Private view: must-see gallery shows opening this May

What Kind of Spirit is This?

Sim Smith, London, 2 May–1 June

After several years of operating sans showroom, the London-based dealer Sim Smith is opening a brick-and-mortar outpost in south-east London. To celebrate the new Camberwell gallery, she is staging a group show curated by one of the artists on her roster, David Surman. True to her mission of supporting emerging talent, the exhibition features paintings and ceramics by nine largely UK-based artists who have not had the opportunity to be shown widely before, including Matija Bobicic, Tim Garwood, Kate Groobey, Aly Helyer and Jonathan McCree, exploring themes of touch and tactility in a digitally driven world.

Berlinde De Bruyckere: A Single Bed, A Single Room

Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, until 1 September

“Stripped from their bark they look fleshy, human even. Like tendons and bones.” So wrote the Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere of trees, a recurring subject in her work. For this show of new works created specifically for Continua’s “apartment” space, De Bruyckere is bringing the beauty and brutality of nature into the domestic space. Central to the show is a large tree cast, in a similar vein to her Kreupelhout—Cripplewood presentation in the Belgian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013, which featured a huge wax cast of an uprooted elm tree, painted in flesh tones.

Leonora Carrington: The Story of the Last Egg

Gallery Wendi Norris, New York, 23 May-29 June

The San Francisco-based Gallery Wendi Norris is launching a pop-up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side dedicated to the British-born, Mexican-exiled Surrealist Leonora Carrington. The artist’s first New York solo show in more than two decades features her paintings and sculptures, and six masks made for Carrington’s unrealised 1970 play, Opus Siniestrus: The Story of the Last Egg, an eco-feminist tale about how women could save the world. B.M.