Last week I had an inspirational day visiting three galleries in one day! I had planned to go to just one with my friends, but when I saw that the other two exhibitions were finishing soon I decided to hit all three. I can’t believe it was actually last week because this week has just whizzed by; I’ve been so busy working on a new project (which I hope will be finished soon so I can share it), building flat pack furniture for my newly revamped studio, and visiting yet another gallery with my friends from Morley.
The first gallery I stopped at was the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Andy Warhol: The Textiles exhibition. Obviously, Andy Warhol is very famous for his pop art images, but I didn’t realise how much commercial work he had done before moving into his more well-known phase. Lots of the examples on display featured repeating patterns with popular themes being bugs and food. It was really interesting to see the fabrics made up into clothing, especially in the styles of the time Warhol was creating. I definitely would have worn some of them now! This exhibition finishes on 10th September, so there is still a couple of days left to see it over the weekend.
Inside the Fashion and Textile Museum was a secret room with a small exhibition of work by Pauline Caulfield. It was all large hanging pieces that were printed, but had such a 3D feel to them. It was such a nice surprise to come across this extra exhibition that felt like a bonus to my gallery day.
The second gallery was the Hayward Gallery which was showing Dear Earth. This exhibition has been on all summer, but has sadly finished now. It brought together fifteen artists who were exploring and creating responses to environmental issues that are affecting the Earth right now. The exhibition was huge! It just kept going through more and more rooms, featuring large installations alongside 2D works. I was very impressed with the size of the pieces, thinking about how much work must have gone into completing them, as well as the variety of materials and techniques from neon lights, to weaving, to recycled cardboard boxes. I thought there was a good representation of textiles included as well.
The last gallery I visited was Hauser and Wirth on Savile Row. This was the gallery where I had arranged to meet my friends, and the exhibition I knew the least about. It was called Connect.Reveal.Conceal and featured textile work from three artists: Amy Revier, Celia Pym, and Donna Lynch. The work was all displayed in one room, and it was interesting to see each artist’s work juxtaposed against the others. My favourite was the work by Donna Lynch, it had a very sculptural feel to it using traditional textile techniques like pleating.
Then, just like the Fashion and Textile Museum, there was a surprise room tucked away at the back of the gallery with an exhibition called Strange Friends. It was an exhibition of seven artist’s work using mixed materials including glass, clay and stone. I think this was actually my favourite display of art of the whole day. It was so unexpected, and all the pieces were really inventive and had a textural quality to it.
It was such an inspirational day out and I felt really fired up to work on my own pieces when I got home. This week I went to meet my friends at the National Portrait Gallery, which has been recently done up and is lovely to wander around. I didn’t take any photos whilst I was there, expect for the delicious Lamington I ate in the café!
