London Art
JUDY CHICAGO ‘REVELATIONS’ WILL BE THE ARTIST’S LARGEST SOLO PRESENTATION IN A LONDON INSTITUTION.
Chicago came to prominence in the late 1960s when she challenged the male-dominated landscape of the art world by making work that was boldly from a woman’s perspective. An artistic polymath, Chicago’s work is defined by a commitment to craft and experimentation, either through her choice of subject matter or the method and materials she employs.
Throughout her six-decade career, Chicago has contested the absence and erasure of women in the Western cultural canon, developing a distinctive visual language that gives visibility to their experiences. To this aim, Chicago has produced both individual and collaborative projects that grappled with themes of birth and creation, the social construct of masculinity, her Jewish identity, notions of power and powerlessness, extinction, and expressed her longstanding concern for climate justice.
Revelations charts the full arc of Chicago’s career with a specific focus on drawing, highlighting rarely-seen works. Several immersive, multi-media elements, including an AR app, a video recording booth, and other audio-visual components, set this show apart from previous surveys of Chicago’s work. With never-before-seen sketchbooks, films and slides, video interviews of participants from The Dinner Party (1974–79), audio recordings, and a guided tour of The Dinner Party by Chicago herself, this novel approach to exhibiting Chicago’s work makes the artist’s presence felt throughout the gallery.
In this post, I summarise every exhibition I’ve seen over the last few weeks, not just those I write about in other publications, and you get my honest thoughts on them.
This shorter version covers the final shows I caught in December, so I’ve made it free for all subscribers. The normal fuller-length diary entries will resume in two weeks, make sure you’re a paid subscriber to receive those and future interviews.
Read more: https://londonisturbanpalette.substack.com/p/diary-of-a-london-art-critic-the?utm_medium=web
As the art market shows signs of slowing, London is looking to attract a new generation of art buyers — and showcase young emerging artists in the process.
Global art sales slid 4% year-on-year in 2023, according to the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2024, falling to $65 billion after two years of growth.
It has led industry professionals — such as Elio D’Anna, co-founder and CEO of the House of Fine Art (HOFA) gallery in London’s Mayfair district — to shift their focus toward both younger collectors and younger artists.
“Five years ago … our target was more in the 35- to 45-year-old buyers, almost 50/50 men and women. But now we are seeing more the 25- to 35-[year-old] buyers,” he told CNBC’s “The Art of Appreciation.”
This increase in younger collectors comes as artificial intelligence — and how it can be used to create work — remains a hot topic in the art world.
It’s certainly a focus for D’Anna. HOFA represents artist Sougwen Chung, who uses a robot Chung designed to co-create work. Chung, who uses the pronoun they, calls the machine a drawing operations unit, or DOUG.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/28/art-in-london-the-city-wants-to-attract-younger-collectors.html
The JD Malat Gallery hosts contemporary Romanian artist Ur Kasin’s debut solo exhibition in London. Titled All Is Blurred, the show features six monumental compositions “that explore the psychological journey of a character that he has created, navigating his way through a complex and unforgiving world.”
Kasin subverts the traditional subject matter of the large-scale canvas, typically reserved for grand historical subjects, by focusing on everyday actions, the gallery explained.
“Whether it’s enjoying a glass of Asahi, indulging in that McDonald’s drive-through meal, or clutching onto your morning coffee as you rush to work: Kasin depicts these habitual actions, inviting viewers to look beyond the ordinary. What initially seems like routine behaviour reveals deeper layers of hidden pressures and unhealthy societal habits embedded in our daily lives, transforming common actions into a powerful critique of contemporary culture,” reads the press release.
Read more: https://www.romania-insider.com/ur-kasin-exhibition-london-gallery-nov-2024
