Lisson Gallery night

March 30, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Today Lisson Gallery had a late nigh opening of two shows: Anish Kapoor in gallery 67 Lisson Street and Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg exhibition at 27 Bell street. Both premises are in 2 minutes walk from each other so it is easy to see both. Both exhibitions are on display from 31st March until May 6.

I saw Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg first, it attracted many views. It was not big, only two rooms with major piece in the first room. The exhibition is called ‘Who am I to Judge, or, It Must be Something Delicious,’. The artwork is crafted in animated style – sought in the moment. It is surely interesting standing there and exploring each figure individually and how they interrelate. The display is bold, definitely questioning societies’ standards and pushing boundaries. See for yourself:

Anish Kapoor often works for Lisson Gallery and it is his sixteenth exhibition there. It was very refreshing to see variety of working techniques, not only his iconic cylinder shaped plates. Many abstract works were presented over two floors of the gallery and several large scale sculptures.

Opening night was busy as always with people drinking and sharing their opinions. If you are near the gallery check out these shows.

Galleries and Public Spaces

March 29, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Commercial Art market slowly integrates into our everyday lives. It is now common that art galleries use commercial spaces such as restaurants and hotels to display their artworks. What is in it for both parties?

Obviously, by displaying artworks outside commercial gallery space, artists, artworks and galleries get better exposure to the public. Artworks are seen by hundred of people visiting the premises. Furthermore when the art piece is displayed against white wall of a commercial gallery customers can struggle imagining it in their homes; when they see the piece in the interior of a hotel room, artwork might looks more appealing. However, there are downsides of displaying artworks in public spaces because the attitude toward the artwork may be defined by the reputation of the restaurant/hotel/bar etc. So galleries should carefully select where to display artworks.

Public place are getting prestige and decoration. Terms with galleries may vary, but usually these places get a very good terms. The only downside I can think of is if their customers damage the artwork, but this occasion should be agreed beforehand.

The example of such collaboration is Neo Bankside, property development, has Emily Young‘s sculptures from Bowman Gallery, displayed around the houses. Emily is a British boss artist who started her career as a painter and then found her style in sculpturing. Her sculptures are displayed around the houses, next to trendy restaurants and most importantly next to Tate Modern. So this is an amazing exposure for the artist, being seen not only by residents of the buildings, customers of the restaurants but most importantly by Tate visitors.

Lost Mountain Head I

Amiata Warrior Head

Cassandra II

Wind Head

Stillness born of History II

Rouge de Vitrolles Head

Planet

From my point of view, this collaboration between galleries and commercial spaces is a great phenomenon for the public. They get to learn and admire different artists and be surrounded by beauty.

Mother’s Day Special

March 26, 2017March 26, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Today is Mother’s Day and I want to congratulate all mothers, grandmothers and mothers-to-be. Being a parent is a beautiful thing and it has been portrayed by many different artists throughout art history. Artists expressed admiration for motherhood in variety of ways – some artists, like Van Gogh, created portraits of their mother and you can see tenderness and love in paintings; some artist captures the most intimate moment of mother and child – breastfeeding; and many partners and photographers captured mothers during pregnancy.

I would like to list top five my favourite artworks that celebrate motherhood.

David Hockney – My Mother

This is the collage made from photographs portraying Davids mother at the graveyard. Mothers face is deeply moving, it makes me sympathise with her. Laura Hockney was often subject of her sons artworks, he admired her strength and character.

A. Suvorov and A. Izmodenov – Sailor’s Wife

This sculpture is proudly displayed in port of Russian city Novorossiysk. This bronze artwork has many unofficial titles, one of them is “Mother and Child”. Sculpture symbolises all wives and mothers waiting for their beloved mariners to return from the sea.

Gustav Klimt – Hope, II

Klimt has many paintings portraying pregnant women, mothers and children and Hope II is my favourite. It is beyond words beautiful and very deep. The painting is about life, death and hope: every new life is hope.

Howard Coster – Mother and Child

Howard Coster was a British photographer of the end 19th and beginning of 20th century. This vintage bromide print was created in 1930s and now is displayed in National Portrait Gallery. There is something about mothers’ eyes and smile that makes me look at it and admire.

Anna Rose Bain – The Wait and the Reward

Anna is a contemporary artist and a mom of two beautiful girls. She has many portraits of her children as well as self portraits during pregnancy. I think Anna captures feeling perfectly, that tenderness and love that mother experiences when waiting for her baby.

Upcoming Fashion Exhibitions

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017 / ypokrepa / 1 Comment

Dear Londoners and visitors, finally spring is in the full mode and we can go outside and enjoy sunshine, go for long walks, spend lunch breaks in the parks and squares. And for our fashion-lovers this spring brings many exciting exhibitions!

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The one I am most excited about is Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion in my beloved Victoria & Albert museum. This exhibition starts on May 27th and will be running until February next year. Past fashion exhibitions were a huge success, especially Alexander McQueen, so I can’t wait to see how the art and legacy of Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga will be displayed. Beautiful gowns, stories behind them, hats and accessories, all unfold the lifetime story of this iconic master. I expect the exhibition to be spectacular and chic, of a very high standard which V&A always maintain.

The exhibition is free for members and £12 for non-members, tickets can be booked online. If this exhibition is going to be successful as McQuees exhibition, you should book tickets in advance.

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Kensington Palace presented Diana: Her Fashion Story in February 2017 and it will be on display for a year, until February 2018. I have not seen it yet, but it is certainly on my to do list. The exhibition explores her early style and then shows how it developed throughout her life. Enjoy many iconic outfits, get inspired by elegant and graceful style of Britains favourite Princess Diana.

Book your tickets in advance, everything is completely sold out until May. Online booking will secure your ticket and also save you couple of pounds, online price is £17.10 and on the spot price is £19.00

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Gudrun Sjödén: Four Decades of Colour & Design exhibition starts on 25th of April at The Fashion and Textiles Museums. You will find sketches, videos, vintage designs from company’s archives. It is only available for short time – from April 25th until May 7, you can book your tickets at the venue at £9.90.

Another upcoming exhibition at The Fashion and Textiles Museum – The World of Anna Sui. The exhibition is on from 26 May and runs until 1 October 2017. Over 100 pieces from designers archives would be on display, demonstrating the evolution and trends of Annes style. You can book your tickets here. Note that the museum is closed on Mondays.

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Somerset House will feature Francesca Granata – American author and Assistant Professor in the School of Art and Design History. She will be lecturing on her recent book “Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival, and the Grotesque Body”. Francesca Granata is also the editor and founder of the journal Fashion Projects. Her work has appeared in Fashion Theory, Fashion Practice, and The Journal of Design History, as well as in a number of books and exhibition catalogues. Experimental fashion explores close relationship between contemporary fashion and performance art, it also questions contemporary image of fashionable body and looks into experimental performance outfits like Lady Gaga’s costumes.

The lecture start at 6:30pm on 6th of April and last for two hours. Thickets are essential due to limited space and can be purchased only for £5 here.

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So plenty things to see this spring! It is that time of the year, let’s take of our winter coats and get out there with a bit of fashion.

Lockwood Kipling

February 21, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Victoria and Albert is one of my favourite museums in London. Top quality exhibitions, interesting events, great experience every time! This time I visited “Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London”, it is on until April 2nd. The exhibition is on the ground floor in Porter Gallery and is free to enter.

The exhibition is devoted to John Lockwood Kipling’s lifetimes input to Arts & Crafts, featuring his remarkable sketches, furniture pieces and books illustrations.

This exhibition is very complete experience – you have artworks, you have short films to provide with a visual, Indian music on the background to deepen the authenticity. Amazing curatorial work. The quality of display was outstanding and I especially loved the combination of colours on the walls. Even though the exhibition is admission free the amount of effort is not lacking. Small windows between the rooms so you can get a sneak peak of what lies ahead.

After travelling to India it was very touching to revisit history of some places we have seen in the flash.

Roma Aeterna

February 14, 2017April 12, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow exhibits Vatican art collection from Pinacotheca. The exhibition is on until 19th of February. As it happens in Moscow it is tricky to get tickets – demand is high for major cultural events.

The exhibition left good overall impression, I loved the set up and especially rich burgundy wall colour.

Rather original placing of description – at the raised plinth on the floor, but not smart. It’s impossible to see anything because of the crowd blocking the view. No doubt that without cable on the wall the whole experience is more authentic and paintings look more natural. But it is very difficult to identify who was the artist and what was the painting.

Brochures finished and Audio guide required deposit in form of documents or cash, not everyone carries it around so people missed on opportunity to learn about the exhibition. Combine that with no brochures and description written on the floor and you end up with much less educational exhibition that it could have been.

The exhibition consisted of 42 paintings spread over 3 halls replicating the Vatican halls.

Curatorial work left some questions… When you enter the second hall, Title “RAPHAEL” between two huge artworks. It was silly of me to assume that he title refers to these artworks; it referred to tiny display. One paintings was Faith and the second one Charity. Both dated 1507.

Donate Creti – the astronomical observations, 1711. The sun. The moon. Mercury. Venus. Mars, Jupiter. Saturn. The comet. Oil on canvas.

teamLab

February 10, 2017February 8, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Pace Gallery displays teamLab exhibition Transcending Boundaries from January 25 until 11 of March. TeamLab is a group of Japanese technologists who experiment with technology and art. They create beautiful displays using projectors, LED screens, light and sound. Some installations are interactive and visitors can control them with smartphones. TeamLab has many permanent displays, ongoing and upcoming exhibitions across the world. If you are lucky enough to be around one do not miss your chance to see it. I am sorry to say but tickets for Pace Gallery are completely sold out. Even though the admission is free, there are allocated time slots to manage the viewings. Exhibition space is rather limited there are only three small rooms, so they only let 20 people at a time.

I was lucky enough to get in and I really enjoyed it. There are three rooms and 8 artworks – 6 artworks in the first room, one in the second and one in the third. First room is the most impressive because artworks have no boundaries and the whole room becomes a thee dimensional canvas.

The star piece is the “Universe of Water Particles, Transcending Boundaries” which is a projection of waterfall on the wall. TeamLab studied behaviour of particles in the waterfall to create the same floe in the artwork. Projection is not limited by the wall space and waterfall is spilt onto the floor. The trajectory of the waterfall influences other artworks in the room.

Another amazing piece is “Flutter of Butterflies” which is produces butterflies across the room. It obviously looks spectacular but the artwork even more impressive if you know the design behind it. The flow of butterflies is created in real time and never repeated again, quantity and movement of butterflies determined by viewers in the room. Butterflies appear from the same place where the viewer stands, but if someone touches the butterfly it disappears.

Second room one display in it – digital image of the ocean. It was extremely calming and soothing. There is a bench across the artwork so you can sit there for a while and enjoy the view.

Lastly, in the third room you become part of the artwork. Visitors put on piece of white material and become a canvas. This room is dark when you first enter, it comes to live only with someone in it. Peoples movement triggers the program which generates flower buds, then depending on the movement buds start to bloom and then eventually fade away. If you stay still more flowers are generated and they bloom

Great experience. TeamLab is on my radar now and I am very excited to see what they come up with next.

Elisabetta Cipriani

February 8, 2017February 8, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Elisabetta Cipriani is a Mayfair based gallery featuring Jewellery by contemporary artists. All pieces presented in the gallery are either unique or limited and created exclusively for the gallery. Jewellery is created from precious metals by painters and sculptors. Some artists have never created jewellery before which makes the outcome even more special.

Jewellery collection is huge, even though the display room is rather small, there are many more pieces than shown on the display. More than 20 international artists are featured in the gallery so you can find a piece of jewellery for every taste: from traditional and elegant earrings and necklaces by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov to experimental massive ring by Frank Stella.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. The Fly.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. The Fly. 2010. Beautiful collection of earrings, ring, necklace and bracelet is made of 18k gold and precious and semi-precious stones.

Frank Stella. Ring

Frank Stella. Ring. 2008. This is the first piece of jewellery ever made by Stella, American painter and printmaker. This ring is bold, massive and complex. Metal is 18k yellow gold is bent into cures, loops and spirals. It is truly exceptional piece, you can find anything like it on the High Street.

Giorgio Vigna. Sasso

Giorgio Vigna. Sasso. 2015. My personal favourite was collection of brooches. They are made from different metals – copper, silver and gold platings. Each brooch is fixed by strong magnet so you can put it anywhere without damaging the material. Each piece is unique and signed. I absolutely loved it! It is a great accessory and it goes great with coats and jackets.

If you want to possess something unique, something special, Elisabetta Cipriani is definitely the place to find it. Wide selection, great designs and very helpful staff. Not only you get great piece you get the history behind it, this is why jewellery in Elisabetta Cipriani is so special and nothing like you can find in fashion stores.

Rauschenberg Tate Modern

January 29, 2017January 22, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

Tate Modern has changed its displays and now you can enjoy a solo exhibition of modern American artist – Robert Rauschenberg, the exhibition is on until April 2nd. As a part of my course in Sotheby’s I wrote a financial report on one of his paintings and its performance on the auction, so I was particularly interested in this exhibition, I wanted to see his artworks in the flash.

I visited with my parents, they have even more conservative art taste than I do, so they did not like it at all. I can’t say that I loved all of the exhibition, but I certainly enjoyed some parts.

Rauschenberg was a revolutionary artist for American art, he was the first artist who made a canvas three dimensional and used all different sorts of materials as part of his paintings. He integrated materials, woods, metals and even small appliances.

Sculptures – I did not totally get.. See for yourself!

Winter Lights

January 27, 2017 / ypokrepa / Leave a comment

When you are walking in Canary Wharf, commercial centre of London, you get the feeling like you are in New York or Singapore. Concrete Jungles, shopping centres, restaurants, bars and bright lights. This winter bright lights became even brighter!

Winter Lights is a lighting exhibitions with 31 artworks commissioned by international artists. The display is on for a short time only, and, I am afraid, it is coming to an end on 27th of January.. I only visited it yesterday, we did not finish it in one go (the main part of the exhibition is on the lower third floor and is open from 4 to 9pm), so we came back again today. If you are reading it and it is still before 9pm PLEASE go! It is amazing!

Canary Wharf is a magical place to have a walk in the evening anyways, the ice skating ring is beautiful and trees are decorated during all winter. But large scale lighting installations make it even better!

Inside lighting installations are interactive and are shaped by humans involvement. Some light screens recreate the shape of whoever is standing in front of the camera, one installation changes its lights and music according to how you shape it. One installation consist of 30,000 LEDs and their movement is triggered by brains activity. It is also a perfect place to practice your photography skills and play with exposure, many photographers spent hours trying to capture a perfect shot.