Diary of a London Art Critic: August / September

Puppets, twine and bit of magic-al realism

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. September marks the start of a new season of exhibitions after the August lull, so they’ll be coming thick and fast from now until November.

Saturday 24 August

My day started at the Sarabande Foundation in Haggerston, East London. If you’ve not come across it, it was set up by the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen and gives studios and professional advice to creatives across the wider arts. It’s had some fab people come through its doors and their current crop of artists was showing in the group show ‘A place’ (ending 6 September, free).

I love Darcey Fleming’s immersive room (above with the artist), made from different colours and types of baling twine she sources from the countryside. Electric Adam performs inside a latex chamber slowly removing the air from within, George Richardson creates etchings of his unpaid bills on aluminium and Layman Lachine’s smaller works are hidden in the space. It’s a diverse mix of talented artists.

This was followed by a 20-minute trek in the pouring rain to Guts Gallery for its show Buffer 3 (now closed) - proof that I go see art come rain or shine. It was an interesting mix of artists including the work of KV Duong on resin and latex, who I’ve mentioned in the diary entries before, even if I couldn’t discern what thread pulled these artists together.

Over at Shoreditch Modern there was an anatomical exhibition called Visceral Beauty (now closed) that caught my eye given I graduated as a Biomedical Scientist and spent a lot of time dissecting dead bodies. I loved Geoffrey Harrison’s painting of a pair of symmetrical hearts and Annelies Slabbynck’s mirror surrounded by many teeth evokes a strong reaction.

Then a slightly inebriated punter walked in and started passionately opining about how this isn’t art as it doesn’t have anything to say. He ran out of steam eventually and the gallerist confirmed that’s not particularly abnormal and part of running a gallery. I suppose that’s part of making art accessible and I feel there could easily be a book on the weird experiences gallerists have had with members of the public.

My final East London stop was Looking Out / Looking In, a show of paintings by Mark Jackson at Espacio Gallery (now closed). They were rather lovely semi-abstract works even if they didn’t leave too much of a lasting impression on me.

Monday 26 August

After visiting Reigate Caves in my previous diary entry, I decided to go even bigger and visit Chislehurst Caves in Bromley (ticketed). It’s immense and once again it’s by guided tour only, as you could easily get lost down there, and our guide was fantastic. It was hot on the surface and so chilly down there that I could see my breath - a great choice if you want to cool off on a hot day.

It had been on my list to visit for years, and I took advantage of a bank holiday to head down there with friends and ended up wondering why I’d left it so long.

Below the paywall:

• Painting with puppets

• Gigantic magical paintings

• An exhibition so good I went twice

• Some of the best figurative paintings I’ve seen