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London then Paris: bumping into friends whilst cross channel gallery hopping...
14 October 2024
I am finally up and about and before we head of to Paris, I manage to check out Lauren Halsey’s show at the Serpentine Gallery ‘emajendet’. I love the enveloping nature of the work, there are so many colours and textures the feeling is of being inside a life size diorama
Halsey uses so many references connected to her life – they connect to personal archives, African diaspora, Black and Queer Icons and architecture
On my way out into the chilly autumn weather I find two of my favourite peeps: Antonia Grosse and Erica Bolton
At Shoreditch Arts Club daata put on a great show by Petra Cortright
Over to Paris and we start our explorations at gallery Raphael Durazzo - one of the 30 surrealist shows around Paris. I loved the work by Dorothea Tanning from 1960s
Then we dropped into White Cube and we loved this work by Sylvia Snowden. ‘Jessie B Snowden I,II,III (1978 to 82). Sylvia was born in North Carolina in 1942 and had a recent show in London with Edel Assanti. Great to see her and her work getting more airtime now
Next was the most intriguing show at Per Skarstedt - Andy Warhol “Who is Who?’ This is ‘Last Supper’ (1986) The exhibition delves into the myriad influences art history had on Warhol’s oeuvre
Then a special visit to Tiqui Atencio’s book launch Take 2, this time at Christies where Ago and Tiqui gave us an exciting insight to her new book ‘Inside The Homes Of Artists: For Art's Sake'
At Chantal Crousel we found a very special show ‘Lies’ by Mimosa Echard - I liked very much this work with gives the show its title. She used many different interesting materials including electromagnetic shielding fabric.
The melting heart ‘Lady’s Glove’ is such a sad symbol - the show explored ideas of our bodies in public space, safety and screening
Inside was Gallery Crousel were works by Roberto Cuoghi in his first show with the gallery – new chapter of ‘Pepsis’
We dropped into Thaddaeus Ropac and stumbled upon the work of Sturtevant ‘ZIP ZAP !’ Celebrating her work over five decades - making the viewer think about the meaning of artmaking. This work ‘Elastic Tango: A three act play, 2010 is a nine part video installation where she recorded footage from television, BBC and cartoons. She is exploring repeating imagery of post internet life in a way that it is now more relevant than ever
Loved seeing this little feller as we were passing
Outside Design Miami Paris, I loved this seat by Wendell Castle - a designer revered as the founding father of the American Art Furniture Movement. His show Cantilever show at Carpenters Workshop Gallery was admirable
At Carpenters Workshop Gallery inside Design Miami Paris (yes, it is confusing), was the work by Roger Herman ‘untitled 155’ ‘from California with Love’. A teacher of UCLA he also had time to practice his craft focusing on vibrant glazing and colour.
At tea time I bumped into a brilliant friend Tony Shafrazi - I had not seen him for a long time
Perrotin Gallery had a show-stopper-show by Jean Marie Appriou. I fell in love with ‘Exonaut Horizon’ - he is drawing inspiration from ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures and mythology. I loved this sci-fi mother spider ‘Soul Gate’ protecting my girlfriend Margherita Stabiumi
Then - there is me in front of ‘Lighthouse Watchers’, there was so much to see as I navigated my way through all these fabulous beings and igneous matter that makes up Appriou’s enigmatic universe The show was full of discoveries and great examples of the best work of Jean Marie
In the streets of Paris I bump into Tania Cohen the Director of Tel Aviv Museum
Imo the best show in town (apart from Surrealism at the Pompidou) is the ‘The Atomic Age’ at the MAM exploring the relationship of artists to the Atomic world. Here is Salvador Dali riffing off science and the discovery of the atom and radioactivity: ‘Uranium and Atomica Malancholia Idyll’ (1945). He proclaimed himself as “the first painter of the atomic age” exposing his theory of “nuclear mysticism”
I adored this photograph by Don English ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ (1957), coinciding with Operation Plumbbob on the Nevada Test Site
The exhibition included contemporary works including this very sad picture Jessie Homer French ‘Chernobyl Spring’ (2018)
I felt there was one artists the curators missed out – specifically this fabulous painting Nature Morte (2014) by Keith Tyson. Who for some time had an obsession with the way artists have expressed emotions and feelings through flower paintings, this one is an image a of bouquet of explosions as flowers in a vase
