RA Magazine's pick of this week’s art events (1 - 7 March)

Albert Oehlen, Francesca DiMattio and Matthew Chambers
Zabludowicz Collection, until 5 May 2013
The Zabludowicz Collection, located around the corner from Chalk Farm tube in London, turns its attention to painting this year with a series of shows on contemporary artists who continue to innovate in oil and acrylic. The first instalment comprises displays of three artist’s works, the most famous being the Swiss-born Albert Oehlen whose anarchic style was associated with the ‘Bad Painting’ aesthetic that emerged in the 1980s. In the words of critic Quinn Latimer: ‘Oehlen’s inevitably beautiful paintings and collages – riots of line and brilliant, slurry colour, art history and popular culture – always impress and elude’.

_{Albert Oehlen, 'Deathoknocko', 2001. Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine.}

One can compare and contrast Oehlen’s messy magic with that of younger artists Francesca DiMattio, a New Yorker who blends ornate interior design elements with Op art patterns – and LA-based Matthew Chambers, whose pieces on view include abstract ‘slash paintings’, formed from ribbons cut from pre-existing paintings.

Art13 London
1 – 3 March 2013
Another week another art fair, and this one – Art13 London, opening from today in the Grand Hall at London’s Olympia – is a newbie on the block. Its focus is modern and contemporary art and, judging by the exhibitor list, it has already had some success in attracting interesting galleries from across the globe, such as Boers-Li in Beijing, who present a wide range of emerging and established Chinese practitioners, and Galleria Fumagalli, Milan, whose list comprises stellar names such as Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis and American abstractionist Kenneth Noland.

_{Olympia Grand Hall. Art13 London. 1-3 March 2013.}

Respected curator Lisa Le Feuvre has also helped put together a section called London First, featuring spaces that have never shown in a London art fair and should be a discovery for most visitors. The best British exhibitors include Bridget Riley’s dealer Karsten Schubert and bastion of the photography scene Michael Hoppen. There is also a very progressive-looking performance programme, and an obligatory array of site-specific projects installed across the venue.

• The Royal Academy's RA Editions are represented at the fair. Find out more here.

_{Craigie Aitchison RA, 'Holy Island, Isle of Arran', 1993. ® The Estate of Craigie Aitchison, courtesy of Waddington Custot Galleries, London.} Craigie Aitchison
Waddington Custot Galleries, 6 March - 6 April 2013
One of the most memorable shows in the RA’s Sackler Wing of Galleries in the last decade was the survey show of Scottish-born Craigie Aitchison RA in 2003.

His pared-down portraits, still-lifes, landscapes and crucifixion scenes – characterised by bright, unmodulated colour – had a unique sensibility that still sticks in my mind.

From this coming Wednesday, Waddington Custot Galleries – who worked with the Academician until his death in 2009 – presents a selection of his paintings from a private collection amassed by his friend, Irish-born Sheelagh Cluney.

At the Crossroads: Contemporary Art from Central Asia and the Caucasus
Sotheby's, 4 – 12 March 2013
To tell you the truth, I know next to nothing about the contemporary art of the republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, which is why I’m rather looking forward to visiting a selling exhibition at Sotheby’s, London, from Monday that features works from all these countries.

_{Almagul Menlibaeva, 'The Aral Beach no.2', 2011. Duratans print.}

Safe to say, expect not an overall aesthetic from this under-represented region of Central Asia, but instead a visual array that touches upon modernist figuration, landscape photography, readymade sculpture and rough-and-ready abstraction.

_{R.B.Kitaj, 'Juan de la Cruz', 1967. Kitaj compares the church reformer St John of the Cross to an American sergeant at the time of protests against the Vietnam war.} R.B. Kitaj and Yinka Shonibare
Jewish Museum London and Pallant House Gallery, until 16 June 2013 and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2 March – 1 September 2013
And finally a quick reminder about some new shows just opened or opening that have been previewed in the latest edition of RA Magazine – exhibitions on R.B. Kitaj RA at Chichester’s Pallant House and London’s Jewish Museum, and Yinka Shonibare at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Marco Livingstone here introduces the influential, intellectual work of the Ohio-born Kitaj, while Ben Luke speaks to former Turner Prize nominee Shonibare here, whose new sculptures draw inspiration from the uprisings in Libya as well as those on the streets of London.

Sam Phillips is a London-based arts journalist and contributor to RA Magazine

• Royal Academy of Arts