Last night I was at the Affordable Art Fair and ran into Loz Atkinson and her space based paintings. I bought one a couple of years ago and it's similar to the ones we're helpfully standing in front of 😂. Loz is at the fair with StudioName, a Leicester based artist collective. The fair is on in Battersea Park until Sunday.
This striking piece is part of the free Mary Sibande exhibition at Somerset House. The show charts the transformation of Sophie from a housemaid to this powerful raging purple entity. The purple is symbolic of the purple dye used by police on anti-apartheid protestors, who wrested control of it and turned it on the police. It's an empowering show and it's on until 5 January.
Artist Song Dong takes discarded furniture and leftovers from the detritus if old homes to construct beautiful colourful artworks that highlight the beauty that's been lost as Beijing modernises. In the foreground is a work along a similar theme where a city was constructed from biscuits and then visitors were invited to destroy it by consumption -- this snap was taken the day after when the 'ruins' were getting stale but were still edible. I'm assuming they've now been removed for health and safety reasons 😀. The exhibition is on until 5 November.
Love this work by Mona Hatoum where chunks of concrete are suspended from the ceiling as if they're as light as air and a gentle breeze could set them swaying. It's part of a selection of her works in display at White Cube, Bermondsey until 3 November.
This beautiful vase may look like it was made by Arabic hands, when in fact it was made by a Frenchman trying to imitate the Islamic style. It was part of a movement known as Orientalism and forms part of the new Inspired by the East exhibition at The British Museum (read link in bio for my full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Londonist review). The exhibition runs until 26 January.
This raw portrait is one of several by Sara Shamma at her exhibition in Bush House Arcade, Kings College London. It's one of my top exhibitions to see this month (link in bio). The artist has worked with Kings College and survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking to inspire visceral portraits like this one. The exhibition is curated by Kathleen Soriano, runs until 22 November and is free to visit.
Last night was the opening of Nicolas Laborie's photography exhibition at Muse Gallery on Portobello Road. He uses the early photographic technique of wet plate collodion to create beautiful botanical studies and nudes. Here I am with the man of the moment in front of his works. His show runs until 27 October.
Last week I caught up with Alice Herbst to talk about her work in a three female artist show at new Mayfair contemporary art gallery Boogie Wall. Here we are standing in front of her work in a show that's all about gender and identity. The exhibition runs until 27 October. You can tell this snap is from Frieze Week as that jacket got everywhere 😂.
Beautiful artworks and beastly artist. The Gauguin portraits exhibition has now opened at The National Gallery. Read my mixed review for more details (link in bio). It's the sculptures that were a revelation for me including this one of fellow artist Meijer de Haan. Credit to the curators for not holding back - I went into this show knowing Gauguin was horrible and I came out realising he's even worse. The exhibition is on until 26 January.