TOP 16 UNMISSABLE EXHIBITIONS THIS JUNE 2023
London's Best Art Shows this June
This month's art fix has a strong tech flavour - ponder smartphone's impact within an arty hellscape or explore the art world's fear about evil AI robots taking over their world.
For fans of tech, there are also a gaggle of immersive exhibitions beckoning us to leap inside paintings; AI shows offering to guide our digital avatars around artists’ minds; powerful installations to explore and retrospectives of some of the most influential artists of the 20th Century.
There is also some good, old-fashioned art, using actual paintbrushes.
So point your eyes here and then take them there.
Colors Festival London
Get a turbo-hit of dopamine at Colors Festival, which heads to London after hit tours in Manchester and Paris.
The family-friendly exhibition at Camden’s Hawley Wharf is a celebration of paintings, photography and illustrations by an eclectic mix of 40 established and up-and-coming street artists from around the world.
And the 1000m² exhibition features enormous and bright immersive works, which can be manipulated and touched. The show will include street art stars like Angry Dan, Kekli, Remi Cierco, Hazard One, Lisa Lloyd and Dale Grimshaw.
Colors Festival, Camden Market, Hawley Wharf, Unit M120 - M133, Water Lane, London, NW1 8JZ. 26 May - 9 July
Jonas Lund: In the Middle of Nowhere II
Evil AI robots are taking over the world: Fact. And this brilliantly creative, free exhibition explores the fear that artists have of being replaced by AI tools like Midjourney, which can whip up a soulless artwork in seconds.
Visitors enter the show via the fictional office of an aspirational CEO, filled with pot plants, corporate office furniture and his bleak art collection - a series of AI-generated tapestries, a single-channel video, and a four-channel screen showing automated affirmations. The canvas tapestries adorning the walls are based on AI generated imagery, showing besuited elephants, obese people sitting on laptops and office cats. And the screens show the CEO’s business using ChatGPT to try and create money-making art, with separate videos of people expressing concerns about AI.
The art here is real and talented, so check it out, before the robots take over.
Annka Kultys, Unit 9, 472 Hackney Road, London, E2 9EQ. Until 4 June
The Connor Brothers: Truth or Dare
World-renowned art duo, The Connor Brothers launch their eagerly-awaited new exhibition, Truth or Dare at Clarendon Fine Art Mayfair on 7 June, before taking the show to Winchester on 8 June. The show’s title reflects the pair’s fascination with truth and (pulp) fiction which runs through their life and art. They themselves famously began their career as a fiction, under the guise of twins who had survived a Californian cult and made sense of the world through their art. The story and art captured the world’s imagination and while they kept their pseudonym, they eventually unveiled themselves as London artists Mike Snelle and James Golding, whose work offers provocative, witty and sometimes controversial twists on retro, pulp fiction cover art, accompanied by satirical and ironic captions. The new exhibition will unveil seven, brand new literary art pieces, showcasing their hard-hitting combination of contemporary satire and retro design. The pieces will be available in Giclee editions, unique hand-coloured prints and originals in assorted sizes and colours
Clarendon Fine Art Mayfair, 46 Dover St, London W1S 4FF. 7-14 June. Free
Sculpture Trail: Women in Art
Curated by Marshall Murray, this beautiful, free outdoor exhibition showcases an eclectic mix of work from world-class female artists, including Jill Berelowitz, Anna Gillespie, Louise Plant and Zeus Li. It aims to promote equality within the art world and provide a platform in a central London public space to display their work. The installation will raise awareness about challenges faced by women in the contemporary art world, encouraging discussion about representation, collaboration and inspiration.
Female artists have often struggled to have their work recognised in the male dominated field of sculpture. Of the $196.6 billion spent at art auctions between 2008 and 2019, work produced by women accounted for only $4 billion - around 2% - of the total sales.
Chelsea Barracks, London, SW1W 8BG. 24 May - 30 June. Free.
Sarah Sze - The Old Waiting Room
Writer Zadie Smith has compared Sarah Sze’s immersive sculptural installations to being inside an exploded smartphone, and the artist’s exciting, new show conveys the volatility of life in the age of the smartphone.
Transforming Peckham Rye Station’s large, Victorian waiting room - which has been empty for nearly 50 years - Sze has created a model of the fragile world, illuminated by flickering videos and bound together by found materials to express the way our digital world both swaddles and suffocates us.
Peckham Rye Station, London. 19 May - 16 September. FREE
Thin Air
Expect large-scale laser light sculptures, UV light-painted landscapes and trance states with heightened imagination via sounds played at specific frequencies. Taking advantage of more than 55,000 sq ft of interconnecting, cavernous environments at Royal Docks’ The Beams venue, this exhibition brings together works by seven global, contemporary artists and collectives and explores the boundaries between art and technology, using light, atmospherics, sound and experimental new media. The Beams, Thameside Industrial Estate West End of Thames Refinery, Factory Rd, London E16 2HB. Until 4 June. Adult tickets from £20. Concessions £17. Children (4-16) £10.
BBC Earth Experience
Travel the world and seven continents in one, visually delicious immersive experience through the hit BBC series, Seven Worlds, One Planet. With bespoke narration from Sir David Attenborough himself and hosted at Earl’s Court's purpose-built Daikin Centre, you will experience the incredible diversity of the seven continents through multiple, multi-angle, 360-degree screens, meeting the extraordinary animals which inhabit them. The event - suitable for all age groups - also boasts breakout zones where you can dive into the depths of Water World, marvel at the sweeping landscapes of the Vista Stage, and test your bravery by getting close to creepy crawlies in the Micro Life zone.
BBC Earth Experience. The Daikin Centre, Earl’s Court, Hammersmith, London SW6 1TR. Until 31 July. Adult £28.50 children under three go FREE
Gilbert & George's Free Gallery
Everybody’s favourite, besuited art duo, Gilbert and George launched their own museum on April Fool’s Day, around the corner from their London home and studio.
The pair have transformed a former, Spitalfields brewery into the three-storey Gilbert & George Centre, and in keeping with their “art for all” mission, the venue will be completely free .
The grand, emerald iron gates (designed by the pair) will open every Friday to Sunday, for visitors to enjoy three exhibition spaces, a research centre and film room all dedicated to the duo’s art, which they have been making for more than 50 years, since meeting at St Martin’s School of Art. Find out more, HERE
The Gilbert & George Centre, 5a Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ.
Opens every Friday - Sunday. FREE.
MILK
This free, Wellcome Collection exhibition explores our relationship with milk and its place in politics, society and culture.
Featuring more than 100 items, including historical objects, artworks and new commissions, it asks why Brits regard cow’s milk as essential for a healthy diet? When did breastfeeding become a political subject? And how has milk been used to exert power or provide care?
Wellcome Collection. 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE. Until 10 September. FREE
The Ugly Duchess - Beauty and Satire in The Renaissance
This fascinating, FREE exhibition explores one of the National Gallery’s most famous faces, Quinten Massys’s 16th-century depiction of an old woman, known as ‘The Ugly Duchess’. The piece is displayed alongside Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘grotesque’ heads, as well as other important artworks that look at how women, old age and facial difference were satirised and demonised in the Renaissance, shaping attitudes that still exist today.
And for the first time, ‘The Ugly Duchess’ is reunited with her companion, 'An Old Man’ on rare loan from a private collection, with the pair parodying the traditional wedding portraits of the time. The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Until 16 June 2023. FREE
Frameless
Immersive art experiences are beckoning us to leap into paintings all over the world, but Frameless is art immersion on steroids. Situated in Marble Arch, it is the largest, permanent multi-sensory experience in the UK. Boasting four, themed galleries - Beyond Reality, Colour In Motion, The World Around Us and The Art Of Abstraction - with some of the world’s greatest works of art exploding across the walls, floors and ceilings of a 30,000 sq ft space. You can step inside more than 43 masterpieces by 28 artists, including Kandinsky, Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, Munch, Monet, Rembrandt, Dali and Cezanne with musical scores accompanying each brushstroke.
Frameless, Marble Arch, London W1H 7FD, UK
Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience
This immersive juggernaut has been touring the world, welcoming more than 5 million visitors.
And it has found a new home at London’s Spitalfields.
Lose yourself in the iconic brushstrokes of more than 300 works, in this light and sound spectacular featuring two storey projections, plus a drawing studio and VR experience exploring his life and inspirations.
You can even enjoy a beautiful piano show from pianist Lara Melda while admiring Van Gogh’s work through cutting-edge 360° digital projections.
Van Gogh Immersive Experience, Commercial Street, London E1 6LZ, UK. Until 30 June.
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away)
Using large-scale projection in a remarkable new, immersive gallery space, David Hockney takes us on a personal journey from LA to Yorkshire, through 60 years of his art, with a specially composed score by Nico Muhly and commentary by the artist himself. Lightroom’s vast walls and revolutionary sound system enable us to experience the world through the eyes of one of the most influential artists for the 20th Century, from the Sixties to the present day.
David Hockney Lightroom Show, 12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY, UK. Until 1 October.
Dali Cybernetics: The Immersive Experience
Discover the surreal universe of Spanish genius Salvador Dali in London's first, collective metaverse show, entered via an interdimensional digital arts portal, because doors are so last year. Explore his masterpieces through large-format projections, interactive installations, holograms, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. A virtual reality experience with total freedom of movement that will invite visitors to spend fifteen minutes in Dalí's digital universe. Each visitor will have a digital avatar to physically walk with their companions in a collective virtual space where the most recognized works of Dalí will come to life, immersing you in a world of melting clocks, space elephants and giant ants. Launched in Spain, the London show has proved so popular, its run as been extended until 17 April. Dali Cybernetics. 152 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL. Until 3 July.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms
The Instagram-friendly Infinity Mirror Rooms have no doubt saturated your social media pages for the past few months. But if you’re late to the party, the run has been extended until June to check out one of the most talked about shows of the past year.
The immersive installations of endless reflections include Kusama's Chandelier of Grief, a room which creates the illusion of a boundless universe ofrotating crystal chandeliers.
A small presentation of photographs and moving image – some on display for the first time – provide historical context for the global phenomenon that Kusama’s mirrored rooms have become today.
Tate Modern. Bankside, London SE1 9TG, UK. Until 30 September.
Spaces In-Between
Immersive experience studio, Pixel Artworks and visual light artist, Rupert Newman have launched Outernet London’s first interactive body movement artwork, Spaces In-Between.
The new show enables the public to synch their body movements with a breathtaking, digital light artwork on the largest digital canvas in the world, made up of 360-degree, four storey screens.
As you move, so will the digital screens in three, giant artworks, ‘Tessellations,’ ‘Transcendence’ and ‘A Step Beyond’ accompanied by music from composer Sarah Warne.
Spaces In-Between. Outernet, Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 8LH, UK. Free. Until September.
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