London Gallery Weekend: the highlights of London’s biggest art weekend
Galleries across London join forces for one of the biggest art events of its kind in the world
London Gallery Weekend is here, a free, jam-packed three-day event where London’s galleries open their doors for extended hours, put on a range of exciting shows, host special events and talks, and run family workshops.
The event grew out of pandemic, during a time when London’s commercial galleries worked together in an unprecedented way. Now the weekend, which launches today, has become a staple of London’s art calendar.
Here’s our pick of the exhibitions not to miss.
Central
Callum Innes
A collection of Edinburgh-born artist Callum Innes’ signature Exposed Paintings will be on show along with a selection of brand-new works. The artist often presents work as a series, so that each piece builds upon the next, and feeds into each other. Here, his oil paintings, which seem both solid and permeable, provoke questions around presence and absence by using sections of solid black shapes alongside watery coloured shapes. Frith Street Gallery; to July 1
To Bend the Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting
This giant group exhibition will bring together over forty new and recent works from artists from the Americas, the UK, and Germany. Guest curated by prominent American art historian Gary Garrels, the exhibition will stretch across both of the Gagosian’s London showrooms, which are a two-minute walk from each other. Expect an exploration of abstract painting, and what that means to Garrels, with work from artists including Tomma Abts, Tauba Auerbach, Cecily Brown, Richard Hoblock, Gerhard Richter, Pat Steir, Christopher Wool, and John Zurier. Gagosian Davies St and Grosvenor Hill; to August 25
Thomas Struth
In this fascinating exhibition, German photographer Thomas Struth presents photos of CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and one of the world’s leading scientific research centres. The photographs form part of his Nature and Politics project, and are being shown here in the UK for the first time. The mind-blowing images of the extraordinary research site look hyper-unreal as Struth’s lens seems to draw out colours and shapes from the manmade structures, coloured wires, metal surfaces, computers and retired machines. Galerie Max Hetzler; to July 29
Charles Avery: The Nothing of the Day
Since 2004, Scottish artist Charles Avery has become known for his lively drawings sprouting from the idea of a parallel realm, The Island, a fictional alternative to life on Earth. Some things are similar – humans, for example, look like humans – while some things, like giant eels, are not.
His work is steeped in philosophy – every text, drawing, installation and sculpture made for or about The Island has been done so on purpose, to provoke ideas, pose solutions or ask questions. But they also work as stand-alone, colourful, beautiful pieces of art. Expect iridescent eels and images of dancers, rebels and terrorists. GRIMM; to July 8
Frank Auerbach: Twenty Self-Portraits
This exhibition of one of the very last of the School of London set is all there in the name. Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert presents a series of self-portraits – nine of which are paintings, and 11 of which are works on paper – by the 92-year-old German-British painter.
Auerbach is better known for his landscapes of North London and portraits of others, making this selection rare indeed. The exhibition will also be the first time that new works from Auerbach are being exhibited since 2015. Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert; to July 14
Matter As Actor
This group exhibition features artists whose work somehow embodies the changeable form of matter – be that presented as clay, rock, pigment, plastic, metal or another kind of substance. The work provokes questions about matter in relation to, and in reaction to, both humans and the wider world. The show includes work from Allora & Calzadilla, Dana Awartani, Richard Long, Otobong Nkanga, Yelena Popova and more, and spans both the Lisson Galleries, which are a two-minute walk from each other. Lisson Gallery Bell St and Lisson St; to June 24
Pop-ups: ONE AND J. Gallery, Vadehra Art Gallery
Frieze No.9 Cork Street is a space for other galleries to come and set up shop for limited periods. The summer incumbents are Seoul-based ONE AND J. Gallery, and New Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery.
ONE AND J. presents Dongwook Suh, Ahnnlee Lee, and Yoonhee Choi: Acquainted with the Night, where three Korean artists explore the human experience of the night through their various artistic practices; while Vadehra presents Arpita Singh: Meeting. In Post-Modernist Singh’s solo exhibition, expect canvases, watercolours and drawings playing with the idea of “cartographical autobiographies” – imagined people and places, made to seem like they’re in motion. No.9 Cork Street; to June 17
Lee Ufan and Claude Viallat: Encounter
Both born in 1936, Lee Ufan and Claude Viallat have dedicated nearly seven decades to their practices and founded major artistic movements: Mono-ha in Japan and Supports/Surfaces in France, respectively. This show brings together these two giants of abstraction, and their shared interest in materials, time and non-traditional art-making. Pace Gallery; to July 29
Florence Peake: Enactment
New installations, sculptures, canvases, and works on paper that continue multi-disciplinary artist Florence Peake’s research into the possibilities of painting, and complements her major solo exhibition at Southwark Park Galleries, running to July 2. Her exhilarating work, which includes striking immersive performances, is rooted in the body and at once sensual and witty, political, and intimate. Richard Saltoun Gallery; to July 8
Hardcore
This group show is all about sex, as you may have gathered from the title. The power dynamics of sex, the diverse nature of intimacy, and our reaction to it. In the cancel culture era, these artists unapologetically test the parameters of the human experience, provoke reaction, thought and important discussion around essential human questions. Featuring the likes of Carolee Schneemann, Joan Semmel, Cindy Sherman, Monica Bonvicini, Maryam Hoseini, Tishan Hsu and more. Sadie Coles HQ Kingly St; to August 5
Olivier Debré
A seminal figure within European lyrical abstraction, Olivier Debré came to describe his work as “fervent abstraction”; his vivid colour fields painted to express emotions inspired by natural phenomena and the outside world. This show brings together a gorgeous selection of paintings from his estate. Simon Lee; to August 4
Alchemy
Alchemy brings together works from major European and American artists including Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, Robert Rauschenberg, Sturtevant, Emilio Vedova and Andy Warhol. The works all relate to the exhibition’s theme of alchemy – the idea of transforming materials and how this process has become an important component of artmaking.
The gallery is also presenting the first solo exhibition of photographer Bob Colacello, who worked alongside Andy Warhol for a decade as editor of the artist’s Interview magazine. Titled It Just Happened, the show, which has been curated by Spanish publisher and art curator Elena Foster and her Ivorypress team, is a collection of Colacello’s photos from the Seventies and Eighties. Thaddaeus Ropac; to July 29
Southern Somebodies
Southern Somebodies is a curated response to the Royal Academy’s exhibition Souls Grown Deep like the Rivers, which presents the work of Black artists from the American South. Southern Somebodies features work from a dozen Black Artists from the same part of the world, including Leroy Almon, Hawkins Bolden, Freddie Brice, Richard Burnside, David Butler, and William Dawson, all of whom have not been formally trained, and whose practice instead draws on generations of self-taught art tradition. The Gallery of Everything; to July 30
Caragh Thuring: The Foothills of Pleasure
Thuring’s first career survey was presented at Hastings Contemporary earlier this year. The Foothills of Pleasure follows on from this major exhibition, presenting a selection of new large-scale paintings as well as a series of portraits of people throughout history who share Thuring’s interest in volcanoes.
Thuring grew up near Holy Loch, which was the location of a US submarine base for thirty years and a construction site for North Sea oil rigs. The artist has long been inspired by her early life in the area; a large number of her works have depicted submarines, cranes and docksides, and often deal with topics such as industry and industrial action.
While at the gallery, Broken, the solo exhibition of Brazilian artist Alexandre da Cunha, is also running until July 15. The new sculptures and works on paper explore themes around redundancy, fragmentation and disrepair, and how these states of undoing can in fact be seen as productive forces. Thomas Dane Gallery; to July 15
Sahara Longe: New Shapes
Sahara Longe’s first solo exhibition in the UK presents a bold, colourful new body of work, depicting highly stylised scenes inspired by Longe’s everyday life – people walking down the street, people standing outside Brixton station, people in office buildings. In September, Longe will be showing her work at Frieze Seoul. Timothy Taylor; to July 8
Maisie Cousins: Walking Back To Happiness
Maisie Cousins’s second show at TJ Boulting explores childhood, the subconscious and lost memories through both the vivid, close up photographs that have become the artist’s signature, and new work that involves AI and installations. TJ Boulting; to June 17
East
Phoebe Unwin: The Pointed Finger
British artist Phoebe Unwin reveals a collection of paintings of everyday objects that have been inspired by memories. Oil paint is repeatedly layered in such a way that the subject of each image is only just recognisable. The show inaugurates Amanda Wilkinson’s new gallery location at 47 Farringdon Road. Amanda Wilkinson Gallery; to July 8
Jonas Lund: In the Middle of Nowhere II
Swedish conceptual artist Jonas Lund’s installation, which features videos, tapestries, a desk and a sofa, has been created with ChatGPT, an AI chatbot which allows users to create forms responding to directions. The installation provokes questions around art ownership, creativity, the future of human-to-AI collaboration, and aesthetics. Annka Kultys Gallery; to June 4
Lisa Milroy: Correspondence
Kate MacGarry presents a selection of Canadian artist Lisa Milroy’s work taken from across her four-decade career. Milroy’s paintings most often depict real-life objects, depicted in such a way that they spark memories and associations. Kate MacGarry; to July 15
Rhys Coren: Ripple
In his fourth solo exhibition at Seventeen gallery, British artist Rhys Coren uses colour and shapes to riff off the idea of a practice (and a life) as a feedback loop. Seventeen; to July 22
Tom Allen: The Promise
For his first solo exhibition in London, American artist Tom Allen presents a selection of new works from his ongoing flowers series, which have been based on photographs he has taken of the flowers around his hometown of Los Angeles. Expect eye-popping, brightly coloured images. The Approach is also showing Peter Davies: From the land of …, a selection of the works from Edinburgh-born artist Davies, taken from the last 25 years of his practice. The Approach; to July 1
Isamu Noguchi: This Earth, This Passage
American sculptor Isamu Noguchi travelled widely and drew inspiration from the different landscapes, art and objects he came across along the way. The result was work that took many forms, created from materials including stainless steel, marble, cast iron, balsa wood, bronze, sheet aluminium, basalt, granite, and water. This Earth, This Passage comprises a wide selection of the artist’s sculptures taken from across his seven-decade career. White Cube Mason’s Yard; to July 1
South
Lisa-Marie Harris: Responses (To Things I’ve Been Told About My Body)
This exhibition from London-based artist Lisa-Marie Harris, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, is a straightforward rebuttal of the unrelenting body shaming, body policing, and sexual objectification that is faced by women. Sculptures, film and wall-mounted objects work to reverse the “negative catalogue of comments” Harris has experienced over the course of her life. Cooke Latham Gallery; to June 30
Larry Achiampong: And I saw a new heaven
HBO TV, video games and Christianity are an unlikely trio, but all three are the inspiration for British-Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong’s latest exhibition. In Achiampong’s second show at Copperfield, the artist looks at characters in the HBO show The Last of Us, in computer games and at ecclesiastical figures and argues that they’ve all typically been white. In And I saw a new heaven, the multidisciplinary artist presents collaged paintings that provoke questions around representation, and the categorisation of highbrow and lowbrow culture. Copperfield; to June 17
George Rouy: BODY SUIT
George Rouy has become known for his eerie depictions of the human form. In BODY SUIT these figures have started to blend and merge; some look like they’re in motion, others are fragmented and twisted, with several bodies blending into one. The result is a collection of unnerving but thought-provoking works that marks a new direction in the British artist’s practice. Hannah Barry Gallery; to September 9
Max Wade: Go Bang
British postwar and contemporary artist Max Wade presents a new body of work, where abstract shapes in bright colours are layered to create paintings that reference time and places. Sid Motion Gallery; to July 7
Emily Kraus: Nest Time
This solo exhibition of London-based artist Emily Kraus will contain a new body of work which reflects on the cyclical nature of the universe, and draws on Kraus’ background in meditative, yogic and somatic (body-focused) practices. Kraus makes her work inside a metal construction: she stretches canvases so they completely surround her, and then makes work from this restrictive new space. Here, the outcome of this process is presented as three giant canvases (they stretch four metres tall and three metres wide). The Sunday Painter; to June 10
