Art Lovers Archives - COOLCURATION

October 4, 2026 — No Comments

Louis Fratino at David Zwirner Review

Last updated: 4 October 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

Exhibition reviewMayfair

Saunas, subway cars and a lot of skin in Mayfair

Louis Fratino at Zwirner is the American painter's first solo show in London, and his first with the gallery since it began representing him. I went on a Saturday afternoon in early October to see fifteen new paintings by a painter who is very open about who he borrows from.

Cool Factor: 4/5

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, LGBTQ+, London, Reviews

October 2, 2026 — No Comments

Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery Review: Is It Worth £22?

Last updated: 2 October 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

Cool Factor: 3/5

The Anish Kapoor Hayward Gallery show is his first solo exhibition there since 1998. It fills the whole building, both outdoor terraces included. I went on a Wednesday afternoon at the end of September. It starts strong, with a ballooning red inflated piece so big you can't walk round it. By the final room, though, it felt like a somewhat confused show. It comes from an artist who was once at the top of his game, and who now feels like he's slid into a late stage of dabbling in every medium.

It runs until 18 October 2026 and tickets cost £22. In the final weeks, the gallery stays open until 9pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, London, Reviews

Tags: Anish Kapoor, art review, Contemporary art, Exhibition review, Hayward Gallery, London exhibitions, sculpture, Southbank Centre

October 1, 2026 — No Comments

Frieze London 2026: Tickets, Frieze Masters and What to See

Last updated: 30 September 2026. I checked every price, opening time and date in this Frieze London 2026 guide against Frieze's own ticket and visitor pages that day.

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This article contains affiliate and referral links, which are paid links. If you click one and buy or sign up, I earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. Brands don't choose what I feature or what I say about them.

Coming into London for Frieze?

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Frieze Week2026 Edit

Frieze London 2026 and Frieze Masters run in The Regent's Park from Wednesday 14 to Sunday 18 October 2026. Wednesday is invitation only, so the public gets four days. Frieze London shows art made mostly since 2000. Frieze Masters shows work made before 2000, from ancient Egypt to the late 20th century, and the two tents sit about 15 minutes' walk apart at either end of the park.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, London

Tags: Contemporary art, London exhibitions, Regent's Park

September 26, 2026 — No Comments

Soho Home Art: The Rise Art Collection and the Artists Worth Knowing

Soho Home art is chosen by Rise Art and runs from £295 to £10,000. Six artists worth knowing, editions versus originals, and when the member discount pays.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Artists, Arts & Culture, New home

Tags: Andrew Crane, art and interiors, Avant Arte, buying art, Contemporary art, Day Bowman, Henry Ward, Katja Beckman Ojala, limited edition prints, Lobo Velar de Irigoyen, Richard Cook, Rise Art, Soho Home, Soho House

May 31, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Flare-Up Goldsmiths CCA Review: London’s First Crip Art Survey

Last updated: 31 May 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor: 5/5

I went to Flare-Up at Goldsmiths CCA on a hot day in late May, and I left certain it is one of the shows everyone should see this year. This Flare-Up Goldsmiths CCA review is my first-hand account of the most ambitious group show on illness, disability, neurodivergence and Deafness that a London institution has yet staged. Nineteen artists. One former Victorian bathhouse, its galleries carved out of the old water tanks and plant rooms. A premise built on the flare itself: the symptom that intensifies, the burst of light, the surge of sound.

Curated by Natasha Hoare and Mariana Lemos, Flare-Up runs from 21 May to 16 August 2026 at Goldsmiths CCA in New Cross, and entry is free throughout. What follows is what I actually saw and felt walking the galleries, a short explainer on crip art for anyone new to the term, the works that floored me, an honest account of what did not quite land, and why it still earns a full Ice cold score from me.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Reviews

Tags: angela de la cruz, art, Contemporary art, crip aesthetics, crip art, derek jarman, disability art, Exhibitions, freestylers, goldsmiths cca, group exhibition, jesse darling, london, mariana lemos, reviews

May 20, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Henry Moore Kew Gardens: Monumental Nature Review (2026)

Last updated: 10 May 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

The Henry Moore Kew Gardens exhibition has finally arrived properly, and it is the show his work has always deserved. From 9 May 2026, thirty of Moore's monumental bronzes sit across Kew's 320 acres. This is the largest open-air Moore exhibition ever staged. Honestly, the sculptures look as though they grew there. So the gardens feel different because of them.

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor: 5/5

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

May 19, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Olivia Guillot In between blinks at Glasshouse Review: 2026

Last updated: 19 May 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

This Olivia Guillot Glasshouse review covers in between blinks, the debut London solo show from a French-British painter who has spent the last year on the Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate. The work is loud, confident and unmistakably alive. It is also, quite plainly, the start of something rather than the finished thing. So if you want to back a young painter early, this small Soho room is a good place to begin.

Cool Factor: 4/5

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: contemporary painting, emerging artists, exhibition reviews, Gathering, Glasshouse Projects, in between blinks, London exhibitions, Margate, Olivia Guillot, Soho galleries, TEAR, Tracey Emin Artist Residency

May 18, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Milly Thompson Aroma Venus Review: A Posthumous Triumph at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery

Last updated: 10 May 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice. This post contains a small number of affiliate links in the related-content section at the bottom, none of which influence the review itself.

Cool Factor: 5/5 Ice cold

The Milly Thompson Aroma Venus show at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery is, hands down, the warmest, wittiest, most quietly furious thing I have walked into in London this year. It is also posthumous, so going in I was a bit nervous. I needn't have been. Aroma Venus is exactly the kind of glamorous, slippery, unapologetic exhibition Milly would have hung herself, and it left me beaming and slightly teary on Farringdon Road. If you have a free afternoon before 23 May 2026, just go.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, Aroma Venus, art review, BANK collective, contemporary British painting, Exhibition review, female gaze, London exhibitions, Milly Thompson, opinion

May 15, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

David Zwirner London Review: Five Minimalist Masters 2026

Last updated: 15 May 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

Five names, one Mayfair townhouse, and a quietly precise group hang. This David Zwirner London review covers Flavin, Judd, McCracken, Ryman, Sandback, on view at 24 Grafton Street until 22 May 2026. Although the artists are familiar, the way David Zwirner has threaded them together is genuinely fresh. So if you've ever wondered what colour itself can do as a material, this is the show to see.

Cool Factor: 4/5

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Artists, Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: art review, Dan Flavin, David Zwirner, David Zwirner London, Donald Judd, Exhibition review, Fred Sandback, John McCracken, London exhibitions, Mayfair galleries, Minimalism, minimalist art, Robert Ryman

April 24, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Cecily Brown Serpentine Review: Picture Making Is a Belated Homecoming Worth Your Afternoon

Last updated: 24 April 2026

By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture

This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.

This article contains affiliate or referral links. If you click through and sign up I may earn a commission or referral bonus at no extra cost to you. It does not affect my editorial view.

Cool Factor

★★★★☆

4 out of 5

Cecily Brown is one of the most successful British painters alive. She's shown at the Met in New York, toured retrospectives across the United States, and regularly sells paintings for millions. Yet somehow, until now, she'd never had a museum show in the city where she was born and raised. Cecily Brown Serpentine South's Picture Making is that belated homecoming. It's free, it's in Kensington Gardens, and it's worth your afternoon. Mostly.

Published by Tristan in Art Lovers, Artists, Arts & Culture, Reviews

Tags: art, Cecily Brown, Exhibitions, Free London, Kensington Gardens, london, Painting, reviews, Serpentine