Twenty pounds buys a Cecily Brown. Fourteen things under £25 from gallery shops and deadstock dealers, every price checked this week. The trick is buying after the exhibition closes.
Four A2 prints by Chantal Joffe, Celia Paul, Grayson Perry and Jules de Balincourt, £100 each, closing noon on Sunday. The money puts artwork on NHS mental health wards. #HospitalRooms #ArtPrints #GraysonPerry #LondonArt #SupportTheArts
May 15, 2026Comments 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
Read more
April 24, 2026Comments 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.
Read more
April 10, 2026Comments are off for this post.
Schiaparelli V&A Review: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A London
Last updated: 10 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.
We went into the Schiaparelli V&A exhibition not knowing quite what to expect. We are not fashion journalists. We are curious culture-watchers who appreciate design, craftsmanship, and the occasional moment where something genuinely stops you in your tracks. Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A delivered that moment several times over. This is our honest Schiaparelli V&A review, covering whether this blockbuster show justifies its ticket price, what the standout pieces are, and why it deserves your attention even if you have never owned a couture anything.
Cool Factor: 4/5 (Stone cold)
Cool Factor
★★★★☆
4 out of 5
April 10, 2026Comments are off for this post.
Chiharu Shiota & Yin Xiuzhen Hayward Gallery Review 2026 – Worth It?
Last updated: 10 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.
Our Chiharu Shiota Hayward review covers two concurrent exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery on London's Southbank: Threads of Life and Yin Xiuzhen's Heart to Heart. For £19 you get entry to both shows, and honestly, that felt like a steal. One of these exhibitions left us speechless. The other left us a little lukewarm. Together, they make for a genuinely memorable afternoon.
Cool Factor: Chiharu Shiota — 5/5 | Yin Xiuzhen — 3/5
Read more
April 7, 2026Comments are off for this post.
Veronica Ryan Whitechapel Gallery Review 2026 – Multiple Conversations
Last updated: 11 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
★★☆☆☆
2 out of 5
Two weeks ago I walked out of Hurvin Anderson's show at Tate Britain buzzing. It was focused, beautifully paced, and one of the best things I have seen in London this year. Then I paid £16.50 to see Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations at Whitechapel Gallery. I walked out feeling flat. Ryan is a Turner Prize winner with four decades of serious, compelling work behind her. So what went wrong? In short, the Veronica Ryan Whitechapel survey tries to say everything at once and ends up saying very little clearly. Here is why.
Read more
March 23, 2026Comments are off for this post.
Conceptual Art and Christine Kozlov at Raven Row Review
Last updated: 22 March 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: 3/5
The Christine Kozlov Raven Row exhibition is a sprawling deep dive into the work and world of one of conceptual art's most overlooked figures. Housed in the gorgeous 18th-century rooms of Raven Row gallery in Spitalfields, Conceptual Art and Christine Kozlov brings together an expansive collection of Kozlov's output alongside works by her peers, including On Kawara, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth, and Art & Language. It's free, it's ambitious, and it's open until 26 April 2026. But does it hold together as a show? Our honest verdict below.
Read more
March 22, 2026Comments are off for this post.
William Nicholson at Pallant House Gallery Review
Last updated: 21 March 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.
The William Nicholson exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester is the first major survey of this extraordinary painter in more than 20 years. Spanning his entire career, from bold graphic posters to luminous still lifes and tender portraits, it makes a compelling case for Nicholson as one of Modern British art's most underrated figures. A friend who studied at the Royal College of Art tipped us off, and they were right. This is a show that rewards close looking, and Chichester itself makes for a brilliant day out.
Cool Factor: 4/5 Stone cold
Read more
March 2, 2026Comments are off for this post.
Rose Wylie at the Royal Academy Review: A Look at the London Exhibition
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.
The Rose Wylie Royal Academy exhibition places one of Britain’s most distinctive painters within the formal context of Burlington House. Rather than framing Wylie as an outsider voice, the exhibition situates her practice within a lineage of British painting that values scale, gesture and visual directness. The result is not a retrospective spectacle but a measured presentation that clarifies the structural intelligence beneath her deliberately awkward surface language.
As with other focused RA exhibitions, the strength of the show lies in pacing. The galleries unfold in a steady sequence, allowing Wylie’s visual vocabulary to accumulate gradually.
Read moreFollow us: Instagram
Copyright 2026 CoolCuration | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Affiliate Disclosure | Cool Factor
-----------
We are proud supporters of a safer more private internet via encouraging people to use Brave browser and are actively taking on Spammers as part of ProjectHoneypot. This site is hosted on servers that run on 100% renewable energy in the UK thanks to GreenWebHosting.
This site contains affiliate links, including to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase or sign up for a service via these links, at no extra cost to you. All offers and promotions are accurate at the time of publication but are subject to change or withdrawal by the businesses featured. We cannot guarantee their continued availability. Read our full affiliate disclosure.
Reviews and opinions on CoolCuration reflect the personal experience of our writers at the time of publication. They are not professional endorsements and your experience may differ. Scores use our Cool Factor rating system and are given independently of any commercial relationship.
All content on CoolCuration is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendations or an endorsement of any product or service. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and do not offer personalised financial guidance. You should always do your own research or consult a qualified financial advisor before making any financial decisions.