Diary of a London Art Critic: September

Vincent Van Gogh, Tracey Emin, London Design Festival and so much more

In this post, I summarise every exhibition I’ve seen over the last few weeks, not just those I write about in other publications, and you get my honest thoughts on them. I’m still recovering from the third week of September, when it felt like the art world went from zero to 100 in a week — as you can see from this lengthy post…

Saturday 7 September

With Yeside Linney and her work, one of the shortlisted artists for the ArtGemini prize.

In early September some galleries host a group exhibition of artists before they gear up for the big shows planned for late September / early October. This is a chance to throw in some emerging artists and see how their audiences (read: art collectors) respond to artists the gallery may want to reward with a solo exhibition. Often they try and wrap them around a loose theme so it doesn’t feel like a bunch of works thrown together.

I saw a mix of shows around St. James’s and Mayfair, and while nothing felt compelling enough for me to review them it was a mix of the good and bad, and bizarrely a lot of flower paintings.

I also found a few galleries to be closed, it made me wonder whether they were still running summer hours — many galleries open reduced days during August, usually not bothering with Saturday.

My first stop was Donna Huddleston at White Cube, Mason’s Yard (until 28 September, free) whose figurative drawings are technically skilled but rather bland. One interesting piece has a girl holding a branch that a bat balances on. There’s scope for something deeper here but it’s never reached that for me.

Modern Art nearby had one of the group shows I’ve mentioned above — called Phantom Hymn (now closed). Michael Ho’s paintings were impressive and the taxidermy ducks stuck to a sofa and stones jiggling in glass bottles by Michael E Smith were fun, even if there wasn’t a coherent thread tying the works of the artists together. Modern Art, in collaboration with Encounter, also has a sculpture by Eva Rothschild in the nearby Smithson Plaza (free to visit) but it felt too decorative to leave a lasting impression.

Sadie Coles is next door to Modern Art and is showing flower paintings by Don Brown (until 28 September, free) that felt quite underpowered. Sadie Coles has three spaces near each other with this one on Bury Street being the smallest — Davies Street is medium sized and Kingly Street is massive.

More floral paintings at Galerie Max Hetzler, this time by Grace Weaver (until 28 September, free). These are much bigger and bolder works than the previous gallery, but once again I got little from them, other than being nice to look at.

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has an impressive collection of seven painters for its Embodied Forms: Painting Now exhibition (until 28 September, free). I was particularly drawn to Dean Fox’s takes on Impressionist paintings, Michael Ho’s hyperreal forest scene and the energetic figures in the works of Eva Helene Pade and YaYa Yajie Liang. The gallery also had great works by Zadie Xa in the front room but this isn’t listed on their website so I don’t think it’s part of the wider exhibition.

Back to nature again with the paintings of Victoria Crowe at Flowers Gallery (until 5 October, free). While technically very accomplished they felt like a throwback to the painting style of previous decades and lacked the more contemporary edge I was looking for.

My Mayfair rounds ended at the Frieze Galleries on Cork Street hosting three exhibitions (until 21 September, free). I came to see the work of Teresita Fernandez and while the ceramic works made of thousands of small tiles are stunning, I didn’t get enough from the rest of the show to win me over. The two other exhibitions of Jinhee Kim and Leyly Matine-Daftary’s paintings didn’t resonate with me.

My final stop of the day was at the London Lighthouse Gallery for the ArtGemini prize exhibition (now closed). I was a judge for the prize and it was great to be at the Meet the Artist event, both to meet many new artists and re-connect with those I already know; it’s one of the nicest parts of my job to meet artists in this context, with their work being celebrated.

Below the paywall:

• My thoughts on The National Gallery’s Van Gogh blockbuster

• Highlights from London Design Festival

• The Migration Museum’s greatest hits

• Dozens of exhibitions honestly reviewed