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Viewing The tallest Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin in Kensington Gardens

The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama. © Noriko Takasugi
Above  Yayoi Kusama. © Noriko Takasugi
The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
Above  Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
Above  Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama. © Noriko Takasugi
Above  Yayoi Kusama. © Noriko Takasugi
The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
Above  Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell
Above  Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin, 2024 © YAYOI KUSAMA Courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner Photo: George Darrell

Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin

The Round Pond
Kensington Gardens
9 July – 3 November 2024

Her pumpkins have popped up in parks, galleries and museums all over the world, and are one of Yayoi Kusama’s most popular works – and now London is host to the tallest pumpkin the Japanese artist has made to date, a 6 metre tall beauty that will sit next to the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens until November in all its dazzling glory.

Celebrated for her immersive, hypnotic installations, sculptures and paintings, the kabocha, or pumpkin, has been a motif in Kusama’s works since 1946. They take many forms, colours and shapes, but always appear covered in Kusama’s trademark polka dot pattern. The kabocha harks back to Kusama’s childhood in Japan, and in particular the squash fields that surrounded her family home. Pumpkins can be seen as a kind of stand-in for the artist herself.

But what does Kusama love about pumpkins? They are ubiquitous but unique, hardy yet humorous. “Pumpkins have been a great comfort to me since my childhood”, Kusama has said. “They speak to me of the joy of living. They are humble and amusing at the same time, and I have and always will celebrate them in my art.’
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Dates
09 July 2024 — 03 November 2024

Viewing We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Joy Labinjo at Southwark Park Galleries

The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel
Above  Courtesy of the Artist and Tiwani Contemporary Photography by Deniz Guzel

Joy Labinjo, We Are Briefly Gorgeous

Southwark Park Galleries
6 July – 29 September 2024

British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo has carved a path as a leading contemporary painter with her distinctive portraiture; fusing stylistic notes of Cubism with the 1980s British Black Art movement, Labinjo creates something entirely her own and of the now. Often based on photographs — family, found or archival — Labinjo’s paintings blur collective and personal moments and memories to explore British Blackness, and address the way the portraiture genre has played a role in the politics of power and identity.

Labinjo — an The Wick has featured previously as part of our spotlight series — continues to impress with her latest project, We Are Briefly Gorgeous, her largest institutional undertaking to date, to mark the Southwark Park Galleries 40th anniversary programme. Observing scenes on visits to Southwark Park and around Bermondsey, Labinjo based her new paintings on what she saw and what it evoked in her. They are scenes celebrating the diversity and unity of a community, the easy feeling of being at leisure in the city in the summer.

Labinjo’s work has recently featured at Brixton Underground Station, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Chapter Arts Centre, among others, and is included in a group exhibition at Tiwani Contemporary In the Blood, until September.
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Dates
06 July 2024 — 29 September 2024
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Viewing Christabel Blackburn: Another Day of Sun at Gillian Jason Gallery

The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
The Wick Culture - Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist
Above  Courtesy of Gillian Jason Gallery and the Artist

Christabel Blackburn: Another Day of Sun


Gillian Jason Gallery
2 July – 2 August 2024

Just as the weather falters once again, Blackburn gives us Another Day of Sun — the title of a solo exhibition of new works on view at Gillian Jason Gallery until 2 August. The London-based artist has long been fascinated with California’s sunlight and architecture. To make her latest body of paintings, there was only one thing for it — go and experience it first hand.

Blackburn spent time sketching and photographing fleeting, real-life scenes of people and places in Los Angeles which were then translated onto canvases when the artist returned to her studio in London. The result is a series of sumptuously rendered, minimal and meditative figurative paintings that emanate a sense of vast open space and “the feeling of being bathed in light” as Blackburn puts it.

With a hint of Hockney, and touch of Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Blackburn perfectly captures the environment and energy of the fabled city, but leaves “plenty of space for the viewer to engage with their own narrative”, curator Kate Bryan, Chief Art Director of Soho House, proffers. The quintessence of Californian cool that will brighten the greyest of days.
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Dates
02 July 2024 — 02 August 2024
Further information
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