De Portzamparc’s latest spaces are conceptual, not physical
The dark canvases in the show Illuminations have such an extraordinary clarity, it’s as if a camera had been taken into someone’s dreams.
Author: herbert wright
Herbert is a London-based writer and contributing editor to architecture-and-design magazine Blueprint. He graduated in Physics and Astrophysics, has worked in publishing, arts and music, and he knows two jokes. Website www.herbertwright.co.uk
teamLab at the new Amos Rex… plus three other reasons to rush to Helsinki
Amos Rex, a surrealistic and mainly subterranean art complex, has just opened in Helsinki, with a immersive multimedia headline show by Japanese digital collective teamLab. But that’s not all that is pushing Helsinki on to the international art map
Behind and Beyond Christo’s London Mastaba
It may be the most spectacular art object in London this year, but what is Christo’s London Mastaba about?
Andreas Gursky: Getting the Big Picture
After a two-year shutdown for a serious makeover, the Hayward Gallery needed to come back big. The architects delivered, and so does the show that opened this week (until 22 April)— an epic retrospective of Düsseldorf-based photographer Andreas Gursky.
Bill Fontana transcends Lisbon’s vast 25th of April Bridge
It’s a year since MAAT opened its dazzling curvaceous gallery on the banks of the Tagus river, simultaneously bringing wow-factor to Lisbon’s architecture and art scene.
Emma Hart and Jonathan Baldock take on Mr Punch: Bizarre Babies and Sinister Signs in Blackpool
Artists Jonathan Baldock and Emma Hart take on Punch and Judy in Blackpool with a bizarre, sinister show at the Grundy
Antwerp’s Modern Art Museum Just Got Better
Antwerp’s modern art museum M HKA has had a makeover by top Belgium designers. It’s also staging some powerful shows… and has some big ambitions.
Coming Ashore in Warsaw … Mermaids at the Museum on the Vistula
Mermaids in Warsaw? Hold on – the Polish capital is 300 km inland. And yet the star of its coat of arms is a mermaid… Perhaps she swam in from the Baltic Sea, up the Vistula river, lugging her sword and shield?
Finding the Meaning of Peter Märkli
How much are architects visual artists? Recently, we have seen the Serpentine present Zaha Hadid as a great painter. Swiss architect Peter Märkli is not as well known, but he has an almost cult following in architec-tural circles – and his sketches sell internationally, sometimes to buyers who don’t even know he’s an archi-tect.
Anne Pigalle Celebrates the Soho of Dreams and Desires – Les P’tites Femmes de Soho
Soho was London’s daring and dirty soul, the place for free spirits to dispel the drab world beyond it, drink, or even dip into sex and sleaze.
Mark Neville – Child’s Play at Foundling Museum
You too would have a curious look if you were standing by a moose head bloodying the kitchen floor.
Deconstructing Zaha Hadid’s Art
Forget for a moment Zaha Hadid the architect or designer. This show presents the case that she was a major visual artist in her own right.
William Eggleston Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
You don’t think of William Eggleston as a portrait photographer. He is known for his colour shots of the everyday American South in the 60s and 70s – slow-time smalltown scenes with nothing in particular happening, buildings and signage, fields beyond the roadside. But..
Wolfgang Buttress’s The Hive opens at Kew
The Hive by Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Buttress has been installed at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. The 17m-high structure was originally built for Milan Expo 2015, where it represented the UK and won the Best Pavilion award
Adrián Villar Rojas: A Timeless Elephant of Uncertainty by Herbert Wright
It’s a she-elephant, the Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas confides to your correspondent from behind sunglasses.
He’s not a man who seeks media attention but he’s talking about the 3-tonne sculpture that presents its backside to you on entering his solo show..