Alumni of Sotheby’s Institute of Art are founders of some of the city’s most exciting art spaces, including many participating in London Gallery Weekend 2024 (31 May - June 2). Stop by Annka Kultys, Berntson Bhattacharjee, Cedric Bardawil, Cristea Roberts, IONE + MANN, and Waddington Custot, among others, to see their education in action.
Cedric Bardawil (MACA 2014)
Eddie Ruscha Seeing Frequencies
1-3 Old Compton St, W1D 5JB
Eddie Ruscha’s new body of work, entitled Seeing Frequencies, develops the LA-based artist’s long-standing interest in the visual modalities of sound and music. The exhibition will be accompanied by an immersive LP of the same name, which is an exciting departure in his musical practice and charts an atmospheric and experimental course in multi-percussive sounds.
Lovisa Vit Berntson (MAFDAD 2020)
Director, Berntson Bhattacharjee
Smörgåsbord
45 Berners Street, W1T 3NE
Berntson Bhattacharjee is proud to present Smörgåsbord: a group exhibition celebrating Nordic contemporary art. In collaboration with Angeliki Kim Perfetti, a Swedish art historian, writer and curator, this exhibition offers a delectable spread of artistic talent, exploring the nuanced character of the region’s art scene
Elena Garcia de la Fuente (MACA 2001)
Director, Kristin Hjellegjerde
Amy Beager Slow Blink
36 Tanner Street, SE1 3LD
In a series of vividly coloured, otherworldly spaces we encounter a woman and her cat, the boundaries between their bodies blurred to evoke states of transformation and interconnectedness. Slow Blink, Amy Beager’s latest solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, was made in a period of grief, following the loss of her cat Ashitaka. Drawing on personal memories and fluctuating emotions, these tender paintings trace their relationship and Beager’s experience of mourning while also exploring our wider connection to nature and the spiritual realm.
Sarah Horner (MAP 2007)
Director, Galerie Max Hetzler
Giulia Andreani L’improduttiva
Opening: Thur 30 May, 6-8pm
41 Dover Street, W1S 4NS
Galerie Max Hetzler, London, is pleased to present L’improduttiva, a new body of seventeen paintings and works on paper by Giulia Andreani. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, and the second in the London space. Recently exhibited at the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy, the present works encapsulate Andreani’s compelling yet haunting painterly practice. Across her oeuvre, Andreani repurposes personal memorabilia and archival photographs, addressing forgotten histories through a subversive and feminist lens. Working primarily in her signature palette of Payne’s grey – a blue-grey hue rich with echos of the past – her works unearth buried narratives to reconstruct timeless and prescient stories for the present moment.
David Cleaton-Roberts (MACA 1995)
Senior Director, Cristea Roberts
Vicken Parsons: Time & Tracing Absence until 2 June
43 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5JG
Cristea Roberts Gallery is delighted to announce a new solo exhibition by Vicken Parsons, her first in the UK for four years. Vicken Parsons: Time (25 April – 2 June 2024) will feature twenty-five new paintings made over the last three years. These works mark a new development in the artist’s practice which continues to investigate the possibility of the two-dimensional plane as a place of depth, breadth and potential.
Tracing Absence brings together works by several artists who find reflection in empty spaces where human presence is silently implied.
Niamh Coghlan (MACA 2005) & Sonja Teszler (MACA 2020)
Richard Saltoun
Erin Manning: 100 Acres from 31 May
Private View: Fri 31 May, 6pm
41 Dover Street, W1S 4NS
100 Acres is a site-specific installation encompassing the entire gallery, composed of two twenty-five yard cuts of monks cloth that are sewn, embroidered, knotted and tufted. In a refusal of distantism - the belief that the world is given to us in the establishing shot of overview - the work recalls the encounter of the forest as lived through the 3Ecologies Project (3E).
Alkistis Koukouliou (MAAB 2012)
Director, IONE +MANN
IRIN BACHLITZANAKI The Consolation of Imaginary Things
Opening: Fri 31 May 6-8pm
1st Flr., 6 Conduit Street, W1S 2XE
The exhibition centres around a body of work, conceptually developed over a period of two years, which expands on the artist’s ongoing exploration of the cultural and personal significance of objects and material imagining. The works in The Consolation of Imaginary Things build on a continuing series of wall-based sculptures referencing design, décor and domestic interiors. Inspired by the ability of objects to elicit or illustrate associations, emotions and dynamics, Irini also explores the idea of the object as continuation of the self and its role in the structures we put in place to support it. Reinterpreting - almost theatrically - familiar forms, she looks at how the things we surround ourselves with might double as coping tools, introducing multi-sensory comfort tactics and rituals through experiments with materiality, relief sculpture and the language of diagrams and schematic representation.
Stephane Custot (WOA 1988)
Owner, Waddington Custot
Beyond Surrealism
11 Cork Street, W1S 3LT
Filled with unexpected juxtapositions and clever visual puns, Beyond Surrealism brings together works by a range of artists whose work shares Surrealist aesthetic strategies or conceptual concerns: Clive Barker, Patrick Caulfield, George Condo, Allan D’Arcangelo, Barry Flanagan, Mimmo Paladino, Lucas Samaras, John Wesley and Bill Woodrow among others. Anchoring each room in the exhibition are works by some of the key names connected to the first wave of Surrealism: Jean Arp, Giorgio De Chirico, Max Ernst and Joan Miró. These works delve into the recesses of the unconscious, challenge perceptions of reality, orchestrate metamorphosis and surprise, and conjure intricate, occasionally paradoxical, juxtapositions. Seen together they attest to the profound and far-reaching influence of Surrealism. The exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto, written by poet André Breton in 1924.
Annka Kultys (MACA 2014)
Christiane Peschek
Opening: 31 May, 12 - 6pm
472 Hackney Road, E2 9EQ
At ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY in London, Austrian artist Christiane Peschek presents The Girls Club, a suite of digitally-manipulated selfies that reflect the uncanny powers of a femme face that refuses recognition. Thirteen meticulously-crafted hand-dyed silk works mounted to aluminum frames are enshrined by a black vinyl wall installation that bears the phrase “The Girls Club”. The images, which are all characterised by deep-fried edits to a series of self-portraits taken on the artist’s iPhone, collapse the face into an abstract field of material data, one that can refuse the superstructures of capital and identity that augured it.
Sammi Yiyuan Liu (MACA 2010)
Founder, Gallery Tabula Rasa
Hypernode: Kolja KartnerSainz
99 East Road, Hoxton, N1 6AQ
Titanium and sinew, the galactic and the cellular, the terminal and the embryonic coalesce in Kolja Kärtner Sainz’s exhibition, Hypernode. At once biological and mechanical, the works have a dispassionate, evolutionary drive, concerned with new anatomical pathways, alternate ecosystems, and novel, aesthetic registers.
Andrea Maffioli (Art & Business 2014)
Partner, Copperfield
10 Year Anniversary Party
Sat 1 June, 10pm
6 Copperfield Street, SE1 OEP
Expect a high energy mix of different styles, genres, and sounds as they turn the gallery into a club to celebrate 10 years of Copperfield and London Gallery Weekend.
Images: Bulge:Hannah Levy, Atta Kwami, Gareth Nyandoro: Pfumvudza & Heloisa Hariadne: In focus
Cecilia Monteleone (MAAB 2020)
Massimo de Carlo
Bulge: Hannah Levy, until 22 June
6 Clifford St, W1S 3RG
Levy’s metal, glass, and silicone sculptures are like forbidden fruits, tempting the viewer as danger looms. Reminiscent of home or office furniture, hardware, prosthetics, as well as human flesh and food, the works expose a latent anxiety as function is removed from form, revealing themselves to be uncanny and otherworldly.
Martina Mei (PG Dip Art Business 2019)
Tiwani Contemporary
Gareth Nyandoro: Pfumvudza & Heloisa Hariadne: In focus
24 Cork St, W1S 3NG
Tiwani Contemporary are pleased to present, In Focus: Heloisa Hariadne, which marks the artists first UK solo presentation. Hariadne is an early career artist who has established a botanical and philosophically driven visual language pursuing existential questions around will and self-determination, and the impact of personal and historical past events, and memories in relation to her subjecthood. By removing herself from a daily circuit of chasing the conventions of contemporary daily life, the artist steps back in isolation, and allows herself to have a meditative breathing space, where she can reach the answers to these questions through her practice, transforming the canvas into a visual memoir.
Shannyn Schack (MAAB 2021)
Goodman Gallery
Atta Kwami
26 Cork St, W1S 3ND
This exhibition presents a selection of important works made over a period of twenty years, showing the breadth of Kwami’s practice and highlighting the artist as one of the most important African abstract painters of the 20th century. Belatedly recognised, Kwami was awarded the prestigious Maria Lassnig prize in 2021 - honouring artists deserving of greater visibility. The prize resulted in a major mural commission at the Serpentine Gallery and the artist’s first monograph which will be published alongside this exhibition.
Anastasia Shapovalova (MAAB 2017)
Gazelli Art House
Montage
39 Dover Street, W1S 4NN
Montage delivers a shrewd exploration of Abstract Expressionism via a curatorial focus on assemblage, collage, and non-canvas artworks, while also recognising Europe’s profound impact on the American Abstract Expressionist movement. Spotlighting Post-War artists long overlooked until recent decades, Gazelli Art House invites audiences to experience an amalgamation of diverse artistic voices that defined an era.
lrina Bourmistrova (MAAB 2009)
Founder, SEAGER Gallery
Asset Flip, from 30 May
2 Mill Ln, SE8 4HP
SEAGER presents Asset Flip, a solo exhibition by artist and curator Bob Bicknell-Knight, the final exhibition in the Matchmaking four-part series at the gallery exploring how artists make work with and about video games. Investigating the tools used to create video games as a vehicle for speaking about hyper-capitalism and a general feeling of malaise towards the contemporary moment, Asset Flip reflects upon the impending climate crisis and 24/7 hypercapitalism through the lens of prefabricated assets used in video game development.
Oceana Chuil (MAAB 2023)
Founder, Clayhands Finder
New ceramics and personal shopping service
Clayhands Finder is born from the belief that ceramics extend beyond the workshop. Tableware isn't just for serving, it's a means to elevate the dining experience, whether for one or a gathering. Join us in transforming ordinary moments into extraordinary memories through the fusion of art and dining.
Camille Johnson (MAAB 2009)
Curator, SECRET CEREMONY
Film Screening: The Love Witch
The Garden Cinema, 6 June
39-41 Parker Street, WC2B 5PQ
This special screening of The Love Witch marks the inauguration of LONDNR magazine’s brand-new film club, Secret Ceremony.
Nicole Slyusareva (MAAB 2018)
Tristan Hoare
Marie Hazard & Masaomi Yasunaga
6 Fitzroy Square, W1T 5DX
Tristan Hoare is delighted to present a dual exhibition of works by French weaver Marie Hazard and ceramics by Japanese artist Masaomi Yasunaga, curated by Sonya Tamaddon. Both threading and ceramics embody notions of being enmeshed, finding connections, coming apart, thus disclosing multiple incarnations, formats, densities, and textures. In the woven works of Hazard and in the ceramic vessels of Yasunaga, the artists make a poignancy of the familiar by allowing rituals of life and their affiliated embellishments to be misconstrued. Both artists engage in radical acts to bring their artworks to life, stripping their chosen mediums of their centuries-long ties to function.