Rowley Gallery Blog
At first sight this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion resembles a giant table on the lawn with fairy lights hung beneath it. It was designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and artist Ai Weiwei, the same team that created the National Stadium, aka the Bird’s Nest, for the Beijing Olympics. Continue reading “Serpentine Gallery Pavilion”
Kensington Place has recently been refreshed with a bright new interior. The large mural by Mark Wickham depicting a view of The Long Water in Kensington Gardens has been in place since the restaurant opened 25 years ago. It has become almost synonymous with Kensington Place. But now it is due for a holiday. In its place will be a new exhibition space and The Rowley Gallery have been asked to select the artworks for this exciting new development.
More details to follow soon. Watch this space.
Gail Brodholt has two of her linocuts in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She’s had prints accepted before but this is the first time they’ve taken two and I think she’s a little excited. She’s probably opened the champagne by now. Continue reading “Retail Therapy”
This is Fanny Shorter‘s screenprint Common Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus). All Fanny’s birds are depicted life size. See flocks of them this weekend at her open studio at Cockpit Arts, Cockpit Yard, Holborn. More details here.
David Stubbs has a small oil painting in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It is titled Green, Yellow & Grey with Pink & Cream (Dutch Pots III) and it sold almost straightaway, though others are available at The Rowley Gallery. David’s painting has been reproduced as an RA card.
Our neighbours down the road at Kensington Palace just had a makeover. They recently reopened their doors to visitors after months of redecorating. The entrance hall is entrancing. It features a luminous lace light sculpture adorned with Swarovski crystals, in homage to the Royal Dress Collection. It’s tree-like structure appears to be related to the new concourse canopy at King’s Cross. Trees and branches also make an appearance in other rooms. Look out for the bottle-tree and the dolls tree-houses. Here below are more photographs from the palace. Continue reading “Kensington Palace”
At this time of year I always remember Lowell George and the line about ‘mysterious wisteria’ from his song 20 Million Things. Continue reading “Mysterious Wisterias”
King’s Cross station has a new concourse, enclosed by a beautiful, sculptural roof which grows from a steel trunk and spreads into a tree-like canopy of intersecting branches. They meet the ground along the semi-circular perimeter, which is a continuation of the arc of the Great Northern Hotel, which was in turn shaped by the curve around a bend of the River Fleet. Continue reading “A Walk From King’s Cross (With Labels)”
Raven Row is a new gallery in Spitalfields. It is presently home to a wonderful exhibition of textile fragments, courtesy of the Centre for Social Research on Old Textiles. With little prior knowledge of the subject the beauty of the undertaking for me was initially its presentation and framing, which is just breathtaking. This is a beautifully renovated building and the exhibits are respectfully displayed. The delicate hand-wrought artefacts in their vitrines and the elegantly proportioned rooms combine to make this a place of pilgrimage. Continue reading “The Stuff That Matters”
A miniature houseboat on the roof of the QEH designed by Artangel for Living Architecture, an organisation set up by the philosopher Alain de Botton to build innovative holiday homes around the shores of Britain. It sounds intriguing and fun, maybe crazy and very exclusive, though guests seem expected to sing for their supper. A little like Big Brother’s little brother house. Read more here.