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Viewing Silk Roads at The British Museum

The Wick Culture - ‘The Franks Casket' ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above ‘The Franks Casket’ ©The Trustees of the British Museum

The Wick Culture - Ceramic figure of a camel ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Ceramic figure of a camel ©The Trustees of the British Museum

The Wick Culture - Ceramic figure of a lute player © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Above Ceramic figure of a lute player © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The Wick Culture - Gold Shoulder Clasp ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Gold Shoulder Clasp ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above ‘The Franks Casket’ ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Ceramic figure of a camel ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Above Ceramic figure of a lute player © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Above Gold Shoulder Clasp ©The Trustees of the British Museum

Silk Roads

The British Museum
26 September 2024 – 23 February 2025

The Silk Roads hold a particular place in the collective imaginary – calling to mind the trading of luxurious fabrics and rare spaces. This exhibition at The British Museum tries to get past the stereotypical and exoticised view of the Silk Roads and get a bigger picture of the impact of these overlapping networks of global trade routes that linked communities all over Asia, African and Europe.

The Silk Roads’ history is vast and stretches over millennia, but this exhibition focuses on the period between AD 500 to 1000, a definitive moment during which the rise of universal religions made connections across continents more powerful. Highlights of the display – which includes objects on loan from 29 different national and international partners – include pieces from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan shown in the UK for the first time and giving a startling new perspective on the role of Central Asia in the Silk Road story.

Viewing Yayoi Kusama: EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE at Victoria Miro

The Wick Culture - Portrait of Yayoi Kusama
Photo by Yusuke Miyazaki
Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner

Above Portrait of Yayoi Kusama Photo by Yusuke Miyazaki Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner

The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama, Every Day I Pray for Love, 2022
Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Yayoi Kusama, Every Day I Pray for Love, 2022 Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room - Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart, 2024
Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room – Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart, 2024 Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

The Wick Culture - Yayoi Kusama_ EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE
All works courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Yayoi Kusama_ EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE All works courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Portrait of Yayoi Kusama Photo by Yusuke Miyazaki Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner

Above Yayoi Kusama, Every Day I Pray for Love, 2022 Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirrored Room – Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart, 2024 Courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Above Yayoi Kusama_ EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE All works courtesy the artist, Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro

Yayoi Kusama: EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE

Victoria Miro
25 September–2 November 2024

Head over to Victoria Miro’s Wharf Road gallery in London for Yayoi Kusama’s latest hallucinatory spectacle: including an unmissable, dazzling all new Infinity Mirrored Room, pulsating and filled with light. Infinity Mirrored Room – Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart features a ceiling of coloured flashing LED lights arranged in a concentric pattern whose reflections produce an infinite honeycomb.

The artist’s 14th exhibition at Victoria Miro, titled EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE, also includes three new surreal bronze sculptures of female figures, on show in the garden, and two colourful, tendril-like stuffed textile installations, Death of Nerves (2022), originally commissioned for Kusama’s retrospective at M+ Hong Kong in 2022, and a new work, The Moment of Regeneration, (2024) fill the inside space. There’s also a showcase of the latest additions to Kusama’s ongoing recent series, Every Day I Pray for Love, started in 2021, displayed in a dynamic configuration in the upper gallery, deeply expressive abstract explorations of the possibilities of line and colour.

Entry is free – but booking is essential. As tickets are currently fully booked, check the booking page on Mondays at 12 noon, when more tickets will be released.

Viewing The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 – 1998 at Barbican Art Gallery

The Wick Culture - Gulammohammed Sheikh, Speechless City, 1975 © 2024 Gulammoham

The Wick Culture - M. F. Husain, Safdar Hashmi, 1989 Courtesy of Emami Group of Companies

Above M. F. Husain, Safdar Hashmi, 1989 Courtesy of Emami Group of Companies

The Wick Culture - Vivan Sundaram, House, 1994, from the series Shelter, 1994-99
Photo by Gireesh G.V.
Photo courtesy The Estate of Vivan Sundaram

Above Vivan Sundaram, House, 1994, from the series Shelter, 1994-99 Photo by Gireesh G.V. Photo courtesy The Estate of Vivan Sundaram

The Wick Culture - C. K. Rajan, Mild Terrors-II, 1991–96
Courtesy the artist and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

Above C. K. Rajan, Mild Terrors-II, 1991–96 Courtesy the artist and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

Above M. F. Husain, Safdar Hashmi, 1989 Courtesy of Emami Group of Companies

Above Vivan Sundaram, House, 1994, from the series Shelter, 1994-99 Photo by Gireesh G.V. Photo courtesy The Estate of Vivan Sundaram

Above C. K. Rajan, Mild Terrors-II, 1991–96 Courtesy the artist and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi

The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975 – 1998

Barbican Art Gallery
Sat 5 Oct 2024—Sun 5 Jan 2025

This highly anticipated, first-of-its-kind exhibition opens to the public this week at the Barbican Art Gallery: a major exploration through the work of thirty Indian artists of a tumultuous period in India’s history, beginning with Ghandi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and ending in 1998, the year of the Pokhran nuclear tests.

The exhibition takes these two major, transformative events as ‘bookends’ to dive into the artwork that was produced as India experienced huge social upheaval, economic collapse and rapid and prolific urbanisation nationwide. What the art reveals is how, despite hardships and politic shifts, ordinary life must go on, and creativity remains alive, and a positive force and response. Dancing through a range of mediums, the works convey a shared urgency for expressing all the gamut of human emotions.

Many of the works displayed have never been seen in the UK before, and also includes influential figures such as Jyoti Bhatt, the modernist painter, and M.F. Husain, one of the most important Indian artists of the 20th century. On the eve of Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas, on 26 and 27 October respectively, entry to the exhibition is free. Don’t miss the Barbican’s widely-celebrated Darbar Festival of Indian classical music (24 – 27 October) too.