To trace the shape of London’s cultural revival, we asked the artists and instigators what excites them now. Then we stepped back—and let the story ripple outward, one nomination at a time.
Matthew Peers is an artist working with sculpture. Born in Manchester and now living and working in London, he runs WC2E9HA an ongoing programme of art exhibitions.
What’s interesting in Art:
Very simply ‘Fake Barn Country’ at Raven Row, shows the beautiful transformative power artworks can have.
Curated by Ruth Angel Edwards, Lawrence Leaman and Oliver Williams.The show brings together an intergenerational and international cohort, whose idiosyncratic and for the most part low cost, low production practises prove you can do a lot with very little….
Political and hopeful, I left feeling charged.
Artists in Fake Barn Country are Terry Atkinson, Rachal Bradley, Andrea Büttner, Ruth Angel Edwards, Adam Gallagher, Solomon Garçon, Gilbert & George, Judith Goddard, Nicola Gunnarsson, Alexander Guy, Samuel Jeffery, Yuki Kimura, Kitty Kraus, Oscar Laughridge, Lawrence Leaman, Vera Lutz, Stuart McKenzie, Stuart Middleton, Josiane M.H. Pozi, Carol Rhodes, Gianna Surangkanjanajai, Lise Soskolne, Dan Szor, Gili Tal, Rhianna Turnbull, Oliver Williams.
ravenrow.org/exhibitions/fake-barn-country
What’s interesting in Design:
Recently I did an art swap with furniture designer Dean Edmonds.
I’ve been fortunate to enjoy a friendship with him for the last few years, he’s got a good eye when it comes to sculpture. A topic close to my heart.
Commitment to improvisation, recycling and using ‘what’s at hand’ materially (all of what Dean does on a daily), for me seem a pertinent way of working and finding value in the current moment.
What’s interesting in Culture:
Under the helm of Matt Williams, Camden Art Centre’s Public Programme never ceases to amaze.
Richly diverse and committed to the artists, musicians and people of all manner of disciplines it’s working with. It really is a much needed polyrhythmic communal constellation of a programme.
I try to go as much as possible and was lucky enough to hear and experience both a lecture and performance by Dudù Kouate.
Instruments made from buckets of water and water bottles attached to flutes??!
Mind blown!
What’s interesting in Style/ Fashion:
Anna Howard an artist I showed at WC2E9HA, hit it hard whilst dressing the set for Cecile Tulkens
Sculptural, understated and refined; with its raw cotton curtains, black Perspex floor and a beautifully choreographed floating table. A perfect match to Cecile’s knitware.
What’s interesting in Tech:
‘We got a reader in the room’
I don’t really think you can top a book.
I often find reading a struggle, but doubt there’s anything as rewarding.
I recently tried and kind of failed to put into words the effect of reading out loud Micheal Foucault with a partner had on my thinking about space in a sculptural sense…. I’m failing again but there’s something in a shared failing and filling.
Didi Wambugu an anthropologist who I worked with and exhibited alongside at WC2E9HA showed me there’s a lot in the poetic generative nature of words and language and that’s techy.
What’s interesting in Music:
The ‘King Of Reloads’ EP by D Double E & Sir Spyro.
Have it on in the shower.
In the studio.
Cooking dinner.
In bed.
Absolute banger! BUY
Otherwise I’ve been listening to Shirley Collins and the country albion band’s ‘The banks of the Bann’,
I can’t listen without shiny eyes. Gets me every time.
A museum show and a gallery show recommendation:
Radical software by Michelle Cotten at Kunsthalle Wein is history making. A truly extensive exhibition. Looking at pioneering women artists who pushed both computing and what it could mean for art and art making between the years of 1960 – 1991.
I managed to meet several of the artists exhibiting at a symposium held alongside the opening. Speaking to Inge Borchardt, all I could think is If I manage to have only half of her humour and curiosity at the age of 90, I’d feel blessed.
Artists in the show are Rebecca Allen (b. 1953, Detroit), Elena Asins (b. 1940, Madrid – d. 2015, Navarra), Colette Stuebe Bangert (b. 1934, Columbus, Ohio) & Charles Jeffries Bangert (b. 1938, Fargo, North Dakota – d. 2019, Lawrence, Kansas), Gretchen Bender (b. 1951, Seaford, Delaware – d. 2004, New York), Gudrun Bielz (b. 1954, Linz) & Ruth Schnell (b. 1956, Feldkirch), Dara Birnbaum (b. 1946 – d. 2025, New York), Inge Borchardt (b. 1935, Szczecin, formerly Stettin), Barbara Buckner (b. 1950, Chicago), Doris Chase (b. 1923 – d. 2008, Seattle, Washington), Analívia Cordeiro (b. 1954, São Paulo), Betty Danon (b. 1927, Istanbul – d. 2002, Milan), Hanne Darboven (b. 1941, Munich – d. 2009, Hamburg), Bia Davou (b. 1932 – d. 1996, Athens), Agnes Denes (b. 1938, Budapest), VALIE EXPORT (b. 1940, Linz), Anna Bella Geiger (1933, Rio de Janeiro), Isa Genzken (b. 1948, Bad Oldesloe), Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (b. 1965, Strasbourg), Lily Greenham (b. 1924, Vienna – d. 2001, London), Samia Halaby (b. 1936, Jerusalem), Barbara Hammer (b. 1939, Los Angeles – d. 2019, New York), Lynn Hershman Leeson (b. 1941, Cleveland, Ohio), Grace C. Hertlein (b. 1924, Chicago – d. 2015, Chico, California), Channa Horwitz (b. 1932 – d. 2013, Los Angeles), Irma Hünerfauth (b. 1907, Donaueschingen– d. 1998, Kreuth), Charlotte Johannesson (b. 1943, Malmö), Alison Knowles(b. 1933, New York), Beryl Korot (b. 1945, New York), Katalin Ladik (b. 1942, Novi Sad), Ruth Leavitt (b. 1944, St. Paul, Minnesota – d. 2025, Baltimore, Maryland), Liliane Lijn (b. 1939, New York), Vera Molnár (b. 1924, Budapest – d. 2023, Paris), Monique Nahas (b. 1940, Paris) & Hervé Huitric (b. 1945 – d. 2025, Paris), Katherine Nash (b. 1910 – d. 1982, Minneapolis), Sonya Rapoport (b. 1923, Brookline – d. 2015, Berkeley), Deborah Remington (b. 1930, Haddonfield, New Jersey – d. 2010, Moorestown, New Jersey), Sylvia Roubaud (b. 1941, Munich), Miriam Schapiro (b. 1923, Toronto – d. 2015, Hampton Bays, New York), Lillian Schwartz (b. 1927, Cincinnati, Ohio – d. 2024, Manhattan, New York), Sonia Sheridan (b. 1925, Newark, Ohio – d. 2021, Hanover, Main), Nina Sobell (b. 1947, Patchogue, New York), Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931, Pasadena, California), Tamiko Thiel (b. 1957, Oakland, California), Rosemarie Trockel (b. 1952, Schwerte), Joan Truckenbrod (b. 1945, Greensboro, North Carolina), Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven(b. 1951, Antwerp), Ulla Wiggen (b. 1942, Stockholm)
Oliver Tirre’s show The Gap at TG gallery in Nottingham and Kobby Adi’s Kompendium at Felix Gaudlitz in Vienna.
Say less.
Two of the smartest and most committed artists working at the moment – pure magic makers.
I’d like to nominate friend and painter Nicola Gunnarsson
