Tag Archives: London

London: Marakami & Abloh Future History at Gagosian

February 21, 2018 butterfly 1 Comment

Coinciding with London Fashion Week 2018, Superflat Master Japanese artist Takashi Murakami is partnering with American Creative Designer Virgil Abloh and presenting a series of collaborative works “Future History” at the Gagosian Gallery in London.

The exhibition features large-scale paintings, sculptures and an installation drawing references to signature Off-White™ motifs alongside Murakami’s iconic cast of anime characters, reflecting incisively on the signs of the current times.

Amongst the works, visitors can enjoy The sculpture Life itself (2018), a kind of architectural carapace designed by Abloh to house one of Murakami’s brightly sinister flower sculptures; a pair of paintings embellished with yellow Off-White™ branding and a spray-painted “O” as well as “HOLLOW” lettering on each one; black Flowers sculptures, and a glass house installation completely covered with black spray-paint and “LIFE ITSELF” on one side panel in white.

In another instance, for Glance past the future (2018), the duo transformed Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 1623 self-portrait by superimposing Murakami’s character Mr. DOB to affect a graphic blur of pink and black.

View the full set of pics here

Takashi Murakami & Virgil Abloh
Future History
Until 7 April
Gagosian Gallery
17–19 Davies Street
London W1K 3DE

London, Shows

London: JR ‘Giants’ at Lazinc Sacksville

February 15, 2018 butterfly

Ted Prize winner artist JR is currently displaying a solo exhibition titled “GIANTS” at Lazinc’s new flagship gallery in Mayfair, London.

The name of the presentation directly references the artist’s ongoing GIANTS project which made its debut during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he created enormous black and white prints of athletes jumping over Rio’s buildings, swimming in its ocean, and diving off its mountains like Greek titans. .

Even if pictures of the installations in situ might look good, it’s very difficult to recapture their impact. So to give some sense of the scale of the project in the gallery space settings, the viewer has to walk underneath the massive paper head and shoulders of Sudanese high jumper Mohamed Younes Idriss, fixed to scaffolding, just to get in.

At the same time, visitors can discover the artist’s process from start to finish with behind the scenes items like architectural plans that were created to support his large-scale installations, installation permits collaged into 3D-printed digital reliefs of the final images, and look at the artist’s digital photography techniques.

View the full set of pics here

JR – Giants
Until 28 February 2018
Lazinc Sackville
29 Sackville St.
Mayfair, London W1S 3DX
United Kingdom

London

London: Hassan Hajjaj – La Caravane

January 3, 2018 butterfly

Somerset House is currently hosting Hassan Hajjaj: La Caravane, a homecoming exhibition of the British-Moroccan artist, showcasing his vibrant fusion of contemporary cultures through new and celebrated works.

The exhibition is the first UK solo show of his work in seven years, celebrating his multi-layered works which fuse traditional and contemporary North African culture with familiar Western imagery and iconography.

Born and raised in Larache, Morroco, Hassan Hajjaj moved to London aged twelve and his artistic practice sees him spend much of his life travelling between these two countries and cultures. His artworks reflect his neo-nomadic lifestyle and the relationships he has formed with a variety of characters along the way, from musicians to artists and athletes to street performers. These individuals inspire Hajjaj’s diverse artworks from photographic portraits to video installations, sculptures, music, design and handcrafted objects.
Infused with a bold palette, the materials Hajjaj uses include patterned textiles, furniture, clothes and props often created by the artist to inform our understanding of the person in the image. All of these elements, including the frames made out of everyday items in which his images sit, are chosen deliberately to highlight these individuals’ identities.
He is perhaps best known for his colourful photographic portraits, including the Kesh Angels series, from which many new works feature in the exhibition.

Blending the glossy aesthetic of a fashion shoot with Moroccan tradition and street culture, these witty and poignant images, although outwardly light-hearted, challenge Western perceptions of the hijab and female disempowerment.

Another new body of work in the exhibition is My Rock Stars: Volume 2, a nine screen installation of distinctively dressed musicians. Each musician occupies an individual screen and takes it in turns to play their instrument, while the other performers turn to watch. The clothes and brightly patterned backdrops in each screen have been carefully selected by Hajjaj to highlight each player and their individual performance.

Visitors can view the performances from Hajjaj’s signature Le Salon installation, which takes the form of a customised sofa, whilst the music travels throughout the whole exhibition.

On 6 January a free special event will take place to celebrate the final weekend of the exhibition and Somerset House’s season of African Art, including live music and a family workshop inspired by elements of Hajjaj’s work.

View the full set of pics here

Hassan Hajjaj – La Caravane
Somerset House
London

London

London streets: Ludo

November 6, 2017 butterfly

French artist Ludovic Vernhet aka Ludo (covered) is back to the London streets with new large paste ups. Continuing his ‘Nature Revenge’ series, Ludo created three artworks on the theme of love, violence and fame using his signature neon green paint and monochrome paste ups. Featuring hybrid creatures mixing nature and technology and weaponry, Ludo highlights societal and environmental issues.

Ludo – Have a Nice Day, London 2017

Ludo – Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, London 2017

Ludo – Love at first sight, London 2017

Here are further works from Ludo in the streets of London we enjoyed throughout the years:

Ludo – London 2015

Ludo – London 2014

Ludo – London 2011

London, Shows

London: Chapman Brothers – Disasters of Everyday Life

October 14, 2017 butterfly

Jake and Dinos Chapman (covered), known for their provocative and pessimistic ruminations on human violence and barbarity , have created seven bronzes of suicide vests for Blain|Southern Gallery.

Made from images found online, the “life and death vests” are extremely detailed and real, apart from one which is based on a Hollywood film prop used in a Jackie Chan film.

The Chapmans’ work is often a response to the work of other artists. In this case, they were inspired by Jeff Koons’ Aqualung from 1985 (check our coverage on Jeff Koons retrospective here )

Jeff Koons Aqualung 1985

The bronzes clearly address world events but the artists have declined to speak about the new works. Each bronze is being sold as a one-off, apart from the one based on a prop used in the Jackie Chan film Rush Hour, which the brothers bought from a movie props website. That comes in an edition of six.

Also on display, Jake & Dinos Chapman continue to expand on their career-long preoccupation with Francisco Goya’s series of etchings, The Disasters of War. The Disasters of Everyday Life presents three full sets of Goya’s prints, each set substantially reworked in collage, watercolour and glitter by the Chapman brothers with their own wit to depict the absurdity of war.