The Philistine: The Very Best Of London Culture This July
By Something CuratedSomething Curated highlights the unmissable arts and culture happenings taking place across London this July, from the Goldsmiths and RCA graduate shows to a Sufi music recital, via Swiss interiors firm Vitra’s annual sample sale.
Exhibitions
Royal College of Art Degree Show 2019 || (Until 7 Jul 2019)
The Royal College of Art graduate show offers visitors a unique opportunity to experience the best of emerging contemporary art and design practice. Over 800 art and design postgraduate students will present work, demonstrating varied technical skills, exhibiting design solutions to pressing global problems alongside fine art that informs and enriches our worldview.
My Head is a Haunted House, at Sadie Coles HQ || Charlie Fox (Until 10 Aug 2019)
Curated by Charlie Fox, this group show at Sadie Coles HQ occupies the fantastical setting of the haunted house. Diverse works being exhibited come from a selection of contemporary artists including Marianna Simnett, Ed Atkins, Tetsumi Kudo, Sue de Beer, Larry Clark and Richard Hawkins.
Mary Ramsden: ZORRO, at Pilar Corrias || Mary Ramsden (4 Jul – 9 Jul 2019)
Mary Ramsden’s paintings are composed of elementary but indefinable shapes, marks, fields of colour and material. They appear so stripped back, so apparently lacking in artifice, coruscating brushwork and elaborate composition that it would be easy for a casual viewer to dismiss them. However, a closer look reveals that they are arrived at by a series of laborious experiments, of thinking and rethinking during the process of painting.
Takis, at Tate Modern || Takis (3 Jul – 27 Oct 2019)
Tate Modern will stage the first substantial exhibition in Britain since the 1960s of the work of the Greek artist Takis. Over a 70-year career spent in Athens, Paris, London and New York, Takis has created some of the most powerful, innovative works of 20th-century art. In them, he has reinvented the formats of painting, sculpture and music in relation to energy. This exhibition seeks out the essential poetry and beauty of the electro-magnetic universe explored by the artist.
Goldsmiths MFA Degree Show 2019 || (18-23 Jul 2019)
The Goldsmiths MFAdegree show brings together the international group of artists graduating from the programme in 2019. Practices are multidisciplinary and work across a wide range of research and contemporary concerns, materialising through sculpture, painting, video, installation, performance and sound. The show is located in three separate buildings: Ben Pimlott, Laure Grove Baths and St. James Hatcham.
Jannis Kounellis, at Almine Rech || Jannis Kounellis (Until 27 Jul 2019)
Comprising works JannisKounellis made between 1960 and 2014, this exhibition intends to act as an extensive overview of the artist’s career. With a practice spanning over sixty years, Kounellis is often referred to as one of the forefathers of the Arte Povera movement – one that arose in the 1960s and played a central role in redefining artistic practice with radical and highly original sculpture, performance and installation.
Film & Performance
Koolhaas Houselife Screening, at the Architectural Association || Rem Koolhaas (4 Jul 2019)
In 1998 the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas was commissioned to design Maison à Bordeaux, a contemporary house suited to the needs of the client, a wheelchair user, which the film is focused around. Koolhaas Houselife is the first project in the “Living Architectures” series, which unlike most movies about architecture, focuses less on explaining the building, its structure and its technical details than on letting the viewer enter into the invisible bubble of the daily intimacy of icons of contemporary architecture.
Abida Parveen, at Barbican || Abida Parveen (12 Jul 2019)
The Pakistani artist and one of the finest Qawwali vocalists of the modern era performs a selection of traditional Sufi music with her ensemble. Her specialism lies in performing musical forms that have been traditionally showcased by men – she sings ghazals and kafis in Urdu, Sindhi, Saraiki, Punjabi and Persian, accompanied by her wider band. Her hypnotic music largely focuses on themes of spirituality.
Events
Late at Tate Britain: Time, at Tate Britain || Luca Bosani, Digital Maker Collective, STAY FREE & More (5 Jul 2019)
This Late is in collaboration with students from Chelsea College of Arts, who present responses to the theme of ‘time’ through a mix of music, discussion, workshops and performance across Tate Britain and Chelsea. Among the projects being presented, artist Luca Bosani transforms the floor into an unconventional clock, where the seconds are marked by flamenco inspired steps and stomps. Later, join the Digital Maker Collective and explore how we experience time, absence and empathy through immersive art and virtual reality.
Vitra Sample Sale, at Oxo Tower || (13 Jul 2019)
Creating innovative interior products and concepts with great designers and artists, including Ron Arad, Tadao Ando, Carsten Höller and Jean Prouvé, is Vitra’s essence. Their pieces are developed in Switzerland and sold worldwide. Taking place on 13 July at Oxo Tower, Vitra are hosting their annual London sample sale with discounts of up to 60% across their ranges.
Shezad Dawood & Alexandra Kharibian in Conversation, at LUX Moving Image || Shezad Dawood & Alexandra Kharibian (25 Jul 2019)
Shezad Dawood works across disciplines film, painting, neon, sculpture and more recently virtual reality to deconstruct systems of image, language, site and narrative. LUX hosts a conversation between Dawood and costume designer Alexandra Kharibian. The pair will discuss the integral role of costume and their experience collaborating on Towards the Possible Film (2014) and three parts of Dawood’s ‘Leviathan’ series (2017 – ongoing).
Feature image: Still from Shezad Dawood’s Towards the Possible Film (via LUX Moving Image)