5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This April

In this monthly roundup, we spotlight five stellar exhibitions at small and rising galleries.

Webber, Los Angeles

Through May 24

Acclaimed Greek director and photographer Yorgos Lanthimos always kept his film camera handy during the production of his last two films: Kinds of Kindness (2024) and the Oscar-winning Poor Things (2023). Now, the images he took behind the scenes on these shoots are showcased in a solo exhibition at Webber in Los Angeles.

Drawn from Lanthimos’s two recent books, i shall sing these songs beautifully (2024) and Dear God, the Parthenon is Still Broken (2024), these photographs were taken on-site at filming locations in New Orleans and Budapest, as well as in meticulously created sets representing London, Lisbon, Alexandria, and Paris. Many are imbued with the same eerie atmospheres and strong characterization that the director is known for in his filmography. Several works feature actors Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons in dramatically haunting scenes, often with their faces turned away from the camera. Meanwhile, other photos, like Untitled 100 (2021), offer a surreal, insider peek at the oddities of his movie sets, including a striking image where a horse’s head peers out from behind a screen.

de boer, Antwerp

Apr. 11–May 24

Wielding a tufting gun, Sam Druant intricately stitches wool threads into fantastical tapestries, creating mythological scenes in an experimental take on traditional rug-making. For instance, in her wall work Daphne (all works 2025), Druant leaves an empty space where viewers can see the wall beneath. The work’s title references the mythological nymph who was turned into a laurel tree by the god Apollo, and the tree’s anthropomorphic shape seems to hint at this story. Yet, it’s the empty space that acts as the focal point, drawing viewers into the tapestry. This work is part of Druant’s current solo show, “Hatching Between Two Trees,” at de boer in Antwerp.

Many of Druant’s tapestries embody this immersive narrative quality, where characters traverse eerie environments. In the ominous work Watching the Hatch, for instance, animal figures appear gripped in the mouths of two orange skulls. Above them, intense flames burst from the center, evoking a sense of death and decay.

Born in 1998, Druant earned a BA and MA in textile design from LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium, before completing an MFA in fine arts at HDK-Valand University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Her work is also currently featured in two coinciding group shows: “Beyond the Veil” at Galleri Résistance in Gothenburg and “The Ripple Effect” at DEMAIN in Brussels.

Tütar Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia

Through May 4

Many of Siiri Jüris’s paintings are bordered by wooden frames shaped and colored to resemble a goo-like substance. These amorphous frames create the illusion that the kaleidoscopic color fields are seeping from her canvases. For instance, you, close to my heart (2025) features one massive canvas with a smaller affixed canvas, each crowned with this distinctive frame. The panels are bursting with swirling color painted across both canvases with energetic brushstrokes. This 3D painting is part of Jüris’s solo show, “to melt into your soil and sprout as a flower,” at Tütar Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia.

Jüris’s paintings are created through a slow layering process, in which acrylic paint is allowed to move freely before drying. This random process allows for unexpected forms and patterns to emerge. Within these abstract, thoughtful works, Jüris often includes hints of figures. Her painting last dance before twilight (2025) seems at first glance to depict a mountainous skyline, but upon closer inspection, these forms resemble several people dancing arm in arm, and fingers from a grasping hand reaching over.

Jüris now lives and works in Uppsala, Sweden. The 33-year-old painter earned her MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2021 after completing another MFA program at the University of Tartu in 2017. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Galleri Duerr and the Tartu Art Museum.

Galerie Sturm & Schober, Vienna

Through May 8

The centerpiece of Gabriela Oberkofler’s solo exhibition, “Die Blätter des Zitronenbaums haben kleine Löcher. Es regnet rein,” is a meticulously arranged table of plants. These cuttings, each in various stages of growth, are complemented at the front of the table by small petri dishes containing colorful ink drawings, including A Piece of Spring, Petrischalen (2025), which depicts an orange sun radiating light.

The gallery space is filled with a selection of Oberkofler’s ink and watercolor works on paper, capturing an array of natural forms such as trees, flowers, birds, and salamanders. One standout piece, a large-format, two-part drawing, Vibrations (2024), portrays a fruit tree that is simultaneously decaying and blooming. In this work, Oberkofler explores the cycles of life and death, detailing these processes with fine, dotted ink marks that evoke the fragility of natural patterns and the world we live in.

Oberkofler, born in 1975 in Bolzano, Italy, and now residing in Stuttgart, Germany, has held various solo exhibitions across Europe at venues such as Kunsthaus Dresden and Galerie der Stadt Esslingen.

Duran Contemporain, Montreal

Through May 10