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Top 10 events in London
EVENTS IN LONDON ARE UPDATED DAILY - last update (03/02/12 - 11am)
- Transvangarde Illuminations - Transvangarde Illuminations will show works that focus on the transcendental. The exhibition will include Kenji Yoshida, the first living artist to be given a solo show in 1993 at the British Museum’s Japanese Galleries. Yoshida’s marvellous works can be construed as momentary apperceptions of reality, unique intuitions made manifest by the power of the artist’s vision. His signature gold and silver-foil canvases of serene beauty will be exhibited alongside Chinese artist Huang Xu, who will show new works from his magnificent Flower series. Xu’s vast C-prints capture the aesthetic of the sublime, whileyoung Nepalese artist Govinda Sah ‘Azad’s works suggest an infinite universe, the invisible space portrayed by the cloud. Sah investigates dark matter by depicting a transcriptional burst or pulse that fires or quenches life while artists Ira Cohen’s famousMylar images and Gandalf Gavan’s anamorphic mirrors reflect alternative realities, playfully illuminating perceptions of self, of others and of a world of light. Until 4 February. www.octobergallery.co.uk
- Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan - ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan’ is the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held. This unprecedented exhibition – the first of its kind anywhere in the world – brings together sensational international loans never before seen in the UK. While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter. Inspired by the recently restored National Gallery painting, The Virgin of the Rocks, this exhibition focuses on Leonardo as an artist. In particular it concentrates on the work he produced as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s. Until 5 February. www.nationalgallery.org.uk
- Catherine Yass: Lighthouse - The new film and series of photographic lightboxes by British artist Catherine Yass centre on one of the most remarkable maritime structures in Britain, the Royal Sovereign Lighthouse, set five miles out to sea off England's south coast. The lighthouse, standing alone, a perfectly square platform resting on a circular column, appears both monumental and precarious, making it a fascinating subject for Yass's interest in the psychological effects of architectural space. The filming and photography that form the basis of Lighthouse were taken from a range of different vantage points, including the use of a helicopter, a fishing boat and deep sea divers, allowing a number of dramatic and startling perspectives on the structure, which take the camera from high up above the tower, down the column and under the water. From 13 January until 11 February. www.alisonjacquesgallery.com
- Bridget Smith - We Must Live - In this exhibition Bridget Smith explores the power of acting out an imagined scenario and the consequences it can have in real life. Her new film and photographs examine how a particular community deals with notions of life and death and how faith is used as a refuge in moments of crisis. Filmed in a small village in Galicia, Spain We Must Live! is set around the feast day of Saint Martha – who, her devotees believe, has the power to cure serious illness. Smith’s film follows the events of the day from the religious ceremonies to the evening festivities. On this day relatives of those who have survived a life threatening illness act out a symbolic death by lying in an open coffin. The coffin is carried in a procession through the village before its occupant emerges to picnic with their family. The day itself is one of extreme noise and chaos, but the film is a meditative work about our search to connect with something greater than ourselves. Until 11 February. www.frithstreetgallery.com
- Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize - The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize presents the very best in contemporary portrait photography, showcasing the work of talented young photographers and gifted amateurs alongside that of established professionals and photography students. Through editorial, advertising and fine art images, entrants have explored a range of themes, styles and approaches to the contemporary photographic portrait, from formal commissioned portraits to more spontaneous and intimate moments capturing friends and family. This year the competition attracted over 6,000 submissions by 2,506 photographers from around the world. The selected sixty works for the exhibition include the five shortlisted images and the winner of the ELLE commission. Until 12 February. www.npg.org.uk
- Ivan Argote & Pauline Bastard - Raising Action - NETTIE HORN presents a twofold project by Colombian and French artists Iván Argote and Pauline Bastard consisting of the exhibition “Rising Action” - featuring an ensemble of installation and sculptural pieces which are presented alongside a video programme “Home Cinema”- and followed by a performance event entitled “Born to Curate” at the initiative of both artists which will take place in February 2012. Meeting in 2007 within the vibrant atmosphere of the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Iván and Pauline form an artist couple whose individual practices develop in parallel to joint projects based on concepts of presentations, curatorial events, residencies and other performative games for which the artists rewrite the rules. The exhibition “Rising Action” unites for the first time in the UK their common vision of the city as a theatrical playground – putting in place playful environments where tricks, hijackings and other narrative displacement and interventions initiate pictures of consumerism, humanism, poetry and action. From 13 January until 12 February. www.nettiehorn.com
- The Mystery of Appearance - Haunch of Venison London presents an exhibition of ten of Britain’s most important post-war painters, revealing the story behind their art. 'The Mystery of Appearance' is a fresh appraisal of ten artists - Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow - with a display of over forty paintings and drawings including works that haven’t been on public display for decades. In the mid-twentieth century this group of artists revived portrait and landscape painting at a time when abstract painting dominated. Their continued influence on a younger generation of artists is demonstrated by the powerful hold figurative art has today. The exhibition examines the influence of the personal relationships between these artists, some of which began in the late forties at the Slade where Coldstream, Freud and Hamilton taught and Andrews and Uglow studied; and then again at the Royal College of Art, where Auerbach, Caulfield, Hockney and Kossoff were students. Supported by a catalogue essay in which the curator Catherine Lampert discusses their habits and methods and introduces previously unseen writing by the artists, the exhibition will look at the way their conversations impacted on the development of their work, demonstrating that despite their wide-ranging styles they are each linked by a desire to catch what Bacon describes as ‘the mystery of appearance within the mystery of making’, and in doing so broke new ground in contemporary painting. Until 18 February. www.haunchofvenison.com
- Damien Hirst - The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 - Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated. From 12 January until 18 February. www.gagosian.com
- OMA/Progress - Founded in 1975 as the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA is one of the most influential global creative practices working today. From their controversial projects to their curiosity about contemporary life, OMA’s global offices generate critical ideas and extraordinary buildings that anticipate our rapidly changing world. OMA/Progress is the first major presentation of OMA’s work in the UK and opens up the west entrance to the Gallery for the first time in the Barbican’s history. Take part in a lively programme of events, talks and masterclasses, browse OMA images, drawings, collages and plans to print on-demand in large format, and enjoy a specially-curated OMA shop. Until 19 February. www.barbican.org.uk
- Lygia Pape - Magnetized Space - Lygia Pape (1927–2004) was a leading Brazilian artist whose work brought together formal rigour and daring experimentation. In her own words, she explained her approach: ‘My concern is always invention. I always want to invent a new language that’s different for me and for others, too… I want to discover new things. Because, to me, art is a way of knowing the world... to see how the world is… of getting to know the world’. Until 19 February. www.serpentinegallery.org
- Love Pastels 2012: Pastel Society UK Annual Exhibition - Alongside the rich colour of the pastel paintings displayed in the Pastel Society’s 112th annual exhibition, there will be an equally robust collection of works using other dry media: charcoal, conté, oil pastels, graphite and coloured pencils. The huge variety of styles and techniques displayed throughout the exhibition will inspire with their versatility and energy. From 14 February until 25 February. www.mallgalleries.org.uk
- Adrian Wiszniewski - Adrian Wiszniewski paints poetic yet idiosyncratic visions. Big pictures with big impact. Colourful fantasies of sunlit brilliance, overflowing patterns of people and panthers, mythic birds and beasts, the bright beauty of star flowers, trumpet lilies, chalice gold ranunculus, feathery green fronds, furled flags, midnight skinny dipping, and throngs of handsome, poised boys and girls, all, like Dorian Gray, eternally young. From 3 February until 25 February. www.albemarlegallery.com
- Anselm Kiefer - Il Mistero delle Cattedrali - The title of the exhibition is taken from the esoteric publication by Fulcanelli (published in 1926), which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years. As with all Kiefer's work, allusions are never literal but reflect an ongoing interest in systems - mystical and material - which have evolved over centuries. Both title and exhibition reflect Kiefer's longtime fascination with the transformative nature of alchemy: 'The ideology of alchemy is the hastening of time, as in the lead-silver-gold cycle which needed only time in order to transform lead into gold. In the past the alchemist sped up this process with magical means. That was called magic. As an artist I don't do anything differently. I only accelerate the transformation that is already present in things. That is magic, as I understand it.' Until 26 February. http://whitecube.com
- Rothko in Britain - In 1961 the Whitechapel Gallery held the first solo show of American artist Mark Rothko in Britain. This landmark exhibition is brought vividly to life through the Gallery’s archives of original photographs, letters from the artist and new recordings of visitors’ memories presented alongside Rothko’s painting Light Red Over Black (1957). Mark Rothko (1903–1970) was part of a generation of American painters whose style became known as Abstract Expressionism. From the 1950s he used muted colours to make luminous rectangles seemingly hover on the surface of the canvas. While realising his Whitechapel Gallery exhibition he outlined precise instructions of how he wanted his work to be displayed, such as the lighting levels and hanging height of paintings. All this created an immersive experience for the viewer. Reviewing the show in The New Statesman art critic David Sylvester wrote, ‘Faced with Rothko’s paintings at Whitechapel, one feels oneself unbearably hemmed-in by forces buffeting one’s every nerve’. The display sheds new light on Rothko’s connection with Britain, highlighting the strong relationships he formed during his trip in the summer of 1959 and an era of dialogue between British and American artists. Until 26 February. www.whitechapel.org
