Gallery Walks in Mayfair, to explore this fascinating art scene. We visited around five galleries. We started with Hauser & Wirth, and continued to other nearby galleries, including FLOWERS, Waddington Custot, Cardi, The NFT Gallery and the newly opened Center for British Photography. At each, either a curator or I introduced the participants to the work as we went along.
Here is a description, kindly shared by one of the participants of what we did on one of the visits:
“We started with the German abstract painter, sculptor, graphic designer and photographer Günther Förg at Hauser & Wirth gallery, which displayed his final series of paintings made between 2005-2010. The Spot Paintings were partially influenced by the colourful blotches of paint in Francis Bacon’s studio when he would wipe his brushes on the walls and door of the studio to remove excess paint.
We then went to the Waddington Custot gallery where we focused on the beautiful work of French painter Fabienne Verdier. Her ways of painting her stretchers using giant brushes and tools of her invention suspended from her studio ceiling impressed everyone who hadn’t yet come across her work and technique previously. Her book “Passagère du Silence : Dix ans d’initiation en Chine” (translated in many languages) was mentioned during the visit, as an excellent way to find out more about Fabienne’s art of calligraphy and her ten year-experience as an apprentice painter which then led to her continuing and developing her broad painting practice that we can admire today, often inspired by spirituality.
At the Flowers gallery we looked at the wonderful prints of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado from his latest Platinum-palladium series. He is one of the most celebrated photojournalist working today. Whilst inescapably memorable for their beauty, Saldago’s photographs are laden with political purpose exposing the social and environmental problems facing our planet.
We finished our tour at the NFT Art Gallery showcasing the Ukrainian graphic designer and illustrator Varvara Alay’s incredibly colourful and intricately detailed work. The Coin Girl series explores the world of blockchain technology and NFTs. Turning art into nonfungible tokens is something that many artists are exploring as a potential way to sell their work. NFTs allow art to be sold in a digital form by establishing the secure ownership of an original digital asset and they can open up access to communities of interested buyers. NFTs offer a new way to prove the ownership of the original item through the creation of a digital register on a blockchain.”
