Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.


All, Art, Auctions, Exhibitions, Travel & Hospitality, Initiatives

Viewing Transposition by The Balvenie x Samuel Ross at Historic Foundry in Milan

Among The Wick’s highlights of Milan Design Week is Dr Samuel Ross MBE’s collaboration with The Balvenie, on view at the Historic Foundry in the Isola District. Ross and his studio, Atelier SR_A, have created an immersive sculptural environment, a dynamic reimagining inspired by half a century of stories drawn from The Balvenie Fifty Collection.

Ross is known for his celebration of craft and exploration of form, combining fashion, industrial design and fine art, and this installation considers aspects of hospitality, described by Ross as “a collision between two worlds. Between the elements and the man made. Between craft and industry.”

TRANSPOSITION is a site-specific and sensory work featuring light, mist and sound, with copper sculptures encasing vertical rivers installed throughout the building – a bold visual ake on whiskey production. A copper bar has been installed to serve The Balvenie expressions, with specially designed glassware crafted for the occasion. The experience of the space, they say, will change the way you taste. We can’t wait to try it.

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Dates
08 April 2025 — 11 April 2025

Viewing James Vaulkhard: The Sublime & The Consumed at Blond Contemporary

Back in London this week’s pick is a new exhibition by Kenyan-born artist James Vaulkhard. Inspired by the ideals and ambitions of the Hudson River School painters, Vaulkhard went on a 5,000 mile road trip across the American landscape. The results, transcribed into a new body of striking paintings, makes up this show, titled, The Sublime & The Consumed at Blond Contemporary, curated by MC Llamas.

Vaulkhard’s new works see the artist push further into an abstract language, while exploring the history and evolution of landscape painting and the American sublime. They also become a deeply personal reflection on the state of America today, reflected in the landscape and in Vaulkhard’s observations and encounters during his travels.

Vaulkhard’s combines classical techniques, employing oil paint, oil stick and pastel, with an avant-garde approach to colour and line. The expressive, textured surfaces of his works evoke dynamic stories about modern day America, a place of contradictions and tensions. Find out more about Vaulkhard’s work and inspirations in this week’s Spotlight at The Wick.

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Dates
11 April 2025 — 09 May 2025

Viewing David Hockney 25 at Fondation Louis Vuitton

The blockbuster opening everyone is talking about this week is David Hockney’s magnificent and monumental take over at Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris. Hockney has been involved in every detail of making the exhibition, and it shows, from the sublime hang and layout of more than 400 works drawn from collections all over the world, staged across 11 rooms to immersive video installations and more.

This is the biggest show Hockney has ever had, and offers an unprecedented view of the artist’s trajectory and seven-decade career, with particular focus on his prolific production in the last 25 years – when Hockney has returned to live and work in the UK and France. It also includes iconic early works (swims and ponds abound), sixty spectacular portraits, and works made in London only recently completed and shown for the very time in public, proving Hockney’s unending passion for painting now, aged 87.

Journeying through the phenomenal British artist’s range of interests form opera to nature to people’s interior worlds, his mastery of both portrait and landscape painting genres and his dazzling use of colour, makes this exhibition riveting from start to finish. In both scale and sheer volume of works, it’s an unparalleled Hockney moment not to be missed.

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Dates
09 April 2025 — 31 August 2025
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The Wick Culture - Shezad Dawood

Happenings Chain of Hope at Saatchi Gallery

Happenings
The Wick Culture - Daniella Celine Williams and Yube Huni Kuin from the Amazon. Photo by Nick Harvey.

Happenings Sacred Land at Saatchi Gallery

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The Wick Culture - Comedian, Maurizio Cattelan

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The Wick Culture - David Bailey, Mary McCartney and Brandei Estes at Claridge's ArtSpace

Happenings 'DOUBLE EXPOSURE: David Bailey & Mary McCartney' at Claridge's ArtSpace

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The Wick Culture - Courts and Fields 4 ©Ishkar
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Object Courts and Fields 4 rug, by Christopher Le Brun

Design
The Wick Culture - Viewing David Hockney 25 at Fondation Louis Vuitton
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