Best in Show: 2011

This is my third annual round up of the best art shows of the year (see 2010 and 2009).

1 Mark Leckey at Printemps de Septembre

2 Friedrich Kunath at Whitecube Hoxton Square

3 Christoph Buchel's Piccadilly Community Centre

4 Thomas Hirschorn at the Swiss Pavillion at the Venice Biennale

5 Wolfgang Tilmans at Andrea Rosen (chosen by Beatrix Ruf)

6 The launch of French Riviera gallery culminating in the brilliant Les Televisions

7 Without Sanctuary (thought this was far more than exhibition and shouldnt really be judged in these confines)

8 Ostalgia at the New Museum (glimpse of Michael Schmidt U-NI-TY installationbelow)

9 Il Labirinto di Cristallo at Bubblebyte.org

10 The New Psychedelica at MU (I know I curated this but I was so pleased with the outcome and it was so important to me it would be ridiculous not to choose it. Still from Carlos Laszlo's film below)

Without Sanctuary

There is a shocking underrated exhibition on in London that charts one hundred years and 5000 (recorded) deaths, with some of the most violent upsetting images you will ever see. Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America is an exhibition that turns your stomach. Even blogging it feels strange - how can you make an aesthetic choice about something so sick? The point of the show was how these photographic images taken as souvenirs removed even the sanctuary of death from these murdered individuals. The violence was palpable.