WHAT? Cecily Brown: Picture Making

WHERE? Serpentine South Gallery, Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA

WHEN? Now until 6th September. Free to view

WHY GO? For art in the park. Having lived and worked in New York for the past thirty years, British artist Cecily Brown has the perfect ‘homecoming’ venue for her major solo show that includes old favourites and triumphant new works.
The famous Serpentine gallery in the park showcases her vivid paintings which are full of spontaneous energy, and abstract rhythmic charm.
Inspired by the leafy verdant gardens that she loved to visit as an art student years ago, Brown never imagined that she would ever exhibit a show in the park.
Her work merges figures, motifs and lush botanical imagery and bursts forth across the spartan gallery walls.
She has a self confessed fascination with nursery rhymes and some of her new work hints at stories she loved to read from Ladybird books as a child creating ‘make believe’ dialogues.
As with all cautionary rhymes, some are a tad on the dark side but all intriguing and open to interpretation.
Brown, who is the daughter of the late art critic David Sylvester, has been regularly likened to artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, but this is a woman of substance who wanted to be an artist from the age of three and has carved out her own eclectic niche.
Her exhibition makes a walk in the park, a walk on the wild side and one not to be missed for Brown is a major talent on today’s contemporary art scene.

IN THE KNOW The accompanying catalogue designed by acclaimed graphic designer Irma Boom is a keepsake well worth keeping. It features interviews between Cecily Brown and the Serpentine’s illustrious Artistic Director Hans Ulrich Obrist plus correspondence between Brown and fellow artist Celia Paul.