I begin the November Art Diary with exhibitions by artists with whom I have some former connections, starting with some I have interviewed, such as Michael Petry, Sean Scully and Genesis Tramaine. Then, I highlight some other artists and exhibitions that address aspects of spirituality and mythology. These include Stanley Spencer, Takis and Jonathan Clarke. Finally, I end with exhibitions exploring themes of equality and inclusion, which enable difficult conversations to take place across boundaries.
I recently interviewed Petry for Artlyst in the context of an earlier iteration of his exhibition, ‘In League with Devils’. The main body of this exhibition at VANE consists of bronze sculptures from the last decade supplemented by more recent works, including a new series of ‘Heaven’ paintings. All the works deal with historic and current belief systems. The ‘Heaven’ paintings are part of his series, ‘Landscape and Gods’, and are based on the religious ideas of what heaven looks like for the many differing faiths. Petry has also made several new bronzes for the exhibition at VANE, including ‘Ha-Nahash (The Serpent)’, the Hebrew name for the serpent said to have tempted Adam and Eve, which is never called Satan in the Torah or original Old Testament versions. The solid black bronze object looks like some primaeval nematode or creature from another world whose dangerous scales might be sent flying towards the viewer at any moment.
Tramaine is another artist whom I have previously interviewed for Artlyst. Her latest exhibition, ‘SWEET JESUS!’ is her fifth for the Almine Rech Gallery. In setting the context for this exhibition, Eric Troncy states, “When history tells the story of contemporary art—or of avant-garde movements, which have long been taken for contemporary art itself—it focuses on a series of acts of liberation.” “Depicting the lives of the saints,” he claims, “is probably one of the very oldest liberations, far predating contemporary art.” Tramaine defines herself as “a queer devotional painter” and “Through daily morning meditation and study, she explores the life of the saints, finding the inspiration and information that lead to her paintings.” By offering her artistic version of the tales defining the life of each saint, Troncy argues that Tramaine wants to establish an alternative truth: “I think it’s important that you paint a real narrative, an honest reflection. I don’t think [my saints] look like saints as they have been given to us…[those] were false narratives.”
Scully is another person I have had the pleasure of interviewing. Following a major donation to the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, a selection of the artist’s paintings spanning from the early 1970s to his most recent pieces are currently on show at Centre Pompidou in an exhibition entitled ‘Sean Scully: a romantic geometry of colors’. Scully is widely recognised for his broad, colourful bands, often segmented and with vibrant edges, that structure his frequently large-format paintings. This visual language, developed in the 1980s and refined over the subsequent decades, has earned his work significant international acclaim. Additionally, the consecration recently took place of Scully’s stained glass window commission for the Altdorfer Kapelle of 1495 in the Church of St. Martin in Landshut, Bavaria. The city’s museums accompany that inauguration with an immersive Scully exhibition and a series of talks with prominent guests in the Great RATHAUS Gallery. His windows, with their abstract forms and colour intensity, suggest experiences of transcendence.
Another former interviewee of mine for Artlyst is Paul Chandler, who runs CARAVAN, an international arts NGO. Their latest exhibition, ‘ SYMBOLS OF LIFE: BEYOND PERCEPTION: An Artistic Exploration of the Human Soul’, is part of the programming around the Biennale de Dakar, the premiere art event on the African continent. This exhibition features two remarkable artists whose work enhances our experience and understanding of each other and the transcendent. Tidiane Ndongo and Djibril Coulibaly brilliantly embody CARAVAN’s vision of seeing the arts play a strategic role in transforming our world; they touch the spiritual dimension of our human existence. Art is a universal language that can dissolve the differences that divide us. As long as division has torn apart the human family, art has offered a mode of reconciliation and wholeness. As is evident in this exhibition, artistic initiatives by their very nature, are “encounter points,” bringing people together from different backgrounds who might otherwise remain apart, deepening understanding across cultures and spiritual traditions.
Some years ago, I enjoyed meeting Eileen Cooper at an exhibition she attended in St Martin-in-the-Fields. She first rose to prominence in the 1980s for her unique approach to figuration that combines a simple yet complex graphic style with her own poetic and evolving symbolism. She sees the female characters in her paintings as archetypal figures through whom she can channel different emotions, often reflecting on women’s work and, specifically, creative expression. ‘Eyes Wide Open’, her first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Wandsworth, brings together a new series of tender paintings that consider different states of transition, the performance of identity and acts of creation. In a series of moonlit scenes, women appear in various states of contemplation; their larger-than-life bodies bent into poses that are languid, sensuous, awkward and athletic. Although a sense of longing or even melancholy runs through many of these works, in this series, Cooper’s women also become symbolic of a deep connection to and understanding of self.
While at St Stephen Walbrook, I was always excited by the Patrick Heron kneelers that surround Henry Moore’s circular altar, these being, I think, Heron’s only ecclesiastical commission. Heron and Victor Pasmore were two of Britain’s pioneering abstract artists. Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert and Frankie Rossi Art Projects are staging an exhibition that revisits their seminal joint exhibition at the VIII São Paulo Biennial in 1965 through several important works originally included in the presentation and additional key pieces from the same period. While the two artists had never exhibited together in a dedicated two-person show before, their work mutually balanced a non-representational, formalist vision with natural artistic intuition. Their approaches countered the highly recognisable Pop Art style which flourished in the 1960s. At the same time, their expressive brushwork and asymmetry embodied a distinctly European aesthetic, offering a sharp contrast to the American-style painting that would have dominated the British Council’s selection committee’s view at the time.
In his lifetime, John Constable created three religious paintings, all of which were commissioned by churches in his native Stour Valley. The best known of these, ‘The Ascension’, is now at St Mary’s Dedham, in my own Diocese. It was commissioned in 1821, the year that he completed ‘The Hay Wain’, as an altarpiece for St Michael’s Church, Manningtree. I recently visited St James Nayland to see ‘Christ Blessing the Bread and Wine of the Last Supper’, a rare portrait of Christ commissioned in 1809 by Constable’s aunt, who at that time was living in Nayland. The third of these paintings is now on permanent loan to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Awareness of this aspect of Constable’s work can only enhance understanding of his context. As part of their NG200 celebrations, the National Gallery is staging the exhibition ‘Discover Constable and The Hay Wain’, focussing on Constable’s masterpiece. This is the first loan exhibition held at the National Gallery on Constable and the first to explore the social, political and artistic context of the English landscape at the time of The Hay Wain’s production.
As the son of a wealthy mill owner and corn merchant, Constable was intimately connected to the subject matter. The painting is of a rural scene on the River Stour in which three horses pull what appears to be a large farm wagon across the river. The house of Willy Lott, a tenant farmer, is visible on the far left. The setting is near Flatford Mill, which belonged to Constable’s father. The picture is very conservative in some respects as Constable paints – in the context of a fast-changing social and political landscape – a scene he would have known and loved since childhood, and yet Constable managed, with this painting, to bring novelty and innovation to the genre of landscape painting. That paradox is explored within this exhibition.
Current exhibitions of other artists who explore aspects of spirituality and mythology include Stanley Spencer, one of the most original artists of his era. Primarily influenced by his personal reality and extraordinary imagination, Spencer’s originality flows from his ability to see with his eyes and his soul. ‘Seeing the Unseen: Reality and Imagination in the Art of Stanley Spencer’ uses the collection of the Stanley Spencer Gallery to look at what inspired him and show how his reality and imagination merged. The exhibition invites viewers to look with their own eyes beyond what they see, just as Spencer did. As he said, “Everything has a sort of double meaning for me; there’s the ordinary everyday meaning of things and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together”. Spencer’s art is autobiographical, personal and strangely mysterious, and at times beyond comprehension to an unseeing eye. Each work is layered: a mixture of acutely observed reality, memory, fantasy and spirituality. Spencer’s artistic impulse drove his very being, his genius lying in his ability to see beyond visual reality.
The unique and distinctive output of Stanislaw Brunstein, a Polish Jewish artist, captures and recreates on canvas a way of life that once was a world that was annihilated in the Holocaust. The paintings included in the retrospective exhibition ‘To Life! From Memory to Canvas’ asks us to imagine the lives that were lived in the pre-war Shtetls of Eastern Europe. Many characters are depicted, showing the richness and diversity in these villages and small towns. There are the Rabbis, the family groups, beggars and beetroot-sellers, musicians, and farmers. There are wedding scenes full of joy and pictures portraying love, loss and grief. These paintings depict, above all, a way of life in all its colours, throbbing with warmth and affection and demanding that the viewer engage with them. They reflect a life-affirming culture, and because it was destroyed, Brunstein wanted to ensure that it was remembered and kept alive through his work. He wanted us to remember that these lives were lived and not just to know that there was death and total destruction. He demands that we not only look at the imagery but that we join in with the feelings of joy, pain, suffering, and loss and that we experience some of the spirituality of the recreated religious traditions that he would have observed in his youth. The paintings ask us to feel the beating heart of what once was and is no more.
Works by Takis are being shown at White Cube Paris. A leading figure in the kinetic and sound art movements, Greek artist Panayiotis Vassilakis, known as Takis, incorporated invisible forces as a fourth dimension in his sculpture, painting and sound works. As noted in Tate’s 2019 retrospective, for Takis, sound relates to the idea of cosmic harmony and, therefore, has a spiritual component related to ancient philosophies about the universe, particularly the idea of the ‘music of the spheres’. Frequently employing electromechanical devices salvaged from military surplus stores, the artist also explored new technologies in his practice, taking art into domains previously relegated to experimental physics. Indeed, his engagement with energy and natural forces was often shaped by observations from science, art, poetry, history, politics, mythology and religion.
Jonathan Clarke was born in Suffolk, where he continues to work today, and, at the age of 16, he took up an apprenticeship with his father, the sculptor Geoffrey Clarke (RA). First exhibiting in the early 1980s, he works in sand-cast aluminium using a technique called lost polystyrene. His style, whilst abstract and architectural, carries a great deal of emotional resonance, often taking inspiration from social, spiritual and mythological subject matter. In addition to a series of successful exhibitions, he has also attracted a number of prestigious commissions, including an 11metre wall-mounted cross for Ely Cathedral (‘The Way of Life’, 2001), an eye-catching figure for the town of Colchester (‘Boudica’, 1999) and a twelve-piece exhibit for Trinity Hall’s permanent collection in Cambridge (‘Twelve’, 2006).
‘Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, alchemy and occultism’ is an exhibition exploring themes of magic, alchemy, and occultism in artists’ works from the 20th century to the present day. It opened exactly 100 years after the publication of André Breton’s first Manifesto of Surrealism and focuses on Surrealism and its international legacy, particularly among women artists. The exhibition considers the intersection between Surrealism, spiritual beliefs and gender discourse. Ithell Colquhoun was a radical painter expelled from the British Surrealist Group for her association with occult groups. Leonora Carrington was a British-Mexican Surrealist and Feminist whose art and prose were inspired by folklore and alchemy. Bharti Kher’s sculptures and paintings are inspired by alchemy, magical transformation, the female body, and mythology. Linder’s radical photomontages and confrontational performance art explore feminism, religion and surrealism. At the same time, Julia Isídrez’s experimental and imaginative works are inspired by ancient traditions and animals native to Paraguay, where she lives.
‘The End of Ritual’ at Victoria Miro is María Berrío’s depiction of interiors in tumult, of eras where great change is occurring but only partially grasped or understood by their inhabitants. Berrío is celebrated for works that draw upon aspects of mythology and folklore to create narratives that address contemporary issues of identity, agency and survival, particularly those experienced by women and children in the face of overwhelming ecological, economic or geo-political forces. In her latest series of large-scale collage paintings, Berrío explores moments of great transition by weaving together fantasy, history and our frenetic present. The result is like a vibrant, surreal folktale. These are paintings of the moments where the old world meets the new, when those standing on the threshold cannot envision what the future holds but realise that what came before is disappearing.
Istanbul’s Zeyrek Çinili Hamam and Museum is hosting its first exhibition in a recently discovered Byzantine Cistern. The museum and new cistern art space are also adjacent to a meticulously restored hammam, where exhibition visitors can further deepen their experience of centuries-old architecture. ‘Sailing to Byzantium: Alekos Fassianos’ features previously unseen works by the renowned Greek artist. His practice encompasses painting, poetry, ceramics, design, and architecture, and he is celebrated for a distinctive style that blends ancient art and modernism. His works, characterised by vibrant colours and flowing lines, are deeply rooted in Greek mythology, engaging with Byzantine iconography, the ship graffiti discovered in the cistern and the mysteries surrounding them, and the legendary figure of Barbarossa. These works invite viewers to explore a layered dialogue between history, myth, and imagination.
White Cube is hosting an exhibition of new work by Danh Vo, whose conceptual work explores the influences of institutions and historical and political events on collective and individual identity, probing into the inheritance and construction of cultural conflicts, traumas and values. For example, in the niche of a barricaded stairwell, the artist has hung a bronze cast of a 16th-century Spanish figure of Christ crucified. Though the figure is missing its arms, casts of the hands of the artist’s father, Phung Vo, appear in their place. They hold glass tubes growing Tropaeolum majus, a red flowering plant whose name borrows from the ancient Greek word for ‘trophy’. Is Vo taking a Catholic father and using him to mutate a religious relic in the name of utility? While the artist sometimes teases this kind of cruelty, it is rarely more than a patina. Is this rather a way for Vo to remember the lines on his father’s palms? A way to remember his father? Manifested through material objects, the artist sheds light on the relation between the inseparable elements that shape our sense of self, merging layers of time and interweaving personal and political narratives. His curated realms are charged with restless histories and an endless chain of associations linking the objects within.
Moving on to exhibitions enabling cross-boundary conversations, ‘Ecologies of Peace II’ is the final iteration of an exhibition trilogy at C3A in Córdoba examining the transformative contribution of wisdom traditions and poetic expressions in addressing past injustices and ongoing erasure. While the first part of ‘The Ecologies of Peace’ examined the roots of un-peacefulness and established a framework for re-defining peace and war beyond binary divides, this second chapter focuses on practices of mourning and forgiveness paving the way for reparative and conciliatory worldmaking. To illuminate this approach, Indian artist Amar Kanwar traces a journey across India’s fault lines through poetry and song, asking: “If different poetic narratives could merge together, allowing us to see a more universal language of symbols and meanings… would there be a moment of prophecy?” The work of prophetic peace-making, the unsettling and resisting the infrastructures of destruction, and the reawakening of life’s sacredness resonate deeply in the contributions by John Akomfrah, Ayrson Heráclito, Samson Kambalu, Nohemí Pérez, Joiri Minaya, and Rachel Rose, among others. This vision of a culture of peace also echoes Angela Davis’s call to “unite, unite, unite…” as seen in Manthia Diawara’s epochal film.
‘Reverb’ is a group show at the Stephen Friedman Gallery that brings together new works by eight artists from the Caribbean diaspora. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, mixed media and sound-based works, foregrounding the significance of contemporary art from the Caribbean region. It takes inspiration from Michael Veal’s (Professor of Ethnomusicology at Yale University) description of dub music and its use of reverb as a “sonic metaphor for the condition of diaspora.” Julian Henriques (Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London) compares the visceral vibrations of Caribbean music to the far-reaching impact of its people and cultures, writing that “the dancehall session serves as a model for diasporic propagation”. Like ripples across the ocean, these reverberations communicate stories of identity, place and colonialism. ‘Reverb’ adds to other recent exhibitions I have reviewed for Artlyst (‘In The Black Fantastic’, ‘Rites of Passage’ and ‘A World In Common’), which have explored legacies of the past, including that of colonialism in order to posit creative ways forward in the future.
The Gallery at Parndon Mill has partnered with St Clare Hospice, in a Hospice UK-funded initiative, to deliver ‘The Unspoken Conversation’, a project which has engaged with a broad range of ethnic communities within Harlow. After discussing dying, grief and loss through art and the creative process, the project aims to discover and share differing views and understandings of these topics. 18 workshops were held over nine days, led by 12 resident professional artists. 127 participants from 13 nations joined the conversation. These workshops facilitated many hours of conversation and cultural exchange on the topic and produced creative works that can be viewed in this exhibition. The results are thought-provoking and enchanting. Hopefully, this project will help open up new conversations that will ensure more people can talk about, offer support and seek help at the end of life.
Canterbury Cathedral has for centuries been the focus of pilgrimages and journeys started in hope and faith. It is now hosting an exhibition of a fleet of countless ephemeral vessels. These beautiful and fragile hand-crafted boats serve as a powerful metaphor for the impermanence of life and human vulnerability. In this ecclesiastical setting, ‘Cross-Currents’ prompts contemplation on the shared experiences of seeking sanctuary, embarking on spiritual quests, and navigating the unpredictable waters of life. Participating in the creative process is very much a part of this exhibition; visitors and the community will have an opportunity to participate in the Cross-Currents voyage through the practice of creating a boat themselves to accompany the fleet. Frances Carlile, who created the installation, is an environmental artist specialising in site-specific installations. She works directly with the landscape, both as a source of inspiration and materials found. She uses fragments of the real landscape from hedgerows, moorland and the sea shore and constructs them into fragile sculpture.
‘In League with Devils: Michael Petry’, 14 November – 7 December 2024, VANE – Visit Here
‘Genesis Tramaine: SWEET JESUS!’, Oct 12 — Nov 16, 2024, Almine Rech Paris – Visit Here
‘Sean Scully: a romantic geometry of colors’, from , Centre Georges Pompidou – Visit Here
‘Sean Scully. Color, Form, Light’, from 29 September 2024 in Große RATHAUS galerie Landshut – Visit Here
‘SYMBOLS OF LIFE: BEYOND PERCEPTION: An Artistic Exploration of the Human Soul’, 7 November – 7 December, Hôtel Le Djoloff, Dakar – Visit Here
‘Eileen Cooper: Eyes Wide Open’, 23 October – 23 November 2024, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery – Visit Here
‘VIII Sao Paolo Biennial Great Britain 1965, Revisited. Victor Pasmore | Patrick Heron’, 7 November 2024 – 31 January 2025, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert in collaboration with Frankie Rossi Art Projects – Visit Here
‘Discover Constable and The Hay Wain’, 17 October 2024 – 2 February 2025, National Gallery – Visit Here
‘SEEING THE UNSEEN: Reality and Imagination in the Art of Stanley Spencer’, 7 November 2024 – 30 March 2025, Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham – Visit Here
‘To Life! From Memory to Canvas: celebrating the life and work of Stanislaw Brunstein. A retrospective exhibition’, 18th November – 8th December 2024, Oaks Lane Reform Synagogue, Newbury Park – Visit Here
‘Takis: The Void’, 21 November 2024 – 11 January 2025, White Cube Paris – Visit Here
‘Jonathan Clarke sculptor & Andrew Pringle painter’, 19 October – 17 November 2024, Chappel Galleries – Visit Here
‘Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, alchemy and occultism’, 1 October – 22 December 2024, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, London –
Visit Here
‘The End of Ritual’, 21 November 2024 – 18 January 2025, Victoria Miro – Visit Here
‘Sailing to Byzantium: Alekos Fassianos’, 23 October – 31 December 2024, Zeyrek Çinili Hamam Museum – Visit Here
‘Danh Vō’, 11 October–16 November 2024, White Cube Mason’s Yard – Visit Here
‘The Ecologies of Peace II’, 27 September, 2024 – 30 March, 2025, C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba – Visit Here
‘Group Exhibition: Reverb’, 22 November – 18 December 2024, Stephen Friedman Gallery – Visit Here
‘The Unspoken Conversation’, 13 October – 10 November 2024, The Gallery at Parndon Mill, Harlow – Visit Here
‘Cross-Currents: Life as Journey’, 18 October 2024 – 15 February 2025, Canterbury Cathedral – Visit Here