Monsterism Island by Pete Fowler
Remember when you were yay-high and spent your days dreaming up entire islands and worlds, rich in bizarrely conceived life-forms? Birds that could talk, strange cave-dwelling creatures up in the mountains, wise elders in the forests... Well, Pete Fowler never stopped. And what's more, rather than just keeping it up as some sad hobby, guaranteed to never get laid or have a decent income, he attained world fame with his Monsterism designer toys (chances are you have one) and makes a fortune from them. With this exhibition, though, one might even be forgiven for believing in the crazy critters, yielding to their world's verisimilitude as we discover the musical riches of Monsterism Island, from backwater drunkabilly bands to subterranean black metal. Despite this abundance of imaginative characters and slightly too deep backgrounds, the highlights of the show are surely Fowler's long-awaited animations. Just remember, say 'doll' and someone will probably smack you.

Daily Encounters
Where the Tate's How We Are exhibition struggles in its attempt to cover the entire history of photography from daguerreotypes to digitalia, the current approach by the National Portrait Gallery is rather more specific, and thus somehow more successful. Drawing upon the predominantly untapped wealth of newspaper photographic archives, Daily Encounters centres on the Fleet Street years, from 1900 to 1982, when it was the very centre of the British media. Resurrecting events from both sides of the camera, it is not only the famed and infamous who emerge - the subjects of political scandal, stars of popular music and film, models, murderers, and royalty - but also the photographers and media tycoons themselves. With not a megapixel in sight, the images possess a historicity and authenticity that is touching and almost tangible. But it is the emergent sense of national identity that is most satisfying, the compelling weight of a century of Britishness, that is now both lost and so often seemingly unwanted.