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

Doing Summer Exhibition

Summer is here and with it comes a slew of buzzy new shows, among them the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, the world’s largest open submission contemporary art show which has taken place every year since 1769.

Curated by British sculptor Alison Wilding, this year’s exhibition explores the theme of climate. As with previous editions, works by rising stars nestle happily alongside those by established names including Gavin Turk, Rana Begum and Tracey Emin. Many of these are for sale, offering visitors the chance to purchase original artwork by some of the most famous artists working today.

Highlights include the two rooms of prints selected by Grayson Perry, a custom-designed structure made from elephant dung bricks and Marina Tabassum’s Khudi Bari (Tiny House), an elevated shelter for flood refugees made from reclaimed materials. You’ll also encounter works showing wildfires, fallen trees and floods. Not to be missed are the jewel encrusted decaying lemon, Anselm Kiefer’s disaster watercolour Fugit Amor and Perry’s Covid Bell.

Outside in the Royal Academy’s Annenberg Courtyard is a large-scale, immersive installation by the Spanish artist and 2020 Royal Academy Architecture Prize winner, Cristina Iglesias. Designed especially for the courtyard, Humid Labyrinth Room (with Spontaneous Landscape) challenges our perceptions of what is real and what is imagined to dazzling effect.

This is a jam-packed exhibition — there are over 1400 works on display — so take your time and go back if you need. Afterwards, head to nearby Bond Street to see the temporary flag installation by British artist Mali Morris, part of Art in Mayfair, an annual arts festival running alongside the Summer Exhibition which sees the area transformed into a live exhibition through installations, exhibitions and pop-up events.

Viewing The Still Point by Nancy Cadogan

This little exhibition is a revelation. Installed across Gillian Jason Gallery, the UK’s first female focused commercial gallery space, The Still Point comprises an intimate series of works by British figurative painter Nancy Cadogan that celebrate the simplicity and beauty of the ordinary, as well as the often-forgotten joyfulness of solitude.

As you meander around the gallery, you’ll see scenes of everyday life executed in a palette of pinks, bottle greens and midnight blues. There’s the woman writing in a notebook, the woman on the phone in a cafe, and the woman deep in thought. Books feature in many of these paintings, as do everyday objects such as coffee cups, plants and glasses. ‘It’s the idea of the body being still and the mind being completely free,’ says Cadogan.

There is something extremely peaceful about these compelling paintings of domesticity. Suffused with a sense of stillness and solitude, they prompt the viewer to reflect on the here and the there, the then and the now, the real and the fictional. We highly recommend swinging by the gallery to enjoy a rare moment of calm.

Doing Women Artists’ Art Week London

If you haven’t yet heard of Women Artists’ Art Week (WAAW), you soon will. The new London-based initiative is on a mission to advance gender equality in the art world by encouraging galleries and institutions to showcase only female artists for one week.

Taking part in the inaugural edition this June are blue-chip galleries such as Saatchi Yates, Gazelli Art House and Alison Jacques, as well as major cultural institutions, including the Serpentine Galleries, Somerset House and Sarabande Foundation.

The latter presents The Demons Show, which brings together the work of eight artists who explore the role of female/non-binary mythical creatures in relation to gender identity within feminist contexts. Other events for your radar include a breakfast talk at Karnik Gallery on 13th June and a curator’s tour of Cromwell Place on 15th June. What’s not to love?

Share story
Dates
08 June 2022 — 15 June 2022
READ MORE
The Wick - David Bailey, Mary McCartney and Brandei Estes at Claridge's ArtSpace

Happenings 'DOUBLE EXPOSURE: David Bailey & Mary McCartney' at Claridge's ArtSpace

Happenings
The Wick - Courts and Fields 4 ©Ishkar
Objects of Desire

Object Courts and Fields 4 rug, by Christopher Le Brun

Design
The Wick - Doing Women Artists' Art Week London
Dream & Discover

Discover Roy Lichtenstein, Paper Shopping Bag

The Wick - Gianna Dispenza (Puiyee Won)
Spotlight

Feature Gianna Dispenza explores the female sitter

Visual Arts
The Wick - Half-Pint T-Shirt, Script x Charming Baker
Objects of Desire

Fashion Half-Pint T-shirt, Charming Baker x Script collaboration

Design, Fashion, Visual Arts
The Wick - Mika Tajima: Regulation at Simon Lee Gallery

Art D'Ameublement Karake
The Wick List

Viewing Mika Tajima, Regulation at Simon Lee Gallery

Visual Arts