I was privileged to visit the newly redesigned Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery before it reopened to the public. Before I talk about the interior I have to mention the thing that excited me the most: Mud Sun, a newly commissioned piece by Richard Long, installed at the top of the stairs. There has […]
Places
The Craft of Carpentry at Japan House, London.
I came across this gorgeous exhibition at Japan House quite by chance as was attending an event there. Carpentry is not normally something I would get hugely enthusiastic about but this is different. Everything is beautifully presented as you would expect with different and ingenious ways of joining wood on display. You can get hands-on […]
Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land at Barbican Curve
Citra Sasmita‘s show, Into Eternal Land, was on at The Curve Barbican . The traditional technique of Indonesian Kamasan painting was historically carried out exclusively by men to illustrate Hindu epics. Taught by a priest’s daughter she uses the medium to explore Bali’s culture and colonial past, inventing new female-centred mythologies to reimagine a post […]
Tarot: Origins & Afterlives at the Warburg Institute
Since its refurbishment The Warburg Institute now has a gallery space. Its second exhibition, Tarot: Origins and Afterlives, explored a subject I know very little about. Early examples of cards showed tarot’s roots as a courtly card game in the Italian Renaissance following its evolution through mysticism and the occult to counter-culturalism. Aleister Crowley was […]
Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press at Frith Street Gallery, London
Currently on at Frith Street Gallery, Disarm by Fiona Banner aka Vanity Press lingers in the mind for a surprisingly long time. Fiona Banner is interested in language, gender and conflict. In this show her film of a jet flypast is a remarkable thing to watch with military hardware performing a highly skilled statement of […]
Kristina Chan: Habitable Climes at Canada House, London
Canada House is right opposite the National Gallery and houses its own art gallery, currently showing Habitable Climes, by Canadian artist Kristina Chan, a photographer and printer. Chan is the second artist in The Sunderland Collection’s Art Programme, launched in 2024 where artists are invited to create new work in response to Collection items in […]