ArtSpam Favourites: May 2026
May has been quite a month! It is the start of many an art fair, and I also finally managed to take a break from work and go to the seaside for a week. It was much needed. Summer art fairs are always fun. I’d never been to the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead and decided to go along to see how it fared against its better-known Battersea counterpart. I think Battersea is better. I saw a lot of the same thing at Hampstead, so I wasn’t all that impressed. There was also the London Original Print Fair at Somerset House, which was really fun, and I enjoyed that. Earlier this year, the London Art Fair had a surplus of Bridget Riley prints; the London Original Print Fair seemed to have a surplus of Miro lithographs. Oh, how the market changes so quickly.
But aside from fairs, I finally got to go see Shiraparelli at the V&A and the travelling exhibition ‘Journeys with Mai’ at The Box, Plymouth. Both were exquisite shows, and I have a lot of thoughts about both, so watch this space! There is always the Mayfair Mile, my favourite route of exhibitions and galleries to explore; they always have something interesting to show. Even if it doesn’t make sense, as long as it has my mind going, then I’ll take it as a win.
It is always a joy to get out of London, especially during a heat wave and being down in Devon was perfect, by the sea with one of the best museums outside of London on my doorstep. What more could you ask for? Chucking yourself into the freezing sea on a hot day is perfect, even more so when Beryl Cook has a landmark exhibition at The Box to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday. To mark the occasion, the Box commissioned several statues to be placed around the city of Plymouth of figures taken from her most popular works! Some are funny, some are cheeky, and others are downright naughty. But that is Beryl Cook in a nutshell. As such, here are my ArtSpam Favs for May:
Mask, Spring/Summer 2021 Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry from the exhibition ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
‘Portrait of Mai (Omai)’ c.1776, Sir Joshua Reynolds, from the exhibition ‘Journeys of Mai’ at The Box Museum, Plymouth.
‘Where Do I Begin’ 2026, Frances Featherstone from the exhibition ‘Frances Featherstone’ at the Royal Society of Arts, London.
‘Scrub, A Bay Horse Belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham’, 1762 George Stubbs, from the exhibition ‘Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse’ at the National Gallery, London.
White Wedding Ensemble, Autumn/Winter 2024 Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry from the exhibition ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
‘Jean Shrimpton, contact sheet’, late 1965 Brian Duffy, from the exhibition ‘Duffy Fame Framed’ at the Leica Galleries, London.
‘Chatterbox’ 1998, Beryl Cook from the exhibition ‘Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy’ at The Box Museum, Plymouth.
Spring/Summer 2022 Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry from the exhibition ‘Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
‘Self Portrait’ 1746, Sir Joshua Reynolds, from the exhibition ‘Journeys of Mai’ at The Box Museum, Plymouth.
‘Personal Services’ 1987, Beryl Cook from the exhibition ‘Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy’ at The Box Museum, Plymouth.