Tag: exhibitions

66 good things from 2024

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

I’ve written up my favourite movies, books and theatre from 2024, but here’s a dump of everything else I enjoyed, in roughly chronological order.

  1. The stunning architecture of the Alcázar, Seville
  2. Tapas at Eslava, Seville
  3. Antony Gormley, White Cube, London
  4. Parfums d’Orient, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
  5. Mark Rothko, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris — possibly the best exhibition I’ve ever seen?
  6. Salt & pepper Dungeness crab at R&G Lounge, San Francisco
  7. Riding a Waymo, San Francisco
  8. Giant redwoods, Santa Cruz
  9. The aquarium at California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
  10. Seeing the Northern Lights on a return flight from San Francisco to London
  11. A custom made LEGO minifigure of me
  12. A Palestinian art exhibition at Darat Al Funun, Amman
  13. Learning woodturning
  14. Ustad Noor Baksh, Southbank Centre, London
  15. Getting a Curzon Cult membership
  16. The Art Institute, Chicago
  17. Watching the eclipse while eating Culver’s, Indianapolis
  18. The Tiffany dome at Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago
  19. Architecture boat tour, Chicago
  20. Listening to The Dark Knight soundtrack while driving down Lower Wacker, Chicago
  21. Buying an inflatable boat to use on the canal
  22. Rothko Chapel concert, Southbank Centre
  23. My friend’s very good exhibition Paper Cuts, Peltz Gallery
  24. Taylor Swift, La Défense Arena, Paris
  25. The windows at Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
  26. Monet’s waterlilies at Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
  27. Lunch at Oktobre, Paris
  28. Olivia Rodrigo, O2 Arena, London
  29. Burgers at the Chuck’s popup, Carousel, London
  30. Sampha, Justice, Mdou Moctar, Ustad Noor Baksh, Rimski’s Yard, and a million other things, Glastonbury
  31. The unbelievable House of Uncle Cornelius escape room, Geneva
  32. Dinner at Opheem, Birmingham
  33. My friend’s two beautiful weddings, London and Mysore
  34. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
  35. Art of Noise, SFMOMA, San Francisco
  36. Musée Mecanique, San Francisco
  37. Half Price Books, Berkeley
  38. Tavares Strachan, Hayward Gallery, London
  39. The flower market, Bangalore
  40. Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore
  41. Karavalli, Bangalore
  42. Blossom Book House, Bangalore
  43. Vijay Vitthala Temple, Hampi
  44. All the monkeys, Hampi
  45. Royal Enclosure, Hampi
  46. Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace, Srirangapatna
  47. Dosas at Old Original Hotel Vinayaka Mylari, Mysore
  48. Searching for shells on the beach, Bekal
  49. Lunch at Quality Wines, London
  50. Sunsets, London
  51. Philip Glass Ensemble, Barbican, London
  52. Rug tufting, London
  53. Takeaway sushi from Haseya, Ealing
  54. Learning how to draw Islamic geometry, Harrow
  55. Classical Indian music workshop, Barbican, London
  56. Watching people dangerously set off fireworks, Shoreditch Park, London
  57. The Silk Roads exhibition, British Museum, London
  58. Making Nick Bramham’s tuna melt recipe
  59. The Electric Dreams exhibition, Tate Modern, London
  60. Humongous dinosaur skeletons at Museo Paleontológico, Trelew
  61. All the penguins, Punta Tombo
  62. Watching ice fall off a glacier, Perito Moreno
  63. Hiking Laguna de Los Tres, El Chalten
  64. The architecture of Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
  65. Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
  66. Dinner at Roux, Buenos Aires

Best exhibitions of 2021

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

Yayoi Kusama, Bronx Botanical Gardens

The rare kind of exhibition where the way the art was displayed made a big (positive) difference to how you perceive it and how you perceive your surroundings.

Albion Farm

The initial display at this new sculpture park was excellent — it’s a really lovely venue and was a good selection of artists (David Adjaye’s pavilion was the highlight.)

Rachel Whiteread, Gagosian

Some of the most technically impressive art I’ve seen in a long time: the “cardboard” box above is made of metal.

Honourable mentions: Jasper Johns (Whitney), Surrealism Beyond Borders (Met), Idris Khan (Victoria Miro)

Waste of time and money: Louise Bourgeouis (Jewish Museum)

Jasper Johns at The Whitney

~ Shakeel Hashim ~ Leave a comment

An enjoyable retrospective which made me appreciate Johns more than I did before. The exhibition shows just how versatile he is, though putting all the works together highlights both his strengths (conceptual flag/map art) and weaknesses (‘traditional’ painting).

The map/flag room is particularly good, both in terms of the works chosen and the way they’re displayed. It’s quite impressive to see just how different an effect his maps have, depending on the colours/styles chosen (see two examples below). I also enjoyed seeing his surrealist works, which were new to me and pretty good.

The only criticisms I have is that the exhibition is too long (go when you are neither hungry nor tired!), and in general The Whitney isn’t very good at creating defined pathways through exhibitions, which annoys completionists like me.

(Sidenote: I wonder how many visitors to the NYC exhibition will also go to the Philadelphia exhibition? I assume it’ll be significantly fewer than Philly-to-NYC visitors.)

Book tickets here.