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TRAUMATA AT SOTHEBY’S

We’ve always enjoyed Sotheby’s S|2 space which puts on museum-quality exhibitions with free entry, behind the Mayfair auction house.

It’s a direct selling space, so there’s no bidding for the artworks, and there’s currently a terrific show called Traumata, celebrating two of the greatest artists of their generation — the late Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama.

Both women emerged on to the famously macho Fifties NY art scene, the era of abstract expressionism, both laid bare their own psychological traumas, which continue to inspire artists.

Kusama has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric facility for 40 years but still journeys to her studio to continue her life’s work. Bourgeois’s Spider, 1994, pictured above, is among works on show.

*Traumata runs at Sotheby’s until April 13.

FIND YOUR EDEN IN THE CITY

How do we “feel” a city? What do we see and hear as we go about our lives?

Laura Oldfield Ford is interested in how people negotiate and experience the city space. She has created Alpha, Isis, Eden, an installation and audio work, pictured, at The Showroom, based on walks in the gallery’s Edgware Road location, creating layers of personal and public experience and history.





This Saturday from 3.30pm-8pm there’s a free discussion session attached to the show with artists, writers and activists participating in a listening event, with a drinks/DJ set towards the end.

*Alpha, Isis, Eden, at The Showroom until March 18. Free entry. Booking essential.

CLOSE TO THE EDGE WITH MAGGI

Maggi Hambling, pictured, is one of Britain’s most important artists. Edge, her eighth solo exhibition with the Marlborough Gallery, opens tomorrow.





The title gives a clue. Hambling has been quoted as saying: “We are living on the edge all of the time.” She wants us to consider the fragility of existence, both ours and that of the planet.

Hambling created the first public monument to Oscar Wilde, the green granite sarcophagus opposite Charing Cross station, with its quote from Lady Windermere’s Fan: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”.

*Maggi Hambling: Edge, at the Marlborough Gallery, March 2-April 13.

THE PAPER AVIARY: TWEETING THE SECRETS OF ST JAMES’S MARKET

We knew about the three fashionable restaurants in St James’s Market, and those hot Danish chefs who’ve launched Ole & Steen, the 2017 bakery of choice. But we didn’t know about The Paper Aviary, a “shop window” installation in the new St James’s Market Pavilion.

Argentine studio Guardabosques, working with design specialists dn&co, created paper birds out of traditional menswear patterns. The birds chirrup and tweet through speakers as you pass.





It’s a homage to nearby Birdcage Walk where Charles II installed a birdcage full of exotic species.

Also at St James’s Market, Smeg is soon to open a three-floor flagship store. Check out its Dolce & Gabbana-designed fridges.

*The Paper Aviary, at St James’s Market, until May. Free.

AN ARCHITECTURAL DETECTIVE IN KING’S CROSS

If you are visiting Borough Market, take a detour to the Art Bermondsey Project Space for Minnie Weisz’s new show, Time Present Time Future.

Weisz — sister of actress Rachel — has a studio in King’s Cross and for the past 15 years has been photographing abandoned buildings in the area.

Hidden chapel: from Minnie Weisz’s new show, Time Present Time Future

She revisits the spaces before and during their development, and the photos have an ethereal, dreamlike quality.

Art Bermondsey Project Space is a not-for-profit platform. The artists sell directly to the viewer, and it’s a great place to find art, for first-time buyers in particular.

*Until March 12, Tuesday-Saturday 11am- 6pm, at Art Bermondsey Project Space.