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Viewing Rachel Jones: say cheeeeese

The Wick Culture - say cheeeeese (Production Image) (2022). Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Kyle Thurman (from the Instagram @kyle_thurman_)

Above say cheeeeese (Production Image) (2022). Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Kyle Thurman (from the Instagram @kyle_thurman_)

Above Rachel Jones

Above say cheeeeese (Production Image) (2022). Commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London. Image courtesy of Kyle Thurman (from the Instagram @kyle_thurman_)

Above Rachel Jones

12 March–12 June 2022
Chisenhale Gallery, London
https://chisenhale.org.uk/exhibition/rachel-jones/

Since she graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in 2019, art world darling Rachel Jones has gone from strength to strength. In 2021 she featured in Hayward Gallery’s celebrated Mixing It Up exhibition and mounted her first solo show at Thaddaeus Ropac, which was described by The Art Newspaper as ‘one of the most acclaimed new painting shows in recent years.’ At auction, her work commands six-figure sums.

Now, she’s enjoying her first institutional show at Chisenhale Gallery in London. For her Chisenhale commission, Jones has used oil pastels and oil sticks to produce a new body of paintings on canvas and a series of stickers for the inner gallery walls and exterior doors. You’ll see her now-familiar motifs — teeth and mouths — reimagined to incorporate bold, hand-drawn lines over dense blocks of colour.
Jones’s clashing marks, shapes and tones prompt the viewer to contemplate what emotional responses are assigned to a colour or a form, for example, to reconsider yellow’s association with happiness. Rachel Jones is going places and this exhibition shows why.

Viewing Damien Hirst: Natural History

The Wick Culture - Damien Hirst, Analgesics, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, Analgesics, 1993

The Wick Culture - Damien Hirst, School of Thought, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, School of Thought, 1993

The Wick Culture - Damien Hirst, Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, Analgesics, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, School of Thought, 1993

Above Damien Hirst, Myth Explored, Explained, Exploded, 1993

9 March–summer (no set end date)
Gagosian Britannia Street, London
https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2022/damien-hirst-natural-history/

Enter Gagosian Britannia Street and you’ll come face to face with sharks, sheep, fish and calves. They are preserved in formaldehyde of course, but the effect is still somewhat unsettling. But that’s what Damien Hirst intended: ‘I wanted a shark that’s big enough to eat you, and in a large enough amount of liquid so that you could imagine you were in there with it,’ he once said of The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), a fourteen-foot tiger shark preserved in a tank of formaldehyde.

Currently installed across the Britannia Street gallery are more than 20 iconic examples spanning a 30-year period. Shown alongside early works, including The Impossible Lovers (1991), a cabinet filled with glass jars containing preserved cow’s organs, are his complex tableaux such as The Pursuit of Oblivion (2004), in which animal carcasses are joined by other objects including knives and a chain mail glove.

Part of Hirst’s takeover of Britannia Street gallery, Natural History is the first ever show dedicated to his formaldehyde sculptures. It highlights the artist’s ongoing interest in the link between art and science, while also exploring Hirst’s meditations on life, death, faith and fact. Love it or hate it, this exhibition will get under your skin.

Viewing Legends Only: An ode to female icons

The Wick Culture - David Downton, 1959, Elizabeth-Taylor (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Elizabeth-Taylor (2017)

The Wick Culture - David Downton, 1959, Carmen (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Carmen (2017)

The Wick Culture - David Downton, 1959, Sophia Loren (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Sophia Loren (2017)

The Wick Culture - David Downton, 1959, Dita von Teese(2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Dita von Teese(2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Elizabeth-Taylor (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Carmen (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Sophia Loren (2017)

Above David Downton, 1959, Dita von Teese(2017)

Gray M.C.A at Claridge’s
8–20 March
https://graymca.com

Paloma Picasso, Catherine Deneuve and Cate Blanchett are among the famous names to have been captured by the acclaimed fashion illustrator David Downton. By blurring the lines between fashion and fine portraiture, Downton has carried the golden age of fashion illustration into the 21st century, capturing couture looks for the likes of Dior, Chanel and Estee Lauder.

In 2011 Downton was appointed the first Artist-in-Residence at Claridge’s. Now, 16 original works and limited-edition prints depicting female icons are on show in a new exhibition at Gray M.C.A at Claridge’s. Opening to coincide with International Women’s Day, Legends Only features portraits of such celebrated figures as Elizabeth Taylor, Iman and Sophia Loren.

With his economy of line and spontaneous approach to the human form, Downton follows in the footsteps of master fashion illustrators, including Carl Erickson, René Bouët-Willaumez and René Bouché. Dripping with glamour and sophistication, this bijou show is not to be missed. Once you’ve had your fill, swing by the freshly opened Painter’s Room to continue the art viewing experience in style.