FRIDAY 11th February – SUNDAY 13th February

Romance ain’t dead
In case you’ve forgotten or you’ve missed all the heart-themed paraphernalia lining shop shelves, it’s Valentine’s Day this Monday. But to mark the occasion and save you from the usual cheesy rom-coms, BFI Southbank have put together a programme of artfully chosen loved-up movies showing this weekend. Among them is the 80s queer cult classic My Beautiful Laundrette, directed by Stephen Frears and starring a young Daniel Day-Lewis. The story tells the tale of an interracial couple against the turbulent backdrop of Thatcherite Britain, struggling to realise their dream of opening an up-market laundromat in South London while grappling with the increasingly conservative cultural attitudes of the time.

My Beautiful Laundrette is showing at BFI Southbank on February 12th, see the full weekend programme here.

Escape room, but make it art
For his first show in London since his iconic industrial Tate installation of 2019, British artist Mike Nelson is locking us in a bedroom at Matt’s Gallery. Nelson has transformed the gallery space into a claustrophobic room lined with endless maps, Lonely Planet books telling of far away cities and no natural light. Visitors are allowed in one at a time and whether this is a sanctuary of solitude or an inescapable nightmare is a question you’ll have to answer once that door shuts. But, as you’re left alone to rummage through the shelves, don’t bother searching for any kind of hidden clue between the pages of a Paris guide book as you’re sure to be met with nothing; Nelson is a master of hidden narrative after all.

Mike Nelson: The Book of Spells runs at Matt’s Gallery until March 5th, more info here. 

Lovely stuff
With Valentine’s Day on a Monday this year, we’re swooning a day early at Sebright Arms for a night of soft tones and melting hearts. French chanteuse Camille Jansen tops the bill, alongside a solo set by Orielles frontman Henry Carlyle and a sweet dose of surreal folk pop by London musician Avice Caro. Take your partner, lover, sweetheart, or go alone with the hope of falling in love across the dancefloor. We’ll be the one fluttering our eyelids in your direction.

NHOY’s Valentines Party takes place on Sunday 13th February, buy tickets here.

That’s one way to avoid doing laundry
With a career spanning eight decades, French-American artist Louise Bourgeois created a body of work ranging from the large scale spidery sculptures for which she is best known to small scale painting and prints. Twelve years after her passing, Hayward Gallery has curated an exhibition focusing on the last 20 years of her career, when she began incorporating clothing  stages of her into her art. Exploring  themes of sexuality and identity through her own journey of womanhood, ratty fabrics exist on their hangers in a reconstruction of her Parisian childhood home while decapitated heads and hot pink legs hang from the ceilings – it’s a surreal trip into the female psyche.

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child runs at the Hayward Gallery until May 15th, more info here.

We’re making ourselves hungry now…
Having locations across the country, it’s a surprise it took Mowgli so long to arrive in the capital, but at the end of last year the Indian street-food restaurant opened its doors on Charlotte Street. The menu is packed with an array of small plates and focuses on the authenticity of Indian cuisine – expect hearty ingredients and fresh flavours. To start, make sure you try the Yogurt Chat Bombs and to finish their signature Gulab Jamun must be on your hit list. What you choose to devour in between is completely up to you but whatever it is, it’s sure to be bloody delicious.

Mowgli is located at 5 Charlotte Street, W1T 1RE, more info here.