Weather Permitting is a new show of work by Toronto artist Tara Cooper that just opened last week at Open Studio. The show is based on animation, words and compositions made up of numerous drawings that provide narrative to a weather-based plot. Meteorological conditions reflect personal disaster and states of being through a series of fine drawings that have been carefully cut out and mounted to the gallery walls. Cooper's is the sort of exhibition that begs time of the viewer, to read carefully the story that is authored by his or her eyes and the artist's hands.

Artist: Tara Cooper
+ openstudio.on.ca

Delicate Boundaries is the inaugural exhibition for London's First Floor Projects, a salon-style commercial gallery set in a residential space. Work by Lucy Barlow includes watercolours and drawings that range from the deliciously abstract to the firmly tongue-in-cheek. The pieces are indeed delicate, as Barlow plays with line, media and method to produce work that is difficult to define and happy to be such. The bears take a stand; Odessa bears sunny, citrus and floral notes; and passing the biscuit takes on romantic overtones.

Artist: Lucy Barlow
+ firstfloorprojects.com

Recent work by Donna Cleary is presented in a group exhibition entitled True Love is Fleeting. Cleary's pieces cover the end of the relationship when love is no longer at the heart of the matter. Her series of faceless portraits is called Desired? The players in all too familiar scenes take stances that clearly show the emotions present. Physical desire may still linger, but the distance grows ever longer, based first on opposition and then on the inevitable movement in different directions.

Artist: Donna Cleary
+ donnacleary.net
+ leokesting.com

Bas Louter's most recent works are large-scale portraits in black and white, a move away from the distractions of colour. Using charcoal and ink, Louter creates images that give the sense of an old photograph or perhaps an archival image of a subject that is hard to pin down in time and space. The artist combines elements such as historical imagery, entertainment and film noir in a series of haunting works.

Artist: Bas Louter
+ fette-gallery
+ kopeikingallery.com

Vasco Mourao's intricate architectural line drawings depict interconnected buildings reminiscent of the layered elements of medieval hilltop towns. There are archways and buttresses, rooftops and pillars, with a loggia here and a gallery there. Real estate, urban density, bricks, stairways and the occasional dome: Mourao's work is a fascinating journey through cityscapes of a fertile imagination and a busy hand. Towers of Babel, spires and rooftop antennae are all integral elements of this fascinating work. Do check out Mourao's blogspot for better images.

Artist: Vasco Mourao
+ zulmiradesign.blogspot.com

An exhibition of new drawings by Anish Kapoor just opened at Regen Projects in Los Angeles. Kapoor continues to explore the notion of the void in these bold drawings of gouache on paper, further making the transition from exterior form of the object to its interior. The work is centered and the play between positive and negative space is a key element of the compositions. Movement in the shape of fibrous swirls leads to a change in light, drawing the eye outward to beyond the boundaries of the paper.

Artist: Anish Kapoor
+ regenprojects.com

Mercedes Helnwein's most recent works make up a series of studied pencil drawings that capture young women and toys in scenes around the house. There is a sense of mystery around these pictures, heightened further by a video that features these subjects. Some of the well-dressed young women wear masks or antler hairbands as the viewer watches them interact listlessly with the objects. Whistling Past the Graveyard is an interesting title for this collection of work, implying that there is something eerie going on, but we will just pretend that it is not there.

Artist: Mercedes Helnwein
+ pool-gallery.com

Richard Sarson combines simple materials and concepts to create meticulous drawings that amaze. A ballpoint pen is the protagonist of a circle made up of lines draw edge to edge on a 640 x 450 mm piece of newsprint. Thread wraps around an intricate pattern of pins for a three-dimensional, layered circle that is lacelike in effect. A full pack of felt tip markers goes into the creation of a rainbow of lines, angles and points. One false move and it's all for nought.

Artist: Richard Sarson
+ richardsarson.com

Sam Messenger's freehand drawings can be described as lyrically obsessive. Carefully rendered repetitive images are often rule-based (in fact, Messenger's rulers are drawn to exact measurements) or generative. There is a clear sense of control, as the lines often leave the viewer wondering if the pen ever left the page. Some of the works take on a three-dimensionality, such as the spiral above. Straightedge, an exhibition of recent work by Sam Messenger is currently on show at Davidson Contemporary, New York through November 1.

Artist: Sam Messenger
+ sammessenger.com

Nathan Manire's illustrations and portraits make use of swirls, shapes and celebs. Manire's portrait series includes close-ups of Hunter S. Thompson, Thom York and Jack White, combinations of ink and watercolour or ink alone. The flow of Manire's lines lends vibrancy to the images, as does a very sparing use of colour. Who will be next?

Artist: Nathan Manire
+ bliss82.com

Relationships between man and beast are the focus of Suzanne Sattler's soft pencil drawings. Symbolic of relationships on other levels (personal relationships, man's relationship with nature), these drawings show tiny aggressors such as hummingbirds, gnats and other insects, as well as larger ones such as dogs, who feed off the people in some way: emotions, fear, desires, and their very blood and bodies.

Artist: Suzanne Sattler
+ cindersgallery.com