GWA Newsletter: June
A new book, new podcast episodes, and your culture highlights for June
Dear Readers, Happy June! There is so much to see, read, do, and listen to… Let’s get to it!
New book: How To Live An Artful Life
I’ve written a new book! Gathered from 10+ years of interviews, conversations, talks, and historic archives, How to Live an Artful Life: 366 Inspirations from Artists on how to Bring Creativity to Your Everyday offers its reader thoughts, reflections and encouragements from artists and writers for everyday of the year. Think Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Ali Smith and Zadie Smith!
Out 6 November. Pre-order your copy now.
Click for: Signed copies | Dedicated and signed copies | Non-signed copies | Indie bookshops
This weekend: Borris Festival, Ireland
I’m excited to be speaking at the Festival of Writing and Ideas (6–8 June) in beautiful County Carlow’s Borris House!
This Saturday, 11:45am: I’ll be in conversation with Sinéad Gleeson on all things women artists.
And at 7:50pm: I’ll be interviewing the brilliant Irish novelist, Eimear McBride, and legendary actor, Fiona Shaw, in The Owlery.
Upcoming talk: In Conversation with Hilary Pecis
On 12 June at 5.30pm, I’ll be talking to artist Hilary Pecis on the occasion of her exhibition Wandering, at Timothy Taylor Gallery, London. We’ll discuss Hilary’s process, influences, surroundings, and painting practice. Tickets are free — get yours here!
The GWA Podcast: Lorna Simpson
For this episode of The Great Women Artists Podcast, I travelled to NYC to meet the legendary artist, Lorna Simpson who has just opened a major exhibition, Source Notes, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hailed for her collages, photography, paintings, and text-and-image works, Simpson spoke to me about the importance of getting people to think differently:
“I think the most interesting narrative is, how do I get the viewer to think about something differently? I think we all have a desire to have all the boxes checked, all the information before us, all our expectations met. What if you don't do that? What if you create different kinds of expectation or confusion or contradiction, and lead with that instead of a very closed narrative?”
The GWA Podcast: Lois Dodd
Last month, I visited Lois Dodd in her New Jersey home (the setting of many of her paintings!), to interview her ahead of her major exhibition at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, opening this August.
At 98-years-old, she still paints most days, capturing landscapes and house roofs, windows and stairs. Here’s Dodd on artists ‘noticing’ the things that others don’t:
“I think that people are walking through the world, not noticing anything unless they trip over it. So that's where artists have the drop on other people, because they're more trained to really see stuff. The world is very beautiful and very interesting and exciting. It's nice to to be a painter and see the world and then try to transcribe it.”
The GWA Podcast: Meret Oppenheim
For the GWA podcast’s season finale (!), I travelled to Casa Costanza in Switzerland, the former home of Meret Oppenheim, to meet with her niece, Lisa Wenger, ahead of a new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in Basel.
Surrounded by Oppenheim’s possessions – from Jean Arp sculptures to letters from Max Ernst – we discussed the life and legacy of this trailblazing artist.
From her decades-long “dream diaries” to life with the Surrealists in 1930s Paris (including the making of fur-lined teacup!), we also discussed her feeling stifled as an artist – and woman – during the Second World War. As Wenger told me:
“She felt stifled in her work, her creativity. She went into a crisis when she came back [to Switzerland] that lasted 17 years. During that crisis, she made a lot of her wonderful paintings, but they have a lot to do with her feeling stifled. She paints the stone woman, for instance, where this female figure is underwater…
As a matter of fact, she always said that out of ‘this valley of tears and disaster’ she could only come back to life because she used the “dream” work [diaries]. One morning – apparently – she woke up in 1954, and she knew that the crisis was over.”
On Substack: London Gallery Weekend
This weekend is the 2025 edition of London Gallery Weekend! I’ve rounded up a selection of the best exhibitions and events to see (all free). You can read that here.
In The Guardian: Artists’ homes
For The Guardian, I wrote about visiting the homes of women artists, and how it can offer fresh and exciting perspectives on their lives and work.
I’ve spent the best part of the last decade tracking down the homes of artists. Witnessing where someone lived, or the nature they grew up around, is like seeing their work from within. Suddenly everything falls into place when you see the view they looked out on, or trace the steps they took.
OK! Your top picks… Enjoy. Love Katy Xoxo
17 great shows to see in the UK:
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until 19 Oct
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until 2 Nov
Maki Na Kamura at Michael Werner, London, until 12 Jul
Looking at Her, The Women’s Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, until 7 Sep
Ithell Colquhoun and Edward Burra, Tate Britain, London, until 19 Oct
Sussex Modernism at Towner, Eastbourne, until 28 Sep
Caroline Walker: Mothering, Hepworth Wakefield, until 27 Oct
Sophie Podolski: Wisdom Should Be Sung, Goldsmiths CCA, until 24 Aug
Liliane Lijn: Arise Alive, Tate St Ives, until 2 Nov
Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures, Hepworth Wakefield, until 27 Oct
Linder: A Kind of Glamour About Me, Mount Stuart, Scotland, until 31 Aug
Emily Kam Kngwarray: My Country, PACE, London, until 8 Aug
Daphne Wright: Deep Rooted Things, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, until 8 Feb
Spring Show, TKE Studios, Margate, until 27 Jul (weekends only)
Rachel Whiteread, Goodwood Art Foundation, Chichester, until 2 Nov
In Common at The Peace Museum, Shipley, until 14 Sep
…and don’t miss the new V&A East Storehouse
16 great shows to see outside the UK:
Lorna Simpson: Source Notes, Met Museum, New York, until 2 Nov
Radical! Women Artists and Modernism 1910–1950, Belvedere Museum, Vienna, until 12 Oct
Leiko Ikemura: Talk to the sky, seeking light, Lisson Gallery, New York, until 1 Aug
The Reach of Faith Ringgold, Guggenheim New York, until 14 Sep
Meret Oppenheim, Hauser & Wirth, Basel, until 19 Jul
Corita Kent: love and a butterfly, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, until 21 Jun
Lygia Clark: Retrospective, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, until 12 Oct
Louise Giovanelli: Still Moving, GRIMM, New York, until 21 Jun
Mildred Thompson: Frequencies, ICA Miami, until 12 Oct
Joeun Kim Aatchim: Red Ribbon at Francois Ghebaly, New York, until 7 Jun
Helen Frankenthaler: Painting Without Rules, Guggenheim Bilbao, until 28 Sep
A Mysterious Vision: The Uncanny and Lingering Influences of Surrealism in Contemporary Art, Robilant+Voena, New York, until 17 Jun
Woman in a Rowboat, Olivia Foundation, Mexico City, until 28 Sep
Theodora Allen: Oak, Kasmin Gallery, New York, until 25 Jul
Nicole Wittenberg: Cheek to Cheek, Centre for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine, until 14 Sep
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, MoMA, New York, until 27 Sep
14 great things to read
Simon Kuper on how to be a great thinker, via FT (essential!)
Antonia Showering interviewed by Grace Edquist, via Vogue
Peggy Seeger on Bob Dylan, the ultimate love song and touring at 90, via The Guardian
Siri Hustvedt - Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting
Jenny Saville’s Lunch with the FT
Francesca Wade - Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife
5 great things to listen to/watch:
How to develop your taste in art, with critic Ariella Budick, via Life and Art, from FT Weekend
Marina Abramović, via Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud
Doris Salcedo, via This Cultural Life
7 great things to do in London:
London Gallery Weekend, 6-8 Jun
The Rose Revealed, V&A, 12 Jun
The Courtauld Lates, Abstract Erotic, Somerset House, 20 Jun
Meltdown, curated by Little Simz, Southbank Centre, 12 - 22 Jun
Tour: Queer Conversations, National Portrait Gallery, 13 Jun
Huma Bhabha artist talk, Barbican Centre, 16 Jun
5 great artists to know
Sally Michel Avery (1902–2003)
Maija Peeples-Bright (b.1942)
Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883)
Nnena Kalu (b.1966)
Gertrud Arndt (1903–2000)
That’s it from me! Happy GWA’ing. Thank you for reading this Substack. If you think someone else might enjoy this too, please spread the word and share this article. If you have any feedback — or your own June recommendation! — please comment below.
My reading list grew significantly. Thank you!
Can’t wait to read it!