Cathy's Art Diary

Powerful exhibition in a pop-up space by Messums showing a selection of large sculptures by Laurence Edwards. The work looked majestic in the space and mainly consisted of life sized and over life sized male figures. There were also some fragmented faces. The main focus was three huge walking men statues which seemed to stride through the space. When I came to photograph them I realised they were all looking in different directions. I’d been the week before and found the gallery shut but they even looked imposing through the window. Closed 15 January 2025

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of three sculptures by Cristina Iglesias. The works come from Iglesias series Littoral (Lunar Meteorite) which are evidently part of her ongoing exploration of geological themes. Made of bronze with matt and gloss surfaces, inside there is a water feature from an invisible source giving sound and movement to the work. The works looks stark in the white space but drew you in to investigate where the sound was coming from. Closed 20 December 2025

Impressive sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Giuseppe Penone. The work was left over from a show at the gallery which was closed by the time I went but this outdoor hadn't been moved yet. It consisted of a black, blasted tree made of bronze, evidently cast from a real tree from Belgium which was struck by lightning. The trunk is lined with golf leaf highlighting its wounds. It brought to mind the Japanese repair technique, Kintsugi. The work looked beautiful sitting in the park with Kensington Palace behind. Exhibition ended 7 September 2025

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades looking at how Rodin was influenced in dancers and in particular Nijinsky. Juliet Bellow, from the American University and the author of a book of the same title, talked us through three sources of dance influence for Rodin, the Art Nouveau solo dancer Lois Fuller, the Cambodian Royal Ballet who visited Paris in 1906 and Ballet Russe and Nijinsky. For this talk she concentrated on the latter and   looked in detail at a small sculpture Rodin made of the dancer in 1912. She talked about how Rodin was influenced by the ballet “Apres Midi du Faune” and in turn how the dancer looked to sculpture for inspiration for his choreography. She speculated on how the work was made based on recent studies of two versions and concluded that it was made to be held in the hand and turned and in doing so it took on various aspects of the ballet. She also broadened the lecture out to show how Rodin was a supporter of the republican cause and positio...

Interesting exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery bringing together ceramics by the comedian Johnny Vegas and ceramicist Emma Rodgers. Vegas did a degree in art and ceramics and has returned to the studio three decades after he graduated. Having met Rodgers at the gallery their joint show explores ideas of mental and physical metamorphosis. I loved Vegas's piece "Broken Angel" in which an angel cradles her broken wing. I would like to know more about his method as this appeared to be a 3D print. I'm not sure why I feel differently about this than say a bronze which is also a reproduction of another piece. Rodgers work shows more of the hand of the maker. Closed 27 June 2025

Welcome return of Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider sculpture to Tate Modern to mark 25 years since it was the first art work to greet visitors to the then newly opened gallery. I don’t remember seeing the work at the time so this was a lovely opportunity to fill that gap. It suits the space on the bridge of the Turbine Hall beautifully. This is a lovely way to mark the anniversary. Entitled “Maman” I hadn’t realised the sculpture includes a sack of eggs which seems to give it an infinite future. Closes 25 August 2025

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Masons’ Yard of lead works by Antony Gormley. In just a few sculptures the show charts the artist’s experimentations with lead between the 1970s and 1990s. I had seen some of the pieces before over the years. Upstairs were the smaller works but the more striking pieces were the full sized body works shown in the basement which looked impressive in the large white space. I loved that you could walk among them but it was a shame this wonderful standing figure with a girder for a head had to be guarded by four attendants. Closed 8 June 2025 Review Guardian

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey showcasing the life and career of the sculptor Richard Hunt. I had not consciously come across Hunt’s work before which surprised me as he had been so prolific in America. The show started with an enlightening timeline of his life and I was impressed at how he broke down many barriers for a black artist. The worked looked good, if a bit sparse, in the large white space. I found it quite graphic in its style so it was interesting to see his drawings shown with the large sculptures. Closed 29 June 2025

Excellent online lecture from the London Art History Society looking at the 15th century German sculptor, Tilman Riemenschneider. It was refreshing to hear about an artist, medium and place that I knew very little about. I could relate it to other art that I know but the specifics were all new to me. This was made all the easier by Thomas Abbott’s clear style and beautiful illustrations. Abbott started by outlining Riemenschneider’s life and influences then limited talking about is career to the three masterpiece altars which allowed him to talk about them in some detail. I thought this was a good approach to take to a lesser known artist as it gave you a flavour but left you wanting more and wanting a trip to Germany to see them in situ.

Small exhibition   at Holtermann Fine Art of new sculpture by Peter Buggenhout. I was just wondering what on earth these striking works were about when I read the press release and saw that they "resist interpretation" and are "devoid of symbols" so I felt a bit better. They basically looked like a mess of found objects and yet oddly they pulled you in to try to work out what they might be about. Closed 14 December 2024  

Fun exhibition at Pace of new sculptural installations by Genesis Belanger. Belanger uses porcelain and stoneware, metal, wood, and painting to create tableaux that draw from, and comment on, capitalist production and consumption. Grouping pastel-coloured objects they recreate everyday scenes in a doll like aesthetic which reminded me of the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud. Closed 9 November 2024

Intriguing online lecture from London Art Week introducing new research on a 14th century monument near Dijon. I encountered this monumental well in another recent talk and was fascinated by it. In this discussion Alexandra Gajewski, deputy editor of The Burlington, interviewed Susie Nash, from the Courtauld, about an article she was about to have published in the magazine outlining her latest research. The well was in the grounds of a monastery near Dijon and has prophets around the base and Nash has concluded that it was topped by a Crucifix with Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ. She has also linked the work, commissioned by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 in which the sons of many of the French noble families were killed and his son was taken hostage. I enjoyed hearing a clear, well-argued piece of research and would love to read the article which was promised to those who attended the talk but it hasn’t materialised.

Touching new sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square by Teresa Margolles. I say touching as it is made up of the plaster casts of faces of trans people from the UK and the artists home country of Mexico. From a distance they create a pleasing shape that compliments the Plinth. Close up they look out at you and seem to watch as you pass despite the fact they are concave. They are arranged to resemble a Mexican tzompantli or pile of skulls. I like the idea that, being made of plaster, it is planned that they will weather and potentially disappear over the course of their two year display but do worry what they might look like by that point. Reading the website it says the artist did every cast herself talking to the sitters for the couple of hours it took about their experiences. It would be wonderful to have an accompanying book of those stories. After living with them for two years I think we will want to know more. I’m always intrigued by the sculptures on the Pli...

Well-constructed online lecture from the National Churches Trust looking at the 15th and 16th century phenomena of cadaver tombs in England. I have always been fascinated by these tombs since seeing that of Alice de la Pole in Ewelme as a child. Morgan Ellis Leah from the Trust’s engagement team described a selection of them and developed the argument that in England these were not corpses and a memento mori but instead represented the starvation of the soul and show emaciated bodies. She looked at the turbulent history of the period due to wars, poor crops an economic crisis post Black Death. She pointed out that one effect of the plague was a shortage of chaplains which led to people relying on themselves for spiritual support and turning back to old ideas. She also talked about the tradition of eating at burial sites dating back to the Romans and idea of Sin Eating as well as the inclusion of dishes and food in Saxon burials.

Striking large scale public sculpture at the Serpentine Gallery by Gerhard Richter. The work was inspired by his strip paintings but used large ceramic tiles to create the effects. It consisted of perpendicular sections forming a star shape with different colour combinations in each section. It looked dramatic in Hyde Park with Kensington Palace behind in the distance and I loved the smooth texture of the tiles.    Closed 20 October 2024  

Stunning exhibition at Messum’s London of new small sculptures by Laurence Edwards. I’d not come across Edwards work before but really loved it. There was a mix of small figurative works like this one of running figures and broken up head studies. I love the fact you could see the hand of the sculptor in the finished castings. Closed 29 June 2024  

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery introducing the shortlisted candidates for art works for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2026 and 2028. I always try to see this show and vote for my favourite and love seeing how the ideas translate into a finished work. You have to remember that the maquettes are just concepts and not the detail of how they will be achieved or will finally look. In previous years you have voted for two and I picked two only to find this time you got one vote. My vote went to Thomas J Price’s “Ancient Feelings”, a dramatic, huge, gold head of a woman. I love Price’s with and would love to see it writ large in a public space. I was disappointed not to be able to vote for Andra Ursuta’s untitled work which presented a   hollow, life-sized equestrian statue covered in a shroud. It would be decided at a future date with statue would be used as the base. I thought it set up an interesting dialogue with other works in the square. I was unsu...

Interesting exhibition at Edel Assanti of new sculptures by Oren Pinhassi. The works were made of burlap and sand.   Each stood like human figures on a rock but took on more amorphous shapes. They worked well as a group but I’m not sure how they would work on their own. I would like to have seen them in an outdoor space where they would have had a good dialogue with the space around them. Closed 9 March 2024

Beautiful exhibition at the Hayward Gallery of contemporary sculpture which is inspired by movement, fluidity and growth in nature. There were 21 artists in this show and from the first work by a group called Drift which had amoeba like light shades elegantly dancing from the ceiling I was hooked. I was surprised how much if the work I recognised from going round the private galleries such as Marguerite Humeau’s sculpture like a huge fungi of beeswax and Ruth Asawa’s basket like hangings. I loved Michel Blazy’s “Bouquet Final” which created bubbles from a scaffold which gently grew and waved in the draught and the colours of Jean-Luc Moulene’s glass work. Oh and now about a neon rollercoaster? Closes 6 May 2024 Reviews Times Guardian  

Stunning exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey of new work by Antony Gormley. It was only 12 January when I went and yet I suspect I might have found my show of the year! I love Gormley anyway so it was onto a winner but these works looked so good in the space that the whole show became an installation. I even sat and watched the video about how the pieces were made, which I often skip, and knowing more about the materials and techniques used just added more layers of meaning, although you don’t need that to respond emotionally to the work. From the grey, block figures lining the corridor with their little hollowed out mouths I was hooked. I loved “Bind”, one figure in a space made from the three strips of iron emerging from the walls, floor and ceiling. You found yourself ducking under the cross bars and trying to work out how it all fitted together. However my favourite had to be “Resting Place” a room full of figures, each in a different position and made up of 23 blocks of cl...