The biggest surprise at this year's $70,000 Audain Prize was not that Steven Shearer won it but that he showed his face.

The Vancouver artist has gained a reputation for avoiding the limelight - a film released by the award organizers only showed the back of his head as he spoke and for many years there were no images of him online.

He told them: "I’ve never intended to not have images of me on the internet and stuff, but that’s just how it’s worked out. It’s just the dynamic that’s built up over years and years."

But that changed yesterday when he accepted the Canadian contemporary art award, which recognized his "sustained contribution to contemporary art and a career defined by continual experimentation", and had his picture taken in the process.

The British Museum's Bayeux Tapestry show may have wowed the crowds but it has not impressed Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who was scathing about its use as a potential blueprint for the future of the Parthenon sculptures.

He spoke out after the London museum director Nicholas Cullinan suggested France’s 10-month loan of the Bayeux tapestry could provide a model for a deal.

In an op-ed in The Guardian newspaper, Mitsotakis said: "France has lent the artwork as an undivided whole, and that work will return to France as an undivided whole."

The sculptures have been controversial almost from the moment British politician Lord Elgin brought them to London from Athens in the 19th-century, but recently there have been grounds for optimism with British Museum chairman George Osborne insisting a "deal" could be done.

But that now appears unlikely with reports in the UK press that talks with the Greek government have broken down with no plans to start them again.

With The Armory Show opening in New York today we picked out three solo shows we think are worth your time.

They all feature artists making their debuts in the city and you can see our full rundown here or on Instagram here.

1 - You only have three days left to catch Taiwanese duo Huang Chih-Cheng & Hao's show at Fragment Gallery. The Taipei-based pair freely admit the influence of cinema on their work, from Federico Fellini to Jean Cocteau, and their exhibition takes its title, Stalker, from Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky's cult 1979 science-fiction film.

2 - A large-scale installation made from chain-link fencing is at the heart of British artist Rana Begum's show at Lehmann Maupin. The piece, which can be seen in the show which runs to October 24, contains a nod to Mark Rothko in the simplicity of its title - No.1272.

3 - Aryo Toh Djojo's fascination with UFOs has inspired his show at Galerie Perrotin which is on until October 17. Leap into the Void features a series of airbrushed paintings depicting alien abductions, out of body experiences and unidentified flying objects in a show the gallery says bears the influence of Steven Spielberg and Gerhard Richter.

1 - Virginia Anderson has been appointed senior curator of American art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. She takes up the job in November once she has left her current position at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

2 - The Peter Zumthor-designed extension to Basel's Fondation Beyeler opens for the first time on Saturday. Three new buildings and an expanded park provide more gallery space than Renzo Piano's original design and will be launched with a show of more than 200 works mostly from its collection.

3 -Sean Scully has been named an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - one of France's highest cultural honors. He was presented with the award by culture minister Catherine Pegard at a ceremony this week in Paris.

4 - The banana is back. Maurizio Cattalan has donated a work inspired by his piece Comedian for a charity auction in Milan next month. The picture depicts Comedian - a banana taped to a wall - superimposed on a Caravaggio painting.