacturer Toyo Rayon calendar in 1962 (while he was still a graphic design student at Tama Art University) and runs through to the most recent iterations of the Homme Plissé brand, and its innovations in recycled pleated material. The encyclopaedic book offers a long view of Miyake’s life and work, illustrated with photography by Irving Penn, Yuriko Takagi and others. BS Issey Miyake is published by Taschen at £80

EAT

Ixta Belfrage at The Standard

Chef and Mezcla author Ixta Belfrage is taking over the kitchen at Isla, the restaurant at the 1970s-style Standard hotel in King’s Cross, for the next three months. Belfrage was raised in Italy by a Brazilian mother, who grew up in Cuba and Mexico, and a British-American father, and her cooking draws from the flavours of her family history.

Her menu for the Standard will feature Moqueca fish sliders, guava roast duck tacos, plantain fritters with warm chocolate caramel sauce and fruity margaritas made with Casamigos finest Tequila Blanco. Inès Cross The Standard, London, until 22 June

SEE

Mary Lovelace O’Neal at Marianne Boesky

After a 60-year career, Mary Lovelace O’Neal shows no signs of slowing down. Currently featured in the Whitney Biennial, the American painter has solo shows on the east and west coasts. For Marianne Boesky in New York, Lovelace O’Neal has produced vast expanses of black pigment recalling her 1970s Lampblack series – canvases rubbed with pitch-black pigment made in response to the Black Arts Movement. Unlike those colour field paintings, the new works are populated with semi-abstract figures in graphic strokes of pink and turquoise, painted from her studio in Mexico. Marion Willingham Mary Lovelace O’Neal: Hecho en México – a mano is at Marianne Boesky, New York until 4 May

EAT AND DRINK

London’s Los Mochis and The Buxton

As the evenings grow warmer, London is gaining a new venue positioned to watch the sun set. Los Mochis, the Notting Hill Mexican-Japanese fusion restaurant favoured by Solange Knowles and Stella McCartney, is opening a new rooftop bar and restaurant right over Liverpool Street. You can sit out on the huge terrace with a Pepiño Jalapeño Margarita and, after dark, move inside for a menu of whole-roasted king crab legs and wagyu steak tacos by ex-Nobu chef Leonard Tanyag.

Alternatively, stroll over to The Buxton in Shoreditch for dinner. The wine bar and restaurant has recently been taken over by former Brat chef Oliver Sharpe. Alongside natural wines from Shoreditch’s Passione Vino and cult importer Les Caves De Pyrene, Sharpe is cooking a simple but exquisitely executed French-Mediterranean menu of panisse with whipped cod’s roe, and grey mullet with risotto nero. Desserts run from rhubarb and custard tart to Mons cheese with quince jelly. Baya Simons Los Mochis London City is open from 11 April. The Buxton, thebuxton.co.uk

SHOP

Frizzi Krella in Paris

Frizzi Krella always dreamt of Paris. The Berlin-born artist and curator read the tales of Victor Hugo and pored over street photography by Henri Cartier-Bresson, eventually arriving in the city to study in 1993; to this day, she takes every opportunity to wander its streets. In 2021, she came across a restaurant that was closed for renovation, its windows taped up and whitewashed. Intrigued, she began to take photographs.

Abstract configurations of brushstrokes and shadows played across the surface of each pane, revealing glimpses of the building work inside, or reflections of the world beyond. “These are happy coincidences,” she says of the 34 shots, which come together in a new publication, “layers in the poetry of the moment.” Marion Willingham Frizzi Krella: Paris – 9 Rue de l’Université is published by Kerber at €30

SEE

Betty Parsons at Alison Jacques in London

American gallerist and artist Betty Parsons (1900-82) nurtured the careers of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Forrest Bess. A new show, spanning 1950 to 1981, explores both her sculpture and her signature canvases swathed in bold, vibrant colours. It also illustrates her gradual move towards abstract art, which was inspired in part by a trip to the rodeo in the mid-1940s. “I saw all the movement, the noise, the colour, the excitement, the passion,” she said. “I thought, my God, how can you ever capture this except in an abstract sense?” Inès Cross Betty Parsons is at Alison Jacques in London until 27 April

SHOP

A Magic Cabinet x Kal.athi Pop-Up, Athens

Greek lifestyle brand A Magic Cabinet has found a brick-and-mortar home in Athens pop-up Kal.athi from now until June. The shop, set in a building dating back to 1838 right in the city’s historic centre, features handmade ceramics, leather wallets, basil- and Greek baby-tomato-scented candles, and hampers filled with all the extra-virgin olive oils and pine honeys you would find in a Greek larder. Kira Richards Athinaidos 6, Athens 105 63, until 1 June. amagiccabinet.com

SEE

Okashi at Michael Hoppen Gallery

London-based gallerist Michael Hoppen has regularly journeyed to Japan over the past two decades. His latest exhibition, Okashi (which translates as “sweets”), held in his new Holland Park space, is the result of those trips. It offers “neither a delicate vision of the Floating World nor the kawaii kitsch of Hello Kitty’s homeland” but an exploration of the country’s visual identity, which he finds to be steeped in “strangeness, humour and power to intrigue”.

Alongside expressionist photography from Masahisa Fukase’s seminal project The Solitude of Ravens and Gen Ōtsuka’s gelatin prints of the Tokyo Ballet, there will be punchy graphic design spanning avant-garde theatre posters and the psychedelic work of album designer Tadanori Yokoo. “Folklore is at the heart of many of the traditions that occupy the Japanese arts,” says Hoppen. “I see this narrative element embedded in many of the things I collect.” Inès Cross Okashi is at Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, from 13 April until 30 June

SHOP

A diamond-studded Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Bound in black goatskin, studded with over 1,000 white-platinum-set diamonds, placed on a cast-glass plinth, displayed in an ebonised birdcage and stored in a custom-made vintage trunk: this signed first edition of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (due to go on sale at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair) could be the most extravagant book ever made. “Dragon Rebound had the initial idea to rebind a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and set it with diamonds. And I just ran with it,” says bookbinder Kate Holland. The “completely unique” edition will be on display from 4 April, valued at $1.5mn. Baya Simons The prototype will be displayed at the New York International Antiquarian Bookfair, 4 to 7 April, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, New York, on Lux Mentis stand, A10