ICA, London, 25 March – 17 May 2015
German-born Canadian Ydessa Hendeles is an ‘artist-collector-curator’; her artworks are not single objects but the displays she curates, which are often accumulations of what she collects. . Her uncanny installation at the ICA brings together her collection of 150 wooden figures, which range in date from 1520 to 1930 and vary in form from small, doll-like models to life-size artist manikins.

British Museum, London, 26 March – 5 July 2015
The British Museum’s dramatic demonstration of the achievements of Greek art is an essential show to see this spring. In contrast to the chronology in the museum’s main spaces, this temporary exhibition spotlights works by theme, revealing, for example, how realism was a key strand in Greek portraits, and how nakedness was aligned with both athletic and military prowess.

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1 April – 19 July 2015
The V&A gazes at its naval in an open-minded way from this week, staging an exhibition that aims to rethink the role of the museum in public life. Artists and designers frame the V&A and it’s collection in imaginative ways, from creating a habitat for insects at the museum to selecting objects from its archive by an algorithm of the type more usually employed in digital surveillance.

Richard Saltoun, London, 27 March - 22 May 2015
Helena Almeida – one of Portugal’s most significant post-war practitioners – belatedly receives some recognition in London with her first solo show. An artist now in her 80s, Almeida has made her body the subject of her stylish black-and-white photographs, so that her own form becomes a living painting, sculpture and drawing, or a framing device for objects and architecture.

Parasol Unit, London, 25 March – 24 May 2015
The irreverent installations and sculptures of artist-duo Los Carpinteros (Marco Castillo and Dagoberto Rodríguez) are on view at London’s Parasol Unit, comprising the Cuban collective’s first show in a UK public institution. In their work, the serious becomes frivolous, and vice-versa: a drum kit seemingly melts into a puddle, fire seems spread across the wall thanks to LEDs, and walls adorned with porcelain tomatoes are splattered with the real-life fruit.

Sam Phillips (@SamP_London) is Editor of RA Magazine.