Tabish Khan, the @LondonArtCritic, picks his Top 5 art exhibitions to see over London Gallery Weekend in early June. Not all exhibitions are part of the official programme, but will be open over the weekend. Check out the previous top 5 if you’re after more shows to visit.
Tadashi Kawamata- Demolition at Annely Juda Fine Art, Top 5 art exhibitions to see over London Gallery Weekend
Tadashi Kawamata: Demolition at Annely Juda Fine Art
If you’re leaving a building to move to a new space, this is how you do it – by letting one of your artists trash the place. Tadashi Kawamata has smashed through the walls and panelling to expose the memories of the place, including assembling the broken parts into installations and going right through the floor so you can peek into the store room. It’s a great send-off to the space before the gallery moves into a new Mayfair premise. Until 5th July, free.
Slipping the Veil at Saint Bartholomew the Great
This is a beautifully curated and lit exhibition of artists in a church over 900 years old and nestled within the City of London. Some artists lean into the religious theme with co-curator Elena Unger’s dramatic apocalyptic paintings showing the tower of Babel and Carolein Smit’s ceramic grail overflowing with blood. Others tie into the more general sense of searching for something that brings people to churches, including a work by Diana Orving that makes you look up to see fabric ‘clouds’. While others gently subvert religious ideas with Maxim Burnett’s fishes referencing their deaths in the title rather than feeding the masses. Until 14th June, free.
Andrew Salgado: Self-Portrait as a Stack of Books at Beers London
I’ve been following Salgado’s portraits for over a decade now and keep getting sucked into the worlds he creates. This series focuses on his love of books, so we see stacks in the space and his paintings and writers at their desks with lots of little details to pore over. Maybe we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but we should judge Salgado by his paintings because they’re great. Until 28th June, free.
Emerson Pullman: What was left behind at Canopy Collections
I love this artist’s style; he captures his sitters with colourful, loose, expressive brushstrokes. His distinct approach of leaving plenty of white space makes every painting more vibrant, whether in full-body portraits or smaller works of heads. I’m a big fan of these works that capture a time, place, and memory. Until 13th June, free.
Han Ji Min: Time Alone at JD Malat Gallery
What can you tell from somebody’s body posture, whether from behind looking at a house or from the side in a public space? Basing these works on the expression that ‘backs don’t lie’ and the concept of catching people unaware gives a more genuine sense of self, painter Han Ji Min has created these ethereal works that are both captivating in concept and technique. Until 7th June, free.
All images are copyrighted and courtesy of the respective artists and galleries. Slipping the veil photo: Joanna Wierzbicka Photography.
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Art Critic for both FAD and Londonist. See as many exhibitions as possible and write reviews, opinion pieces and a weekly top 5 for FAD.