April is my favourite month in London: a ray of sunshine, fresh ideas and a hopeful heart. This month, you could find me rambling about art and artists in these locations:
- Banksy on Tooley Street, SE1
Just where Tooley Street meets the underpass beneath London Bridge you can find this quirky rat by Banksy - one of many that the artist has left around London. Banksy is such a key character for our city - the graffiti artist come political activist combines dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencil technique.
- A cloud of fog by Fujiko Nakaya, Tate Modern
Quick, rush to see Fujiko Nakaya's swirling sculpture made of midst, which will be enveloping the Tate until the 2nd April. Her clouds of fog have adorned bridges in the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and Philip Johnson's Glass House. Of them, the artist says: 'Nature controls herself. I try and let nature speak'. It cannot get any more surrealist: pure magic!
- Child's Play, Foundling Museum, Bloomsbury
Documentary artist Mark Neville has taken photographs of children playing around the world: Ukraine, Kenya, the Highlands, North London etc.. At a time when up to 13 million children have been internally displaced as a result of armed conflict and traditional public space is being privatised, this show reinforces our responsibility to ensure that children have full opportunity for play.
- The studio of artist Leni Dothan and the National Gallery
More recently, I have enjoyed exploring the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, which is mostly dedicated to altarpieces and religious works pre High Renaissance. The one work I rediscovered was Madonna of the Pinks by Raphael., The intimacy between child and mother reminds me very much of the work of our artist Leni Dothan and her relationship with her son, Yali. It prompted my back and forth between the two locations, comparing this new reference with one of my favourite artists from our crew.
Leni Dothan
Cover pic credit: Zabludowicz collection