The Covid Diaries 62: Commercial Gallery Art Crawl, London

A roundup of several London art galleries which have recently reopened. In which I see many artists, many works, and many ways of welcoming visitors back to gallery spaces as restrictions lift.

Commercial Gallery Crawl: So. Much. Art.

After the year we have had, it feels like such a luxury to be able to spend a couple of hours in Central London, wandering from gallery to gallery. Yet that is just what I did earlier this week! There’s a lot to see, and a lot of the exhibitions opened virtually first so are closing soon. You should also check out my review of the Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers at Alison Jacques Gallery, which closes today (25 April)!

An art gallery crawl is a lovely thing to do. You might have different preferences, but mine was centred around joyful art. Lots of bright colours and playful themes, and nothing too depressing. We’ve had enough of that! I’m not going to go in depth – for each gallery I will give an overview and tell you what I think it’s ‘best for’ – a concept I haven’t done on here in a while! Tell me in the comments which galleries you have visited, or which ones on this list you want to see.

Some of the galleries below require advance booking and some do not, so check out their respective websites before you visit.

White Cube Mason’s Yard – Gilbert & George, NEW NORMAL PICTURES

Best For: Big Name Artists
On Until: 8 May 2021

The White Cube Mason’s Yard definitely have one of the highest profile post-lockdown shows. Artist duo Gilbert & George have created a series of works in their ‘stained-glass’ photo collage style, which apparently reflects on life during lockdown. If that’s the case then I guess they did a lot of drugs and hung out with bin men? The lockdown links are not super obvious, but the works are big and fun and playful.

Gazelli Art House – Curtain Twitching

Best For: Being Left To Your Own Devices
Finished On 24 April 2021

Gazelli Art House‘s exhibition Curtain Twitching has already come to an end. The theme was the feeling in lockdown of looking from the outside in, and noticing the lives of those around us as we stuck closer to home. There were four artists on display: Adam de Boer, Khaleb Brooks, Max Prus & Niyaz Najafov. The exhibition was kind of ok – I wasn’t blown away. The strangest part of this experience was that there was nobody around when we arrived. We heard voices, but didn’t see any staff or other visitors until near the end of our visit. We even took in an Amazon delivery for them. So it seems to be a good gallery for just doing your own thing.

Stephen Friedman Gallery – Luiz Zerbini, Fire | Threadbare

Best For: Techniques and Textures
On Until: 15 May 2021

I really enjoyed these two exhibitions at the Stephen Friedman Gallery. The works by Luiz Zerbini have a myriad of beautiful patterns and an explosion of vibrant colours. Threadbare features works by four artists: Jonathan Baldock, Huguette Caland, Jeffrey Gibson and Tau Lewis. The use of textiles is the thread that binds them (pun intended). There are some highly skilled works in fabric and beadwork, but my favourite was the series Rossinante by Huguette Caland. Fanciful line drawings become 3D works in wire; they are delicate and whimsical flights of fancy.

Hauser & Wirth – Charles Gaines, Multiples of Nature, Trees and Faces

Best For: Clever Concept
On Until 1 May 2021

I would describe Charles Gaines as a very cerebral artist. Both series on display at Hauser & Wirth follow the same idea, which is as follows. Gaines paints in numbered blocks of colour (like pixels) on perspex with grid lines applied. The painting matches a source photograph underneath: in one series a face, in the other trees. The complexity is introduced through the layering of images. By scanning around the room, you can see where the series starts: a painting of Face A only. The second work in the series has Face B layered on top of Face A. And so on. By the end you are looking at very complex images, but still very visually striking.

Unit London Gallery – Oh de Laval, Wild Things Happen in Stillness | Cydne Jasmin Coleby, Queen Mudda

Best For: NSFW Content
Finished On 24 April 2021

Unit is basically the opposite of the white cube gallery concept. The walls are bright, there’s music playing, it’s kind of like those shops that pretend to be clubs to make you feel cool for being there. There were two exhibitions on when we visited. The first, Wild Things Happen In Stillness by Oh de Laval, is where the NSFW content came in. The top image above is about the only non-explicit one on view, in terms of either sex or violence. I wasn’t entirely a fan – one or two works had strong, dark colours which balanced out the cutesey style, but otherwise it just wasn’t for me. I did like Queen Mudda by Cydne Jasmin Coleby. These montage portraits of black women had lots of rich textures and bold colours which enhanced the celebration which Coleby was aiming to achieve.

Gagosian Grosvenor Hill/Davies St – Rachel Whiteread, Internal Objects | Spencer Sweeney, Queue

Best For: Finishing On A High Note
Spencer Sweeney Until 1 May 2021
Rachel Whiteread Until 6 June 2021

These are actually two separate branches of Gagosian Gallery, but they are so close together that I’ve grouped them for this purpose. Rachel Whiteread first of all is on at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill. Her exhibition Internal Objects builds on some of the things she is best known for: a minimalist palate, casting familiar objects in unfamiliar substances, and implying secret histories. Here, in dialogue with her own 2013 exhibition, she takes the motif of the garden shed but explodes it. What happened? A disastrous event? Has nature taken over? The other works on display (drawings, and casts of cardboard boxes), while interesting, do not help to solve the mystery. Across the street, the works by Spencer Sweeney are a bright and colourful contrast to Whiteread’s white minimalism. Queue is a series of portraits in a range of styles, from smooth Modigliani-type faces to thick impasto. Well worth a look.

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