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Viewing Blue Minds Exhibition in association with the Blue Marine Foundation

The Wick Culture - Blue Minds, in assocation with Blue Marine Foundation

Above Blue Minds, in assocation with Blue Marine Foundation

Catherine Prevost, 127 Sloane Street

24 June — 6 July 2021

Featuring works by 26 contemporary artists, this bijou exhibition at Catherine Prevost’s Sloane Street boutique looks at the ocean as a wonderous source of creative inspiration and addresses why it is more important than ever to protect it. Conceived in association with the Blue Marine Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to restoring ocean health, Blue Minds also explores the shared goals of creatives and scientists inspired by ocean conservation.

Many well-known artists are represented, including Andrea Hamilton, Marcus Lyon and Crystal Fischetti, as are many styles and mediums, including soundscapes, photography, ceramics, films, sculptures and paintings. Shown together, these works shed light on important environmental issues affecting the health and future of the ocean: pollution, rising sea levels and over-fishing. But they also inspire hope.

‘We just need to stop and listen to the ocean,’ says Blue Minds co-curator Nico Earle. ‘It holds the key to our sustainable future.’ The free programme of accompanying talks and workshops is worth checking out too. (Exhibition admission is free but booking is essential. Donations are welcome and will be donated directly to the Blue Marine Foundation).

Viewing Lobsteropolis City at the Lobsterland Museum in Decentraland

The Wick Culture - Lobsteropolis City, Philip Colbert

Above Lobsteropolis City, Philip Colbert

Museum open from 30 June 2021

Hot on the heels of Lobsteropolis, Philip Colbert’s hugely popular Saatchi Gallery virtual exhibition in 2020, comes Lobsteropolis City: the artist’s first fully digital exhibition at the Lobsterland Museum.

Curated by leading art auctioneer and dealer Simon de Pury, Lobsteropolis City is set across 57 land parcels in Vegas City, one of the largest districts within the ‘metaverse’ of Decentraland, an open-source virtual reality world built on the Ethereum Blockchain which can be explored and experienced through a unique avatar.

In Colbert’s newest iteration of his imaginative lobster universe — which was three years in the making — you’ll come face to face with Colbert’s lobster alter-ego, recognisable symbols charged with universal meaning and references to classical antiquity and the Renaissance. (Think heart emojis, classical vases and T-bone steaks.)

The exhibition also includes a series of NFT works available exclusively with NFT platform Super Rare, among them Colbert’s Cryptofixtion and Lobster Fountain. New unseen NFT works are also available.

‘With the rise of the NFT, the digital art movement is now a tidal wave, and so many new ideas are possible,’ said Colbert. ‘Never before has a generation been able to so radically shift artistic possibilities, it’s the perfect storm.’

Viewing Ai Weiwei, Gilded Cage at Blenheim Palace

Above

Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire

Now on long-term display in the gardens (check the website for opening hours)

Now’s your chance to see Ai Weiwei’s controversial Gilded Cage at Blenheim Palace.

Originally conceived for Central Park in New York in 2017, the seven-metre-high installation made from steel fences is now on long-term display in the palace’s plush gardens.

The golden structure, which calls to mind a colossal bird cage, a symbol of freedom curtailed, reflects on the international migrant crisis and the physical and ideological constraints of life as a refugee. To explore the inside of the cage, visitors have to pass through a series of turnstiles.

‘The work itself is a commentary on fences and borders,’ said the Chinese artist and human rights campaigner. ‘As we can see, the world today encounters new possibilities, while being challenged by unthinkable crisis at the same time. To rethink our humanity is crucial for human development.’

In 2014 Ai became the first contemporary artist to exhibit at Blenheim Palace. According to Lord Spencer-Churchill, Founder of Blenheim Art Foundation, the installation is ‘an exciting milestone in our long-term vision of establishing a permanent presence of contemporary art at Blenheim Palace.’