Your monthly cultural crib sheet compiled by Citizen Femme.
Designed for cosmopolitan globetrotters – based anywhere from London to New York – we’ve rounded up the best exhibitions to see, the films to watch, and the events to catch in your chosen city this month.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms, Tate Modern
A Yayoi Kusama exhibition always draws a crowd, and given that tickets are already booked out through 24 October 2021 (at time of writing), it seems Tate Moderns’s Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms will be no different. The headline act – Kusama’s now famous ‘Infinity Rooms’. Such spectacles aside, visitors can enjoy a small presentation of photographs and moving image, which contextualises Kusama’s mirrored rooms. Don’t miss: Chandelier of Grief, a room “which creates the illusion of a boundless universe of rotating crystal chandeliers”.
Constellations, Vaudeville Theatre
“One drink. And if you never want to see me again you never have to see me again.” Nick Payne’s Constellations comes to the West End this June with Donmar Warehouse Artistic Director, Michael Longhurst reprising his role as Director (following successful runs at the Royal Court, in the West End and on Broadway between 2012-2015). A revival with a twist, in this telling the meeting of a quantum physicist and a beekeeper will be played by four sets of couples – Sheila Atim and Ivanno Jeremiah (18 June – 1 August), Peter Capaldi and Zoë Wanamaker (23 June – 24 July), Omari Douglas and Russell Tovey (30 July – 11 September), and Anna Maxwell Martin and Chris O’Dowd (6 August – 12 September). Book your tickets now and ‘journey through the multiverse and the infinite possibilities of a relationship’ in this romantic one-act.
David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, Royal Academy
In the midst of a pandemic, David Hockney captured the unfolding of spring on his iPad, creating 116 new and optimistic works in praise of the natural world. Throughout his career, Hockney has investigated new tech and explored many different ways to make art. Adopting the iPad and Stylus in 2010, here viewers are invited to experience these digitally rendered works ups close – each has been ‘painted’ on the iPad and then printed onto paper. Working from his home in Normandy, in northern France, the resulting pastoral scenes are a celebration of the beauty of spring.
LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2021 Digital Exhibition, Online
The Craft Prize digital exhibition, which runs until 30 September, showcases the works of this year’s finalists – special mention goes to the 2021 winning entry by Fanglu Lin – in a wholly novel way. Visitors are invited to ‘walk’ through the Great Hall of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and discover contemporary craftsmanship spanning ceramic, wood, metal, textile, and stone, via a high-definition 360-degree rendering/immersive experience. While each work is different, the collection upholds the ‘subtly toned and beautifully sculpted design language for which Loewe is known’.
Cézanne Drawing, MoMA
“Drawing is merely the configuration of what you see.” – Paul Cézanne. Offering visitors a close-up view of more than 250 rarely shown Cézanne works, Cézanne Drawing at MoMA reveals how drawing shaped Cézanne’s transformative modern vision through a series of pencil etchings and kaleidoscopic watercolours. “Cézanne made his process visible, from searching lines that repeat and transform to layered washes of watercolour that explore translucency and luminosity” – all of which make for an illuminating afternoon.
Rick Stein & Sons Pop Up, The Goring
Didn’t manage to nab a holiday rental in Cornwall? No matter. Rick Stein, together with his sons Jack and Charlie, has come up with a solution – “Taste of Cornwall”, a one-week pop up focusing on, well, ‘copious amounts of exquisite fish and seafood’. Expect cooking demos, plus a series of lunches and dinners incorporating Rick’s signature recipes – think whole dover sole meunière with noisette butter, tronçon of turbot with hollandaise sauce, and sea bass ceviche with red chilli, tomatoes, red onions, coriander, and avocado, and other such delights. As well as an utterly luxurious overnight stay (with a guaranteed upgrade), guests will choose a three-course lunch or dinner created by the supremely talented Stein family. A Rick Stein book will also be included as a memento for guests to take home.
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