Alex Margo Arden

My route for London Gallery Weekend begins at Vardaxoglou in Soho where they are presenting a solo exhibition of works by Thérèse Oulton, whose shattered landscape abstractions, for me, capture a volatile combination of rock formations and tempests. 

After this, I suggest continuing through Soho and towards Regent St to Sprovieri for Gregor Schneider’s Rheydt NOW centred on the artist’s Gesamtkunstwerk Haus u r (1985–present) furthering his exploration of psychologically charged environments, but this time using livestreaming. I’m intrigued. 

Next stop, my always-must-see gallery in London, Sadie Coles HQ (Savile Row), where a five-chapter film, This Weather, by Helen Marten is presented. Marten’s new film explores symbolic stages of life stretching from youth to old age, with emotionally charged female monologues. On the parallel road, head into Alison Jacques to see surrealist Eileen Agar’s solo exhibition. Her instinctive, tactile works will be a delight to see, unfolding in bursts of colour, texture and layered forms that always exceed any quick reading. 

Then it’s time to go to another favourite, Sprüth Magers, who will be presenting works by Anne Imhof. Her 2022 solo at the gallery transformed the space into a locker room, punctuated by large-scale paintings, drawings, film and sound. I’m excited to see what she conjures up this time. Follow this with The Fountain Overflows at GRIMM, curated by Yates Norton, with works by an incredible line-up of artists including Rebecca Ackroyd, Ebun Sodipo, Emmanuel Awuni, Divine Southgate-Smith, and Adam Farah-Saad. Across the road, Thomas Dane is showing paintings by Prunella Clough from the 1980s-1990s, curated by Jenni Lomax, which are sure to offer some material sensitivity and quiet abstraction, as well as a moment of reflection.