Art of the possible: the best of the free London Gallery Weekend
From Chris Ofili’s latest paintings to some seriously hardcore sculpture, the capital’s finest galleries have united to offer a public art extravaganza:
Chris Ofili at Victoria Miro
The Seven Deadly Sins is a major new series of paintings by Chris Ofili. Completed over the past six years, the works offer a meditation on sin and the complex experience of sinfulness. The artist intended each painting not to cleave to a particular sin, but to encompass a spectrum of excessive and transgressive behaviours. Moving through dreamlike realms at once paradisiacal, other-worldly and cosmic, these works depict scenes where humans and mythological creatures coexist. Chris Ofili: The Seven Deadly Sins is at Victoria Miro, 2 June–29 July
Hardcore at Sadie Coles
Hardcore is a group show including works by Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Andra Ursuța and more. Hardcore is at Sadie Coles HQ until 5 August
Jacqueline Humphries at Modern Art
Absorbing the shock tactics engaged by eco-activists, Humphries’ latest works are repeatedly inscribed with motifs of vandalism, with paint apparently flung onto their surfaces as though to disfigure the artwork beneath. Yet Humphries is not simply simulating these marks of defacement – namely pea soup or black liquid splattered across masterpieces in museums. Instead her canvases seem to propose a curiosity about how we may consider these disruptive marks as active agents themselves. Jacqueline Humphries is at Modern Art, 3 June–22 July
Isamu Noguchi at White Cube
This Earth, This Passage is an exhibition reflecting on the artist’s engagement with material, performance and place, spanning works from the 1920s to 80s. Over a period of three decades, Noguchi created more than 20 stage sets for the choreographer Martha Graham (1894–1991). Further works in a variety of materials – bronze, hot-dipped galvanised steel, basalt and granite – attest to the interdisciplinary nature of Noguchi’s practice. Isamu Noguchi: This Earth, This Passage is at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 1 July
Jane Dickson at Alison Jacques
Fist of Fury is Jane Dickson’s first exhibition in London in more than 20 years. The exhibition includes recent paintings from her acclaimed Times Square series, with a focus on signage from cinemas, adult entertainment establishments, hotels, liquor stores and other late-night businesses. These paintings and drawings evoke the nocturnal world of Times Square in the 1970s and 80s. Jane Dickson: Fist of Fury is at Alison Jacques until 24 June
Maisie Cousins at TJ Boulting
Walking Back To Happiness is a combination of Maisie Cousins’ close-up and visceral photography with a new venture in AI and installation that delves into the artist’s obsessive search for reliving childhood memories. Cousins is known for her sensual imagery that often repels as much as it attracts, with a riot of the bodily, flowers, insects, food and rubbish all seen in a cacophony of bright colours and often oozing textures. Maisie Cousins: Walking Back To Happiness is at TJ Boulting until 17 June
Amanda Moström at Rose Easton
Amanda Moström was born in Umeå, Sweden in 1991 and now lives and works in London. She received her BA from City and Guilds, London in 2016. Amanda Moström: itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog is at Rose Easton until 10 June
Cary Kwok at Herald St
This show features a suite of acrylic and ink paintings encased in artist’s frames, which present quiet moments suffused with tenderness. Still lifes of domestic items, portraits of gazing men and sublime landscapes are rendered in a soft, dreamlike realism, continuing imagined, cinematic narratives which have pervaded Kwok’s practice. A functional light switch by the artist mimics vintage Bakelite styles, its phallic toggle continuing the humour and eroticism of his earlier work. This image is Charm, 2023. Cary Kwok is at Herald St’s Museum St premises until 15 July
Alfredo Jaar at Cecilia Brunson Projects
Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar’s 50 Years Later marks the time passed since General Augusto Pinochet’s coup over President Salvador Allende’s democratic government, on 11 September 1973. It is against the backdrop of this, one of the harshest military dictatorships in the southern hemisphere, that Jaar produced some of his most poignant work. Alfredo Jaar: 50 Years Later is at Cecilia Brunson Projects until 4 June
Tom Allen at The Approach
There is a long tradition in landscape painting of depicting views at different times of the day, to explore how atmospheric changes alter what we see. In The Hour, an exhibition of six new flower paintings (all 2023), Tom Allen focuses on a single 60-minute stretch: the period of transition when the sun gradually begins to fall, day edging into night. As the light shifts, subtleties of tone are continuously revealed, as if by sorcery – no wonder it’s sometimes called the ‘magic hour’. Tom Allen: The Hour is at The Approach, 2 June–1 July
To Bend the Ear of the Outer World at Gagosian
This group show includes work by Frank Bowling, Gerhard Richter, Mark Bradford, Stanley Whitney and more. Here is Jadé Fadojutimi’s And willingly imprinting the memory of my mistakes, 2023. It examines the significance of abstract painting today. To Bend the Ear of the Outer World is at Gagosian until 25 August
