Cathy's Art Diary

Poor exhibition at the National Maritime Museum looking at the food culture brought to the UK by the Windrush generation and its legacy. The show had good commentary boards but not many objects and some that were billed seemed to have disappeared as there was an empty case. They pointed out how people set up markets to provide the ingredients people wanted and how the food has moved from the margins to the mainstream with a good info board on taste makers from Rusty Lee to Andi Oliver. There were a couple of videos alongside the info boards but that was it. It felt like a big story to tell and it deserved more depth. It was presented by the National Windrush Museum in residence at the National Maritime Museum. I felt they needed a bit more mentoring about how to curate an exhibition. Closed 30 July 2026

Fun exhibition at Woolwich Works presenting an installation of a Windrush generation living room. The work was curated by Tony Fairweather’s Windrush Collection which aims to save original artefacts from the Windrush era. It sets up a living room of the period with clashing patterns and full of objects. The installation is accompanied by various events such as book readings. It was fun seeing this in a busy arts centre and café which made it stand out more and yet feel part of the space. Being a purist I’d like to have seen an old school tv being used, to advertise events within the show, rather than a modern monitor. It’s also interesting to think about what makes it Windrush, as a lot of the artefacts would have been seen in my grandma’s house of the same era. She definitely had that carpet! Closed 16 March 2025

Lovely exhibition at the National Portrait Exhibition of portraits of members of the Windrush generation commissioned by Prince Charles. The works were shown in a small, very busy room which made it very difficult to see the pictures and impossible to read the labels. I will try to go back on a quieter day. I had seen the delightful and moving tv programme on the painting of the works which made it slightly easier to know what they were even when I was just glancing. As on the tv show my favourite was this picture of Alford Gardner, painted by Chloe Cox. I loved the hyper real detail in such a large picture. Closed 4 April 2024 Review Guardian