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Viewing Yayoi Kusama: EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE at Victoria Miro

Head over to Victoria Miro’s Wharf Road gallery in London for Yayoi Kusama’s latest hallucinatory spectacle: including an unmissable, dazzling all new Infinity Mirrored Room, pulsating and filled with light. Infinity Mirrored Room – Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart features a ceiling of coloured flashing LED lights arranged in a concentric pattern whose reflections produce an infinite honeycomb.

The artist’s 14th exhibition at Victoria Miro, titled EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE, also includes three new surreal bronze sculptures of female figures, on show in the garden, and two colourful, tendril-like stuffed textile installations, Death of Nerves (2022), originally commissioned for Kusama’s retrospective at M+ Hong Kong in 2022, and a new work, The Moment of Regeneration, (2024) fill the inside space. There’s also a showcase of the latest additions to Kusama’s ongoing recent series, Every Day I Pray for Love, started in 2021, displayed in a dynamic configuration in the upper gallery, deeply expressive abstract explorations of the possibilities of line and colour.

Entry is free – but booking is essential. As tickets are currently fully booked, check the booking page on Mondays at 12 noon, when more tickets will be released.

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Dates
25 September 2024 — 02 November 2024

Viewing The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 – 1998 at Barbican Art Gallery

This highly anticipated, first-of-its-kind exhibition opens to the public this week at the Barbican Art Gallery: a major exploration through the work of thirty Indian artists of a tumultuous period in India’s history, beginning with Ghandi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and ending in 1998, the year of the Pokhran nuclear tests.

The exhibition takes these two major, transformative events as ‘bookends’ to dive into the artwork that was produced as India experienced huge social upheaval, economic collapse and rapid and prolific urbanisation nationwide. What the art reveals is how, despite hardships and politic shifts, ordinary life must go on, and creativity remains alive, and a positive force and response. Dancing through a range of mediums, the works convey a shared urgency for expressing all the gamut of human emotions.

Many of the works displayed have never been seen in the UK before, and also includes influential figures such as Jyoti Bhatt, the modernist painter, and M.F. Husain, one of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century. On the eve of Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas, on 26 and 27 October respectively, entry to the exhibition is free. Don’t miss the Barbican’s widely-celebrated Darbar Festival of Indian classical music (24 – 27 October) too.


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Dates
05 October 2024 — 05 January 2025

Viewing Gommie: My Favourite Bedtime Story is Hindsight at The Art Office

Gommie describes himself as a Poetartist – his works fuse the written word with performance, visual art and social commentary, ruminations and reflections on life, travels and experiences, often touching on universal themes, such as mental health, relationships, and the constraints of society’s norms. A trained actor, Gommie took up art in 2016 as a direct response to Brexit – and has since worked with Bonham’s, Hauser & Wirth, as well as the mental health charity CALM.

This new exhibition at The Art Office is a showcase of the British Poetartist’s most recent work including the new series Overshare, inspired by a trip to London, and including more than 50 pieces, which can be viewed as a single work. With self-deprecating and observational humour, Gommie paints texts in acrylic onto canvas and lacquered maps, or sketches in ink in delicate, intensely detailed works on moleskine paper. “I am the Liz Truss of Lasting Relationships” reads one recent painting, fluid painted handwriting on a lilac canvas. “Keep searching/ you won’t find it” reads another poem, above a drawing depicting a washing line, trousers and sheets hanging in a field.

Other pieces in the show include The Dentist Knows All of My Secrets, a poem about the cost of living crisis, and artwork maps, inspired by walks around the UK and the people and places he encounters – a method that emphasizes the Poetartist’s connection to the land and community, and the everyday experiences that shape his creativity. Prices for these new and recent works start from £198.

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Dates
12 September 2024 — 02 October 2024
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