What is art but to be but provocative?  Who, more than artists, can be trusted to stick two fingers up at the Establishment and the petit bourgeois commonalities that have little to do with our daily lives but surround us at every turn?  John Stezaker was an unpopular artist for quite some time but has been enjoying a well-deserved renaissance in recent years (perhaps 'enjoying' may be the wrong word).  Whitechapel Gallery, in collaboration with Mudam, Luxembourg, have given in and present a large-scale exhibition of the artist's works.

The image is central to the work of Stezaker, and the allure of the image beyond that.  Stezaker takes classic movie stills, vintage portraits and postcards, book illustrations and moulds, melds, cuts and shapes them together into grotesquely funny collage.

It's not just that Stezaker's work is funny, and it's not just that it inverts cultural stereotypes.  If a picture, especially a still from a Hollywood movie, is a window to another world, Stezaker asks that you stop, before presenting you with an alternative.  Remember, you do have a choice, you know.

John Stezaker is exhibiting at Whitchapel Gallery between 29 January - 18 March, 2011.

Since its large-scale refurbishment toward the end of 2010, South London Gallery has set its aims high.  Once one of the most consistently great small-scale galleries in London, its expansion puts the scale of its ambition way above its (former?) peers, including Chisenhale Gallery, Matt's Gallery and The Showroom.  With inIVA, Whitechapel Gallery and now even the forthcoming additions to the Serpentine Gallery, London galleries seem to be suffering from expansion envy.  There are galleries you go to and galleries that you don't go to.  Who to trust?  South London Gallery you trust.

Friday night's alright partying, right?  Sure, yes, a night tramping along the borders of Camberwell and Peckham sounds great.  First though, pop into SLG for a 30 minute docudrama film from their ongoing series Contemporary Africa on Screen.  Thenjiwe Nkosi's Border Farm shows a group of 'border jumpers' making their way across the Limpopo River to look for work on Zimbabwe farms.  Working with a group of migrant farm workers living on the border, this is just an excellent example of the consistently strong work that South London Gallery programmes on a daily basis.  With exhibitions, live art, film, talks and events, residencies, and archive, a great café and education programmes, what more could you want?  You go to a pub for a drink, you go to the cinema for a movie - you go to South London Gallery for all your south-of-the-river cultural needs.

Thenjiwe Nkosi: Border Farm is playing at South London Gallery on Friday 28 January, 2011.  Booking is recommended, tickets are free.

For his first exhibition at East London's Matt's Gallery, Ben Rivers presents Slow Action, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi extravaganza that brings together a series of four 16mm film works that function as a cross between documentary, ethnography and fiction.

One of the most popular film artists working in the UK today, Rivers' films attract audiences, for one reason, because they are interesting and well-made films that finely tread the line between artists' cinema, art cinema and artistic cinema.

Slow Action explores curious geographical environments, in this instance the idea of island biogeography, and how species and eco-systems evolve when very isolated terms.  Filmed across Lanzarote, the island of Gunkanjima (an island off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, also known as Battleship Island), Tuvalu (one of the smallest countries in the world) and the soon-to-be discovered island of Somerset, this is a gently moving series of portraits which keeps the Rivers' exploratory practice well alive.

Slow Action by Ben Rivers is at Matt's Gallery from 26 January - 20 March 2011.