Category Archives: Museums

2023 Art To See – Yayoi Kusama, ‘You, Me and the Balloons’

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Factory International, ManchesterJune 30 – August 28th London

One of the world’s most loved artists takes us up and away as part of Factory International’s opening summer program.

Yayoi Kusama will open her largest ever immersive environment. The exhibition will celebrate three decades of her inflatable artworks. The psychedelic creations, many over 10 meters tall, include giant dolls, tendrilled landscapes and vast constellations of polka dot spheres.

Yayoi Kusama is bringing her largest-ever immersive environment to Manchester. Conceived especially for the soaring spaces of Factory International, Yayoi Kusama – You, Me and the Balloons celebrates three decades of the pioneering Japanese artist’s inflatable artworks, which are brought together for the first time in this major exhibition. Journey through Kusama’s psychedelic creations – many over 10m tall – including giant dolls, spectacular tendrilled landscapes and a vast constellation of polka-dot spheres.

Kusama is renowned and adored for her surreal world of dots and pumpkins amongst other artistic motifs. Her hallucinatory paintings, sculptures, and immersive environments, such as her Infinity Mirror Rooms, take us beyond ourselves and make us feel part of something greater. Unique in her ability to conjure wonder while also asking bigger questions about human existence, millions of people queue for hours to spend just a minute in Kusama’s cosmos.

Kusama’s career spans eight decades and she is now a global phenomenon. In Yayoi Kusama – You, Me and the Balloons you will experience the vastness of her playful and kaleidoscopic universe.

Be sure to book your tickets early for this one! 

2023 Art To See – London Always Out & About – David Hockney ‘Bigger and Closer’, (not smaller and further)

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David Hockney ‘Bigger and Closer’, (not smaller and further) Lightroom Kings Cross, London February 22- June 4, 2023

The Lightroom is a new four-story exhibition space made for immersive art. The new home for spectacular artist led shows. We can privatize, of course!

Hockney will exhibit his life’s work broken up into six chapters with a voiceover from Hockney himself and an original score composed by Nico Muly. His paintings are thrown onto huge screens immersing the audience in his colorful worlds like never seen before. Hockney will use the innovative venue to take the audience on a personal journey through his art, featuring iconic paintings alongside some rarely seen pieces and some newly created work. His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites visitors to see the world through his eyes.

Using large-scale projection in a remarkable new space, David Hockney takes us on a personal journey through sixty years of his art. Lightroom’s vast walls and revolutionary sound system enable us to experience the world through Hockney’s eyes. His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites us to look more closely, more truly and more joyously.

In a cycle of six themed chapters and a commentary by the artist himself, Hockney reveals his process. His voice is in our ears as we watch him experimenting with perspective, using photography as a way of ‘drawing with a camera’, capturing the passing of time in his polaroid collages and the joy of spring on his iPad, and showing us why only paint can properly convey the hugeness of the Grand Canyon. We join him on his audio-visual Wagner Drive, roaring up into the San Gabriel Mountains, and into the opera house by means of animated re-creations of his stage designs.

From LA to Yorkshire, and up to the present day in Normandy, the show is an unprecedented opportunity to spend time in the presence of one of the great popular geniuses of the art world still innovating, still creating beauty and awe.

Located just an 8-minute walk from King’s Cross station, Lightroom joins the wonderful range of shops and restaurants of Coal Drops Yard to create the perfect day or night out.