One of the most exciting galleries in the north-east, Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery, are currently showing work by Miria Miria, and it’s the kind of exuberant, playful and life-affirming show you need in your life right now.

The opening night of Miria Miria’s new exhibition ‘future tense’ was suitably buoyant. There was a fashion show (like no other), a DJ, and spontaneous happenings taking place both hither and thither. But it was always going to be this way because there’s something about her work that encourages joy to break out within gallery goers. As she says: “Who says art has to be serious?” It’s a show that puts elation into installation and features paintings and all manner of other stuff including palm trees and a deck chair. It’s also colourful, bold and full of dynamic juxtapositions that spark strange dialogues as you move through the gallery, dialogues that straddle both the whimsical and the intense – not two disciplines that you would usually say are comfortable bedfellows but here they absolutely are. Miria Miria began painting in Auckland in New Zealand before picking up a First Class Honours BA in Fine Art in Goldsmiths, London. She continued her studies at Masters level on the BALTIC+ Northumbria University course. ‘future tense’ is her first solo exhibition and it’s seen her really pulling out the stops. It’s a show that will take you to another place – a better place. RM

Miria Miria: future tense, until 26 April, Redcar Contemporary Art Gallery, rccag.co.uk