What to see at Mayfair Art Weekend 2021

Mayfair Art Weekend is back this year for its eighth annual edition! After a grand first-ever edition of the London Weekend Gallery a couple of weeks ago, the London art scene prepared another promising weekend full of vibrant activities and exhibitions to see, this time with Mayfair Art Weekend. It runs over three days, from the 25th to the 27th of June.

‘Mayfair Art Weekend is a celebration of the diversity and resilience of the exceptional galleries in the district. After this recent period of mostly experiencing art online, Mayfair Art Weekend presents an opportunity to encounter art in real life through free events, exhibitions and talks.’

–Ewan Venters, Chief Executive Officer at Hauser & Wirth

We are super excited to prepare this weekend gallery-crawl with you! Ready?

Hauser & Wirth

Frank Bowling– London / New York

21st of May – the 31st of July 2021

Running across two galleries, one in New York and another in London, this exhibition is our first highlight of Mayfair Art Weekend. With 60 years of career between cities, NY and London, these exhibitions capture the key influences of his long-admired artistic practice. Throughout his career, Frank Bowling was inspired by the two rivers, The Thames in London and the East River in New York, to which he managed to capture a uniquely poetic view through thick impasto textures, collages and pearlescent pigments. Hauser & Wirth brings you an exhibition full of emotive textures and watercolour tones in large size canvases.

Book your tickets here.

John Martin Gallery

Martin Finnin: An Uncouth Song

3rd – 27th of June

“Martin Finnin: An Uncouth Song” is one of your most colourful gallery-crawl stops. This exhibition brings you canvases produced during the past troubled 18 months through weightless and floaty shapes along with dreamy pastel colours. Martin Finnin’s work embraces abstraction and chance, allowing the viewer to board on a journey towards disengagement and lack of meaning.

Opera Gallery

Andy Denzler: Anatomy of the mind

4th - 27th of June

To contrast with Martin Finnin’s work, we think it is worth mentioning the exhibition “Andy Denzler: Anatomy of the mind” at Opera Gallery. This exhibition also showcases works produced during lockdown but with very different feelings to Finnin’s show. Andy Denzler’s paintings approach the anxiety of living a national lockdown by navigating through an imaginative space and time, evoking memory and feelings of longing. This artist's work is very different from any other artist that you might have seen lately, and that is why we think you might enjoy this exhibition. Denzler demonstrates a prominent identity and artistic expression through blurry brushstroke layers, creating expressive and dystopian landscapes. A must-watch!

Luxembourg & Co

Lost in Italy

6th of May - 3rd of July

“Lost in Italy” is our only group exhibition highlight from Mayfair Art Weekend. This exhibition focuses on Italy's role as “a hub of international artistic exchange” during the post-war years. Bringing us works by artists such as Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein, “Lost in Italy” explores the different relationships between artists and how specific works influenced particular art movements such as Arte Povera (a conceptual art movement that focused on worthless/common materials to create art).

Lastly, this is a great place to see the latest work by the artist Maurizio Cattelan- and no, it is not another duck taped banana.

Saatchi Yates

Tesfaye Urgessa

4th of June - 25th of August

Our last suggestion is “Tesfaye Urgessa” at Saatchi Yates- and what a great close! If you are familiar with Picasso’s paintings, we think we will agree that Tesfaye Urgessa’s work highly resembles the feeling of looking at a Picasso, but better. It might be hard to picture anything better than Picasso, but Urgessa’s paintings might change your mind. In two words, Urgessa’s works are awkward and intimate. Through mid-scene figurative paintings, the Ethiopian artist explores politics of identity and race through an overwhelming amount of exposed skin and weirdly intertwined individuals.

If this hasn’t convinced you to go and see this exhibition, what if we told you that in 2018 the artist had a solo exhibition at Le Gallerie Degli Uffizi, Florence? Urgessa is the first living artist to be exhibited at Uffizi!

Adding to this exciting set of exhibitions, we also want to remind you that the 27th is your last day to wander around the Mayfair Sculpture Trail. This trail presents an engaging and safe way to experience art in public spaces by displaying multiple sculptures across various locations in London. See here for more information about the trail.

Sunday, the 27th, seems like a good day to visit all these exhibitions because you will also have the opportunity to include May Fair Hotel in your to-see list. Mayfair Art Weekend is presenting an entire day dedicated to moving image with May Fair Showreels. With three screenings throughout the day (at 12am, 1:45pm and 3:30pm), this is an exciting and diverse programme that will certainly provide you an enjoyable weekend.

If you visit Mayfair Art Weekend don’t forget to tag us along on your social media with the hashtag #ArtscapyLondon. Also our community of Artscapers would love to see your art findings, so why not add an update to your feed at Artscapy?