He says that if it wasn’t for the healing power of art and the support of his sister, he might be in a very dark place right now. However, he has channelled the pain of his formative years and the early memories of painting with his Mother, into a successful career as an artist.

He explains: “I was painting with my mum before she died, not figuratively, she used to paint a lot of abstract seascapes to express her sadness because she had lost a child, and you know this affected her a lot. But we used to paint a lot of seascapes in very grey, dark colours. Then, after she died, I didn’t really think about it (art) for a while, because I mean, it was hard enough to survive.”

The joyful vibe and colourful palette of Cosmin’s art now seems to be in part a reaction or revolt against the sadness of his formative years, and the bright pinks, reds, yellows and greens of his heart-motif portraits counteracts the dark tones of those seascapes he painted as a child with his Mother.

Cosmin’s ‘King of Hearts’ series is the latest step on an artistic mission to create a signature visual alphabet populated by anonymous portraits based on a heart motif. This aorta-shape is repeated throughout the new series of paintings, sculptures and screenprints, inverted and flipped, and repeated in a rainbow of different colour combinations. Perhaps the heart symbol at the core of Constantin’s visual language is a metaphor for the heartbreak of his childhood, but it could also be a symbol of hope for a world experiencing conflict and division.

Cosmin’s portraits are loosely based on friends of his, and there is an element of self-portraiture, but each portrait is stripped back to the essence of a person’s psyche, with simple lines representing eyes, mouth, eyebrows. The portraits merge elements of Pop Art with references to the digital world of emojis. Cosmin explains: “They all have different features or gazes…smiling or kissing.

They can even be like heart emojis. They’re not affiliated with anything that divides people, but they can be associated with the social media world that we live in. Instead of saying LMAO you can have one of these screenprints. I’m taking the emojis out of the digital world and exploring them through art.”

Cosmin cites several artists who inspire or inform his work, although he is wary of imitating the greats and focussed on cementing his own style: “I love Warhol, Picasso, Basquiat, Matisse, Van Gogh. I absolutely love Francis Bacon. But it’s more about their life that attracts me than their art. We all get inspired, and even those artists were inspired by other people. My ongoing mission is to create a signature style which is recognisable as my own.”

Like Warhol, who was a successful graphic designer and illustrator for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar before finding fame as a Pop Art Pioneer, Cosmin started out as a commercial artist. While he says he doesn’t create art now for monetary reasons, he found a niche for himself as a commercial artist when he arrived in the UK from Romania: “When I came from Romania at the age of 21, within a few months I was earning massive commissions as a commercial artist after doing things for free to begin with. I did a European campaign for Patagonia and the Lansbury hotel in a heritage building in Canary Wharf. I did all these commissions, but then after that I decided to do my own thing, instead of working with clients.”

So, what is Cosmin’s ambition as an artist, and what artistic legacy does he want to leave? His ambitions are as bold as his imagery: “I want to open studios all around the world and take on every artist who mass produced art.

I’m nearly there because I already set up the ecosystem for it by creating the heart-shaped portraits. I can paint them anyhow, anywhere I want, I can make them into sculpture or paintings or screenprints. I’ve created an alphabet that I can repeat in different variations or mediums.

I want the people outside the art world to recognise my art, not only the people inside it. And finally, I ask if he has any advice for young artists? “Be yourself and retain your childlike qualities, because when you’re a kid, you’re not yet moulded by society. It’s so easy to create when you’re a kid. You can be truly creative.”

©2024 Constantin Cosmin

Lee Sharrock

Lee Sharrock is a global creative PR consultant, curator and writer for publications including; Art Doc Photography Magazine, ArtLyst, Creative Review, FAD Magazine, F22, Runway Gallery Magazine, Soho House Magazine and STATE.

For the 2024 edition of Paris Photo, Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach is delighted to participate in two sectors. In the main sector, in Booth B29, the gallery presents a group exhibition featuring artists working with expanded photography, collage and process-intensive interventions: Gordon Matta-Clark, Carmen Winant, Lebohang Kganye, Lita Albuquerque, Stephen Gill and Rafael Y. Herman. Simultaneously, the gallery highlights Lebohang Kganye’s work in the Voices Sector as part of
Liberated Bodies, an exhibition curated by Azu Nwagbogu.

Curated by Julien Frydman, Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach’s booth at Paris Photo highlights three artists with innovative practices using collage. Gordon Matta-Clark (USA, 1943-1978), a seminal figure in the 1970s New York art scene, is renowned for his radical building cuts, interventions that transformed architectural spaces into sites of creative disruption. Matta-Clark’s works on view, including collages from his landmark series Splitting (1974) and Conical Intersect (1975), translate his architectural cuts into meticulous, layered photographic compositions, embodying his concept of “anarchitecture.”

His photo-collages encapsulate his vision of exposing hidden layers within neglected urban environments, creating haunting, multidimensional perspectives that echo through contemporary art. The presentation at Paris Photo is concurrent with the major exhibition Gordon Matta-Clark on view through December 21, 2024 at the gallery in Brussels. Matta-Clark has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Whitney Museum, New York, Jeu de Paume, Paris and the subject of countless other major exhibitions.

Matta-Clark’s work is represented in prominent public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, MoMA, and many others.

Alongside Matta-Clark is Lebohang Kganye (South Africa, b. 1990) whose work with cut-outs and sculptural photography infuses her pieces with theatrical dimensionality. Kganye’s practice challenges and reclaims historically oppressive narratives, transforming memory through her unique use of collage and performance. Her layered compositions in Two Stories of (Hi)Stories (2023) draw viewers into complex histories, where Kganye herself steps into the roles of various historical figures, weaving new memories within a contested past.

Through her art, Kganye reimagines postcolonial histories, bringing light, both metaphorically and literally, to the untold stories of her culture. Kganye will hold a major solo exhibition at the gallery in Brussels in 2025. She is featured in the upcoming New Photography exhibition at MoMA, (2025) and was recently awarded the Deutsche Börse Foundation Prize (2024).

The artist has recently exhibited at TATE, The Barnes Foundation, the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, The South African Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, and others. Kganye’s work is held in institutional collections including the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, Getty Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum, Verbund Collection, Walther Collection, and Carnegie Art Museum, among others.

Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach at Paris Photo Booth B29 and Voices Sector is on view the 7th of November, 2024 until the 10th of November, 2024 at PARIS PHOTO 2024

©2024 Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

Mica Bowman and Bowman Sculpture Head of Sales Daniel Pereira visited the graduate shows at London’s leading art institutions including Central St Martins, City and Guilds, Royal College of Art and SLADE, and selected 13 young artists for the graduate exhibition. 

The featured artists represent a diverse range of cultures, genres and sculptural techniques, originating from as far afield as Bahrain, China, Iran and the USA. The Graduate Show at Bowman Sculpture spotlights some of the most promising talent in the world of sculpture and features artists who are pushing the boundaries of sculpture and working in a variety of mediums, as well as those who are reimagining or reinventing traditional methods of sculpture.

Mica Bowman, Director, Bowman Sculpture Gallery explains: “I believe it’s essential to shine a spotlight on artists who have consistently showcased their work and made significant strides in the art world over the past few years. Their perseverance and success speak to the strength of their talent and vision. The more we invest in these rising stars by providing opportunities for exposure and recognition, the more we contribute to a richer, more diverse cultural landscape for both artists and audiences alike.” 

As the Graduate Show opens at Bowman Sculpture in Mayfair, I spoke with artists Lydia Smith, Rufus Martin, Cami Brownhill, Caroline Williams, YeYe, Harrison Lambert, Alex Ford, Naroul, Harmony-Cree Morgan, Isis Bird and Zayn Qahntani about their process and inspirations.

The Graduate Show is at Bowman Sculpture until 22nd November, 2024.

Lydia Smith 

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Lydia Smith: I see my sculpture practice as a conversation between dimensions. While I begin by shaping clay in three dimensions, each piece undergoes a transformation through digital scanning, revealing its unique DNA blueprint. These pixelated scans act as a digital ‘still life,’ preserving the essence of each sculpture in a new form. Each digital blueprint then inspires another physical artwork, establishing a lineage where every piece is a part of an ongoing ancestry, connected through a shared creative bloodline.

Lee Sharrock: Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Lydia Smith: The inspiration behind my work centres on people and human connection. Through a research-based practice, I delve into subjects like technology, science, spirituality, and ancient history, allowing these themes to infuse my creative process. Sculpting in clay becomes a meditative act; as I enter a flow state, the research I’ve absorbed intuitively channels into the form. I let go of any preconceived design, allowing the piece to emerge naturally, guided by the resonance of my studies and the energy of the moment.

Rufus Martin 

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Rufus Martin: Traditional sculpture has been an enormous influence for me; we are after all standing on the shoulders of giants. Rodin, Rosso, Claudel, Michelangelo are titanic figures of emotive, excellently composed, beautiful figurative sculpture, and provide an incredible foundation to learn from and build. 

Like them, I work figuratively but I prioritise the expressive mark in and of its own right. They are vital for the final feeling of the work; the sum of the marks working together to describe something greater. Within the boundaries of the marks in clay, or stone, or wax lies the emotive power of both the artist and their creation, allowing for a dynamic dialogue that connects past traditions with present expression.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Rufus Martin: I draw inspiration from monumental cultural works, such as Milton’s Paradise Lost, on which my bust of Lucifer was based, as well as the natural beauty of contemporary individuals. My creative process is quick and raw, allowing me to capture the unique character of each subject through expressive marks. Typically, I complete the initial clay work in 4 to 12 hours, before casting it into bronze.

Cami Brownhill 

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Cami Brownhill: I am trying to push the boundary of the abstract figure within sculpture to create unique portrayals of emotions and memories in ceramic form through creating intensely personal designs. I would say that my take on automatism to create works that present my life in this current climate means I am naturally creating sculptures that evolve with me.  My art intentionally shows horror and the potential grotesque which allows my work to be unrestricted by conventions. I feel that my style of sculptural heads is forcing an acknowledgement of distress that viewers try to avoid and at the same time challenging the idea of the beauty behind craftsmanship.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Cami Brownhill: My work is autobiographical that presents my continuing journey of being trans and the current social climate. Taking influence from artists I admire such as Berlinde de Bruyckere and Otto Dix and with modern writing by James Tynion IV and the horror genre I aim to create impactful works.  My new sculptures are adapted from unintentional drawings which reflect a memory or current emotional stage.   The drawings are then distorted to create a sculptural form with no pre-determined visual end point.  I work in ceramics and other physical forms as I find the taking up of space demands attention from the viewer.

Caroline Williams

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Caroline Williams: As a self-taught stone sculptor, in an era where everything can be done by machine, I am pushing the boundaries of contemporary art by returning to the source of what constitutes, for me, the essence of art. Working with stone and bronze has given me the opportunity to discover the processes and techniques that have made it possible to create masterpieces since the dawn of time. I appreciate this relationship with time and the permanence of these materials to link contemporary art to traditional sculpture.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Caroline Williams: My work expresses the movement of a fabric created by an invisible air current. Starting with a fabric model dipped in a mixture of PVA and water, I recreate what I call a “static movement”, a movement frozen in permanence. Inspired by the work of artists such as Bernini, Titian, Iris Van Herpen or Alexander Mc Queen, through time consuming craftsmanship, I capture and express the flickering instant where the fluidity and softness of the wind transforms an inert fabric into a living thing.

Alex Ford

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Alex Ford: I’m always trying to question the necessity of material truth in my art, disrupting the boundaries between the physical and digital. We seem to think of sculpture as a physical end product, so I incorporate digital processes as much as I can into the creation of each art-object. What’s the difference if someone sculpts physically with clay, or digitally on a laptop? 

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Alex Ford: My work has been described as ‘Looney Tunes meets Hieronymus Bosch!’ I’m drawn to immediacy, and so tend to utilise recognisable symbols or materials that are preloaded with meaning, combining these features with more corporeal forms to recontextualise the way we encounter ourselves, the world around us and art itself.

Yeye

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Yeye: My sculptures push beyond the idea of sculptures being a single object. They repeat themselves in large quantities, and they are never about a single object, but rather a group entity. Every piece is a representation or an image of a conceptual abstract entity, and this connection does not go away even when one of the pieces is singled out. Just like how people imagine a common daily object, for instance, a piece of tissue paper, they are much less likely to remember a particular piece of tissue paper they saw, but rather an imagined abstract image of a piece of tissue paper.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Yeye: My metal sculptures are inspired by my imagination of a stereotypical public abstract metal sculpture. I see them everywhere and I can never remember any of them in details, instead they altogether left a vague impression in my head. This ongoing impression can be deconstructed into a reproducible visual language to create individual small pieces of metal that are free to be reconstructed into any new forms. They are always perceived as undergoing the process of formation, there is no end nor beginning of the forms, thus the formless forms.

Harisson Lambert

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Harrison Lambert: My recent wood sculptures are crafted from recycled timber which is planed and laminated to form one solid piece of wood, which is then carved by hand. As an artist making work in our current time of ecological crisis, using salvaged materials makes sense both on an aesthetic and moral level. Our natural ecosystems are slowly but surely breaking down, and using scraps of wood found in a skip seems like a good way of talking about that ecological anxiety without contributing to the problem.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Harrison Lambert: My work shapes iconic symbols of nature, filtered through history and cultural contexts, into new remixed sculptural objects. My practice is largely informed by the materials- both stone and wood require a time intensive and tactile process. In its slowness, my process is reminiscent of an archaic style of art production, where craftsmanship and skill chase after an aspirational sense of mastery. 

Neal Camilleri

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Neal Camilleri: As a sculptor, I constantly seek new methods and materials to enhance my creativity. By stepping outside my typical routines and embracing new challenges, I can uncover a realm of exciting and innovative ideas that will elevate my creative journey to new heights and expand my imaginative capabilities.

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Neal Camilleri: My work revolves around exploring my past, present, and future, and transforming those experiences into reflective art pieces that resonate with viewers, evoking joy through sculpture. I incorporate colour and form to infuse happiness into the space. 

Naroul

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Naroul: As sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman have noted, the core of modern life has shifted from a solid to a liquid state. Over the past century, the gradual erosion of public space has rendered the traditional concept of the “monument” somewhat awkward within artistic discourse. Modern sculptors, such as Shalev-Gerz and Jochen Gerz, have successfully reimagined the narrative of public spaces through counter-monuments. However, I believe that the shift from public to personal space has become nearly irreversible. In response, our era requires a new discourse from a fresh perspective to reconnect increasingly fragmented communities. Therefore, a hidden thread in my work is the construction of monuments within “non-public spaces.” By strengthening the narrative and personal attributes of my pieces, I aim to offer new possibilities for the concept of the “monument.”

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Naroul: The two works in this exhibition aim to explore how the identity of the “witch” has been constructed for political purposes. My interest in this topic began with Silvia Federici’s discussions on the relationship between witches and social reproduction. In my creative process, interdisciplinary literature and research methods play a significant role. For instance, in these two projects, I adopted an anthropological approach to writing and organization, integrating visual concepts with research. This approach has helped me utilize symbolic imagery within a specific framework. 

Harmony-Cree Morgan

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Harmony-Cree Morgan: In my first year of art school and exploration with this body of work I was often told that I was not attending a design school but an art school. Alluding to furniture in my work which, is inherently anthropomorphic to me, walks a thin and fun line between object and sculpture. I like to challenge the functionality aspect of traditional sculpture that allows the viewer to interact with the pieces as they see fit. A challenge / invitation that is hinted at in some of the titles of the works. 

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Harmony-Cree Morgan: I am inspired by our daily interactions with everyday household objects that go unnoticed. Through touch and ownership, our associated memories of the chair that lived through decades of Christmas dinners or through the sleepless nights of essay writing become imbued with a sense of identity. These objects combined with live casts of my body impart with the viewer the duality of beauty and pain in gestures that I am interested in. To kneel, is not only an act of love but also is one of protest or one of punishment. I subject my own body to these gestural acts in an attempt to embody the life of an object, and so my works are born. 

Zayn Qahtani

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Zayn Qahntani: I am in constant fascination with taking traditional methods of craft and innovating new ways of thinking about them – my sculptures often include cultural elements that link back to the island I grew up on – papers made from Bahraini date palm trees, hammered shell nacre, odes to traditional shapes in architecture and world-building.

I also think that sculpture is traditionally an exploration of the 3d object in space – a lot of my work includes elements of drawing, or sculpting on paper, or wall-based work. In these peripheries of the ‘in-between’ is where I find the most exciting opportunities to express myself with sculpture. 

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Zayn Qahntani: I am inspired by the life that I am living, and the stories I’m narrating could be my own or of the people around me. I find a lot of potency in expressing the more ‘twilight zone’ emotions – ones that we all have but keep to ourselves – such as grief, mourning, yearning, our deepest wishes and wants. I like being able to place these feelings on an altar-piece of sorts, a venerative space, so that they may be viewed in a different light or perhaps with more forgiveness. 

I write a lot of poetry which is usually where my process begins – either with a few words that have been floating in the back of my mind or through something which someone has said – and will go from there. My process also includes equal amounts of pre-planning and intuition – I usually have a loose form indicative of where to start the piece, but more often that not it will take on a life of its own halfway through. 

Isis Bird

Lee Sharrock: As a next-generation sculptor how would you say you are pushing the boundaries of traditional sculpture?

Isis Bird: My work comes from an immaterial space through my dreams, thoughts and poems. I think it’s amazing to see these works exist within the Bowman Sculptue space, a space embedded with so many traditional representations of sculpture. 

Can you summarise in a few sentences the inspiration behind your work and the process of creating it?

Isis Bird: My recent work ‘The heart of the fool’ explores the immediacy of found objects. I was inspired by the historical and personal context that furniture holds. I have an interest in reverse-engineering neglected things: paper, chairs, objects from the street. Inspired by their previous context, I disassembled these furniture pieces, cutting, sanding and filing them to reveal the blueprints of new forms. This led to a reconfiguration process of assembling narratives.

The interplay of each connecting part and joint allows for an evolutionary lens, where both myself and the sculpture are defining our roles within the studio. Play is a key part of my process and has become intuitive. Each wooden component acts as a piece of the puzzle, guiding me towards the final sculpture which resembles an anthropomorphic object, insect-like and alive.  

I’m interested in metal as a material and it appears a lot in my practice. Metal has a memory as each mark made by the artist is recorded in the material and it naturally patinas and ages over time, this reminds me of nature’s state of flux. My work ‘Orchidaceae’ is a magnified view of an orchid, a flower symbolic of sex and female genitalia. Flowers are a recurring motif in my work as a reminder of rebirth and reproduction.

An orchid plant which is found now in nearly every office space and supermarket in London but has a history of manic wealthy Victorians sending explorers to collect and discover new rare breeds of the flower. I was intrigued by this as well as the feminine form –  An orchid represents perceived ideas of women’s sexuality as an equally dangerous and alluring creature. 

I used reclaimed metal pieces to make this piece, using a hydro-forming technique to inflate the stem of the sculpture with high pressured water. Merging both manufactured and found pieces of metal gives this work a quality which feels both assembled and ready-made.  

©2024 Bowman Sculpture Gallery

Lee Sharrock

Lee Sharrock is a global creative PR consultant, curator and writer for publications including; Art Doc Photography Magazine, ArtLyst, Creative Review, FAD Magazine, F22, Runway Gallery Magazine, Soho House Magazine and STATE.

Our November exhibition rundown features legendary masters alongside emerging figures reshaping the art world. First up is George Rouy’s Bleed, Part I at Hauser & Wirth London. Rouy presents a new body of work that continues his exploration into collective mass, multiplicity, and movement. The exhibition reflects the emotional extremities of our time, inviting us to contemplate identity and embodiment in our globalised, technologically-driven era.

Next on our list of Five Exhibitions To See In London In November 2024 is David Hockney: Living in Colour at Halycon, showcasing one of the world’s largest collections of Hockney’s graphic works, featuring more than 150 pieces spanning six decades of Hockney’s career, dating from 1961 to 2018, this promises to be a feast for Hockney lovers.

Then, head over to bustling Brixton for one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists, Frank Bowling‘s Selected Prints at Brixton Library. The exhibition showcases sixteen special edition prints by Bowling in collaboration with DACS and the Sussex-based art publisher King & McGaw. These sixteen giclée prints of Bowling’s masterful abstract paintings, ranging from 1968 to 2020, include his ‘map paintings’ that trace and layer stencils of countries and continents and ‘poured paintings’ where acrylic paint is poured directly onto the canvas.

Next stop on our Five Exhibitions To See In London In November 2024 is American photographer Gregory Halpern’s King, Queen, Knave at HUXLEY-PARLOUR. King, Queen, Knave presents fourteen photographs from Halpern’s latest body of work, photographed over the last two decades, mostly in and around his hometown of Buffalo, New York. The series extends beyond a portrait of place, celebrating the poetic idiosyncrasies of everyday life.

The last stop on our Five Exhibitions To See In London In November 2024 is A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art at Mazzoleni, London with Mythology Reinterpreted. The exhibition strives to reinterpret the ancient through the lens of Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico, Salvo, and Giulio Paolini, and Mexican artist Jorge Méndez Blake. Guiding this revaluation of the ancient and drawing us back to the point of inspiration, a series of Roman artefacts will invite us to embark on a journey through the annals of art history while simultaneously demonstrating their continual relevance in contemporary visual culture.

Five Exhibitions To See In London In November 2024

George Rouy: The Bleed, Part I

George Rouy: The Bleed, Part I
​7th October, 2024 – 21st December, 2024
Hauser & Wirth London
​23 Savile Row
​London W1S 2ET

Emerging as a leading figure of the new generation of painters, George Rouy’s debut solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London, ‘The Bleed, Part I,’ will present a new body of work continuing his inquiry into collective mass, multiplicity and movement. The second chapter, ‘The Bleed, Part II,’ will follow at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles in February 2025. Rouy’s dynamic and signature use of the human figure, vexed with desire, alienation and crisis, speaks to the emotional extremities of our time, resulting in explorations of identity and embodiment in a globalised, technologically-driven 21st Century

Learn more

David Hockney: Living in Colour

Halcyon is proud to present one of the world’s largest collections of graphics by David Hockney at 148 New Bond Street. “Living in Colour,” which consists of more than 150 works, is also open at its gallery in Harrods. Spanning six decades of his illustrious career, the works date from 1961 to 2018 and include his iconic pool images, self-portraits, portraits of friends, still lifes, and landscapes.

Hockney’s power lies in his virtuosity as a draftsman and colorist, and his appreciation for the everyday. He paints the world around him with bright, bold colors and a restless desire to experiment, epitomizing American modernist Philip Guston’s definition of art as “serious play.”

As an artist, Hockney has always embraced the latest technological innovations. In the 1980s, he harnessed photocopy machines as part of his practice, and more recently, the iPad, which he uses to capture the world as he sees it — through the technicolor guise of the digital age. Visitors will discover various iPad drawings, providing rich insight into his unique exploration of this new medium.

“Living in Colour” also showcases Hockney’s work in the medium of photographic collage, an area of his oeuvre that is sometimes overlooked but in which he was pioneering. In these works, he experimented with unique perspectives and compositions. The exhibition offers a window into Hockney’s personal life: views of his studios, household objects, portraits of friends, family, and his beloved dachshunds — documenting his life and travels from Yorkshire to California.

David Hockney: Living in Colour
Halcyon
10th October, 2024 – 31st December, 2024
148 New Bond Street
London
W1S 2TR

Learn more

Frank Bowling OBE RA: Selected Prints

King & McGaw, the Sussex-based leading art publisher and destination for fine art prints, has partnered with Brixton Library on an exhibition of sixteen special edition prints by Frank Bowling OBE RA, one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists.

Frank Bowling and DACS – the Design and Artists Copyright Society – began their collaboration with art publishers King & McGaw in 2021. The result is a collection of sixteen giclée prints of Bowling’s masterful paintings ranging from 1968 to 2020.

The collection includes Bowling’s ‘map paintings’ that trace and layer stencils of countries and continents, and ‘poured paintings’ where acrylic paint is poured directly onto the canvas.

Frank Bowling OBE RA: Selected Prints
6th November, 2024 – 31st December, 2024
Brixton Library
Brixton
Oval
London SW2 1JQ

Learn more

Gregory Halpern: King, Queen, Knave

Huxley-Parlour are delighted to present King, Queen, Knave, a new solo exhibition of works by American photographer Gregory Halpern, now open at our Swallow Street gallery. The exhibition will present fourteen photographs from Halpern’s latest body of work, photographed over the last two decades mostly in and around his hometown of Buffalo, New York. The series extends beyond a portrait of place, celebrating the poetic idiosyncrasies of everyday life.

Buffalo acts as a vast stage in Halpern’s series, hosting a cast of people, animals and buildings that pass before the photographer’s lens. At times the city feels outsized for its inhabitants: open spaces appear unvisited; a large factory looms over a solitary figure picking flowers in a meadow; snow- covered streets are left unwalked.

In his photographs, Halpern reimagines the city’s abandoned sites and urban landscape. Once a centre of industry, which has since migrated elsewhere, along with half its population, Buffalo has witnessed significant loss, although a quiet resilience and strange sense of beauty remain.

Gregory Halpern: King, Queen, Knave
31st October, 2024 – 30th November 2024
HUXLEY-PARLOUR
3–5 Swallow Street
London
W1B 4DE

Learn more

Mythology Reinterpreted: A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art

Mazzoleni, London is pleased to present the exhibition Mythology Reinterpreted: A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art. Opening on 8 October until 6 December, the exhibition strives to reinterpret the ancient through the lens of Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico, Salvo and Giulio Paolini and Mexican artist Jorge Méndez Blake. Guiding this revaluation of the ancient and drawing us back to the point of inspiration, a series of Roman artefacts will invite viewers to embark on a journey through the annals of art history, while simultaneously demonstrating their continual relevance in contemporary visual culture.

Mythology Reinterpreted: A Journey through Ancient Inspiration in Modern & Contemporary Art
8th October, 2024 – 6th December, 2024
Mazzoleni
15 Old Bond Street
London
W1S 4AX

Learn more

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

Prempeh’s approach will inform this new chapter of Olympia: a venue where art and architecture collide, mirroring the varied histories and communities that make up London’s layered identities.

The regeneration of Olympia is one of the most ambitious cultural projects in the capital. The site will be home to a music venue, London’s largest purpose-built theatre in decades, two hotels, more than 30 restaurants and bars, a school, offices, and public spaces for visitors to enjoy.

Prempeh founded A Vibe Called Tech and, together with Creative Director Lewis Dalton Gilbert, brings an intersectional perspective to their projects. Since 2018, the pioneering Black-owned agency has collaborated with cultural powerhouses like Gucci, Faber, and Frieze, as well as leading institutions such as the RA, White Cube, and the V&A East.

With Olympia’s reimagining on the horizon, Prempeh is poised to establish it as London’s cultural heartbeat.

Hi Charlene, can we start with the story of how your appointment as Olympia’s first Art Ambassador came about? What discussions or opportunities led to this new collaboration, and what initially attracted you to the project?

Charlene Prempeh: I was inspired to take on the role of art ambassador because Olympia was always somewhere I came when I was younger, and it was a place that really struck in memory. When I heard that Olympia was going through a new phase, taking on a new guise and being reimagined as a new cultural hub, I really wanted to be a part of helping to shape its future. I was thrilled when the team approached me with the opportunity. 

As Olympia’s first-ever Art Ambassador, what drew you to take on this role, and how does it align with your work at A Vibe Called Tech?

Charlene Prempeh: Our mission at A Vibe Called Tech is to use the richness of diverse cultures to inform strategic thinking across all audiences. At Olympia, I’ll be embracing the same approach to ensure the art strategy is shaped through an intersectional lens and will nourish all of the communities that Olympia serves. 

The regeneration of Olympia is set to be one of London’s most ambitious projects. How will your role shape Olympia’s broader art strategy, particularly in terms of integrating public art and design into this multifaceted space?

Charlene Prempeh: Olympia feels like a space that is very much in transition, but as it develops, art and culture is going to be central to the DNA. My role is to help shape the broader art strategy for Olympia, advising on which institutions we should engage with and suggesting emerging and established artists to partner with. I also work with the team to look at Olympia’s existing collection of artworks and how we can make the most of the archive. 

You’ll be hosting the first in a series of roundtables during Frieze 2024, starting with a conversation with artist Remi Ajani. Can you share more about your personal relationship with Remi and how it has influenced your own creative vision?

Charlene Prempeh: For my first creative roundtable, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect co-host than one of my favourite artists and a long-time dear friend, the brilliant Remi Ajani.  

Remi’s works have pride of place in my home, and we had an amazing conversation about how abstract and physical structures shape our psyche. Her work deals with both colour and gesture and is deeply connected to identity and mythology. I love how she investigates how to make a work that allows viewers to connect with a shared emotional space.

The reimagined Olympia will include diverse creative outlets, from a 4,000-capacity music venue to lifestyle hotels and restaurants. How do you envision art and design interacting with these other elements to create a cohesive cultural hub?

Charlene Prempeh: We envisage art and design interacting with all elements of the reimagined Olympia, through ongoing programming, exhibitions and public art, all of which will aim to surprise and delight visitors. 

A Vibe Called Tech approaches creativity through an intersectional lens. How will this perspective inform the projects and collaborations you plan to develop within Olympia’s art Strategy?

Charlene Prempeh: Diversity will be at the core of the strategy. To ensure we are including different voices and communities, we’ll look to balance small-scale installations, exhibitions and commissions that showcase experimental works from emerging artists with bigger scale immersive experiences and recognisable blockbuster works that will attract the broadest possible audience. 

You’ve worked with renowned institutions like the RA and Whitechapel Gallery. How will your previous experiences and partnerships influence the art programming at Olympia?

Charlene Prempeh: Institutions continue to grapple with how they can support emerging works while maintaining necessary audience numbers. Working with the incredible curation and development teams internationally, we’ll be looking at where we can partner to collaborate on off-site co-presentations in the Olympia space. 

With the London Design Festival pavilion and the “Off The Shelf” installation by Rio Kobayashi, Olympia has already begun its journey into the art world. How do you see this installation setting the tone for future art exhibitions and cultural conversations at Olympia?

Charlene Prempeh: The Rio Kobayashi pavilion embraces the journey of transformation already taking place at Olympia. It exists as a creative space in transition, offering a place where people, ideas, and even materials can meet and interact. Not merely just architectural, the space is multi-purpose, playing host to a vibrant hub of activity, something we hope to bring into all elements of future exhibitions.

Olympia aims to be a destination celebrating creativity in all forms. What strategies will you employ to ensure that public art and cultural programming here remain open, inclusive, and reflective of diverse communities and voices?

Charlene Prempeh: My vision for the kind of artistic direction for Olympia starts with imagining a future where the roundtables, for example, will be very specific and diverse. Art is something that can encourage wellbeing, and with Olympia being shaped around this overall ideal of delight, I want Olympia to feel like a space that families, individuals can come to and be surprised by. 

The impact that art can have on community engagement and cultural conversation is incredible. Art permeates everything from mathematics to furniture making, to accountancy. There’ll be lots of different businesses here that are both creative and not and I want our art strategy to appeal to this broad spectrum of audiences. 

©2024 Charlene Prempeh

Len Gordon

Len is a curator and a contributing writer at Art Plugged, a platform for contemporary art; he also engages in web development, design, and marketing.

When you’re an art critic, you end up reviewing a lot of Andy Warhol’s shows inevitably because there are shows everywhere all the time. And I realised that he was a genuinely great artist, even better than people realised.

Blake Gopnik

Born in 1963 in Philadelphia, Gopnik grew up in Montreal’s Habitat 67, an iconic vision of brutalist living, with his early education shaped by a bilingual French foundation at Académie Michèle-Provost. His academic path led him to McGill University, where he earned honours in medieval studies before undertaking a doctorate at Oxford, exploring Renaissance realism and the philosophy of representation.

Before transitioning to journalism, Gopnik’s career in art criticism spanned Canada and included roles as chief art critic at The Washington Post, followed by contributing critic at The New York Times. Since 2011, Gopnik has anointed the artistic mecca New York as home.

Lauded as the definitive authority on all things Warhol, Gopnik is celebrated for his comprehensive 2020 biography, Warhol: A Life as Art. Gopnik pens a must-read, lucid chronology of Warhol’s journey, revealing the intricacies of an artist who changed the art world, painting a portrait as complex and captivating as Warhol himself.

In Gopnik’s first curatorial project at Stockholm’s Spritmuseum, Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol, he focuses on Warhol’s concept of “Business Art,” as Warhol described it, “the step that comes after art.” Gopnik curates works from over 15 pioneering artists alongside Warhol’s own pieces. The exhibition also features the previously lost Warhol Absolut Blue painting. I had the opportunity to sit down with Gopnik to learn more about his work and his curatorial approach to Warhol’s idea of Business Art.

Good afternoon, Blake. How are you doing? Could you start by giving us a little background on how you got into the arts and your journey?

Blake Gopnik: Yeah, kind of complicated. I actually began as an academic, studying 10^th century Italy. I was a medieval scholar. And then went to museum and fell in love with art basically. It changed my field as an academic. I became an art historian and eventually kind of an accident became an art critic.

When you’re an art critic, you end up reviewing a lot of Andy Warhol’s shows inevitably because there are shows everywhere all the time. I realised that he was a genuinely great artist, even better than people realised, which meant that when the time came to write a biography of Andy Warhol, someone had to write a serious comprehensive biography of Andy Warhol, I decided and some other people decided that I was the right person to do it.

So I spent eight years of my life pretty much morning until night studying Andy Warhol, looking at his archive. I mean he kept every receipt for every meal he ever had, every movie that he went to, we have the stubs. So we know everything about his life and what I have to do is take this huge amount of information and collapse it into one book that was only a thousand pages long.

So I published that. And now, I’m curating my first show here in Stockholm about Andy Warhol. I’m very excited to be doing it for Spritmuseum in Stockholm. I’ve never been to Stockholm before. I’ve never been to this museum in fact before and I’m completely in love with my own show, if I may say so.

How does the rediscovery of Absolut Warhol (The Blue Version) deepen our understanding of Warhol’s commercial collaborations?

Blake Gopnik: One of the interesting things about the fact that they discovered a second Absolut painting is that it connects his work in the 1980s to his very earliest work as a commercial illustrator because he was famous for offering clients several versions of anything he did. So in the ‘50s already, he realized that he could move ahead of other illustrators by being more client-friendly.

So it turns out—I guess we didn’t really know this—that he had done the same thing for Absolut, giving them the so-called black version and the blue version. The difference is, by 1985, he was one of the most famous artists in the entire world and had a history since the early 1960s of making work that was about business but also critical of capitalism and commercialism.

My show here in Stockholm is about this new kind of art he created called Business Art, where the very act of engaging in business, engaging with businesses, became an art supply like oil paint. And when he did this, there was always the possibility—the reality—that he was also critiquing capitalism and consumerism.

So when he comes to do the Absolut bottle, it stands as one of his most important Business Art projects because he made $60,000 doing it, which was a lot of money. It’s a lot of money now, but it was a great deal of money in 1985. And it turns out to be one of the most successful artist-sponsored brands in history. Absolut was already an important brand or starting to be, but when he did the bottle for them, it became a really big deal.

But at the same time, his involvement with Absolut is part of his career as a business artist, which means that inevitably, there’s a sense of critique or concern about capitalism in it. It’s putting capitalism on display and saying, ‘Think about this. Don’t just take it for granted.’

So like all of his best Business Art, it’s business, and it’s art, and it’s art that critiques business at the same time, and that’s what makes it more interesting than your average ad for a product.

In placing Warhol alongside other artists who explore themes of consumption and consumerism, what connections or contrasts between Warhol and contemporary artists do you hope visitors will discover through this exhibition?

Blake Gopnik: I think the one thing they’re going to discover is that Warhol is at the root of a great deal of contemporary art. A lot of contemporary art—good contemporary art—has a complicated relationship with popular culture and consumerism. It doesn’t just celebrate it. It doesn’t—if it’s good art—just sit there and absorb it or even portray it, but questions it at the same time. So Warhol is at the very origin of that.

In our show, we deliberately included, at the very end of it, a bunch of work by 21st-century followers of Warhol, followers of Warhol, business artists, because a lot of what he did—a lot of the confusion of categories that he began—still exists today in the best art. So you don’t know: Are you looking at art? Are you looking at business? Are you looking at critique or celebration? The confusion itself is really the art form. And Warhol is at the root of that.

And the best art today isn’t pre-painting. It’s not an impressive sculpture. It’s something that questions all categories.

How does Swedish design and cultural identity, as explored in the Spritmuseum’s rotating exhibitions, provide a unique context for Warhol’s work and its focus on mass production, consumerism, and branding?

Blake Gopnik: From what I know of Sweden—and God knows I’m no expert—Sweden has often had a complicated and interesting relationship with mass production. Sweden has two of the most important consumer brands in the world now, IKEA and H&M, and both of those are companies that aren’t only about making as much money as you can by putting junk out into the world; they take the creative side seriously at the same time as they want to make goods for the average person. And of course, those are issues that were essential to Warhol as well.

So I think this tradition of taking everyday objects seriously, imagining that you can make art based on them, and the interaction between high culture and low culture is an interesting and important one. All of those things that are present, I think, in Swedish attitudes towards consumption and products are there in Warhol as well. Now, Warhol, of course, is a fine artist in part, so he is commenting on them in a way that I think H&M and IKEA don’t quite do. But I think they’re participating in a similar culture of questioning, and I think that’s really interesting.

And not everywhere is quite like that. In America, where I come from, I think we take consumption and products more for granted as being good in their own right. Making money by itself is good even if you’re selling junk. I think in Sweden, they’ve got a more complicated relationship.

One of my favourite works of contemporary art involved an artist called Guy Ben-Ner, who, as his work, took his whole family to IKEA in pajamas, and they all got into bed and pretended they lived there. And apparently, IKEA didn’t know what was happening. So he was filming a video of his kids; they would put on a piece of clothing from IKEA with the tags still hanging, and they would pull the covers up to their necks with the tags on them.

It was just a hilarious video of a family living in IKEA. And then he got kicked out of that IKEA, so he would go from IKEA to IKEA in order to finish his film of a family spending a day living in IKEA. It was beautiful. Yeah, it’s superb.

Do you think there will ever be another Warhol, not in terms of just an outright copy, but an artist who embodies his approach, philosophy, and vision of art?

Blake Gopnik: I’m not sure there will be another Warhol in the sense of embodying the spirit of his art, because of course, he did a damn good job of that. I feel confident that there will be another artistic genius. There have only been, in the history of Western art—and we’re talking about Western art here—a handful of artists as great as Warhol: Michelangelo, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya, Picasso, the very, very few people at that level of genius. There are many artists I love today—many. I should say there are at least 15 artists that I love today. None of them, I think, have risen to that level.

But we just have to wait. We’re in the worst moment I can ever think of for art. There’s so much bad art being made. And people like me and all my friends are always mourning it, and I say, ‘There have been lots of moments like this before.’ 1905 is not the greatest moment in the history of art, and then Picasso comes along a few years later. So you just can’t predict. If I could predict what was going to come next, I’d be a great artist and maybe even wealthy. Of course, I can’t, because whatever comes has to be something that we weren’t expecting, or it’s not that important.

Lastly, can you share with us your philosophy of art in terms of your work, life, and curatorial approach?

Blake Gopnik: Yeah. I’d love to answer the question, especially because this is my first time as a curator, and I’ve decided it is impossible. It is so unbelievably hard to take a theme and then find objects, and then get someone to lend you the objects. I mean, every object requires a thousand emails. I can’t believe that people do this every day because I’m about to die from exhaustion, and I did one-hundredth of what the curators at the Spritmuseum did.

I mean, this is a small museum, and they pulled off a giant feat—I mean, all of these loans, these Warhol objects worth insane amounts of money. I will never again curate an exhibition because it is too hard. I just want to be an art critic. I want to write thousand-page books because that’s easier than curating one small exhibition. So that’s my philosophy on curating.

And art just matters more to me than anything else. It’s the ultimate example of doing things for their own sake. If it’s good, it’s doing whatever you think is the most compelling, interesting, and important thing you can possibly do. There’s almost nothing else in life that’s like that. And if you’re being judged correctly, it’s about your ability to do that—your ability to put art before anything else and make the most interesting and important art you can possibly make.

Ideally, make art that contributes something that hasn’t been contributed before. We have a lot of nice oil paintings of people’s faces. We don’t need more of those. And great artists really change everything about the culture, and you’re allowed to do that. It’s the one area where, in an ideal situation, making money shouldn’t matter—unless you’re a business artist like Warhol, where the money is the point.

It really should simply be that you should only be judged on how profoundly you’ve rethought any number of things. It could be rethinking politics. It could be rethinking art. There really is no other activity where that is the goal. So for me, that’s the most exciting thing in the world, and one out of a million artists succeeds. If it’s good, it’s unbelievably exciting.

Money on the Wall: Andy Warhol Curated by Blake Gopnik opens on the 18th of October, 2024 until the 27th of April, 2025 at Spritmuseum, Stockholm

©2024 Blake Gopnik, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Len Gordon

Len is a curator and a contributing writer at Art Plugged, a platform for contemporary art; he also engages in web development, design, and marketing.

The Spirit of Positive Change Award recognises filmmakers who strive for progression and positive change in the film industry by promoting diversity, highlighting underrepresented voices and challenging stereotypes.

The evening was filled with independent Nordic and international films, each showcasing the best of creativity and inclusivity, a common ground for both NIFF and Absolut. However, only one winner could take home the new award. Giancarlo Martins, Creative Content Director of Marketing from The Absolut Group,presented Kirsikka Saari with the award for her film Fat Dance which the jury felt represented the true meaning of what it is to bring positive change to the film industry.

The jury selected Fat Dance by Kirsikka Saari for its bold challenge to stereotypes and promotion of diversity. The film highlights underrepresented voices, showing how narrow roles for women persist in both dance and film. By focusing on self-acceptance and breaking traditional norms, Fat Dance inspires positive change in the industry through fresh, inclusive storytelling.

Speaking at the event Kirsikka Saari, Screenwriter and Director of Fat Dance from Helsinki said ““I’m really happy and honored about this. We’ve all heard so many times that we should  accept ourselves the way we are – but my main character Evaleena shows that it’s actually a radical thing to do.

Making this film challenged my own thinking and showed how narrow role women still have both in the dance scene and on film screens. It’s time to see more diversity in films – and I believe that it would help us to tell also fresh stories. Making this film wasn’t always easy. Still it was so much fun, thanks to my main character Evaleena’s frenetic vigor, humor and the determination to change things. The biggest thanks goes to her!”

Linnea Larsdotter Mikkelä, Founder and President of NIFF “Being a Nordic film festival in New York it is our duty to commit to a diverse and inclusive experience. Because the Nordic region is less of a monolith than one might think, but also because our home is here, in this gorgeous melting pot of cultures, and that gives us the opportunity to share stories with each other that you might never have come across otherwise.”

One of NIFF’s core missions is to highlight the diversity of the independent filmmaking community and Absolut is a long-standing advocate of inclusivity and representation, believing that when we mix different people, places and ideas, we can create a better, more open and inclusive world. These shared values inspired the brands to create this new award, giving a platform for those helping bring about positive change in the film industry while inspiring others to continue doing so.

Deb Dasgupta, Global Marketing VP at Absolut Vodka, said “It’s an “Absolut” privilege to present Kirsikka Saari and Fat Dance with The Spirit of Positive Change Award, recognizing their bold strides in reshaping the film industry. At Absolut, we’ve always believed that the most inspired creations come from mixing – ideas, identities, perspectives, and, of course, drinks. When we mix, we make magic. The work at NIFF’s 10th anniversary festival brought a much-needed splash of diversity to the filmmaking canvas, and with our shared vision of driving inclusion and representation forward, this partnership wasn’t just natural – it was inevitable.”

©2024 Absolut, Nordic International Film Festival (NIFF)

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

The booth, known for its vibrant yet deeply reflective presentation, has drawn widespread attention from art lovers, museum representatives, and the press. Kingsley Ayogu’s Intimacy of Memory: A Journey Through Grief, inspired by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Notes on Grief’, continues to resonate profoundly with audiences.

The emotional depth of Ayogu’s work, combined with his growing international presence, has attracted tremendous press coverage and significant interest from collectors and museum curators. An interactive element within the booth has further heightened its impact, with visitors leaving personal notes about their own experiences with grief on display.

This participatory feature has made the exhibition not only a visual experience but also an emotional one, connecting individuals across languages and cultures in a shared reflection on loss.

Additionally, visitors are engaging online, contributing to a collective narrative that transcends the physical space of the fair. The emotional depth of the exhibition was further amplified during a recent talk at the booth, where Dr. Odile Goubali Talon read excerpts from ‘Notes on Grief’. The reading sparked a heartfelt discussion, with attendees reflecting on memory, loss, and healing. This experience has made the booth one of the most talked-about at the fair, drawing in a steady stream of visitors eager to engage with the art and the profound messages it conveys.

As the AKAA Art Fair enters its final days, we invite those who have yet to visit to experience this exceptional exhibition. TAAH’s Booth B2 offers a unique opportunity to connect with Ayogu’s moving work and participate in an introspective and communal exploration of grief.

For those unable to attend in person, we encourage you to join the conversation online. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of an experience that transcends borders and brings people together through a universal, shared emotion.

©2024 The African Art Hub’s (TAAH)

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

Now in its 2024 reign at London’s Lyceum Theatre, The Lion King is so much more than an entertainment juggernaut; it is also a rich source of artistic inspiration that will forever leave an indelible mark on the UK’s theatre and cultural landscape.

Booking Tickets with Ease

It is befitting to share where people can access this wonderful and revolutionary play. With technology making it easy to book tickets, audiences have continued to throng the Lyceum Theatre to watch the play. Hello Tickets is one of those platforms that have changed the way theatregoers secure their seats. Also, very smooth: from viewing available dates and comparing seating options to purchasing the tickets for the lion king the musical, it is an all-smartphone or computer affair.

Special deals, group bookings and even last-minute offers, there’s more that makes sites like Hello Tickets so indispensable to theatre-goers today. With this facility, it is easy to book online and has contributed to the continuous running of the show and given new generations of fans to witness the magic of Disney’s The Lion King live on stage.

A Pioneering Approach to Stagecraft

Of course, one aspect in which the production did change the course of theatre history was stage design. Spearheaded by Julie Taymor, the production delivered a certain incorporation of African art with the Western form of the theatre. Taymor’s vision exceeded the usual live-action Disney soundtrack, was floored and involved puppets, silks and animal masks nevertheless, to represent Simba, Mufasa and the Circle of Life.

Especially, the puppetry raised the bar for telling stories on stage in a manner that was different. From the birds that fly across the theatre to the famous Gazelle wheel sweeping across the savannah, handcrafted puppets from Disney’s The Lion King are true marvels of artistic engineering. Every single puppet is curated to express not just the form but the spirit of its associated animal, fusing traditional African design motifs with state-of-the-art stage techniques.

A Fusion of Cultures

Besides being simply theatrical, the costumes and masks in The Lion King are one point of its sustained success. Through the combination of African cultural traditions with Western knowledge of artistic methods, Taymor succeeded in developing some of the most striking and innovative designs that modern theatre has seen. The costumes of the characters appear not to be worn but as if three-dimensional sculpture brings into focus the personality and emotions of the animal characters.

Masks of lions worn on top of the heads of actors, not over their faces, are both animalistic and human in their expressions. This in and of itself lends another dimension to the enacted portrayal of the characters in the play. Taymor based her presentation on traditional African art and mixed those with her own history of designing masks to present some spectacular interpretations of characters such as Mufasa and Scar. These masks, along with the pulsating colours of costume in this show, are whisking the audience away into the clutches of the African savanna all while highlighting the artistic diversity that has defined the creative scene in the UK for decades.

Cultural Impact on the UK Arts Scene

When The Lion King landed in the UK, it marked another milestone in musical theatre. Its very success proved that audiences wanted more than catchy tunes and happy endings: they wanted something visually rich, emotionally complex, and culturally diverse. “The impact of The Lion King on our theatrical landscape cannot be overstated. It challenged the norms and expanded our horizons,” says acclaimed playwright David Hare. It has gone on to inspire a range of productions up and down the country to produce work that is far more innovative and ambitious in terms of storytelling.

Among the greatest legacies The Lion King has given to UK arts is a furthering of African culture. “The show’s celebration of African traditions and narratives has reshaped how we actually approach telling stories,” said artist Yinka Shonibare.

From the jazzy expression of the African landscape to languages spoken, such as Zulu and Swahili, down to rhythmic African-inspired music, this show allowed British audiences to open themselves up to another culture than that which they had previously been asked to view or immerse themselves within. “It sparked a vital conversation about representation and inclusivity in our cultural institutions,” said director Rufus Norris, who added it had done much to push British theatre to be far more inclusive and diverse in its casting and storytelling.

Influence on UK Theatre Education

The artistic innovations in The Lion King have found their way into the UK’s theatre education system. The show is studied in many drama schools and art colleges as a casebook example of the fusion of various art forms. Indeed, students of puppetry, costume design and set design often look to The Lion King as a masterclass in how to integrate many different artistic disciplines into one cohesive theatrical experience.

As a result, it became one of the main examples of practical teaching for students who would like to be theatre technicians and performers offering touring masterclasses and workshops into production. Hence, the musical has been entertaining millions but at the same time spreading and inspiring the next generation of Britain’s theatre performers.

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.

In this immersive exhibition, the artistic visions of Terjuman, Adekunle, and Khumalo intertwine to create a cosmic journey that transcends earthly boundaries and evokes shared human experiences. Though rooted in diverse cultural backgrounds, each artist offers a unique lens on migration, belonging, and the interplay of personal and collective memory.

Houda Terjuman

Houda Terjuman brings forth ethereal sculptures and paintings that reflect the resilience and longing of the migrant experience. Her works, inspired by her own hybrid identity, depict bridges of hope—connecting distant worlds and anchoring the wanderer’s soul to a sense of belonging, guided by the constellations of memory and identity.

Gbemileke Adekunle

Gbemileke Adekunle navigates solitude and heritage through his luminous canvases, which shimmer with contemplative depth. Using acrylics, oil pastels, and charcoal, Adekunle crafts vibrant, introspective works that invite viewers on a spiritual pilgrimage. His art, rich in symbolism and narrative, reflects a profound exploration of identity and introspection, drawing the audience into a meditative visual experience.

Reggie Khumalo

Reggie Khumalo infuses his works with energy and vibrancy, where tradition and modernity coexist in harmony. His intricate patterns and radiant compositions chart his artistic and philanthropic journey, revealing a dynamic practice that reflects the pulse of Africa’s past, present, and future. Through his bold use of colour and form, Khumalo’s works offer a powerful commentary on cultural continuity and transformation.

As viewers move through the exhibition, they are invited to delve deeper into the layered meanings of each piece. The works, ranging from surreal and non-representational to strikingly realistic, transcend mere visual allure. Each brushstroke is laden with symbolism, speaking to the viewer’s emotions, memories, and understanding of the world around them.

The exhibition’s mastery of colour and texture serves as a guiding force through the sensory and emotional landscapes of the artists’ inner worlds. The use of light and shadow, abstraction and form, invites the audience into a contemplative space—where dreams, identities, and histories converge and take flight.

Beyond their aesthetic qualities, the artworks reflect the fluidity of our interconnected world. Like stars that move across the night sky, human experiences are constantly shifting, evolving, and adapting. The interplay of light and darkness within the works mirrors the complexity of existence, inviting the viewer to explore themes of transformation, resilience, and the enduring quest for belonging.

Beneath The Stars, Where Dreams Take Flight is not just an exhibition—it is a space for introspection, urging viewers to contemplate their own narratives in the broader context of migration, identity, and cultural heritage. The African Art Hub (TAAH) remains committed to fostering the global recognition of African artists by offering platforms like these for artistic expression and cross-cultural dialogue.

The African Art Hub (TAAH) will present “Beneath the Stars, Where Dreams Take Flight” at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London from October 10th, 2024, until October 13th, 2024.

©2024 The African Art Hub (TAAH)

Art Plugged

Art Plugged is a contemporary platform inspired by a relationship with the broader arts communities. We provide our audience with curated insight into the world of art, from exhibitions to artist interviews and more.