Eliana Willis

The metaverse is a lofty, nebulous concept. It’s also a violet-colored storefront on Franklin Street in New York. 
At least that’s the idea behind Olive Allen’s new exhibition at Postmasters Gallery, which purports to recreate the Web3 world within the white cube. The title doubles as an ominous invitation: ​​”Welcome to the Metaverse.”
A collection of new NFTs comprises most of the show’s offerings, ranging from collaged digital paintings to an animation of a lush virtual landscape to several artist-designed avatars. The latter bunch scan as send-up of Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, and other collectible characters. One features a Furby decked out in streetwear, another a bull-bear hybrid with market chart arrows on its belly. They look inane, and that’s the point.
With its cheap, roller-rink lighting and glitchy soundtrack, Allen’s exhibition doesn’t actually capture the essence of the metaverse—at least not the utopian vision peddled by Mark Zuckerberg and other tech evangelists. But it does get at some of the affects we associate with the word in 2022: ‘90s nostalgia, corporate co-optation, video-game aesthetics, venomous reply-guy vibes. 
Installation view, Olive Allen, “Welcome to the Metaverse,” Postmasters Gallery, 2022. Photo: Emma Schwartz. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery.
The show marks the first solo outing for Allen, a young NFT pioneer who appears poised to do what few of her crypto-art contemporaries have done: establish a foothold in the traditional art world. A pixel-thin thread runs between the two registers of her work: one a sincere belief in the promises of blockchain, the other a sardonic critique of the culture that’s risen around it. Whether or not they found it IRL or via URL, audiences have taken note. 
“Olive doesn’t go into the NFT space with wide-open eyes and innocent fascination. There’s a criticality to her work,” said Postmasters cofounder Magda Sawon of the newest addition to her roster, which has embraced digital art since the late 1980s and includes such trailblazers as Eva and Franco Mattes and Kevin and Jennifer and Kevin McCoy. “There’s a strong understanding of what lies underneath it all, of the pitfalls and dangers that we see with Web 2.0 and the complete corporate takeover of that space.”
Olive Allen, No-Return Journey (2022). Courtesy of Postmasters.
Born in Russia, Allen immigrated to the U.S. after turning 18 roughly a dozen years ago. First she came Los Angeles, where she says she learned English by going to parties and made money by modeling on the side. Then came New York, and with it, a greater sense of hustle. Rent, she explained, was often paid by “flipping Supreme merch” online. To do that, she mastered fashion’s strategies for manufacturing hype—gimmicks she would later exploit in her art practice. 
It was around this time, too, that Allen began making digital artworks on a tablet, slowly ingratiating herself into the then-nascent communities forming around crypto art. She founded her own NFT marketplace and social platform, called Decadent, and moved to San Francisco to get the startup off the ground. 
Installation view, Olive Allen, “Welcome to the Metaverse,” Postmasters Gallery, 2022. Photo: Emma Schwartz. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery.
Decadent did not flourish, but in its failure came other lasting contributions to the NFT culture. On Halloween 2019, Allen released “13 Dreadful and Disappointing Items,” a series of collectible NFT figures that looked as though they should be sold at Hot Topic: a neon-green alien, a voodoo doll, a “meanie” Beanie Baby. Decadent’s site crashed as the tokens went live, but with the project, the artist introduced the idea of the “drop”—a promotion tool borrowed from fashion in which limited quantities of product are introduced in a short window of time—to the NFT world.
“I’ve always been fascinated by those techniques, utilized by streetwear brands,” Allen said in an interview for SuperRare. “I understand the mechanics of it. You buy and you flip. It’s an adrenaline rush. Achievement unlocked.”
The crypto community’s ears pricked up, particularly the founders of Nifty Gateway, Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster, who consulted with Allen as their own NFT platform—now a mainstay in the space—took shape, she said. Allen was included in the site’s second-ever drop in 2020, for which she contributed several “UnBearables,” a series of teddy bear collectibles battling distinctly modern problems: one is covered in crude oil, another is deemed nonessential by Amazon. 
Olive Allen burning her Russian passport in front of the Russian embassy in New York. Photo: NFT Now.
Like sports cards, her NFTs were offered up in “sealed” packs; buyers had no idea which “UnBearables” they were going to get. Gamifying the release was both a marketing ploy and a means of subverting the market around her work. The series promptly sold out. 
Since then, Allen’s work has been auctioned at Christie’s and on SuperRare; she was included in König Galerie’s exhibition “THE ARTIST IS ONLINE,” and a piece of hers became the first NFT sold at an art fair, at Art Basel in 2021. Earlier this year, Allen made headlines when she burned her Russian passport to protest her home country’s invasion of Ukraine. She minted a video of the act as NFT, auctioned it off for 3.66 ETH (about $7,500), and donated the proceeds to help Ukrainian children affected by the war.
“If any artist from the crypto/NFT space deserves a huge show right now, it’s her,” said Sawon. “The vision is there.”
“Olive Allen: Welcome to the Metaverse” is on view now through May 28 at Postmasters Gallery, 54 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013. 
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This weekend marks the second edition of London Gallery Weekend, a city-wide spree of openings at 150 galleries across town. The largest of its kind, the decentralized event gives a snapshot of what is happening in the art world, from blue chip big hitters to emerging talents at non-profit spaces. The catch: it is enormous! To help you out, we broke down how to navigate your way around the city this weekend and what highlights to look out for.
London’s galleries exist in pockets across its many neighborhoods—so don’t wander. Map it out.

Follow one of the curated routes on London Gallery Weekend’s website: film star Naomi Harris, pop musician-turned-artist Robbie Williams, and designer Simone Rocha have shared their plans as a guide. One of Rocha’s picks is Rhea Dillon’s series of sculptures at Soft Opening at Bethnal Green—we second this.
Start at your furthest destination and work your way back to where you’re based. Are you staying in Mayfair? In that case, cross the river and head to Corvi-Mora to see new paintings by Ethiopian artist Jem Perucchini; work your way home via Fitzrovia for Nicola L. at Alison Jaques. Don’t miss Addis Fine Art, which is showing artist Nigatu Tsehay, and Arcadia Missa‘s exhibition of Melike Kara. Take you time to see Hauser & Wirth‘s two shows by legends Luchita Hurtado and Larry Bell.
Keep an eye on your watch! Events like Mandy El-Sayegh’s performances take place at specific times at 2pm at Peckham Library on Saturday and at 2pm at Allen Gardens on Sunday there of her work The Minimum. El-Sayegh, who recently joined Thaddaeus Ropac, will be doing three performances in total.
Artlogic’s map tool, which allows you to sort your route by filtering and pinning destinations and then downloading the plan onto your phone, is a fantastic way to make the weekend manageable.

your words will be used against you by Mandy El-Sayegh at Frieze Live 2020. Courtesy Frieze London.
Seek out discoveries and emerging artists across London’s dynamic landscape of smaller galleries.

The inaugural Artlogic Young & Emerging Gallery Initiative is focusing on new, interesting spaces in the capital. Gossamer Fog, for example, is a new space founded in 2021 in Depford South East London. The gallery, which is focused on “creative technologies and new media methodologies” including VR and gaming, will open a show of Rustan Söderling.
Sadie Coles HQ is hosting four galleries from India this year: Vadehra Art Gallery, Kolkata’s Experimenter, Jhaveri Contemporary, and Chemould Prescott Road will take over its Mayfair space in a collaborative show called “Conversations on Tomorrow”. This is great chance to see work by Mrinalini Mukherjee whose work drew gasps in “The Milk of Dreams” at the Venice Biennale.
Head to the far-flung corners of the city that are still up-and-coming. Get on the overground to South East London to take a look South Parade, a new project space showing Ukrainian artist Siggi Sekira’s “Parties to Cover the Silence.” After that, head to the edgy Harlesden High Street in the North West for Wawazin Al-Otaibi’s “Soft Whispers.”

Plan your route to catch some of Gallery Weekend’s screenings and performances.

Head to Piccadilly on Sunday at 2 p.m. to catch art films on the legendary huge screen with Circa.art:  enjoy works by Caroline Walker and Ghada Amer, among others. Walker’s portraits of domesticity and motherhood are especially poignant, and Amer’s erotic embroidery is both aesthetic and political.
Selfridges on Oxford Street also has a film program screening, and tickets are free (you need to book via their website). Participating artists include duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, as well as Prem Sahib and TJ Wilcox.
Multidisciplinary artist Lonnie Holley will be performing The Edge of What at Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Avenue at 9 p.m. n Saturday May 14 in a collaboration with Artangel. To create this experimental sound work the Alabama artist travelled to Orford Ness, an atmospheric peninsula on the North Sea in Suffolk.

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Just minutes away from the hustle and bustle of a busy East London road, a moment of serenity awaits those curious enough to step inside a humble 19th-century church, where they will find cascades of white petals falling gently from the ceiling. 
The joyful feat is the work of artist and Instagram sensation Cj Hendry, who has transformed the space into a magical world of dappled sunlight for her first exhibition in the U.K. capital. With the church setting and rows of candles, it feels just like something out of Harry Potter (the artist is a fan).
Called “Epilogue,” the show includes 30 new drawings of flowers in Hendry’s signature hyper-realistic style. So persuasive is the visual trickery of the drawings that one visitor was heard remarking to the artist during the private view: “I love your photographs.”
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,”  the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
The new body of work is a monochromatic black-and-white affair, a much more muted palette than we are familiar with from the artist whose bright trompe l’oeil drawings have consistently captivated the internet. The drawings are joined by a suite of delicate flower sculptures.
While the new works do have a serenity to them, which is certainly not hurt by the setting, the effect is somewhat melancholic. That is intentional. Evoking the ephemeral nature of beauty, the artist draws attention to the fact that she is capturing cut flowers on the verge of withering and decay. 
“It’s natural, at this time in the world, that this series be concerned with the provocation of time, death and decay,” Hendry said. “We treasure flowers for their fleeting beauty. Countless artists have depicted flowers in full bloom, but few have portrayed them as they begin to wither and shed their petals. To me, this is where the beauty lies, and ‘Epilogue’ is a memorial to them and a reminder that nothing lasts forever.”
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
The ephemeral nature of the exhibition itself (which will run for just 10 days) offers a stark contrast to the meticulous and time-consuming process of composing the images; even the smaller-scale works can take as many as 80 hours to complete.
In preparation for the exhibition, Hendry’s team invested in renovating the church, which had fallen into disrepair in the 1960s, and it will be returned to the community after the show’s run. While the artist was formally trained as an architect, she told Artnet News at the opening that she left the repair work up to true professionals, confessing: “I was a terrible architect.”
The exhibition has been made most memorable by the millions of paper petals, amounting to around 10 tonnes of confetti, that are set up to continuously fall from the church ceiling for the duration of the ten-day exhibition. They blanket the floor beneath her drawings, which pull reference points from 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings and the Pop art of Andy Warhol. See images of the stunning exhibition below.
“Cj Hendry: Epilogue” is on view at New Testament Church of God, London E3 5AA, through May 22.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
A general view of the opening of “Epilogue,” the first UK solo show from Brisbane-born, New York-based artist Cj Hendry at the New Testament Church of God in East London. Photo: courtesy of Cj Hendry.
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For many, the lockdowns of 2020, however unwelcome, were a chance to contemplate their everyday surroundings and discover a newfound appreciation for nature.
David Hockney, who spent the year at his house in Normandy, took the opportunity to watch and record the changing seasons on his iPad.
He has now printed and stitched together all 220 pictures into one continuous frieze that, at 314 feet long, is his biggest work to date. A Year in Normandie is on view for the first time in the U.K., in the attic space of Salts Mill in Saltaire near Bradford, West Yorkshire. 
The work’s form was inspired by a Chinese scroll painting that Hockney saw in 1983 at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Recalling the occasion, he described how it was about 98 feet long “and was displayed for me in a private room. It was one of the most exciting days of my life.”
The location of Normandy, where the artist has lived since 2019, also brought to mind the Bayeux Tapestry, with its dramatic scenes of the Norman Conquest. Hockney said that he hopes “the viewer… will walk past [his work] like the Bayeux Tapestry, and I hope they will experience in one picture the year in Normandy.”
“A Year in Normandie” is on display until September 18, 2022. See images of the installation below.
David Hockney, A Year in Normandie (2020-2021) (detail). Composite iPad painting. © David Hockney
David Hockney, A Year in Normandie (2020-2021) (detail). Composite iPad painting. © David Hockney
David Hockney, A Year in Normandie (2020-2021) (detail). Composite iPad painting. © David Hockney
David Hockney’s biggest ever picture, A Year In Normandie at Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire. The artwork joins to gather some of the 220 iPad works Hockney created throughout 2020. Picture by Lorne Campbell.
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An extraordinary crochet project by two sisters on view at the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden brings together art, science, and knitting to highlight the ecological threats coral reefs around the world face amid climate change.
Margaret and Christine Wertheim, whose project weaves together mathematics, critical theory, and feminism has been exhibited all over the world, including at the 2019 Venice Biennale. But that’s only one part of the project. Since 2019, the sisters have also provided volunteers around the world (including in New York, London, Melbourne) with everything they need to contribute their own crochet projects.
Margaret and Christine Wertheim,  Crochet Corel Reef. Courtesy Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden.
“Just as living things evolve through small changes to an underlying DNA code, so the Crochet Coral Reef evolves through small changes to an underlying crochet code,” the sisters said in a statement. “Thus, there is an emerging taxonomy of crochet coral ‘organisms.’”
Margaret, a prolific science and cultural history writer, and Christine, a teacher of critical studies at Goldsmiths College and Calarts, joined forces as artists in 2005 to initiate the project.
Margaret and Christine Wertheim,  Crochet Corel Reef. Courtesy Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden.
Looking at stitch patterns for coral reefs as a form of scientific or genetic code, the sisters found a fan in Museum Frieder Burda artistic director Udo Kittelmann.
“Margaret and Christine’s work is so unique, so strong, and carries such an important message,” he told Artnet News. “In my work, it is crucial to put together an exhibition that touches and inspires and ultimately creates a desire in us to engage and to be a part of the endeavor. The notion of exploring the science and mathematics of corals was something I had never thought about in that way before.”
Margaret and Christine Wertheim,  Crochet Corel Reef. Courtesy Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden.
After more than two years of lockdowns, the Baden-Baden show was a new opportunity for the Wertheim sisters to work with locals: around 5,000 people in the surrounding area contributed to the reef on view at the museum.
“It was my explicit wish to bring a project to Baden-Baden that is not only an exhibition about artistic practice, but also about inviting and bringing people together,” Kittelmann said.
Margaret and Christine Wertheim,  Crochet Corel Reef. Courtesy Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden.
And the project, of course, is also a comment on feminism and sexism, considering the gendered history of knitting.
“Crocheting might be female, but the message this project conveys will impact everyone,” Kittelmann said.
Margaret and Christine Wertheim,  Crochet Corel Reef. Courtesy Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden.
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