ArtSpam Favourites: February 2026

My my, February is such a short month that it is a challenge to try and get some art in. That being said, there have been some beautiful shows and shows that have made me think, and I mean really think. I didn’t just go round the show going - ‘oh that’s nice’ *takes photo of work* and then swiftly moving on. A show has to make me go ‘WOW’. I think a prime example of this would be ‘Joseph Beuys: Bathtub for a Heroine’ at Thaddeus Ropac. Beuys was known for revolutionising the art world with the concept of ‘Social Sculpture’, in which art is the thoroughfare for individual and collective transformation. Creativity is now drawn to a singular object, yet intertwined with life itself.

I have also noticed something else in this month’s breakdown of the art world in London: there is a lot of fetish going around. Is this the hot new trend of the art world? We do know that ‘Sex sells!’ But is this fetishisation a movement for female empowerment or a move where the art world is selling its body to survive? It’s a trying time in the art world; perhaps desperate times call for desperate measures.

1. ‘Self Portrait, Reflection’ 2002 Lucien Freud, from the exhibition ‘Lucien Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

2. ‘Pluto’, 1998 Lucien Freud, from the exhibition ‘Lucien Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London

3. ‘Study for “Looking through Glass”’ c. 2000’s Juanita McNeely, from the exhibition ‘Juanita McNeely’ at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, London

4. ‘Mutterschaftszeichnung (Motherhood Drawing)’ 1951, Joseph Beuys. From the exhibition ‘Joseph Beuys: Bathtub for a Heroine’ at Thaddeus Ropac, London.

5. ‘Spike’ 2008 Juanita McNeely, from the exhibition ‘Juanita McNeely’ at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, London

6. ‘Forget Me Not’ 2023 Natalia González Martín from the exhibition ‘Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic In Surrealism, 1880 - Today’ at the Richard Saltoun Gallery, London.

7. ‘Les fées’, c.1950, Suzanne Van Damme from the exhibition ‘Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic In Surrealism, 1880 - Today’ at the Richard Saltoun Gallery, London.

8. ‘STOP FEEDING THEM. STOP ANNOYING YOUR NEIGBLURS. DON’T COMPLAIN IF THEY ARE CULLED!’ 2025, Anya Pintsil from the exhibition ‘Anya Paintsil: Mamwlad’ at Ames Yavuz, London.

9. ‘Freida Kleinsasser, thirteen-year-old, Hutterite colony, Harlowton, Montana, June 23, 1983’. 1983, Richard Avedon from the exhibition ‘Richard Avedon: Facing West’ at Gagosian, London.

10. ‘Girl in Bed’ 1952, Lucien Freud, from the exhibition ‘Lucien Freud: Drawing into Painting’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London.