Given the buzz around London Gallery Weekend 2024, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the event is only in its fourth year. This edition, opening this weekend (31 May – 2 June), promises a stellar line-up of exhibitions, performances, and live events across the city. London’s art world is showing us its best, including an installation on Cork Street by the UK’s representative at the Venice Biennale 2024, Sir John Akomfrah; another by legendary American artist Nan Goldin; and exhibitions from other art stars alongside some of the most exciting up-and-coming talents working today.
‘London Gallery Weekend (LGW) has changed significantly in reach and ambition,’ say co-directors Sarah Rustin and Jeremy Epstein. ‘It's now firmly established in the London art world calendar, which has brought about a shift in the majority of participating galleries opening new exhibitions specially for the event, as well as a huge increase in the special events programmed for the weekend. Just a couple of our initiatives that reflect our aims to engage with both the public and institutional audiences in new ways are the addition of the public performance programme and the bursary scheme with Art Fund to enable curators from UK institutions to visit London for the weekend. Our partnerships very much reflect LGW's development too.’
Annette Kelm, I Love London, 2021, archival pigment print 140 x 105 cm / 55.1 x 41.3 in
A dizzying 130-plus participating galleries and 70 live events are taking place, but if that sounds overwhelming, a selection of cultural figures and art experts – including Wallpaper* contributing editor Ekow Eshun, curator and artist Lubaina Himid, and photographers Mary McCartney and Nick Knight – have curated routes of their personal highlights to follow, available on the LGW website. Some will take you across the city, and others focus on areas such as the East End, Fitzrovia and Mayfair. You can also sign up to join various live local tours.
Here, meanwhile, are Wallpaper’s highlights to help you plan your art-filled weekend.
London Gallery Weekend 2024 highlights
Nil Yalter, Temporary Dwellings, 1974-76, seven works on board and video, six flat screens or monitors, black and white and colour, and sound
In central London there is a grand selection of shows including Matthew Barney’s ‘SECONDARY: light lens parallax’ at Sadie Coles HQ. Alison Jacques’ group show dedicated to the late critic Guy Brett, ‘Angel with a Gun’, is well worth a look and ‘Kenturah Davies: clouds’, an exhibition of delicately beautiful Black portraiture, is on view at Stephen Friedman. Ropac is showing work by Robert Rauschenberg from his global touring exhibition the ‘Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange’ (ROCI).
Kiki Kogelnik, Astronaut, 1964
There is also ‘Before Freedom t. 2’ by upcoming photographer Adam Rouhana at TJ Boulting, which opens in Fitzrovia, down the road from an installation of a three-channel projection, ‘Sisters, Saints, Sibyls’ from Nan Goldin at a stunning chapel on Charing Cross Road. Other photography shows include the critically acclaimed ‘being alone’, by Dean Sameshima at Soft Opening in east London, Annette Kelm at Herald Street in Bloomsbury, Dayanita Singh at Frith Street Gallery, and ‘Ahmedabad 1992’ at Sprüth Magers, which showcases John Baldessari’s mixed-media work from a residency in India.
A must-see is Otobong Nkanga’s first solo exhibition with Lisson Gallery, ‘We Come from Fire and Return to Fire’. Other interesting shows include Harlesden High Street’s solo exhibition by Marcus Jefferson, Copperfield’s group show of work by neurodiverse artists, Harminder Judge’s ‘A Ghost Dance’ shown at both Matt’s Gallery and The Sunday Painter, Seventeen’s presentation ‘Nina Davies: Becoming the Edit’, mixed-media sculpture at Nam Gbewonyo, ‘Nude Me/ Under The Skin: Dark Stars’ at TAFETA, and Amel Bashier’s solo exhibition ورد الجوري 'Ward el Juri', translating as ‘damask rose’, at Addis Fine Art.
Nan Goldin, Colette with her photo collection, Boston, 1973
If you are a fan of live art, the performance programme curated by Fatoş Üstek with Sepake Angiama and Rose Lejeune will be headlined by artists Adelaide Cioni and Nil Yalter. Places must be booked via the LGW website.
Most of the London art exhibitions opening this weekend will be running for the next month, making this an event that stretches beyond the next few days. Still in its infancy, LGW is becoming an essential part of the city’s cultural calendar, bringing people together for a plethora of free-of-charge events with a global swathe of art that represents London’s rich diversity.
‘London's gallery scene has an unparalleled scale and unique diversity, which is so apparent when you look at the three different areas that LGW focuses on, in central, south and east London, each distinctly different according to their own scenes and communities. And the fact that LGW was founded and is steered and run by the gallery community says so much about all of these communities working together,’ say Epstein and Rustin.
London Gallery Weekend, 31 May - 2 June 2024 across London
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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
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