Diary of a London Art Critic: A manic May of European art

Warsaw, Riga, London, Provence

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’ve been travelling a lot, so you also get my thoughts on art across the continent.

Warsaw (22-24 May)

Some thoughts from my trip to Warsaw

Facing off with a Pakui Hardware installation at Zacheta in Warsaw

I was invited to Warsaw to write about the OmenaArt exhibition. You can read my full thoughts on FAD, plus a list of the top five museums and exhibitions that will go live on FAD shortly.

While there, I visited the art fair NADA Warsaw, which I enjoyed, mainly because it didn’t feel like one with galleries all getting rooms within a historic villa. The art scene there is growing, and it’s helped by the opening of the spectacular new modern art museum.

It’s tricky to recommend as a tourist destination as the whole town was destroyed during the war, so it was rebuilt with a lot of concrete and is architecturally bland. It’s not much of a walking city, though the cycle lane network is excellent. The upside of globalisation and economic growth is that Uber and Bolt make it easy to get around and credit cards work everywhere in European cities; the downside is that the same usual chains dominate every city.

Tuesday 27 May

As I was only in London for a few days, I crammed a lot into two days before flying off to Riga

With Han Ji Min’s work at JD Malat

My first three stops were exhibitions at St. Bart’s Church, Beers London, and Annely Juda. I won’t dwell on those as they are all in my top five shows to see over London Gallery Weekend, which you can read here. They are all fantastic and you should visit them.

Next door to Annely Juda was a show by Jacob Hashimoto at Ronchini Gallery (until 27 June, free). I’ve always liked his paper assemblages but I think they work better when suspended in the space, rather than wall-mounted as they are here.

JD Malat has two exhibitions. Upstairs is Han Ji Min’s exhibition, which is one of my top five shows. Downstairs is Mate Orr's work (until 9 June, free). While the exhibitions are technically impressive and impactful, the surreal animal vibes didn’t work for me.

Phillipe Parreno has a new exhibition at Pilar Corrias (until 28 June, free). I’ve always liked his previous works, and this one is a live stream of an almond grove so we can see it transform in real time. However, watching the seasons go by in real time is not far off from watching paint dry.

Michaela Yearwood-Dan at Hauser & Wirth (until 2 August, free) is another case of a major gallery pushing a young abstract artist hard to make them into the next big thing. They are nice to look at, but there’s nothing more to them.

Ugo Rondinone at Sadie Coles, Kingly Street (until 2 August, free) features brightly coloured figures in a rainbow-coloured installation filled with mannequins echoing the colour palette. It’s completely immersive, and I loved it. Ignore the press release claiming there’s something more conceptual at work and get lost in the rainbow.

South of the river, there’s an exhibition of Richard Hunt’s sculpture at White Cube, Bermondsey (until 29 June, free). His life story and how it ties into the Civil Rights movement, set out in a timeline as you enter the show, is much more interesting than the rather bland-looking sculptures.

I caught the last few days of Zemba Luzamba at Kristin Hjellegjerde, London Bridge (now closed). He’s a talented figurative painter, and I loved the works of just shoes and colourful socks.

I finished the day with the opening of Claudio Parmiggiani’s exhibition Estorick Collection (until 31 August, ticketed). I’m a massive fan of his bookshelves, which show the outlines of books made from ash - they are compelling and stress the importance of knowledge and education. It was also a chance to get acquainted with his wider portfolio of work, including his sculptural and figurative works.

Below the paywall:

• My thoughts on the V&A storehouse

• A dispatch from Riga

• Lots of London exhibitions

• Plans for Provence