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Viewing The Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace

Above

Kensington Gardens

 11 June — 17 October 

After a year’s delay, the 20th Serpentine Pavilion is now open in London’s Kensington Gardens. Designed by Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace, led by 30-year-old architect Sumayya Vally, this year’s project is based on ‘past and present places of meeting, organising and belonging across London.’

The striking structure is built of reclaimed steel, cork and timber and features a range of textures and pinky-brown hues that are inspired by the architecture and light of the city.

The youngest architect to be commissioned for the annual showcase, Vally has drawn design inspiration from gathering spaces across the city, including markets, restaurants, places of worship such as Fazl Mosque and bookshops. ‘My practice, and this Pavilion, is centred around amplifying and collaborating with multiple and diverse voices from many different histories,’ she said.

For the first time, the commission extends beyond the leafy surrounds of Hyde Park, as four fragments have been installed in partner organizations across London. (New Beacon Books in Finsbury Park; the Tabernacle in Notting Hill; the Albany arts centre in Deptford; and Valence Library in Barking and Dagenham.)

The Pavilion also plays host to Serpentine’s popular Live Progamme, including Listening to the City, a specially commissioned sound programme featuring work by artists including Ain Bailey and Jay Bernard.

Viewing Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life, The Design Museum

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Design Museum

19 June — 5 September 2021

A pioneer of modernist design, Charlotte Perriand worked across buildings, interiors and furniture — perhaps most notably chairs — and championed the idea that better design could create a better society.

Like many women creatives of the 20th century, however, she was overshadowed by her more famous male collaborators, including Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouvé.

Perriand’s reputation is on the rise again now, though. Her auction prices are soaring, and high-profile museums are showing keen interest in her work. (A hugely popular solo show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2019 drew praise from critics around the world.)

Now she’s the subject of a new retrospective at the Design Museum, her first significant presentation in London for 25 years, which seeks to re-establish her as one of the most important designers of the 20th century.

Featuring sketches, photographs, scrapbooks, prototypes, final pieces and faithful reconstructions of some of her most famous interiors, it sheds light on Perriand’s creative process across a career that spanned most of a century. It also explores her life as a fiercely independent woman, designer, sportswoman and global traveller. In doing so, it puts her legacy under the spotlight once more.

Viewing Citizens of Memory, The Perimeter

The Wick Culture - Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

Above Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

The Wick Culture - Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

Above Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

The Wick Culture - Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

Above Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

The Wick Culture - Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

The Wick Culture - Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Rachel Jones, Lick your teeth, they so clutch, 2021, oil pastel, oil stick on canvas

Above Installation view of Walter Price’s work in ‘Citizens of Memory’ at The Perimeter gallery, London

Above Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Sunset Duet, 2021, watercolour and ink on paper

Above Olivia Sterling, Sweet Violence, 2021, acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

Above Ndidi Emefiele, Sail me down deep river, 2020, mixed media and acrylic on canvas, private collection, London

The Perimeter Gallery

18 May — 24 July 2021

Citizens of Memory is a show of glorious paintings by seven artists exploring memory, nostalgia and the Black experience. All seven artists have drawn on both collective and personal histories to investigate how the past can frame experience, shape artistic practice and form identities. The result is electrifying.

You are confronted by works of outstanding energy and vibrancy, among them Sunset Duet (2021) by British-Nigerian artist Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. Taking inspiration from both his Yoruba heritage and British upbringing, Adeniyi-Jones explores the communicative possibilities of the body and dance to transcend cultural boundaries.

Elsewhere, there’s a moving group portrait by Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai-Violet Hwami; and a new six-panel painting by British artist Olivia Sterling. What at first glance looks like a whimsical work depicting innocuous scenes of home cooking is actually something much steelier. These sugar-coated images serve as a commentary on white privilege, the complex issues of othering and racialised discourse.

Curated by the wonderful Aindrea Emelife, this powerful show packs a punch.