Featuring a drawing by Anthony Gormley and a monoprint by Tracey Emin, alongside work from 29 other international artists, student curators at the Courtauld Institute have pulled out all the stops for this year’s East Wing biennial, boldly titled 'Artificial Realities'.
Founded in 1991 by art impresario Joshua Compston, the biennial continues to celebrate contemporary and emerging artists. The Courtauld's East Wing usually houses the working art school, and the exhibition offers a rare insight into the backstage spaces of the Institute, including the basement, staircases and seminar rooms. These cleared-out, threadbare areas are now filled with a jumble of contemporary sculpture, art works and installations.
Pungent scent installations by Anastasia Brozler add to the immersive, bohemian effect. The scent in Seminar Room 1 is the most interesting – and arguably the most unpleasant. Dubbed Courtauld 1932, it imagines how the seminar rooms might have smelt at the time of the Institute’s conception, with notes of damp walls and ancient brickwork – largely evoking student digs.
The ramshackle nature of the space provides a contrast to the polished, minimalist quality of many of the works; in particular, the delicate paper and bamboo sculptures by Jacob Hashimoto, and the slim porcelain vases of Edmund de Waal.
The exhibition’s transitional spaces mark another highlight. Winding staircases display in-situ commissions from Venice Bienniale representative Marco Maggi. Blink and you’ll miss these micro-paper creations, which provide reason to pause between seminar rooms. The creations are stuck directly to the paintwork; some are already peeling off. This approach offers a reprieve from the West Wing Gallery opposite, with its tightly organised chronology and no-touching glass cabinets.
The show's philosophical title, along with the names of each room ('Traces of Memory', 'Falsehood & Fiction', 'Selected Paths', 'Alterations in Light') could be seen as over-reaching, with tenuous links to what is actually displayed. But if anything, this adds to the joy of the exhibition: that progressive, high-end artworks are held-up inside rooms where usually they would only have appeared in textbooks.
The exhibition showcases work from 31 international artists, including Jacob Hashimoto, Edmund de Waal, Anthony Gormley and Tracey Emin. Pictured: Gossamer Cloud, by Jacob Hashimoto, 2006. Courtesy Studio la Città, Verona
De Waal's minimalist, elegant sculptures provide contrast to the ramshackle seminar rooms they are being presented in. Pictured: In Berggasse, by Edmund de Waal, 2015. Courtesy the artist
into four rooms, dubbed 'Traces of Memory', 'Falsehood & Fiction', 'Selected Paths' and 'Alterations in Light'. Pictured: Untitled Sculptures, by Ignacio Valdes. Courtesy the artist
The exhibition makes use of unconventional spaces around the Institute, such as staircases and the basement. Pictured: Karosta Kube, by Gilles Retsin and Isaie Bloch, 2013. Created by the artists for Artificial Realities. Courtesy the artists
Marco Maggi's intricate, miniscule works in paper line the walls of the main staircase. Pictured: Language Descending a Staircase (detail), by Marco Maggi, 2016.
INFORMATION
’East Wing Biennial: Artificial Realities’ is on view until 30 June 2017. For more information, visit the East Wing Biennial website
ADDRESS
East Wing Biennial
The Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House
London, WC2R 0RN
-
Piaget’s new Sixtie watches recall a glamorous history at Watches and Wonders 2025Piaget draws on historical codes with the trapeze-shaped Sixtie watch collection, revealed at Watches and Wonders 2025
-
A contemporary Swiss chalet combines tradition and modernity, all with a breathtaking viewA modern take on the classic chalet in Switzerland, designed by Montalba Architects, mixes local craft with classic midcentury pieces in a refined design inside and out
-
Cartier dials up the glamour at Watches and Wonders 2025Cartier revamps much-loved watch collections, from Privé and Panthère to Tank and Tressage, upping the sparkle at the watch fair in Geneva
-
Tom Wesselmann’s 'Up Close' and the anatomy of desireIn a new exhibition currently on show at Almine Rech in London, Tom Wesselmann challenges the limits of figurative painting
-
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next yearTate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo
-
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlightFor more than a decade, photographer Richard Ansett has made Grayson Perry his muse. Now Sotheby’s is staging a selling exhibition of their work
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Celia Paul's colony of ghostly apparitions haunts Victoria MiroEerie and elegiac new London exhibition ‘Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts’ is on show at Victoria Miro until 17 April
-
Teresa Pągowska's dreamy interpretations of the female form are in London for the first time‘Shadow Self’ in Thaddaeus Ropac’s 18th-century townhouse gallery in London, presents the first UK solo exhibition of Pągowska’s work
-
Sylvie Fleury's work in dialogue with Matisse makes for a provocative exploration of the female form'Drawing on Matisse, An Exhibition by Sylvie Fleury’ is on show until 2 May at Luxembourg + Co
-
What to see at BFI Flare film festival, 'a rich tapestry of queer experience'As one of the only film festivals to explicitly profile LGBTQI+ cinema, BFI Flare Film Festival remains a unique and beloved event. Here's what to see as it makes its return to London from 19 - 30 March
