Any contemporary art lover will agree, London is spoiling us this month. Not only Frieze is about to re-open for another edition in its now famous Regent Park location, but the art galleries across the city decided to put on a show as well with a series of highly expected exhibitions (if I say Yayoi Kusama…) .
There is obviously a lot to see (Frieze itself is a big piece of cake), so I’ve selected the shows I would have not missed if I wasn’t due to have a baby anytime now (even though giving birth in the middle of Frieze could be seen as quiet a performance) . It’s time for you to put a comfy pair of trainers on, your favourite artsy outfit, and to hit London’s pavement.
Elmgreen & Dragset – This Is How We Bite Our Tongue at Whitechapel Gallery
Probably the exhibition I’m looking forward the most to visit as I’m a big fan of the Scandi duo for years now. Their installations across art and architecture are always so powerful, and often raise questions about space (radically recontextualizing objects, like the swimming pool at the Whitechapel Gallery), politics, and social matters in a fairly approachable way: “In their uncanny installations, institutional spaces are transformed into metaphors for individual desires and collective identities with subversive wit and tongue-in-cheek melancholy. This exhibition juxtaposes a survey of their emotional figurative sculptures with an extraordinary new large-scale installation that meditates on the fate of civic space.” Full press release here.
On view until January 13 at Whitechapel Gallery– Standard fee: £12.95
Space Shifters at Hayward Gallery
Images from Space Shifters have been flooding social media ever since its opening last week, but apparently the group show featuring the works of twenty artists over fifty years is much more than being Instagram worthy: ” (…) the exhibition includes innovative, minimalist sculpture from the 1960s as well as recent works that extend the legacy of this ‘optical’ minimalism in different ways. It also features new commissions that have been made in response to the architecture of the Hayward Gallery.” Read full press release here.
On view until January 6th at Hayward Gallery– Standard fee: £15
Chris Burden – Measured at Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian is dedicating is Britannia St. location to two large-scale installations by American artist Chris Burden: “With a series of startling actions in the early 1970s, Burden challenged his own mental and physical limitations, and with them the boundaries of art and performance. Shut inside a locker for five days (Five Day Locker Piece, 1971), shot in the arm (Shoot, 1971), and nailed through the palms of his hands to the roof of his Volkswagen (Trans-fixed, 1974), he sought to reflect the violence that defined American politics, society, and media.” Read full press release here.
On view until January 26 at Gagosian Gallery– Free entry
Yayoi Kusama – The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe at Victoria Miro
Probably the most anticipated exhibition this month in London, make sure to get your free timed ticket to access the exhibition as last time I queued forever (note that a lot of days are already fully booked): “This exhibition features new paintings, painted bronze pumpkin and flower sculptures and a large scale Infinity Mirrored Room created for this presentation, Yayoi Kusama’s twelfth exhibition at the gallery. Continuing to address the twin themes of cosmic infinity and personal obsession, the new works in this exhibition are testament to an artist at the height of her powers as she approaches her ninetieth birthday.” Read full press release here.
Opening on October 3rd at Victoria Miro – Free entry
Anni Albers at Tate Modern
I’m a sucker for textile art, and even though I’ve heard about Albers’s work I never has a chance to see it in the flesh so I’m really excited about her first major UK exhibition: “As a female student at the radical Bauhaus art school, Albers was discouraged from taking up certain classes. She enrolled in the weaving workshop and made textiles her key form of expression. She inspired and was inspired by her artist contemporaries, among them her teacher, Paul Klee, and her husband, Josef Albers. This beautiful exhibition illuminates the artist’s creative process and her engagement with art, architecture and design. You can discover why Albers has been a profound influence on artists around the world via more than 350 objects from exquisite small-scale ‘pictorial weavings’ to large wall-hangings and the textiles she designed for mass production, as well as her later prints and drawings.” Read full press release here.
Opening on October 11 at Tate Modern– Standard fee: £18
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