Arts & Culture Archives - Page 2 of 4

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

Christo Air Review: Gagosian’s Lost Cloud Lands in London

Last updated: 23 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: 4/5

Some shows you walk through. This one you stand inside. Our Christo Air review covers the moment a lost 1968 idea finally turns real, suspended just above your head in a Mayfair gallery. Christo: Air opened at Gagosian on Grosvenor Hill on 21 May 2026, and it centres on a single, glowing cloud that the artist never lived to see built. Below, we unpack what genuinely works, what falls a little short, and whether this Christo Air review lands the show among the capital's must-see exhibitions this summer.

Published by Tristan in Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: Air Package on a Ceiling, art review, Christo, Christo Air, Exhibition review, Gagosian, London exhibitions

May 23, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse Review – National Gallery 2026

Last updated: 23 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 Stubbs Portrait of a Horse review follows a slow afternoon spent in Room 1 of the National Gallery, where one of British painting's rarest masterpieces is on free display until 31 May 2026. Indeed, this is a small show with a huge centrepiece. Above all, it offers a once-in-a-generation chance to see Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham, a 1762 portrait that has only ever appeared in public once before. So if British painting, animal art, or sheer ambition on canvas interests you in any way, do not skip this one.

Cool Factor: 4/5

Published by Tristan in Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: anatomy of the horse, art review, eighteenth century painting, equine art, Exhibition review, free exhibition, George Stubbs, London exhibition, National Gallery, Scrub, Stubbs, Whistlejacket

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 16, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Sherlock Holmes Open Air Theatre Review: Save Your Money

Last updated: 16 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.

Cool Factor: 2/5

This Sherlock Holmes Open Air Theatre production opened the 2026 Regent's Park season on 2 May, and runs until 6 June. We went in with high hopes, given the venue, the source material and the talent involved. Sadly, we left disappointed. The show is camp, overlong and far too dependent on the Cumberbatch BBC series and the Robert Downey Jr films for its character work. The setting still dazzles. The production, regrettably, does not.

Published by Tristan in Arts & Culture, London, Reviews, Theatre lover

Tags: Drew McOnie, Joel Horwood, Joshua James, London theatre, Open Air Theatre, opinion piece, Regent's Park, Sean Holmes, Sherlock Holmes, theatre review

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

May 6, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Are We Really Here? HBH Gallery Review – Sally Kindberg and the Sub-Real

Last updated: 5 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.

Cool Factor: 4/5

Are We Really Here is a group show that arrives at exactly the right moment. Staged by itinerant London gallery HBH at 67 Great Titchfield Street in Fitzrovia, the show runs from 30 April to 8 May 2026. It gathers 14 artists around a single urgent question: in a world of para-social noise and algorithmically flattened experience, what does it mean to actually be present? For our money, Are We Really Here is one of the sharpest group exhibitions London has seen this spring.

The standout, above all, is Stockholm-born London-based painter Sally Kindberg. She contributes three works: Umbrella Man Special (2026, oil on linen, 91 x 81cm), Muted Corner (2026, oil on linen, 70 x 55cm), and 40 Denier (2025, oil on linen). Together, they are among the most compelling things on show in London right now.

Published by Tristan in Arts & Culture, Reviews

Tags: contemporary painting, Exhibition review, Fitzrovia, group show, HBH Gallery, London Art, Sally Kindberg

May 4, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Why Retro Gaming Is Booming in the UK in 2026

Last updated: 4 May 2026

By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance

Retro gaming in the UK is having a moment. Actually, it is having much more than a moment. The global retro gaming console market hit $3.8 billion in 2025 and is on track to reach over $4 billion this year. Old cartridges are selling for serious money on eBay. Companies like Analogue are building premium FPGA consoles that sell out in minutes. And a growing number of us are dusting off our childhood game collections rather than queuing up for the latest blockbuster release. So what is actually going on? And if you want in, what is the best way to play retro games in the UK right now?

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.

Published by Stiv in Arts & Culture, Kids and big kids, Tech News, Technology lover

Tags: Analogue 3D, Analogue Pocket, Back Market, FPGA, Game Boy, gaming, N64, nostalgia, refurbished tech, retro gaming, retro gaming UK

May 3, 2026 — Comments are off for this post.

Katharina Grosse at White Cube Bermondsey Review

Last updated: 3 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.

Cool Factor

★★★★★

5 out of 5 – Ice cold

Katharina Grosse at White Cube Bermondsey is, hand on heart, the most spectacular free exhibition currently on in London. I Set Out, I Walked Fast opened on 22 April 2026 and runs until 31 May, and it delivers something genuinely rare: a show that is immersive, generous, and varied enough that you walk back out onto Bermondsey Street feeling slightly rearranged. We visited this week, and we have a lot to say about it.

Published by Tristan in Arts & Culture, Exhibitions, Reviews

Tags: abstract painting, art review, Contemporary art, free London exhibitions, immersive art, Katharina Grosse, London exhibitions 2026, White Cube, White Cube Bermondsey