After few relatively quiet months (read not many exhibitions I cared for), June is spoiling us with some exciting shows and the now traditional big reveal of the Serpentine Summer Pavilion.
I don’t know if it’s me who is selecting subconsciously only female artist exhibitions lately, or if things are actually shifting in the art world, but this month line-up is 100% feminine. I think that it’s a step in the right direction, especially when we know how under represented women artists are in major art institutions: ” (…) according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts (citing data from 2012 and 2014), work by female artists makes up only three to five per cent of major permanent collections in the US and Europe, and women around the world continue to face significant barriers to success within the arts sector.Read full article here “.
Useless to say how important it is to reinsert women’s narratives into art history, which was so far mainly about white male artists, that’s why I’m please to see big shot art galleries empowering and investing in living women artists as I believe that art institutions can be strong actors in this quest for gender equality. Cheers to more visibility for women in the art world.
True Colours – Helen Beard / Sadie Laska / Boo Saville
I was at the Newport Street Gallery last week to visit the show, and the first thing that came to my mind was “how refreshing is this?”. Despite all being painters and exploring the many ways colours can be used on a canvas, Beard, Laska, and Saville approaches are completely different which makes their works complementary somehow. When Beard uses bold primary colours to depict sexual encounters between abstraction and representation, Saville’s soft and vibrant colour field paintings are an invitation for contemplation. Must go.
On view until September 9 at Newport Street Gallery. Free entry.
A thousand realities from an original mark – Leonor Autune
“Leonor Antunes’s practice provides a unique contemplation on modern art, architecture and design through a reinterpretation of sculpture in a given space. Inspired by important figures in the realm of creation in the 20th century, and often influenced by female protagonists such as Anni Albers, Mary Martin and Eileen Gray, Antunes’s work begins by measuring features of architecture and design that interest her.” I didn’t know the Portuguese artist until I pushed Marian Goodman Gallery‘s door yesterday, and I’m really happy I did. It’s been a couple of years that I’m more sensitive to sculptures and installations than to painting and photography like I used to, I like how engaging they can be with their surroundings, the way they work with a defined space, and the dialogue that it creates with the viewers. Yesterday’s experience felt almost like a choreography, my body had to work around Antune’s ropes, brass sculptures, and other fragile poetic installations. Go!
On view until July 20 at Marian Goodman Gallery. Free entrance.
Prototypes of Imagination – Katharina Grosse
“There is no boundary between reality and imagination. To imagine is to realize. My pictures are prototypes of this recognition; they try out—and dramatically compress—the characteristics of reality. I build prototypes of the imagination so that they can be reenacted and applied to other fields of endeavor.” Grosse’s paintings could appear as a random explosion of colours at first glance, but if you get closer and run one’s eye over the canvas you will see how detailed her work is despite using a spray gun to create her large scale immersive paintings, which are unfolding in front of your eyes in Gagosian Gallery gorgeous space . Really worthy to stop by.
On view until July 27 at Gagosian Gallery (Britannia St.) – Free entrance.
Crashing – Lee Bul
“Lee Bul transforms Hayward Gallery into a spectacular dream-like landscape featuring monstrous bodies, futuristic cyborgs, glittering mirrored environments and an exquisitely surreal monumental foil Zeppelin. Bringing together more than 100 works from the late 1980s to the present day, this exhibition explores the full range of Lee Bul’s pioneering and thought-provoking practice, from provocative early performances to recent large-scale installations that attempt to get our body and our brain ‘working at the same time, together’.”
I didn’t make it yet to the Hayward Gallery, but this highly anticipated exhibition from the South Korean artist is on the top of my list for the upcoming weeks.
On view until August 19 at the Hayward Gallery – Standard ticket: £13.00
Serpentine Pavilion 2018 – Frida Escobedo
“Harnessing a subtle interplay of light, water and geometry, her atmospheric courtyard-based design draws on both the domestic architecture of Mexico and British materials and history, specifically the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich.“
I didn’t miss one Serpentine Summer Pavilion since I moved to London, and I can’t wait to discover what the youngest architect yet to accept the invitation to design the pavilion has created. And to make everything better,a Christo and Jeanne-Claude exhibition is opening on June 19 at the Serpentine Gallery. More info here.
On view until October 7 in the SG lawn in Kensington Gardens – Free entrance.
Don’t forget to join me on Instagram (@the_bubblist) to follow my art visits.
Cover picture : detail from Helen Beard work.
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