Six things not to miss this March
The daffodils and crocuses are popping up through the grass, the long-awaited transition of coat to jacket is nigh (we hope) and we’re all swooning over that extra hour of light: yes, spring is here. This March, we’re welcoming in the brighter days with six cultural and culinary must-dos and -sees, including a delicious new menu making the most of the season’s finest produce and a group exhibition shining light on 11 brilliant emerging artists.
Untitled at Francis Gallery
Bath residents and visitors should make a beeline for Rosa Park’s Francis Gallery, where a group exhibition named ‘Untitled’ is showcasing the work of three artists: British painter Luke Samuel, Franco-British photographer Charlotte Colbert and Australian sculptor Ceara Metlikovec. Curated by Rosa with Emily Andrew of the EKA Art Advisory, the pieces explore themes of perspective and home and are set beautifully within the Georgian building.
Luke’s abstract oil paintings have been artfully placed so that large-scale work hangs just above the ground while smaller pieces sit above them. “Understanding how they relate to one another is really important,” he says. Elsewhere, a photographic series by Charlotte – also a filmmaker and writer – depicts a figure captured within a crumbling interior and aims to explore the boundary between reality and fiction. Meanwhile, 5,000 clay bricks lie at the centre of the show, composed in a satisfying three-foot circle. Each palm-sized piece has been handmade by Ceara and recalls the pale limestone of the buildings that line the streets outside. Until 29 April.
Pictured: Luke Samuel, Untitled, 2022
Spring at The Water House Project
Nothing says spring like fresh produce – and perhaps there’s no place better to try the season’s best than at The Water House Project. Having spent seven years honing his craft at his home supper club, chef Gabriel Waterhouse opened the doors to his permanent restaurant in Hackney, east London, in 2022, which is renowned for serving “simple and surprising” food in an unpretentious setting. We particularly admire the domestic kitchen design, where guests can watch Gabriel whip up delicious dishes while being served by his particularly personable team. Gabriel uses locally sourced produce from suppliers within the British Isles to create long and short menus that naturally evolve every season. For spring, standout dishes include a seaweed crumpet with cod’s roe, horseradish and gooseberry; kohlrabi with black garlic, Tokyo turnips and rainbow radish in a vegetable broth; and rhubarb with yoghurt and rosemary honeycomb. Low-intervention wine enthusiasts will love the carefully selected pairings to wash it all down with too. The spring menu runs until June 2023.
Bao by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung
“The bun took us half a year to perfect,” revealed Erchen Chang while showing us around the Borough branch of her Taiwanese restaurant, Bao, a few years ago. Since 2012 Erchen, her husband, Shing Tat Chung, and sister-in-law, Wai Ting Chung, have been serving their signature staple to hungry crowds, first as a street-food pop-up and today at three permanent sites across London (Borough, King’s Cross and Soho). Having rightly earned their pillowy steamed buns cult status, the trio is releasing their first book dedicated to the brilliance of Bao.
Part cookbook, part manifesto, Bao is beautifully designed and jam-packed with personal anecdotes and stories charting the restaurant’s rise, while also paying homage to the co-founders’ parents and Taiwanese heritage (pore over family photos of the young siblings tucking into traditional buns). There are also more than 100 recipes for tasty dishes including chilli chicken wings, scallops with yellow bean and garlic, and noodle soup. But first, why not set yourself a challenge and see how long it takes you to perfect the dumpling-like bun? Bao is published by Phaidon on 2 March.
Skin Deep at Studio West
‘Skin Deep’ is the second group exhibition to make this list and opens on 11 March at Studio West in Notting Hill, west London. Drawing inspiration from Bessel van der Kolk’s seminal text The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, it aims is “to examine the power of the body in contemporary art, presenting it as a multifarious and complex visual signifier that bears the scars of experience, inner struggle and trauma”. Expect to see a spectrum of compelling figurative paintings depicting intimacy, fragility and healing alongside works that convey the body and emotion in painterly expressions.
If you’re unfamiliar with Studio West, the gallery was founded in 2021 by curator Caroline Boseley to champion some of the most exciting names coming out of the UK. Not only does it spotlight recent graduates or those still studying, but it proactively seeks to promote underrepresented artists to address inequalities in the art world. ‘Skin Deep’ is no exception and features a series of paintings by 11 up-and-coming names to have on your radar, including Ki Yoong, Nina Baxter and Alice Miller. Until 5 April.
Pictured: Ki Yoong, Billy, 2023; Nina Baxter, Only if We’re Lucky, 2022; Alice Miller, Bunny Rabbit, 2021
Gothica by Jaylon Israel Hicks at Maximillian William
Speaking of supporting new artistic talent, Maximillian William is fast becoming one of our favourite “artist-centric” galleries in London for doing just that. (We’ve loved visiting past shows here, which have included those dedicated to painters Somaya Critchlow and Reginald Sylvester II, as well as textile designer Tom Atton Moore.) Next to takeover the Fitzrovia-based space is Texan-born artist Jaylon Israel Hicks with his first solo UK exhibition titled ‘Gothica’, which opens 9 March.
“I think artists are inherently poetic,” says Jaylon, musing over this particular body of work, produced between 2015 and 2023. Through photography, painting, sculpture and mixed-media works, Jaylon uses creative dexterity and painterly skill to examine the future of the world around us. Trained in material science, he pays close attention to the environment, and plastic in particular is a recurring theme in his work, which touches on big ideas behind consumerism, waste and pollution. Until 29 April.
Pictured: Jaylon Israel Hicks, Ex (Skull), 2022 © Jaylon Israel Hicks. Image courtesy the artist and Maximillian William, London. Photography: Eric Mueller
After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art at the National Gallery
After the delicate brushstrokes of Claude Monet and the impressionist movement came modern art – and that shift in style is the subject of a new blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery. The suitably titled show features more than 100 works created between 1800 and the start of World War I – a period of radical change in the art world, when painters began to rebel against tradition – and spans expressionism, cubism and abstraction.
Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne are among the post-impressionist giants lauded for their progressive paintings, which paved the way for their younger, more provocative protegés, including Gustav Klimt, Henry Matisse and Pablo Picasso, whose work also features in the exhibition. But you can also expect to see works from lesser-known names too, such as printmaker Käthe Kollwitz and designer Sonia Delaunay, who, although often overlooked, were equally pivotal in shaping modern art. ‘After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art’ runs 24 March to 13 August 2023.
Pictured: Paul Gauguin, Vision of the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel), 1888 © National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh
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