Diary of a London Art Critic: Late October

No post-Frieze lull for 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. After the mania of Frieze Week I was hoping for some downtime, alas lots of museum shows opening in October and trying to catch all the gallery exhibitions that opened over the last few weeks means it’s another bumper edition …

Saturday 12 October

Emily Allchurch and her take on Bruegel’s ‘Hunters in the snow’

My weekend got off to a sweet start sampling a cake artist Liz West has made by working with the chef at the Connaught Patisserie. They aren’t cheap but they taste amazing and resemble her art installations (available until 27 October).

It was the last weekend to catch the art fairs so first I popped into PAD in Berkeley Square (now closed), it’s always a good-looking fair even if the collaboration of art and design isn’t my wheelhouse. The Women in Art Fair had its second year at Mall Galleries (now closed) and it’s much improved from the rather amateurish feel it had in its debut year - it’s a platform for purely women artists and gallerists. There was a strong showing from SLQS gallery with its solo presentation of work by Damaris Athene and Gillian Jason had a strong duo booth of two abstract painters.

Next door to Mall Galleries, ICA has an exhibition of work by Geumhyung Jeong (until 15 December, ticketed). Her fusion of electronic parts and the human skeleton is possibly predicting a future when humans and machines become irrevocably entwined. By scattering them around the exhibition it makes us feel like we’re in a lab of a mad inventor creating a Frankenstein’s monster. It’s eerie and unsettling, and with my Biomedical Science degree, I’m totally here for it.

I finished up in Angel and my first stop was White Conduit Projects - it’s a great gallery space tucked away in Chapel Market and it specialises in Japanese art and artists inspired by Japanese culture. Upstairs is the work of Angolan artist Januario Jano (until 20 October, free) who melds fabrics from his home country with Kimonos from Japan. It’s an interesting concept even if the work is a little slight. While downstairs is the work of Hiro Kiyokawa (until 22 November) who uses the traditional art of Kintsugi to repair vessels using gold.

My final stop was Emily Allchurch at James Freeman Gallery (until 26 October, free), and her digital photo collages need to be seen up close to appreciate how spectacular they are. This series is inspired by Bruegel’s Six Seasons and while she uses contemporary photography her works often have a nod to art history.

I was planning to finish off by re-visiting Frieze London and Masters but felt exhausted and decided to head home at the end of a crazy week (see last week’s diary entry). It also meant I missed two art fairs entirely - Start X and Focus Art Fair, oh well you can’t see them all.

Monday 14 October

With Laura Grinberga at her exhibition

Just two stops on Monday and first up was Laura Grinberga’s exhibition in Notting Hill. I’m always impressed by the resourcefulness of artists finding great spaces and this former residential space has the perfect light for her hanging paintings and fabric works (until 3 November, open Sundays and otherwise by appointment).

Second was the Constable and the Hay Wain exhibition at The National Gallery (until 2 February 2025, free). I grew up with a reproduction of the Hay Wain in my family home and even at that tiny scale it's a stunning piece, even if I hadn’t discovered my love of art back then. Hanging alongside Constable’s other accomplished works, it still stands out as a masterpiece - only his painting of the cenotaph of Joshua Reynolds can compete and that’s another superb work. Even the works by Gainsborough and Stubbs that are part of this exhibition pale in comparison to the dramatic changing clouds and the way our eyes are drawn to follow the path of the Hay Wain in his masterful composition.

After the paywall

• Art that you can sit on

• The British Museum, The Courtauld and The British Library - see what I thought of their major exhibitions

• Galleries I’ve never visited before

• Dozens more exhibitions