Ravensbourne University made a bold but forward-thinking decision to move to the then barren, but developing, landscape of Greenwich Peninsula in 2010 with its unique building designed by Foreign Office Architects which now, a decade later, looks very much part of the urban landscape of this new quarter for London. Nearby, Antony Gormley’s ‘Quantum Cloud’ […]
With the Frieze 2019 art fair arriving in coming to London in early October, the galleries pulled out all the stops. The White Cube in St James’s was awash with thousands of butterfly wings in every colour imaginable, in Damien Hirst’s first major London exhibition for 7 years, ‘Mandalas’, building on his previous works ‘Kaleidoscope’. […]
You know you are getting old, when the art and culture of your youth has now circled round again. The vibrancy and innovation of the 1980′s and 90′s have returned, with ‘Sweet Harmony: Rave Today’ at the Saatchi Gallery, and now ‘New Order: Art, Product, Image 1976-1995′ at Spruth Magers in Mayfair, an exhibition curated […]
21st century Houghton Hall has continued the tradition of carefully-placed sculptures in the landscape with its contemporary installations by artists such as Richard Long, Rachel Whiteread, James Turrell and Anya Gallaccio which await discovery in the gardens. Now Damien Hirst has arrived to break the mould with his unique sculptures outside and new works […]
An exemplary conversion of a historic customs house building, the Punto della Dogana was restored by Tadao Ando in 2008/9 with a new first floor, lift, staircases, café and other facilities added that are essential for a modern art gallery, all done using glass and concrete with a simplicity and robustness that complements the red […]
In 2008, an ancient shipwreck was discovered off the coast of East Africa, full of treasures apparently collected by a freed slave Cif Amotan II who became exceptionally wealthy and was sending his immense collection of treasures to a temple he was building to house them in perpetuity. Divers have rescued the sculptures, gold coins, […]
Standing 7-metres (21 ft) tall, the immense male torso, with its organs partially exposed, faces across to the Lloyds Building, designed by Richard Rogers which too has its organs exposed, albeit in a different way in the distribution of its building services. The cleverly-located “Temple” by Damien Hirst is one of the centrepieces of this […]
Damien Hirst fills his medical cabinets with pristine medicines and packaging, often arranged with the precision of a scientific laboratory or a well-maintained pharmacy. Gavin Turk in contrast fills his grand cabinet with emptied, torn, crumpled packaging – a complete contrast to that of Hirst -, with the cycle of birth, death and decay followed by immortality. […]
It’s a busy week in London for art visitors who would have leapt round from Jeff Koons’ exhibition at Alime Rech’s new Gallery to Berkeley Square where there was an opportunity to bid for Jeff Koons’ “Dom Perignon BALLOON VENUS”, from an edition of 650 for an estimate of only £25,000 to £35,000, one of the […]
Outdated, but perfect and unused vacuum cleaners with brand names of “Celebrity” and “Convertible” stand to attention or hang in fluorescent-lit boxes alongside advertising photographs, while intricate reflective stainless steel model railway engines and carriages encase American whiskey, giant eggs in a bowl have sexual innuendoes, basketballs floating in perfect balance are set against photographs […]
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