A Trip Around Some London Art Shows

A few days ago I spent a good day visiting galleries in London. First up was Handmade in Britain, a small boutique gallery just off the top end of Brick Lane, where I took some of my ceramics to be displayed and sold. http://www.handmadeinbritain.co.uk/?p=368

I then headed west for the Lisson gallery near Marylebone Station which has two sites on opposite sides of Bell Street. I really liked the one featuring Haroon Mirza who's work is "concerned with the distinctions that define noise, sound and music" and uses old hi-fi, dico and computer equipment to make a racket.

Calder mobiles looked wonderful in the window of the Gagosian Gallery in Davies St, then I visited New Bond Street's Fine Art Society, Bruton Street's Halcyon Gallery (enormous place including Bob Dylan paintings and prints), and a big show of Lynn Chadwick sculptures- silly me, I always thought 'she' was that fairly rare thing- a female famous scultor, but it's a 'he' with an unusual name.
Coffee break at the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street- if you haven't been there, do go and you'll see original equipment used in some really important scientific experiments by Farraday, Davy etc- and the coffe is good too.
Gallery Besson for a show of ceramics by the late Jaqueline Lerat  http://www.galeriebesson.co.uk/lerat2011.html

OK but not my cuppa tea.

Next stop the blockbuster show of Modern British Sculture at the Royal Academy. Imaginatively presented alongside historical influences, and without several big names, it worked extremely well. I thought the recreation of Passmore/Hamilton's room from a 1959 show at Newcastle University's Hatton Gallery was stunning (my in-laws were their students at that time).

A small video room showed short films- I liked Len Lye's Royal Mail film which you can see on YouTube, and Richard Wentworth's  Making Do and Getting By- photo's of things put to unusual uses by non-artists. My sort of images for sure.

In the evening I went to a teachers preview night at the National Gallery of Jan Gossaert, a relatively forgotten northern renaissance genius.

And what have you seen lately that you can recommend?