Once upon a time, on a balmy midsummer’s night and in a land now impossibly far away, I danced the wedding scene as a divertissement as Princess Aurora for my graduation from ballet school. From summer schools to repertoire to masterclasses, I recognised almost every female character’s solo by sight and by muscle memory.

“See what happens! ... Your own self will disappear!” The enthusiasm with which a primary-school aged boy exclaimed this in the Anish Kapoor exhibition in front of one of the reflecting stainless steel artworks is expressed by children, teenagers, younger and older adults visiting the show alike.

How Frida Kahlo’s (1907 - 1954) medical aids of the time looked like is to be seen in the centre of the first exhibition room. Her body cast which she painted with a red hammer and sickle is an eye catcher in the room with walls painted in a stimulating, blood-like red colour.

More hope, more love, more forgiveness, this film is a cornucopia of beauty, visually rich and colourful, it weaves a pattern of light within opaque desperation and darkness in surface perfection, many secrets hiding in plain sight.

With no traditional proscenium arch or stage-wings, and little in the way of scenery, Derek Deane’s reimagining of the classic of all classic ballets brought a sensational aspect to Swan Lake.

“It does not matter that you fall down but it matters how you deal with it” is a popular wisdom which perfectly applies to how Naomi Campbell’s model career was propelled by a famous mishap in 1993.

Sculptures, video installations, objects, and paintings of all sizes inhabit nine galleries, the Lecture Room and the Wohl Central Hall of the Royal Academy of Arts for his year’s Summer Exhibition.

Christie’s showcases “the late designer’s own wardrobe and features some of the most iconic looks Vivienne Westwod created and wore during the last four decades of her life”.

The exhibition undoubtedly presents a rare possibility to see many extraordinary photographic works created from the 1950s to the present day.

The show introduces women creators of oil paintings, watercolours, pastels, sculptures, photography and “needle painting” in a chronological way. The stories are as varied as the individual biographies of the artists and their works.

Koraïchi’s forms are built with straight or curved lines, sometimes blocked together, Arabic writing, sometimes mirrored. Letters, signs and symbols which are combined in a unique way on each canvas are used by the artist as “associative proto-language”.

This exhibition convinces with pieces from the Sambourne House collection which are shown for the first time ever at Leighton House and in Sambourne House. Included are “rare surviving examples by leading – often female – dressmakers of the era”.

A monography is a “detailed written study of a single specialised subject or an aspect of it”. Several of the most interesting text(-ile) creations at this years’ Collect fair are dedicated towards studying some deeper layers of meaning behind what is visible at first sight.

A large textile hangs from the ceiling. It is made from various white and red pieces which were woven on a traditional backstrap loom. The yellow stripe on this textile’s surface meanders from bottom to top and reminds of a snake as the artwork is moving with the breeze of someone passing.

The Sotheby’s exhibition “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own” shows more than a thousand items of clothing and stage costumes as well as Kimonos and shoes which will be on offer during Sotheby’s auctions in August and September 2023.

Brunei Gallery in London highlights the beauty of Japanese recycling, showcasing objects made from cotton, hemp, bast fibres, washi (handmade paper) and more. Over a hundred objects from the Karun Thakar collection are exhibited.

At Animals: Art, Science and Sound at the British Library we can admire Audubon’s life-sized American Barn Owls and many more exceptional objects that are waiting to be discovered. One of them is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex Arundel”, Florence 1500-1508, about the flight of birds…

Have you ever tried to draw, sketch, or take a photo of a four-legged friend? A video which is part of the “Portraits of Dogs” exhibition at The Wallace Collection, London, depicts Hockney while drawing one of his dachshunds.

Suitcases and bags are made for travelling. Artist Anthony Amoako-Attah’s pieces of luggage aim to transport a political message. Read about this and more at Collect 23, Somerset House.

Eliza Fenning chose the dress she would be wearing for this once in a lifetime event with extraordinary care. Rumours of the time had it that she wore the fashionable muslin gown she had intended to wear for her wedding for her execution instead. The new exhibition “Executions” can be seen at Museum of London Docklands