Maybe I'm being melodramatic but this year has already started to take a toil on me, I definitely find myself gravitating to the comfort of my bed more often than I should. Every now and then, it would certainly be nice, and I'm sure most of our fabulous readers can agree, to take a nap as a fairytale is read to you and everything melts into a delicious dream. You could take a nap, or you could take a trip to the galleries mentioned in this art guide for much the same effect (minus the disorientation of waking up and wondering what on earth the time is!). Here are some exhibitions that make reality feel more like a fairytale, weaving cultural appreciation, identity, and literature into a rich narrative that will have you dreaming with eyes wide open.
Turner Prize 2024
Quick deets:
Location | Tate BritainMillbank London SW1P 4RG |
Open Until | 16th Feb 2025 |
Price details |
One of the most vital vessels that feed the art world is our community; each artist takes crumbs of inspiration from each other and still ends up displaying their own unique taste. This is why Insistrum recommends visiting the Turner Prize 2024 shortlisted artists while we still can. Of course you, the cherished reader and fellow art enthusiast, will hopefully have a chance to visit and enrich your understanding of these upcoming artists but to drum up the excitement here is a rundown of what to expect: Pio Abad who explores the erosion of cultural identities by the inescapable wave of colonialism drawn from his upbringing in the Philippines. Claudette Johnson who gives “space to the presence of a black woman” and what a sensational presence it is, enlisting figurative portraits of black people and just as they - or anybody else- deserve to be unrestricted, so Johnson doesn’t restrict herself to just one medium, using gouache, watercolour and pastels.
Jasleen Kaur, who uses “intangible bits of history” in her installations in homage to traditions and myths. Lastly, Delaine Le Bas who presents an image of the Roma people and their mythologies that goes well beyond the stereotype and gives song to the silenced birds known as death, loss and renewal. While all beautifully distinct and unique in their artistic expression, these artists have one thing in common: rather than shy away from cultural context that might be hard to digest or difficult to understand, they have embraced the nuances of human identity and served their hearts and souls to the masses, that they might see their own hearts and souls reflected in tangible reality.
Last Night I Dreamt of Manderley
Quick deets:
Location | Alison Jacques Gallery 22 Cork St, London W1S 3NG |
Open Until | 8th March 2025 |
Price Details | Free |
Inspired by Daphne Du Maurier’s renowned book “Rebecca”, the exhibition “Last Night I dreamt of Manderley”, curated by Daniel Malarkey, takes its name from the opening line. “The road to Manderly lay ahead. There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black… And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”
It explores our relationships with fairytales that, revered and evoking awe in childhood, follow us to adulthood where we still use them to try and make sense of our ever- changing realities.
The exhibition consists of pieces from over 30 artists, each handpicked to retell "Rebecca" and capture its whimsical, elusive essence. The curator, Daniel Malarkey, comments "I want the visitor to journey through the conscious and unconscious, draw connections between the past, present and future, and experience the potential of storytelling to transform our lives and thought." As a visitor, I can testify that it truly did just that and more, and although it spoke to our human need for storytelling, the works seldom focused on human beings as a whole. Instead, it showed how we transform the landscapes we are in, captured the echoes of the presence of humans bouncing off the walls. Not only does the exhibition metaphorically uncover the different layers of change, acquiescence, whimsy and the places we go when all else feels too bland, it also physically provides different levels to explore. The gallery itself seemed perfectly designed for this exhibition, as it contains an elevated viewing point as well as an "underworld" in the basement.
The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence
Quick deets:
Location | V&A South Kensington |
Open Until | 5th May 2025 |
Price Details |
What's more fairytale-esque than going back to the sixteenth century and sitting at the gold-clad tables of the lavish Mughals in pre-colonial India? The V and A South Kensington promises a major exhibition spanning 1560 to 1660 and examining the splendour of the subjects of famous emperors: Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.
Through a combination of physical pieces and canvas art, the exhibition examines a concept which even four hundred years later we are no stranger to: the lavish lifestyle of the wealthy. However, putting aside class consciousness (although certainly not for long), it is nice to be able to indulge and appreciate the detail and sophistication in the design of what were everyday objects for them. It certainly makes my chipped mug and thrifted trinkets look even smaller!
Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection
Quick deets:
Location | The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House |
Open from | 14th Feb- 26th May 2025 |
Price details |
Blossoming in 'le jardin'- the only time in the magazine I'll be able to use the phrase "pardon my french"- of 19th century France, Impressionism aimed to capture spontaneity from the great outdoors rather than within the studio. The next time you see picnicers around London with their sketchbooks and watercolours on Primrose Hill (I can't wait for summer already) just thank the Impressionists for making it happen. Impressionism was pioneered by some of the greats, who are also featured in the Reinhart collection, such as Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne.
Oskar Reinhart was a direct contemporary of the founder of the Courtauld Gallery, Samuel Courtauld, with the two known to have met around 1932. The shared exhibition will explore some of the greatest names and works from the Impressionism and Post Impressionism art eras and is a kind of Hollywood walk of fame for the art world.
All fairytales must come to an end, whether with a glamorous ball, a frog-turned-prince, or the fall of the evil witch (who we all grow up to think is the coolest), or, of course, the satisfied art lover. Thus, your loyal narrator wraps up this story and implores you to set forth and live it (I've heard the illustrations are splendid).
References
Tate Britain Website- Turner Prize 2024: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/turner-prize-2024?utm_source=google_performancemax&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=CAMP_turner-prize_conversion_uk_culture-enthusiasts_performance-max_dynamic&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkoe9BhDYARIsAH85cDM0tS1QKrW-hTG3Jh3mJ7HooqiOK8T2LmtLT4zS0O6p0ciQq2zRBSMaAjutEALw_wcB
Alisonjacques.com. (2025). Last Night I Dreamt of Manderley – Alison Jacques. [online] Available at: https://alisonjacques.com/exhibitions/last-night-i-dreamt-of-manderley [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
Sommella, N. (2024). Claudette Johnson: Darker Than Blue Exhibitions. [online] The Barber Institute of Fine Arts. Available at: https://barber.org.uk/claudette-johnson/.
Victoria and Albert Museum. (n.d.). The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence - Exhibition at V&A South Kensington · V&A. [online] Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/great-mughals-art-architecture-opulence.
The Courtauld. (2025). Goya to Impressionism. Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection. [online] Available at: https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/exh-goya-to-impressionism-masterpieces-from-the-oskar-reinhart-collection/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
The Courtauld (n.d.). A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. [online] The Courtauld. Available at: https://courtauld.ac.uk/highlights/a-bar-at-the-folies-bergere/.
www.wikiart.org. (2024). Still Life Three Salmon Steaks, 1808 - 1812 - Francisco Goya - WikiArt.org. [online] Available at: https://www.wikiart.org/en/francisco-goya/still-life-three-salmon-steaks-1812 [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
Comentarios