Yayoi Kusama @ Victoria Miro

Yayoi Kusama’s art is highly influential, but her life is even more intriguing. The artist, now 83, began her career six decades ago. She has suffered mental illness since childhood and from late 1970s lives in Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill in Tokyo, from which every morning she travels to her studio to paint and sculpt.

The minimal paintings attract viewer’s attention by heavy use of vibrant oil colours, simple patterns and often-repeated elements: dots, blobs, eyes, etc. Although the colour used is very saturated, the artist doesn’t overload the paintings, rather using simple two or three colour contrasts. The works, which at first seem very infantile, after closer examination prove to be filled with sexual motifs. 

In the Midst of Adolescence, 2010

The Sun Is Loved by Everybody, 2009

Night-Waves, 2011

Standing on the Riverbank of [...], 2009

Swoon @ Black Rat Projects

I am not allergic type, but every time somebody mentions ‘street-art’ in my presence I do get severe allergic reaction, which may vary from skin rash and nausea to vomiting, tourette attacks and more vomiting. Although this is not the case, when it comes to Swoon, a young and beautiful New Yorker, who except being a very talented street (sic!) artist, also contributes and organizes many revolutionary performance projects, which include sailing US rivers on rafts made from New York junk, gate-crashing Venice Biennale using similar means of transport, and recently she takes part in the Konbit Shelter project, a huge humanitarian action, rebuilding homes after Haitian earthquake.

The Murmuration hosted by Black Rat Projects is artist’s first solo show in Britain. It is an installation of Swoons signature gigantic figurative woodcuts pasted onto various found objects. The artist uses friends and family as subjects and her work is inspired by both historical and folk sources. I have to admit I was very lucky and I would like to thank the stuff in Black Rat Projects for letting me see the show after official closing date.

Jerzy Treutler @ Kemistry Gallery

Mr T: The posters of Jerzy Treutler hosted by Kemistry Gallery is a celebration of Treutler’s work form 60s and 70s and classic Polish poster design. In this period of time the state-controlled nature of the industry allowed artists to create posters in a more fine art than commercial manner. In the absence of restrictions of agencies and film studios artists were able to produce powerful images inspired by movies and events without necessarily direct connection to the title, star appearances or movie stills. This enabled a fertile framework, which gave beginning to much respected and internationally recognised School of Polish Posters.

Pipilotti Rist @ Hayward Gallery

The Lobe of Lung, 200

Pipilotti Rist’s Eyeball Massage scrutinizes female physicality in a visceral, yet strikingly beautiful way throughout the video installations scattered around the ground floor of the Hayward Gallery. The viewer is also invited to engage physically with the works exhibited. As we move through the space Rist plays with our perception of size, by creating kind of Alice-in-Wonderland-mushroom-trip-like situations, where the viewer either feels as he have grown or shrunk. An extreme example of this is the miniature installation Selfless in the Bath of Lava, in which a woman surrounded by hellfire cries for help; reaching out to the viewer, she begs forgiveness. One has to get down on the knees in order to watch the tiny video played through a peephole in the floor. This situation makes us feel gigantic and powerful. Contrary, The Lobe of Lung, which is projected on three huge wall-sized screens, portrays a woman walking through a field of tulips, who is so monumental that next to her one feels like a dwarf or an infant. It is this projection, which struck me the most, with its vibrant colours and seductive sound. I found myself sunk into a bed of pillows, completely relaxed and hypnotised by the video in a dreamy state of mind. Eyeball Massage delivers exactly what it promises. The show is a magnificent visual feast.

Selfless in the Bath of Lava, 1994

Administrating Eternity, 2011

George Condo @ Hayward Gallery

Uncle Joe, 2005

Mental States is George Condo’s retrospective exhibition, which presents his artistic journey from early beginnings in 1980s until present day. The show concentrates mainly on the portraiture work of the artist, with big emphasis on his deformed depictions of Queen Elizabeth II. The style of Condo’s paintings could be best described as Picasso meets Looney Tunes.

The Stockbroker, 2002

My favourite piece has to be Uncle Joe, which portraits bottom-half naked, drunken man enjoying a bottle of wine and a smoke in the nature. There is something completely mad about this portrayal, as the ‘lightness of being’, which is communicated through the body language of the subject of this idyllic scene, is completely contradicted in his insane face expression of a pathological alcoholic.

George Condo’s paintings are moralistic, but with a twist of (dark) humour, that lots of today’s artist do not have. The art world is full of serious wannabe preachers, who in a school-like manner try to enlighten the rest of society, with their dull discoveries about the meaning of life. Who cares? I don’t think anybody likes to go to an exhibition in their spare time to be patronized by some schmuck with a fine art degree. To lecture, but entertain at the same time is a grand ability, which George Condo possesses

Lady Crimp, 1984

Dreams and Nightmares of the Queen, 2006

Chapman Bros @ Museum of Childhood

There cannot be anything more miserable in the life of a parent than rainy Sunday morning. On any other day I would take my offspring for a lovely walk in a park or have some fun on a swing in the playground, but this idyll falls apart on a rainy Sunday morning, because by definition it is Museum of Childhood day (if you live in Bethnal Green that is). All kids love a bit of socializing, either in the form of ferocious battles over a toy, punching, screaming or completely ignoring each other, while desperate parents try hopelessly to control the situation.

Imagine my surprise, when one of these Sundays I discovered that my ‘favourite bad weather hideout’ hosts Jake and Dinos Chapman show… “Chapman brothers?? In the Museum of Childhood??” – my parental-conscious half shouted, trying to prevent my son from running towards the prints (when, at the same time, my art-loving half was trying to outrun him to be the first to see) – “How on earth the notorious fanny-and-penis-drawing art deviants got to exhibit in this cozy, family-friendly museum?”

My Giant Colouring Book is a series of 21 etchings, which use the join-the-dots pages from the kid’s books to form imagery far removed from its intended guideline. This child-friendly version of Chapman brothers’ art is maybe not as porn and gore saturated, as we tend to know it from their other works, yet still it is a very dark fantasy filled with all kinds of gloomy monsters, far from Disney characters. Although this twisted imagery might be faintly disturbing for an adult, I bet it can give fair amount of nightmares to any kid with at least a bit of imagination. So if your child wets the bed at night after the Gruffalo story, maybe My Giant Colouring Book show is not the best idea for the weekend family trip.