Newsletter London for fun

Welcome to the London For Fun regular newsletter keeping you up to date with what's new in London`s events.

LONDON FOR FUN Newsletter: 24 March 2009 Issue No.168

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://www.londonforfun.com
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1.) Top 10 London events
2.) Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries
3.) How to unsubscribe

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Top 10 London events
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1 - The Unilever Series: Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster - TH.2058 by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster looks 50 years into the future, as the inhabitants of London take shelter in the Turbine Hall from a never-ending rain. Filled with 200 bunk beds scattered with books,the animal forms of gargantuan sculptures, a massive LED screen playing edited extracts from science-fiction and experimental films, and piercing lights that suggest some unseen surveillance, the Turbine Hall has taken on the appearance of an epic film set. TH.2058 is an exploration of some of the artistic ideas that have preoccupied Gonzalez-Foerster over the last twenty years. The notion of the shelter, for instance, is partly inspired by her ideas of both real and fictional situations when London has been under attack, whether by flooding, bombing or invasion. It can also be traced back to her series Chambres, a sequence of environments which recreated fictional or personal and domestic spaces. Until 13 April. www.tate.org.uk/modern

2 - Darwin - Darwin is the biggest ever exhibition about Charles Darwin. It celebrates Darwin's ideas and their impact for his 200th birthday in 2009. Discover the man and the revolutionary theory that changed our understanding of the world. See incredible, revealing and rare exhibits, some on display for the first time. Retrace Darwin's historic HMS Beagle voyage and learn about his work in London and at his home in Down House, Kent. Uncover Darwin the family man and gain insights into his evolutionary theories and scientific research. Until 19 April. www.nhm.ac.uk

3 - Liz Arnold - Liz Arnold`s carefully crafted canvases depict cartoon-like animals seemingly imbued with human emotions. They inhabit a world that is both fantastical and familiar. Selected for the 1996 New Contemporaries at Camden Arts Centre, and for Becks Futures at the ICA in 2000, Arnold's paintings have proved irresistible to both the critics and the public alike. The exhibition includes works which have never been exhibited before and is curated by four artists: Richard Kirwan, Brighid Lowe, Bridget Smith and Daniel Sturgis. Until 19 April. www.camdenartscentre.org

4 - Renée Green - Endless Dreams and Water Between - The material cultures of maritime history are intertwined with desires and dreams that are carried across the oceans through experience, representation, misrepresentation and projections of past and present. This exhibition pays attention to the varied ways cultures perceive and conceive of the world. These understandings and perceptions are developed through struggles for happiness, the imaginary, systems for comprehension and dreams, as well as by the pursuit of these very desires. Until 21 April. www.nmm.ac.uk

5 - Dan Coombs - From the beginning of his career, Coombs has received acclaim for his multi-faceted practice, a kind of shotgun wedding of painting and sculpture. His layered compositions of aesthetic gestalt incorporated found objects and collaged elements into painterly formats that pulled the image into the physical space of the viewer. More recently Coombs has refined his working process, keeping bricolage in focus while maintaining variety of influence and invention. Coombs’ small collages of found illustrations and photographs of nude figures in fantastic landscapes and dizzying interiors, provide the foundation for this body of new work. However, it is the representation of collage in his large-scale paintings that make this work truly innovative. The new paintings have a formality of composition and balance that underpins the energy of their execution. Until 26 April. www.fred-london.com

6 - Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism - Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism will explore the work of Alexander Rodchenko and Lyubov Popova between 1917 and 1929. Arguably two of the Russian avant-garde’s most influential and important artists, they were integral to the stylistic and theoretical underpinning of Russian Constructivism. With over 350 objects, this exhibition charts the evolution of their aesthetics from abstract painting to graphic design and will include their designs for cinema and theatre as well as numerous posters, books, and costumes. Until 17 May. www.tate.org.uk/modern

7 - Hussein Chalayan - This exhibition will be the first comprehensive presentation of Hussein Chalayan’s work in the UK. Spanning fifteen years of experimental projects, the exhibition explores Hussein Chalayan's creative approach, his inspirations and the many themes which influence his work such as cultural identity, displacement and migration. Exhibits will include ‘Afterwords’ which explores the notion of ‘wearable, portable architecture’ in which furniture literally transforms itself into garments; ‘Airborne’ bringing the latest LED technology to fashion design with a spectacular dress consisting of Swarovski crystals and over 15,000 flickering LED lights; ‘Before Minus Now’ a dress made of materials used in aircraft construction which changes shape by remote control and ‘Readings’ a dress comprising of over 200 moving lasers presenting an extraordinary spectacle of light. Until 17 May. www.designmuseum.org

8 - Annette Messager: The Messengers - The retrospective Annette Messager: The Messengers, presents an overview of the artist’s career and reveals her use of an astonishing and affecting repertoire of forms and materials (among them soft toys, stuffed animals, fabrics, wool, photographs and drawings). Mixing aesthetic registers and playing with remarkable virtuosity on our senses and feelings, this exhibition presents a panoramic survey from the intimate and conceptually driven pieces Messager made in the early 1970s to the very large sculptural installations of the past 15 years, in which movement plays an increasingly important role. Until 25 May. www.haywardgallery.org.uk

9 - Sickert in Venice - Walter Richard Sickert was one of the most important British artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Sickert became known as the father of modern British art, having introduced Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to a younger generation of British painters. Sickert made repeated visits to Venice, starting in 1895; creating some of his most ravishing impressionist work. He painted many scenes of Venetian architecture including St Mark's Basilica and the Rialto Bridge. During subsequent visits Sickert moved the object of his attention first into alleyways, and then indoors and began experimenting with the concept of ambiguous figures in interiors, forcing the viewer to speculate on the nature of what they were looking at. Until 31 May. www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

10 - Kuniyoshi - Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861) is considered one of the greatest Japanese artists who, alongside Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, dominated nineteenth century printmaking in Japan. Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition will present Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design and reveal his most inventive representations including his ingenuous use of the triptych. Prolific and multi-talented, Kuniyoshi portrayed the historic heroes of Japan’s warrior past and the Chinese Water Margins and, through masterful storytelling, kept alive the great myths and legends. Kuniyoshi’s heroes, through which he made his name, constitute the most important part of his artistic output. Until 7 June. www.royalacademy.org.uk

_______________________________________________________________________________

2. Other Events, Theatre listings, Museums and Galleries:

Events listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/events-in-London.htm

Theatre listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-theatres.htm

Museum listing:
http://www.londonforfun.com/London-museums.htm

Galleries listings:
http://www.londonforfun.com/galleries-in-London.htm

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Unsubscribe