Dazzling interpretation … Sarah Morris’s Olympics-themed canvas 2028 [Rings], 2008. Photograph: Stephen White

The impending Beijing Olympics have inspired everyone from politicians and activists to global brands wanting some advertising action. But you wouldn’t expect an event of such mainstream appeal to influence the avant garde art world.

Ever the iconoclast, celebrated artist and film-maker Sarah Morris has taken on Olympic history with her stunning show at White Cube Mason’s Yard in London. Entitled Lesser Panda after a Chinese brand of low-tar cigarettes, Morris displays her signature square gloss-painted giant canvases, pierced with shards of dazzling colour.

One series of paintings is called Rings and it riffs on the Olympic motif. The famous rings are shot through with glinting pigments, spliced like the segments of a stained glass window or shoved in an intersecting bundle at the bottom of the canvas as though clinging to each other while drowning. The colour harmonies (and clashes) are so sharp they seem to slice the eye.

The series looks at various Olympic years with a historically critical eye: 1912 is painted in an archaic empire colour scheme of faded ochre and prissy coral pink. The rings hang from the top of the painting like the links of a chandelier. In 1972 the rings are patterned in the bright colours that only a cheap, style-resistant decade could have spawned: slabs of sticky yellow and glaring blue, plastic Lego colours. 1968, meanwhile, is whisperingly beautiful, full of muted greys, grey-blue, black and white. The rings hover at the bottom of the painting like ghosts in mist. In other compositions the rings proliferate endlessly, tumbling down the canvas in disco pink and kinky Bentley black, round and bold as nightclub lights. Like the events they describe, they are attractive and tacky, rich and kitsch, simple yet corrupt.

North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty has created his monumental sculptures all over the world, but has never worked in Connecticut until now. Beginning July 7, the public is invited to watch as Dougherty constructs one of his environmental installations on the grounds of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. The artist will be on site from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday. “The process in itself is fascinating,” states Amy Kurtz Lansing, Curator at the Florence Griswold Museum. “It’s rare that visitors get to watch an artist in action, especially on this scale.”

Inspired by the location, Dougherty weaves truckloads of freshly harvested native tree saplings into unique forms called “stickworks.” The structures interact with the landscape, introducing notes of whimsy and visual energy. Some installations reach over 24 feet high while others have been woven into trees and mounted on buildings. Combining his carpentry skills with his love for nature, Dougherty began to learn more about primitive techniques of building and to experiment with tree saplings as construction material. No nails or fasteners hold his sculptures together—just the tension of the woven saplings and sticks. During the last two decades, he has built over 150 works throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The Florence Griswold Museum’s installation is sponsored by People’s Bank.

By July 24 the structure will be complete. The artwork will be “unveiled” during the Old Lyme’s Midsummer Festival free concert on the lawn of the Museum. Visitors are encouraged to view the sculpture, tour the Museum’s galleries for free from 5 to 7pm and then enjoy a concert on the banks of the Lieutenant River featuring Dan Stevens and the Fiery Band.