I've been to see some art.
If you wait a few months and go again, everything changes.
Serpentine Galleries
★☆☆☆☆ Giuseppe Penone: Thoughts in the Roots (until 7 September)
Six decades of works embracing the natural world are here condensed into not many artworks, indeed it's the first time I've stood in the central gallery and been more intrigued by the ceiling. Expect a few decent branchy sculptures, something ocular made from thorns and a couple of walls covered by green splotches via a process called 'leaf frottage'. I think I lost it when I realised one piece was just a pile of leaves that the artist had laid down on, "recording traces of his physical presence." [exhibition guide]
★★★★☆ Arpita Singh: Remembering (until 27 July)
This Indian retrospective opens a window into domestic life and the impact of external conflict, and compared to some of what I've seen in the North Gallery feels like a 'proper' art exhibition. I feel a bit guilty for preferring the two vibrant 1970s canvases before Arpita developed her trademark busy style in more muted tones. Also what's with the bossy pair asking every visitor when they walk in "Have you pre-booked?" then following up with "It doesn't matter", like some kind of unwelcoming committee. Maybe it matters at weekends, but mid-day mid-week perhaps lay off a bit.
★★★☆☆ Serpentine Pavilion 2025 by Marina Tabassum (until 26 September)
This year's pavilion resembles a medical capsule, much enlarged, chopped up into four ribbed slices. The chops help embrace the open air but also let the rain in, as I discovered when I dashed inside during a cloudburst and realised I was still getting wet. The interior feels a bit like a waiting room, all peripheral seating plus the obligatory hot drinks offering at the far end. Vision 1, Functionality 0.
????? Play Pavilion (until 10 August)
I made the mistake of turning up to this Lego-sponsored orange rotunda while it was being officially opened, with a crowd of invited adults temporarily crammed inside what's due to be a space for children and families. "Open the package you've been given," said the host, "and you should find six Lego bricks. Now make a duck." Expect queues now it's opened properly and everyone gets a chance to be creative with interlocking plastic, and remember only one person at a time on the slide.
White Cube
★★★☆☆ Richard Hunt: Metamorphosis – A Retrospective (until 29 June)
To Bermondsey for a sparse selection of metal sculptures, sometimes one per room, from the recently deceased Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt. I really liked his late period plantlike spikes but could have done without the formative prequels. It's so purely presented that Richard and his oeuvre only really made sense once I'd watched the four minute looping video showing him hard at work in a cluttered industrial workshop.
National Gallery
★★★★☆ The Carracci Cartoons: Myths in the Making (Room 1, until 6 July)
Two preparatory charcoal sketches for a cardinal's fresco, both huge and somehow not lost since the 16th century, revealing how they did classical cherubs in Rome back in the day. In out, two minutes.
(on a practical note the horrific queues that blighted the gallery last autumn have all died down - I waited no seconds whatsoever at the main entrance)
National Portrait Gallery
★★★★☆ Stanisław Wyspiański: Portraits (until 13 July)
A rare outing for one of Poland's most cherished artists, mainly for his busty maternal portrait but Stanisław captured character far beyond that. Reading the blurb gets quite sad though... "died from typhus", "died from typhus", "died from syphilis".
★★★☆☆ Lines of Feeling (until 4 January)
In the room behind Dame Judi, a lively collection of pencil portraits and recent acquisitions, hastily sketched. Tracey Emin never looks anything other than emotional.
★★★★★ Photo Portrait Now (until 28 September)
Students from six universities were invited to submit contemporary portraits reflecting Britain today and the results are a joy. Their photos are of people who could be sitting beside you on the bus, a true cross-section, young and old, life-worn or battling on, every culture and hair-length, wide-eyed, proud. Select photos cover the wall but annoyingly 68 images are on carousel display and quite frankly who's going to hang around in the basement lobby outside the members room for long enough (nor are they available to enjoy online either sadly).
Newport Street Gallery
★★☆☆☆ Raging Planet (until 31 August)
Unusually there are two exhibitions at Damien Hirst's galley, one upstairs and this one down. It's mostly about texture which means large abstract canvases, also models encrusted with blue crystals, also it seems someone's made a living out of putting colourful lights inside wooden boxes. I was unintentionally more intrigued by the jungle of electric cables and expansion leads behind.
★★☆☆☆ The Power and the Glory (until 31 August)
Three galleries with odd rocks in the middle and old photos round the wall. All the photos are of US atomic tests and their aftermath, so a relentless sequence of mushroom clouds which can be quite overpowering. Ian Visits also visited recently and found it uncomfortable, not especially artistic and eminently skippable. I left reassured that all the photos were from before I was born so we've learned since, and unnerved that we might not have learned at all.
Tate Modern
★★★★★ UK AIDS Memorial Quilt (until 16 June)
The emotionally-shattering UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, created to commemorate lives lost in the 80s and 90s, is out of long-term storage and back on view for one weekend only. The Turbine Hall is the perfect place to lay out 42 colourful twelve foot panels remembering 384 people who died in the AIDS epidemic, commemorated here with love and creativity by their friends (and sometimes family). Some were well known names - Robert the photographer, Mark the activist, Michael from Blue Peter - others shone brightly in their own corner. Each panel is unique, from simple symbolism to complex reminiscence, with red ribbons, rainbows and teddy bears frequently seen. In most cases you can only guess at the backstory from pictorial clues. It's the dates that really hit home, so many born in the 50s and 60s cut down in their 30s and 40s, and a few babies lost at barely two months for added shock. Some who've come to Tate Modern to see the quilts plainly remember the struggle first time round, and in a sign of quite how far things have moved on I also saw a teacher leading her primary class round the fabric cemetery and pointing out names and memories. If you can't pay your respects in person several panels are explorable on the Memorial Quilt's website.
Bow Arts Gallery
★★☆☆☆ Bow Open: Connections (until 31 August)
My local gallery's been open 30 years and is celebrating with its usual summer selection, allegedly on the theme of Connections. It's very mixed from embroidery to animated string. Russell Davies (he who organises the Interesting conference) is well chuffed to have had his systematic imprint selected. The most fun work by far is Campbell McConnell's 90 second video of medieval actresses repeatedly overacting. The space out the back is totally wasted. Try not to tread on the fabric snake.
Halcyon Gallery - 146 New Bond Street
★★★☆☆ Point Blank by Bob Dylan (until 6 July)
The master of art plagiarism is back again with a slew of attractive canvases he may or may not have painted himself. This time they're really varied in scope from portraits to landscapes, even a hand pouring a tin of beans into a pan. Musicians feature a lot although they never look quite right, - it seems Bob really can't do noses. I checked all the frames on both floors to make sure he hadn't used another of my photographs as direct inspiration, and confirmed no not this time. But down in the basement I did find the hardback catalogue for his 2016 collection The Beaten Path, which was also exhibited here, and there was his reinterpretation of my snap of Blackpool Pier on page 228... and 229... and 231. You have to smile, and I did just that all the way back out onto the Mayfair streets.
