Visual Arts Reviews
'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages of love and supportFriday, 14 November 2025
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Gilbert & George, 21st Century Pictures, Hayward Gallery review - brash, bright and not so beautifulWednesday, 22 October 2025
There was a time when Gilbert & George made provocative pictures that probed the body politic for sore points that others preferred to ignore. Trawling the streets of East London, where they’ve lived since the 1960s, the artist duo chronicled the poverty and squalor of their neighbourhood in large photographic panels that feature the angry, the debased and the destitute. Read more... |
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Lee Miller, Tate Britain review - an extraordinary career that remains an enigmaSaturday, 04 October 2025
Tate Britain’s Lee Miller retrospective begins with a soft focus picture of her by New York photographer Arnold Genthe dated 1927, when she was working as a fashion model. The image is so hazy that she appears as dreamlike and insubstantial as a wraith. Read more... |
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy review - a triumphant celebration of blacknessTuesday, 30 September 2025
This must be the first time a black artist has been honoured with a retrospective that fills the main galleries of the Royal Academy. Celebrating Kerry James Marshall’s 70th birthday, The Histories occupies these grand rooms with such joyous ease and aplomb that it makes one forget how rare it is for blackness to be given centre stage. Read more... |
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Folkestone Triennial 2025 - landscape, seascape, art lovers' escapeMonday, 04 August 2025
A rare cloud form envelopes the headland and to the east and the west Folkestone is cut off from the known world. This mist shortens the visual range, drawing attention to the chalky soil, the sea gorse and the looping swifts. It also softly frames 18 site specific works of contemporary art that work in sympathy with this historic settlement. Folkestone is, as the Triennial shows, rich in local inspiration. Read more... |
Emily Kam Kngwarray, Tate Modern review - glimpses of another worldFriday, 11 July 2025
It took until the last room of her exhibition for me to gain any real understanding of the work of Australian Aboriginal artist Emily Kam Kngwarray. Given that Tate Modern’s retrospective of this highly acclaimed painter comprises some 80 paintings and batiks, the process had been slow! Read more... |
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Kiefer / Van Gogh, Royal Academy review - a pairing of oppositesSaturday, 05 July 2025
When he was a callow youth of 18, German artist Anselm Keifer got a travel grant to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Vincent van Gogh. Some sixty years later, work by the two artists has been brought together at the Royal Academy in a show that highlights Van Gogh’s influence on his acolyte and invites you to compare and contrast. Read more... |
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, National Portrait Gallery review - a protégé losing her wayFriday, 04 July 2025
When in the 1990s, Jenny Saville’s peers shunned painting in favour of alternative media such as photography, video and installations, the artist stuck to her guns and, unapologetically, worked on canvases as large as seven feet tall. Read more... |
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Abstract Erotic, Courtauld Gallery review - sculpture that is sensuous, funny and subversiveMonday, 23 June 2025
The Courtauld Gallery’s Abstract Erotic is a delight for two reasons – because an institution that has often seemed locked in the past is now embracing change and also because the sculptures on show are clever, suggestive and subversively funny. Read more... |
Edward Burra, Tate Britain review - watercolour made mainstreamWednesday, 18 June 2025
It’s unusual to leave an exhibition liking an artist’s work less than when you went in, but Tate Britain’s retrospective of Edward Burra manages to achieve just this. I’ve always loved Burra’s limpid late landscapes. Layers of filmy watercolour create sweeping vistas of rolling hills and valleys whose suggestive curves create a sexual frisson. Read more... |
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