CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERIES - 7TH FEBRUARY
Accompanied by our guide and art consultant, Jolanda Chandler, with visited no less than eight galleries in record breaking time.
We began at Annely Juda Fine Arts, where the most recent works by David Hockney, now 88, were on display. From iPad moonscapes to paintings fresh from the studio - the oil still seeming almost tangible – the exhibition offered a vivid sense of immediacy and continued experimentation.
Our next stop Dirimart, presented a beautifully curated exhibition bringing together two exceptional artists: Seçkin Pirim, a Turkish artist based partly in London, and Berlin-based Jorinde Voigt. Though both work abstractly, their distinct visual languages subtly echo and respond to one another.
We continued to the Gillian Jason Gallery, nowrun by Gillian Jason’s granddaughter, which champions women artists. The current exhibition features Raine Storey’s fresco-like works on fibreglass, combining delicacy with material strength.
At Edel Assanti, we encountered works by Thornton Dial, one of the most significant figures in outsider art, whose powerful work has been widely collected, including by Jane Fonda.
Just a few minutes’ walk away, Niru Ratnam offered a compelling dual presentation: a painter exhibited alongside an artist working with still photography drawn from everyday life, the work oscillating between poetic introspection and the fleeting beauty of fireworks.
We then visited Rhodes Contemporary Art, where a new exhibition features Jihye Park, a Korean artist based in Germany. Her richly layered landscapes merge imagined and remembered terrains of Asia and Europe, shown alongside anthropomorphic portraits by Stuart Swan.
Our penultimate stop was Maximillian William. The expertly curated exhibition Listening to Objects reveals its full depth through close engagement, uncovering the layered meanings embedded within the works.
We concluded at Josh Lilley, where thought-provoking portraits by Jacob Fenton, explore contemporary ideas around conspiracy, belief systems, and perception.
Some of us stayed on for lunch, enjoying home-made food at a nearby bakery, deli, café – a fitting close to an inspiring day of looking and conversation.
WINTER LIGHTS - 29TH JANUARY
On a cold but dry January evening a small group of us met up at Cafe Brera ahead of a visit to the Winter Lights Festival at Canary Wharf. This annual event began in 2015 featuring just six small-scale installations. It is now in its 10th year having in the past exhibited 160 installations from visionary artists from across the world. To mark its 10th anniversary the festival this year embodies the theme DREAMSCAPE and over 11 evenings a number of temporary light artworks and sculptures will be dotted among the docks and skyscrapers, forming a free art trail!
Once we had our maps we began our tour following a well labelled route. It was almost like a treasure hunt and we were able to find all the installations with just one false turn! The light installations featured artists from all over the world and created an amazing sense of whimsy and escapism. It was lovely to see the crowds around us enjoying the spectacle too.
There were a number of interactive displays including Lacto-Reacto-Light by Jack Wimperis consisting of recycled plastic milk bottles housed in a metal mesh cage. A central sensor detected audience movement which was processed to animate the display in real time. In Bloom is inspired by flower pollination and was a sculpture of ten luminous spheres which on touch triggered a musical note, echoing the dance of pollinators moving from bloom to bloom. It encourages a collaborative approach to music-making, offering visitors an opportunity to explore rhythm and melody together. At the Hand by Lacroix was a wonderful interactive volumetric light sculpture that turned our hand movements into a digital presence. Taking control of the digital hand was almost a symbolic act, a moment of reflection to consider how we share attention, power and agency with technology.
Other firm favorites were the FLOWER POWER aero sculpture, which exploited the optical illusion 'persistence of vision', a phenomenon where the human eye continues to briefly see an image after it has disappeared from view. The attempts to capture on film what we were seeing failed time after time! Sol was an wonderful glimpse of our solar system, nestled in the flower beds and suspended above the treetops of the Crossrail Place Roof Garden. Manifestation, an audio-visual composition played out across a 12m arc inspired by Victorian Britain's fascination with spiritualism and magic and Hulahoop which combined kineticism, light and sound to produce a poetic installation, both had us enchanted!
The finale, Amplitudes was absolutely breathtaking! A large-scale water-screen projection exploring the diverse nature of waveforms which used airborne water particles and created a shimmering holographic effect which drew the crowds. A most fitting end to a delightful evening's jaunt through Canary Wharf.
We finished the fun evening with a visit to Brothers Marcus for an eastern Mediterranean supper before taking the Jubilee line train for home. What a colourful and captivating evening!
PRINCESS OF WALES'S WALK - 17TH JANUARY
We were blessed with a sunny, cool day for our first walk of the season. Six of us met at Hyde Park Corner and set off to follow part of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial walk.
The markers are designed to guide visitors along a route that connects famous locations associated with the Princess's life. We focused on Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, following the plaques in the ground, each featuring an etched aluminium, heraldic rose emblem in the centre. Highlights of our walk were the Peter Doig exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, the Albert Memorial, Peter Pan statue, the water flowing in so many different ways in Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, and Kensington Palace and gardens. We followed the Serpentine and the Long Water. At Kensington Gardens one of our members guided us to some of best places to visit. We had a wonderful time in beautiful surroundings.