Marian Goodman Gallery, London, 11 September – 24 October 2015

The word “immersive” is arguably over-used in the contemporary art world, but there’s no way of avoiding it when trying to describe South African artist William Kentridge Hon RA’s brilliant solo exhibition. From the moment you step in to the Marian Goodman Gallery, you’re surrounded by distinctive large-scale ink paintings, and enveloped by music spilling out from multi-screen film installations. A filmmaker and playwright as well as an artist, Kentridge has pulled out all the stops to create a whole world within the gallery walls. Downstairs, Notes Towards a Model Opera sees footage of dancer Dada Masilo en pointe, dressed in military uniform, overlaid with Kentridge’s trademark palimpsestic animations. Upstairs, More Sweetly Play the Dance spans eight screens; a life-sized procession of figures, some attached to drips, holding up cut-outs of the artist’s drawings, marches around the walls. Unapologetically political, Kentridge’s new work tackles the Cultural Revolution in China, the Paris Commune, and the worldwide refugee crisis.

Riflemaker, London 14 September-31 October 2015

Don’t miss your chance to see a selection of key early works by the pioneering feminist artist, Judy Chicago. The exhibition at Riflemaker features previously unseen porcelain plates made in preparation for Chicago’s seminal work, THE DINNER PARTY (1979), as well as the main attraction: Star Cunts (1969), a bold set of prismacolour and pastels on paper, plus steel and acrylic dome sculptures. This exhibition coincides with The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern, which includes Chicago’s colourful Car Hood series from the mid-1960s.

Whitechapel Gallery, London, 10 – 13 September 2015

With hundreds of handcrafted zines, exquisite rare editions and cutting-edge new releases on offer, the London Art Book Fair is a veritable sweetshop for art book lovers. There’s a special Scandinavian focus this year, with presses from Sweden, Denmark and Norway in attendance, plus a stellar line-up of events, talks and workshops. Highlights include: a panel discussion with Michael Craig-Martin RA and Fiona Rae RA on the merits of art schools, and a screening of Fiona Banner’s short film, Mistah Kurtz – He Not Dead (2014), followed by a talk by the artist about her new edition of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Curated by Luc Tuymans. Parasol Unit, London, 9 September – 6 December 2015

Though Luc Tuymans is a celebrated figurative painter, he’s turned his attention to abstraction for this group exhibition. The Belgian artist has brought together 40 works from two generations of his countrymen-and-women, including paintings, sculptures and installations. The selected artists are diverse, but Tuymans traces an enduring line of connection between them: their fascination with abstraction, be it the influence of the early twentieth-century De Stijl movement or the contemporary reinterpretation of Modernist ideas.

British Museum, London, 10 September – 6 December 2015

Metalpoint drawings are created by applying a silver stylus to a roughened surface, leaving a trace of metal behind. The technique is difficult to master (once a mistake has been made it cannot be erased) but capable of producing incredibly detailed results – and has remained unchanged for centuries. This exhibition at the British Museum brings together around 100 of the finest examples of the art form from the 1400s to the present, including drawings by Leonardo, Rembrandt, Jasper Johns and Susan Schwalb.

Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, 14 September – 25 October 2015

For the past decade, the sweeping grounds of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire have been host to Sotheby’s Beyond Limits, an open-air exhibition of sculpture. The RA’s Artistic Director Tim Marlow has guest-curated this year’s show, which takes modern British sculpture and landscape as its theme, and includes in the breathtaking outdoor setting a roll-call of the country’s most celebrated sculptors, from leading modernists such as Barbara Hepworth, to contemporary artists including Antony Gormley RA and Sarah Lucas.

Somerset House, London, 10 – 13 September 2015

To raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support’s Not Alone campaign, artists including Richard Wilson RA, Hugo Wilson, Richard Wentworth, Bouke de Vries, Liz Rideal, Humphrey Ocean RA, Annie Morris, Alastair Mackie and Idris Khan have broken down some of their art works into smaller components as a way of sharing them. The “broken” artworks will be showcased and available to buy during a free exhibition at Somerset House.

Anna Coatman (@AnnaCoatman) is Assistant Editor of RA Magazine.