Monumental sculptures, distorted objects and twisted forms. Polish artist, Monika Sosnowska’s new exhibition explores architecture and urban transformation as a reflection on the implosion of the communist regime in Poland.
Weight of Matter
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Weight of Matter is Sosnowska’s first solo exhibition at a London institution in more than 20 years. The exhibition brings together 14 years of artworks spanning across South London’s Gallery’s two buildings: the Main Gallery and the Fire Station.
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The artworks being exhibited in the Fire Station are direct response to the building’s architecture and history.
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The collapsed black metal staircase in the former engine room is just opposite to the white metal stairs installed when the gallery opened to the public in 2018.
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The gallery room next to it overlooking a leafy garden is showcasing plant-like forms. The installations form a concrete garden with collapsed trees and rebar branches.
The former living quarters upstairs, – where seven firefighters and their families used to live – house artworks that use the scars of the building as part of the art.
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Fragments of paint smeared tiles and pieces of steel masquerade that looks like crumpled sheets of paper remind us of the Fire Station’s dilapidated interior before its restoration.
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“Sosnowska’s sculptural practice explores urban transformation, and how architecture reflects social and political change, in particular the implosion of the Communist regime in Poland and the legacy of modernism. Her interest lies in the impact that architecture and space have on people and the challenges involved in transforming existing structures.” – Polish Cultural Institute London.
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The Main Gallery is showcasing a group of site-specific installations, some of which weigh half a ton.
The metal artworks are suspended from the rafters of the building, hanging like skeletons as reminiscence of dark historical events.
Intricate Paper Models Rarely Seen Outside the Studio
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Sosnownska is known for her large-scale sculptures made from industrial materials. Her original ideas, however, start as small, fragile paper models.
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Those maquettes are seldom seen outside her studio, but now visitors of the exhibition have the opportunity to get close to some of them and witness the fascinating aspect of the artist’s working practice.
About Monika Sosnowska
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Monika Sosnowska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and completed her postgraduate training in Amsterdam. She is based in Warshaw, and her recent solo exhibitions include Monica Sosnowska: An Order Apart at EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art), Espoo, Finland (2024), Ghosts at Galerie Gisela Captain, Cologne Germany (2024). One of her artworks is currently displayed at the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park, Rosendal, Royal, Djurgåden, Stockholm.
South London Galleryhas just opened their summer exhibitions. One is presenting large scale artworks featuring mythical creatures by Brazilian artist, Paulo Nimer Pjota in the Main Gallery. The other one is located at the Fire Station galleries and exploring our relationship to the environment through touch, spirituality and healing by British Nigerian artist, Ranti Bam.
Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados
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Brazilian ‘hip-hop’ painter, Paulo Nimer Pjota started his career with graffiti at the age of just 13. He moved to São Paulo at the age of 17 to attend art collage. This is where he had his first exhibition that combined large paintings of crystals, anatomical paintings and crabs combined with graffiti art.
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His exhibition at South London Gallery is titled Encantados which means ‘enchanted’ in English and is featuring 11 new paintings on canvas hanging against graffiti-like wall drawings.
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Pjota’s artworks are heavily inspired by mythical creatures, fantastical scenes, as well as ancient civilisations and Brazilian folklore and even children’s literature.
Pjota says in a recent interview with The Guardian: “Mythology has always been interesting to me. Stories I heard in my parents’ house, in the media, these things form a big part of our life from a very young age. Becoming a father myself, I started reading a lot of fables to my son and I was looking back on the drawings I used to make when I was a kid. Crazy animals, anthropomorphised nature.”
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The Sun, the Moon and the stars are recurring motifs in Pjota’s paintings, along with beasts, animals and flowers.
Pjota’s artworks function as a storybook when exhibited together. However, unlike a usual story book which has a clear narrative that unfolds, Pjota’s works leave the viewer to create their own narrative.
Ranti Bam: Sacred Groves
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British Nigerian artist, Ranti Bam, works with sculpture, film, performance and photography.
Sacred Groves explores our relationship to the environment through touch, spirituality and healing.
Ranti Bam’s exhibition brings together Ifas and Abstract vessels. The word ‘ifa’ in Yoruba means both ‘spiritual system’ and ‘holding something close’.
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The exhibition is featuring clay vessels that Bam created by embracing vet clay against her body to form the shape of the vessels. In this way, the clay collapses, cracks and folds as the raw material spiritually connects her with the earth.
To help visitors immerse more into Bam’s artistic world, tranquil soundscape of nature is playing while the smell of wet soil and clay fills each room.
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The vessels receive a metallic glaze that reflects the body.
Monumental, glazed sculptures are also on display at the exhibition. These sculptures are Bam’s largest artworks yet.
Make sure, you spend some time at the video room, empty your mind and enjoy the tranquil scenery of a river and its surrounding.
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Abstract vessels are created through slab building where pieces wrap around each other. Once together, Bam pierces the pieces by hand revealing the glaze inside the body of the vessel.
The act of rolling, puncturing, painting, glazing and firing the clay combines all the elements: earth, air, water and fire.
Ranti Bam will unveil her permanent public artwork this June for the European Capital of Culture and was invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia by Koyo Kouoh.
Exhibition Related Events
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South London Gallery is hosting a number of exhibition related events throughout the summer. Teacher workshop, family space and curator tours are all available for free and without booking.
The two galleries are just a 2-minute walk from one another.
Opening Times
1st May – 23rd August 2026
Mon & Tue: CLOSED
Wed: 12pm – 9pm
Thu – Sun: 12pm – 6pm
Tickets
FREE | NO booking required
Ready for your next adventure? Another free large scale exhibition opened at the White Cube. Katharina Grosse: I Set Out, I Walked Fast is full of colours pouring out of their frames to cover the architecture: the walls, the columns and even the floor.
Japanese artist, Chiharu Shiota’s large scale installation wraps Hayward Gallery’s top floor room from floor to ceiling. Red woollen threads cascade from the ceiling, entangle around an open wooden door, and form mysterious forests that preserve memories. Welcome to Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.
[BLOG POST IN BIO] You can visit two exhibitions for the price of one at Hayward Gallery 𝙔𝙞𝙣 𝙓𝙞𝙪𝙯𝙝𝙚𝙣: 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 🫀 This exhibition is featuring interactive elements, making it more family friendly. Xiuzhen uses second-hand clothing, household objects, concrete and food for her large scale installations. There is a giant heart that visitors can go inside and sit on pillows on the floor, a huge airplane wrapped in fabric and miniature cityscapes in suitcases🛩️🧳 𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙪 𝙎𝙝𝙞𝙤𝙩𝙖: 𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 🧶 Chiharu Shiota is best-known for her large-scale installations inspired by the Japanese Red String Theory (or Akai Ito). It’s a common concept in Japan that suggests that people are connected with invisible red threads that may tangle but never break. According to the theory, most of our meaningful encounters are inevitable because our lives are already connected even if we don’t know about it yet or we haven’t met yet. 📍 Where Hayward Gallery | Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX (Nearest station is Waterloo station) 📆 When 17th February – 3rd May 2026 🎟️ Ticket £19 @Southbank Centre #haywardgallery#southbankcentre#contemporaryart#artexhibition#CapCut
Chiharu Shiota is best-known for her large-scale installations inspired by the Japanese Red String Theory (or Akai Ito).
It’s a common concept in Japan that suggests that people are connected with invisible red threads that may tangle but never break. According to the theory, most of our meaningful encounters are inevitable because our lives are already connected even if we don’t know about it yet or we haven’t met yet.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Chiharu Shiota was born and spent her formative years in Japan. She has lived in Berlin since 1996 where she studied art and painting. Following a vivid dream of her being inside a painting, she turned her attention to find how she could turn the flat canvas into a 3D palpable installation that can enwrap the space.
That’s how she started experimenting with woollen threads. When she left Japan for Berlin, she had to move nine times over just three years within the city. This resulted of her often waking up in the morning not knowing where she was.
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So, she began putting threads on her bed to create a sort of tangible boundary between dream and reality she could rely on.
Webs of Memories, Emotions and Human Connections
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During your exhibition journey, you’ll navigate through intricate tangled chambers of red and black wool.
Shiota often uses red colour for her installations, partly because it’s a symbolic colour in Japanese culture, partly because red has a deeply personal meaning to her.
Her floor-to-ceiling installations create mysterious chambers visitors can walk through feeling as though they were walking in a human artery or a womb.
Walking through the enormous geometric chambers, you’ll notice hundreds of old keys hanging from the above. Each key is part of Shiota’s collection, and each of them has its own story and meaning.
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Shiota started collecting keys after a miscarriage in 2015 and her father’s death shortly after. She needed something to hold on during those depressed times; something small, something precious to her. That was when she started collecting keys.
Shiota’s art installations often involve everyday objects, including shoes, dresses and even beds.
One of the installations resembles a hospital room featuring white hospital beds, engulfed in intricate black threads. This eerie room is connected to Shiota’s early experiments with threads when she moved to Berlin.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
The next room is a forest of red threads cascading from the ceiling, poignant letters attached to many of them. Each letter addressed to loved ones, some are odes to a city, some express gratitude.
Those letters are written by real people.
Shiota and Hayward Gallery had shared a social media post before the exhibition asking people to write love letters in which they show their gratitude towards something or someone. Thousands of letters arrived. Many of those letters are now part of the exhibition.
Chiharu Shiota’s Threads of Life makes the complexity of human emotions and relationships visible. It enwraps us, swallows us and touches our souls.
Two Exhibitions for One Price Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen
Tickets to the exhibition start from £19 and that contains not only the Threads of Life exhibition by Chiharu Shiota, but you can also visit Heart to Heart by Chinese artist, Yin Xiuzhen!
Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart
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Yin Xiuzhen and Chiharu Shiota share interest in creating artworks that are adventurous and experimental while using everyday objects.
Chinese artist, Yin Xiuzhen is also known for her large scale installations. The materials Xiuzhen uses include second-hand clothing, household objects, concrete and food.
The first installation is an airport including a baggage carousel and a huge airplane wrapped in fabric. Each bag on the carousel contains a mini cityscape that the artist shrank into the size that fit into a suitcase. Those suitcases do not just contain mini worlds, though. Each is packed with Yin Xiuzhen’s memories and her concern about globalisation.
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The next installation is an enormous heart wrapped in red, pink and orange second-hand clothing. Xiuzhen’s interest in textiles began in her childhood when her mother worked in a garment factory.
Visitors can walk inside the heart where they can find pillows to sit on and spend time there. And maybe do even a bit of heart-to-heart with a friend.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Collective Subconscious (Blue) is another interactive artwork.
It’s a long minivan with 20 mini wheels on each side reminiscent of that caterpillar cake became popular a few years ago. The installation is wrapped in over 400 pieces of clothing. Inside, there are tiny wooden stools to sit on.
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The installation reminds the artist of the period of idealism of the 1990s Beijing. The artwork carries a serious message that will be understood for those familiar with the Chinese song “Beijing Beijing” by Wang Feng.
The next artworks is called Ruined City and it’s a poignant memorial of the old buildings of Beijing that were demolished to make space for modern buildings.
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The installation is made from old roof tiles and concrete pieces from buildings no longer exist. It builds a memorial using not only physical materials, but memories and traces of history those roof tiles and concrete pieces carry.
Adult ticket starts from £19 and it includes both Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Lifeand Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart exhibitions.
Ready for your next adventure? Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold: The Exhibition is now open at NEON Battersea Power Station. There are over 180 original objects borrowed from the Egyptian Museum, including the wooden coffin of Ramses II.
Book your ticket with FEVER and use discount code ADVENTURERLDN10 to get 10% OFF!
Danish photographer known for capturing icons from the film and music industry, Søren Solkær, turns his lens toward the mysterious and secretive underground world of street art. Following the success in New York and Los Angeles, SURFACE: Photo Exhibition by Søren Solkærnow arrived in London for a limited time only.
Book your ticket with Fever and use discount code: ADVENTURERLDN10 to get 10% OFF!
[BLOG POST IN BIO] Love photography? You’ll love this new photo exhibition in London! SURFACE: Photo Exhibition by Søren Solkær 📸 👉 Book your ticket with @Fever and use discount code: ADVENTURERLDN10 to get 10% OFF! Danish photographer, Søren Solkær, famous for capturing film and music legends like Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, Adele, and Sir Paul McCartney now turns his lens towards urban legends of street art 🏙️ Søren Solkær is known for his out-of-this-world portraits blending photography, painting and cinematic lighting The exhibition follows Solkær’s three year journey across different cities, including Miami, Amsterdam, Sydney and Los Angeles, showcasing 80 leading street artists with their artworks 📍 Sussex Mansions. 79 – 85 Old Brompton Road, London ❗️It’s in the same building as the BANKSY exhibition. Use the same entrance and tell a member of staff, you’re here for the SURFACE exhibition and they will guide you there. 📆 Until 1st February 2026 🕰️ Available time slots are varied. Please, check when booking #feverambassador#photography#photoexhibition#graffiti#streetart
After capturing such legends like Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, Adele, and Sir Paul McCartney for over 20 years, Danish photographer, Søren Solkær now turns his lens towards urban legends of street art.
Photo: Urban Adventurer
Søren Solkær is known for his out-of-this-world portraits blending photography, painting and cinematic lighting. Solkær’s new exhibition at Sussex Mansions is not just a collection of eye catchy images. Each photo tells a story by capturing the essence of a hidden and secretive world.
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The exhibition follows Solkær’s three year journey across different cities, including Miami, Amsterdam, Sydney and Los Angeles, showcasing 80 leading street artists with their artworks.
Street Art Legends
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Among the street art legends you can find Invader, D*Face, Blek le Rat and Shepard Fairey whose unique styles can be instantly recognisable if you’re familiar with street art. Just think the famous ‘Bubble Girl’ in Whitby Street in London painted by Jimmy C. or Invader’s iconic ceramic tile mosaics often featuring 8-bit ghosts from video games.
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Each street artist is photographed alongside with their work, many of them covering their faces with masks or props to hide their true identity, while on-site lighting creates a mystical, otherworldly atmosphere.
If you love street art, this is a must-visit exhibition in London!
It’s in the same building as the BANKSY exhibition. Use the same entrance and tell a member of staff, you’re here for the SURFACE exhibition and they will guide you there.
Opening Times
Until 1st February 2026
Available time slots are varied. Please, check when booking
Tickets
Adult tickets start from £14.50 (+£1.11 booking fee)
TIP: Use discount code: ADVENTURERLDN10 when booking with FEVER and get 10% OFF!
Ready for your next adventure? Turn your heartbeat into digital art! With a new immersive installation at MOCO Museum, called ‘Heart Spece’, you can do just that! The installation uses real-time biometric data to translate your heartbeat into a mesmerising digital art you can download and even order a printed version of it.
Tucked away in Hanover Street, off Regents Street, UNIT London is a contemporary art platform built on the belief that art should be accessible to everyone. The gallery hosts exhibitions from the best emerging contemporary artists, and in this Autumn, they have two exhibitions running parallelly.
Inspired by his transcontinental experience and Caribbean heritage, Miguel Ángel Payano Jr. blended linguistics and limbs to create a tangible visual representation of language, culture, and art.
Taking advantage of his Caribbean heritage, spending years in New England and decades in China and speaking multiple languages, Payano has come to understand that language is not limited to grammar and vocabulary.
By blending the two words, ‘limb’ and ‘linguistics’, Payano created a new word: ‘limbguistics’ as the title of his first solo exhibition. In his artworks he blends human and natural limbs with various motifs from Chinese mythology and everyday objects to represent extended visual metaphors that rupture the frames of the canvas.
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In his artworks, Payano often uses peach and monkey that are important Chinese symbols. Peach is associated with magic and mythology and symbolises immortality, fertility and eros. Discovering the similarities of human face and peach in terms of how it wrinkles over the time and how it resembles a human mouth, Payano often uses it in his artworks. He calls it “single-celled humans” as peach-mouth not only represents the human figure in his art, but also language and communication.
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Monkey plays a significant role in Chinese culture. It appears in Chinese zodiac calendar and represents intelligence and playful mischievousness. Monkeys often appear as motif that rapture the boundaries of the canvas by grabbing things from the outside world or breaking out of the box that tries to keep them in.
Payano often uses casts of his own hands in his artworks and there are two reasons for that. Firstly, it appeared to be obvious for him because it’s always accessible. Secondly, after his Parkinson diagnosis, these casts of his hands got a new meaning. His mantra has become “do what you can, while you can” because you never know for how long you have the chance to do what you love.
Dreamscape Estuary – Group Exhibition Curated by Laura Shao
3 October – 4 December 2023
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Dreamscape Estuary brings together 14 talented Asian artists with different backgrounds and experiences. It’s a unique exhibition where dreams and visions come together to forge a whole new artistic expression.
Tan Yongqing: ‘Dark Heart’
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The title of the exhibition serves as a bridge between the ethereal and the tangible, the historical and the mythological and the personal and the universal to form one unique collective consciousness.
Stephen Wong: ‘The Fire’
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Curator Laura Shao is the Director of International Development at Hive Center for Contemporary Art. She helps Asian artists to develop internationally and develop interactions among galleries, academics, and private collectors.
Ready for your next adventure? Mucciaccia Gallery, which is just a 5-min walk from UNIT Gallery, is currently hosting a playful, yet satiric exhibiton to bring your childhood memories back. ‘Trapped in a Cel’ by Priest features paintings inspired by legendary cartoon characters and their fictional worlds, such as Coyote and the Roadrunner or Bugs Bunny.
Following the huge success in Paris, Colours Festivalhas finally arrived in London and opened its gates to visitors on 26th May in one of London’s main street art hubs, Camden Town.
Colours Festival is an immersive trail of artworks from the most different artists from all around the world. The vast exhibition space (1,000m2 ) is filled with a mix of monumental artworks of mind-blowing graffiti, inspiring illustrations, and creative photography.
The exhibition showcases artworks in the most difference genres from well-known and emerging artists, including London based street artist, Dan Kitchener. Dan Kitchener aka DANK is known for his large-scale murals featuring Japanese streets with vibrant neon signs usually on a rainy day. You can spot his murals all over in London.
The Universe of Colours
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The XXL sized artworks are being featured in a series of immersive rooms. Each room is themed by colour and some rooms are interactive to encourage visitors to take active part in the artistic journey by deep delving into the creative process and the stimulating and inspiring universe of colours.
Please, touch the artworks! This is the motto of pioneering British artist, Dominic Harris’ newest multi-sensory exhibition. The artist invites you for a multi-sensory adventure to deep dive into the ocean, ascend above the clouds, fly with hundreds of butterflies, and breathe life into Greek Titans and Gods.
If you have ever seen artworks from Dominic Harris, it’s butterflies that probably comes to your mind first.
‘Feeding Consciousness’ is an interactive digital art exhibition with touchable artworks, an LCD screen tower, intricately created magical worlds, and butterflies – of course.
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Harris hand-paints his artworks using digital tools. Before starting drawing sketches, however, he deep dives into the chosen subject, which is most often the natural world, architecture, history, and patterns.
Harris virtually sculpts test ideas before creating the final version of his artwork that defines his unmistakable style.
Bringing the Artworks into Life
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Submerge into the icy ocean of the Antarctica and meet the most amazing creatures. Manipulate the Sun over a beautiful frozen landscape with hundreds of penguins, creating breath-taking sunset.
Poke the butterflies and watch them flying and changing colour or be part of the artwork by creating amazing effects simply moving your body in front of it.
Breathe life into the sculptures of antient gods and titans, step into an immersive room or create lightnings or shooting stars by simply touching or clapping.
Ready for your next adventure? Outernet London is an immersive entertainment district and free public digital gallery right next to Tottenham Court Road station. The gallery showcases immersive and multi-sensory experiences from the most different known and emerging artists. Make sure you visit it when you’re around.
Italian phygital (combines physical and digital elements) artist, Svccy merges classic and modern surreal elements to create unique images. ‘Dystopian Constructions’ is a thought-provoking digital artwork that reflects the human condition in today’s society.
Svccyrepresents humans by statues either faceless or covered by objects to symbolise the total lack of identity in today’s world. Man lives in an inauthentic environment and follows inauthentic behavioral models oppressed by mass media, technology, and fashion.
Statue Houses
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Traditional architectural elements are blended with futuristic visions to create a dreamlike environment. Futuristic houses emerge from the ground in vibrant colours, while giant classic statues appear next to them to make a surreal contrast, representing the illusion of free and self-determined life.
We believe we are living a free life and make free choices, while in reality we are all following a single model which is built for us by our ultra-consumerist society.
Dystopian Environments
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Dystopian Environments showcase today’s human society as series of faceless statues or covered by everyday objects, such as mobile phone to symbolise lack of identity. The statues often depicted in a ruined environment wearing game consoles covering the eyes and ears. This represents how members of society try to escape from reality to the digital world – an illusion – where everything seems better.
Practical Info
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Svccy: Dystopian Constructions is free to visit. NO booking required
(In the basement of Flannels Luxury fashion store)
Ready for your next adventure? Another contemporary artist, Marco Brambilla’s digital artwork: ‘Heaven’s Gate’ is free to enjoy every Sunday from 12pm to 6pm until 26th February 2023 at Outernet London (just next to Tottenham Court Road Station). An 8-minute walk from Flannels.
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