Funky Art in a Hidden Chapel...

While the exterior of Fitzrovia Chapel was completed in 1892, it took around 25 years to complete the interior which includes 40 kinds of marble and lots of gold. 

Originally built as a place of prayer and reflection for Middlesex Hospital, it was the only building remaining after the hospital was demolished in 2015. It was preserved as a listed building and renamed the Fitzrovia Chapel. It is now completely surrounded by residential buildings.

I was there to see an exhibit called The Witch Burns, which was a funky assortment of artworks that likely would be considered blasphemous if this were still a consecrated church.  

 

 

More Animal Sculptures...

As I’ve shared before, I love animal sculptures by Gillie and Marc and go out of my way to see their work whenever it appears in London. These paparazzies were in a park near Paddington Station... 

...as was The Wild Table of Love. I’ve posted this large sculpture before, but wanted to feature Dogman and Rabbitwoman on two of my visits: this one being in March 2024...

…and this in April 2024.

These critters visited Southbank in spring 2024...

…while these visited St Paul’s Cathedral in June 2024.

 

The Glass Heart...

Before heading to a West London Hash in the evening, I visited Two Temple Place to see an exhibit called The Glass Heart. The gothic mansion was built in 1895 as offices and a flat for William Waldorf Astor, founder of the famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. It is now a public art gallery, 

The exhibit explored glass throughout the ages...

…in the perfect setting as the building had a lot of stained glass.

Matters of the Heart

This piece expresses the idea that: “Between birth and death there are only precious present moments encompassing love, joy, passion, strength, courage, wisdom, humor, generosity, creativity, freedom and, of course, their opposites.”

The Soil

This piece highlights the climate crisis: “The urinating female gardener is replenishing the topsoil that is fast being dangerously depleted.”

 

More Art...

Next we walked across Hyde Park and into Kensington Park to visit the Serpentine Galleries to see two unique exhibits. We had first seen some of the work of American artist Barbara Kruger as a similar piece was painted on the walls of the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and remained for many years before being displaced by bare walls.  

Much of this exhibit called Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. were digital pieces that rotated through with different words.  

She also had some old-fashioned collages; this one featured the title of the exhibit.

So thrilled that Veronica likes going to see art exhibits with me!

We also visited the other Serpentine Gallery and saw a really wild exhibit about nature and AI. Turkish artist Refik Anadol presented Echoes of Earth: Living Archive, which used over 100 million photographs of nature, many of which were shown here, to train an AI model. 

We sat in various spots on the floor around the gallery to watch the immersive show that filled the walls from floor to ceiling highlighting the creative potential of AI. It was mesmerizing.

 

A Day of Art with Veronica...

Veronica and I had a day filled with lots of walking and lots of art on March 13. We started with a visit to Saatchi Gallery, where we saw these whimsical sculptures.

Our main focus was not light-hearted, but rather an incredible photography exhibit by Edward Burtynsky called Extraction / Abstraction which showed how mankind is stripping the planet through industrialization, most specifically mining. 

Later that day, we enjoyed seeing his exhibit come to life on the huge video screens of Outernet, near Tottenham Court Road Station.  

Most of what is shown on these screens are digital creations, so it was great to see real photography for a change. 

 

Final Day in Amsterdam...

The next morning, Slippery’s family scattered off for various hockey games and we headed to De Pijp to go to our favorite omelet restaurant and then to see some art in the Stedelijk, Amsterdam’s modern art museum. 

Afterwards, we grabbed our stuff and headed to Rotterdam to catch the Eurostar back to London. Luckily this time when we were pulled into secondary at passport control, we were better prepared. I had returned our visas a few days earlier and had documentation from the national immigration office of the return. Strangely the very kind officer said that in Dutch the document said our visas had been revoked and it English that they had been returned. She promised to get the matter sorted when she released us to catch our train. Jimmy would have already travelled to Brussels, which would have tested the system, but the UK government held onto our passports for nearly two months while awaiting our residence stamps. The same day that this will be posted, we will arrive back to Holland for the first time since. It’ll be interesting to see if they just welcome us or kick us out. 
 

Art with Terri...

While on the train from Berlin to The Hague on January 3, I got a message from Sally that we couldn’t stay with her because she had just tested positive for COVID. It was fortunate that she had no symptoms, but we couldn’t take any chances with our upcoming trip to visit Jimmy’s dad. Luckily Terri came to our rescue and offered us a place to stay. The following day, while Jimmy worked from her guest suite, she and I went for a 10K walk to Scheveningen Beach for lunch and some culture at Museum Beelden aan Zee.

We both loved the special exhibit by Dutch sculptor Tom Claassen.