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Viewing Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha at the Barbican Centre

The Wick Culture - Installation view of Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. Image courtesy of Barbican Centre

Above Installation view of Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. Image courtesy of Barbican Centre

The Wick Culture - Alberto GIACOMETTI Trois hommes qui marchent [petit plateau], Three Walking Men [Small Square], 1948. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

Above Alberto GIACOMETTI Trois hommes qui marchent [petit plateau], Three Walking Men [Small Square], 1948. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

The Wick Culture - Huma Bhabha, What Should it Be, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Above Huma Bhabha, What Should it Be, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Above Installation view of Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. Image courtesy of Barbican Centre

The Wick Culture - Alberto Giacometti, Femme debout
Standing Woman, 1957. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

Above Alberto Giacometti, Femme debout Standing Woman, 1957. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

The Wick Culture - Huma Bhabha, Feel the Hammer, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Above Huma Bhabha, Feel the Hammer, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Above Installation view of Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. Image courtesy of Barbican Centre

Above Alberto GIACOMETTI Trois hommes qui marchent [petit plateau], Three Walking Men [Small Square], 1948. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

Above Huma Bhabha, What Should it Be, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Above Installation view of Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. Image courtesy of Barbican Centre

Above Alberto Giacometti, Femme debout Standing Woman, 1957. Image courtesy of Fondation Giacometti

Above Huma Bhabha, Feel the Hammer, 2024. Photo by Kerry McFate. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery

Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha

Level 2
Barbican Centre
8 May – 10 August 2025

London’s big opening of the week is the first in the exciting new Encounters series, co-organised by the Barbican with the Giacometti Foundation, bringing three contemporary artists into scintillating dialogues with the iconic 20th century sculptor.

Inhabiting a new gallery space on the second floor – once the Barbican’s restaurant, now opened up as an exhibition space for the first time – twelve works by the Pakistani-American artist are displayed with ten pieces by Giacometti, highlighting similarities and differences between the two artists, and creating new tensions and conversations between them.

Bhabha has often cited Giacometti as an inspiration for her own eerie, ominous and enthralling assemblage-type figurative sculptures using found objects. This is the first time she has presented works together with the late Swiss sculptor, and her first exhibition in London since 2016. There is also a chance to see four huge, totemic bronze cast works by Bhabha for free, installed in the foyer between the exhibition space and the library.

Viewing Joanna Allen: Subconscious Playground at Bowman Sculpture

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Above Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture

Joanna Allen: Subconscious Playground

Bowman Sculpture
1 – 30 May 2025

Joanna Allen is an emerging sculptor to know: the Dorset-based artist has been working steadily with her own take on Surrealism, with a contemporary perspective that feels fresh. Her latest body of work, on show until the end of the month at Bowman Sculpture, has been four years in the making and feels like a pivotal moment for the artist.

Allen’s series of sculptures for Subconscious Playground begin with psychomorphic drawings Allen makes, sometimes inspired by images that come to mind as she meditates – there is a special space in her studio, she has said, for that purpose. She then collaborates with an atelier in Italy to transform clay and plaster casts into marble and bronze.

As Allen’s title suggests, this solo exhibition is both playful and profound, an experimental and exploratory take on the inner workings of the mind and how they might manifest in the body – moving between figurative and abstract forms in a contemplative and intuitive way.

Viewing Lou Zhenggang: Shizen at Almine Rech

The Wick Culture - Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2018. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech - Photo: LZG Studio

Above Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2018. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech – Photo: LZG Studio

The Wick Culture - Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2022. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech - Photo: LZG Studio

Above Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2022. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech – Photo: LZG Studio

The Wick Culture - Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2021. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech - Photo: LZG Studio

Above Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2021. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech – Photo: LZG Studio

Above Lou Zhenggang, Untitled, 2018. Image © Lou Zhenggang / Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech – Photo: LZG Studio

Lou Zhenggang: Shizen

Almine Rech
Apr 22 – May 24 2025

There’s a buzz about the current Almine Rech show in London – and it’s easy to see why. The solo exhibition by Lou Zhenggang at the gallery is organised with and co-curated by art world giant Simon de Pury, and is the first time the famed Chinese artist has presented a solo exhibition at the gallery.

Zhenggang, 58, is an acclaimed international artist. She was already well known as a child for her mastery of calligraphy, an art she began learning with her father from a young age. She was trained at an academy by China’s master in calligraphy and ink painting, and won national competitions. In 1986, she moved to Japan where she was also widely celebrated and exhibited. Her painting style would come to blend and blur influences from Chinese calligraphy, Gutai she encountered in Japan and Abstract Expressionism, and to cleverly combine traditional, technical techniques and skill with vivid, bold emotion, materials and colour.

Shizen is a rare chance to see Zhenggang’s work in the UK, and some twenty-one recent paintings are featured, all of them unfalteringly beautiful. De Pury writes: “Despite her prominence, Lou Zhenggang is entirely dedicated to her craft and uninterested in promoting her own work. She has abandoned travel, avoids distractions, and keeps studio visits rare, choosing instead to devote all her time to painting. Fortunately, her admirers and collectors—moved by the depth and power of her work—have taken it upon themselves to champion her art on the global stage.”