Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.


All, Art, Auctions, Exhibitions, Travel & Hospitality, Initiatives

Viewing Chris Levine creates a multi-sensory submarine world in the centre of London

Renowned artist Chris Levine – known for his experimental lightworks including a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II – unveils an enthralling new work, made in collaboration with the Convex Seascape Survey, delving deep underwater to explore and understand better the role the ‘Benthic Zone’ – the lowest ecological zone in a body of water – plays in our oceans.

Conceived to coincide with World Ocean Day earlier this month, the work examines “the crucial role of the ocean in understanding climate behaviour and marine biodiversity is often overlooked”, says artist Chris Levine. After a research visit to the labs of the Convex Seascape Survey project at the University of Exeter, and Southhampton’s National Oceanography Centre, where Levine learned more about the Benthic Zone, “I knew the work had to encourage humankind to let the ocean rest. Let it be.”

7.83 Hertz, curated by Nico Kos Earle, harnesses various laser technologies, sound, images and light to immerse visitors’ senses in “the continuous work of the ocean, but it encourages you to slow down and celebrate its ability to protect us now and in generations to come.” The title of the work refers to the frequency also known as the Schumann Resonance, often referred to as the heartbeat of the Earth – Levine’s artwork hopes to illuminate how all natural living processes, including the ocean, are connected.

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Dates
10 June 2024 — 04 July 2024

Viewing Vivienne Westwood’s spectacular personal wardrobe at Christie’s

She remains one of the UK’s most mythologised fashion designers – who wouldn’t want a peek at what was in the late Dame Vivienne Westwood’s wardrobe?

Vivienne Westwood: The Personal Collection at Christie’s London includes some of the most important iconic looks that she created and wore during the last four decades of her life (Westwood passed away in 2022, age 81). The wardrobe contains garments, shoes and jewellery all made by Dame Vivienne Westwood’s eponymously named fashion house, and ranges from an early piece from the autumn/winter 1983/4 Witches collection up to signed cards from the 2017 pack of playing cards Dame Vivienne designed.

Westwood of course was as well known for her designs as for her activism and advocacy for urgent global issues like climate change. A live auction on 25 June will see the exhibits go under the hammer, raising money for causes Dame Vivienne supported throughout her life, with proceeds donated to The Vivienne Foundation, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières and Greenpeace.

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Dates
14 June 2024 — 28 June 2024

Viewing The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition’s dazzling array of more than 1200 artworks

The Summer Exhibition is a unique event: every Royal Academicians sift through thousands of entries to select 1,200 works for display in a mammoth and meandering show, where hierarchies between famous and anonymous are dissolved. And all the works are for sale, too – from as little as £250.

An unbroken annual tradition since 1769, the Summer Exhibition takes a loose theme and is led by an RA coordinator – Ann Christopher for 2024 – alongside a committee of RA artists and architects, this year including Cornelia Parker, Veronica Ryan, Assemble, and Hurvin Anderson. The theme for this year is ‘making space’, taken literally in some cases, and moving into the metaphorical for others.

The Summer Exhibition always provokes the critics but it is a much loved tradition, and anticipated moment for many gallery goers, the chance to truly see everything people are making art about, not only those educated in institutions like the RA itself. A welcome break from the curatorial preciousness of most programming, whether you love it or loathe it, there is always something interesting on show and the potential to discover something new, too. Long may it continue!

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Dates
18 June 2024 — 18 August 2024
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