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Viewing Frank Bowling: London/New York, Hauser & Wirth

The Wick Culture - ‘Frank Bowling – London / New York’, Installation view, Hauser & Wirth London, Photo: Alex Delfanne, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Above ‘Frank Bowling – London / New York’, Installation view, Hauser & Wirth London, Photo: Alex Delfanne, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Frank Bowling: London / New York
Hauser & Wirth London & New York 

21 May — 31 July 2021

Frank Bowling is arguably Britain’s greatest living abstractionist. Until recently, however, he was little known outside of art world circles this side of the pond. Happily, his public profile is on the rise (thanks in part to an enormously popular retrospective at Tate Britain in 2019 and a knighthood in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2020). Now he’s the subject of a solo show at Hauser & Wirth in London and New York.

Born in Guyana (then British Guiana) in 1934, Bowling has spent the past 40 years criss-crossing the Atlantic. His first show at the gallery brings together works from across his six-decade career that explore his stylistic shift from figuration and pop art to abstraction as well as the influence of both London and New York on his creative vision. It also celebrates his inventive approach to the materiality of paint — notably his use of thick impasto textures, acrylic gels, and metallic and pearlescent pigments.

May Shimmer (2018) is among many highlights in London: the canvas of muddy-pink tones is flecked with vibrant yellows and greens and drops of pearlescence that make it shimmer. In New York, scope out Polish Rebecca (1971), an immense canvas that was rediscovered in 2013 after around 40 years ‘rolled up and forgotten in a friend’s attic’.

Viewing Art in the Age of Now, Fulham Town Hall

The Wick Culture - Art in the Age of Now, Fulham Town Hall

Above Art in the Age of Now, Fulham Town Hall

Art in the Age of Now
Fulham Town Hall

20 May — 6 June (Closed on Mondays)

On 20 May, Fulham Town Hall opened its doors for the first time in more than a decade to play host to Art in the Age of Now, a free group show featuring sculpture, street art and installation. Curated by Art Below founder Ben Moore, it spans the entirety of the vast space (52,000 square feet in total) and includes work by more than 100 local artists made in lockdown.

Explore street art by the likes of Angry Dan, Lucie Flynn and Luap in the labyrinthine basement and Moore’s recreation of Stonehenge in the great hall. On show in the grandiose ballroom are sculptures by Joe Rush made from salvaged material including F15 bombers and Soviet tanks.

Elsewhere, you’ll see Charlotte Colbert’s striking Mastectomy Mameria, three dedicated spaces dedicated to women in art and works by Conrad Shawcross, Sarah Maple and Gary Mansfield. The Grade II listed building is slated for redevelopment in 2022, so don’t miss this rare opportunity to peruse its hallowed halls.

Viewing The EY Exhibition: The Making of Rodin

Above

Tate Modern, London

17 May — 21 November 2021
Tate Modern, London

This major new exhibition looks at Rodin’s use of clay and plaster, particularly in capturing movement, light and volume. It also spotlights the complex dynamics of the workshop and Rodin’s relationships with his models and collaborators, including his ill-fated lover and fellow sculptor Camille Claudel.

The Making of Rodin takes its cue from the artist’s landmark exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Alma in 1900, where he exhibited his life’s work almost entirely in plaster. Many of the star exhibits of 1900 such as the monumental casts of Balzac (1898) or The Inner Voice (1896) are now on show at Tate Modern. It’s a feast for the eyes.

On display alongside fragmented body parts, including heads, hands, arms, legs and feet, are preparatory models, archival images, a series of delicate watercolours in which he further experimented with bodily forms, and The Kiss (1900-04), the only marble on show.

Displayed together, Rodin’s ghostly casts reveal the extent of his restless, innovative creativity — and, most importantly, his pioneering vision of the human body for a modern age.