Diary of a London Art Critic: Late August

Anish Kapoor to Grayson Perry, Liverpool to London

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.

Friday 9 August

Tiny me lost in Bobcat’s new giant gallery space

The day my previous newsletter went out I paid a visit to Bobcat Gallery’s new pop-up in Putney Exchange shopping centre (until December, free). It’s a giant space, which used to be a Job Centre, and the gallery has managed to fill the space with art - including lots of affordable pieces (they range from £100-£2,000), with some by artists I already own work by.

The works will change every month and they also have a monthly meet the artists evening so I was back on Thursday to say hi to some artists I know and others whose work I’m familiar with, but have never met. The next one is on 19 September, 5.30-7.30 pm and it’s free to pop in.

I ventured further into town to see Frameless (permanent, ticketed), the immersive art experience near Marble Arch where artworks are projected onto the walls around you and animated so it feels like you’re inside the work. They have some new works so we get a raging volcano, ride the waves on Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and get drowned by Hokusai’s Great Wave (not literally).

I like to go into these things with an open mind and the technology is impressive. The people I saw there aren’t the usual art crowd and were loving it. Every immersive art experience has critics lining up to pooh-pooh it, but I have to give some props to it.

Below the paywall:

• Cooling off in caves

• My thoughts on the latest immersive art museum

• A day out in Liverpool’s art scene

• Art and mental health