The Wick Culture

The Wick Culture The art world insider. An intelligent community invested in culture. A world that celebrates visual arts, culture and creativity in all its forms.

Filled with conversations, debate and insights.

Late summer in London calls for cultural plans while the evenings still stretch. This week’s starts on The Wick’s own ...
21/08/2026

Late summer in London calls for cultural plans while the evenings still stretch. This week’s starts on The Wick’s own home turf at 180 Studios, before heading to Fresh Wharf for a new Thames-side commission by George Henry Longly and Freud Museum London for a look inside the museum’s less familiar corners.

‘War Child Presents Secret 7” 2026’
📍 180 Studios
19 August - 2 September
War Child UK War Child Records Secret 7" 180 Studios

War Child’s Secret 7” returns for its tenth edition, bringing 700 artist-designed record sleeves to 180 Studios in aid of children affected by conflict. Each sleeve is anonymous, each record is a mystery, and the reveal only comes once the auction closes. Choose with your eyes first.

‘George Henry Longly: CHRONOS’
📍 Fresh Wharf
Permanently on view
George Longly

George Henry Longly’s CHRONOS brings a permanent public artwork to Fresh Wharf, close to the site of a former Roman wharf. Made from stone, marble, brass and polished stainless steel, the façade work gives the riverfront passers-by a new reason to look up.

‘40 Objects, 40 Years’
📍 Freud Museum London
19 August 2026 - 14 February 2027
Freud Museum London

Freud Museum London marks 40 years with a closer look at the objects that shaped life inside 20 Maresfield Gardens. Freud’s antiquities, family treasures and pieces usually kept out of view are brought into the spotlight, with contributors invited to respond to the collection.

Read the full features on The Wick’s website, link in bio.

Diving into the weekend… this time in Scotland.After a week immersed in the creative energy of Edinburgh, consider this ...
20/08/2026

Diving into the weekend… this time in Scotland.

After a week immersed in the creative energy of Edinburgh, consider this your cue to swap the crowds for a little creative calm.

This is Gateway (2019) by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos at Jupiter Artland, a fully functioning 9-metre swimming pool and artwork formed from 11,366 individually hand-painted and glazed Portuguese tiles. Its swirling design draws on the artist’s astrological chart and the ley lines said to intersect across the sculpture park.

Take the plunge.

Joana Vasconcelos Jupiter Artland

Celebrating Coco Chanel.Born in Saumur on 19 August 1883, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s creative world extended far beyond f...
19/08/2026

Celebrating Coco Chanel.

Born in Saumur on 19 August 1883, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s creative world extended far beyond fashion. Surrounded by many of the defining artists, writers, composers and performers of her time, she became both collaborator and patron, designing for the stage and supporting figures including Jean Cocteau, Sergei Diaghilev and Igor Stravinsky.

To mark her 143rd birthday, The Wick looks at five ways Chanel’s relationship with the arts has shaped a wider cultural legacy. From costumes for Cocteau’s plays and Diaghilev’s Le Train Bleu to the craftsmanship preserved through the Métiers d’art and the creation of le19M, that exchange between fashion, craft and culture continues through the House today.

Swipe through to discover five ways Coco Chanel’s legacy has left its mark on the art world.

Through the lens. To celebrate World Photography Day we’re celebrating Prix Pictet, the world’s leading award for photo...
19/08/2026

Through the lens.

To celebrate World Photography Day we’re celebrating Prix Pictet, the world’s leading award for photography and sustainability.

Founded in 2008 by the Pictet with the goal of harnessing the power of photography to draw global attention to the critical issue of sustainability, the Prix Pictet has become the most sought after global prize recognising talent which fuses impact - not just for our eyes but also our planet.

The previous winners which we celebrate here are Benoit Aquin (Water), Nadav Kander (Earth), Mitch Epstein (Growth), Luc Delahaye (Power), Michael Schmidt (Consumption), Valérie Belin (Disorder), Richard Mosse (Space), Joana Choumali (Hope), Sally Mann (Fire), Gauri Gill (Human) and most recently Alfredo Jaar (Storm).

The new cycle Jungle was announced earlier this summer at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles and the winner will be announced in London in September 2027 at the V&A. Victoria and Albert Museum

The jury for the Prix Pictet are a group of leading experts in the visual arts from around the world including directors of major museums and galleries as well as journalists and critics.

A garden worth fighting for.For five years, The Artist’s Garden has transformed the roof of Temple Station into a free p...
17/08/2026

A garden worth fighting for.

For five years, The Artist’s Garden has transformed the roof of Temple Station into a free public sculpture space dedicated to women artists, welcoming more than 100,000 visitors each year.

Now its future is uncertain. theCOLAB, the charity behind the garden, has been asked to vacate the site by 1 October while Places for London, Transport for London’s commercial property arm, assesses the terrace for potential repair and safety works.

Since opening in 2021 with Lakwena’s ‘Back in the Air: A Meditation on Higher Ground’, the garden has presented major commissions by artists including Holly Hendry and LR Vandy, carving out a rare space for women artists within London’s public realm.

Places for London says the terrace will remain publicly accessible and is exploring alternative nearby locations. Meanwhile, theCOLAB is campaigning to protect the project and its home above Temple.

A petition is now live. Sign via the link in our bio.

theCOLAB / The Artist's Garden

Always trying to keep up with the Joneses?If your August feed currently suggests that everyone except you is on a yacht ...
16/08/2026

Always trying to keep up with the Joneses?

If your August feed currently suggests that everyone except you is on a yacht somewhere in the Mediterranean, consider this your reminder that comparison rarely gets us very far.

There will always be a bigger boat, a better view or somebody apparently having the summer of their life. What is far more interesting is what you’re doing with your own.

Words worth remembering, on and offline.

Charlie Mackesy

Roses with roots.This week’s AndDiscover looks atWoolworth’s Roses, Clare Woods’s 2023 painting, on view in Clare Wood...
16/08/2026

Roses with roots.

This week’s AndDiscover looks at
Woolworth’s Roses, Clare Woods’s 2023 painting, on view in Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery.

Woods, a British painter and Royal Academician, works in the blurred territory between figuration and abstraction. What reads at first as a vase of flowers unspools into something else entirely: a nod to the seven rose bushes George Orwell planted in his garden before the war.

The still life, in Woods’s hands, becomes a study in duration - bright petals already drooping, a darkness pooling at the canvas’s core, beauty caught in the act of leaving. It is a fitting occupant for Sir John Soane’s old country house, itself a meditation on windows, gardens, and the natural world.

Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons runs
through 8 November.

Always trying to keep up with the Joneses?If your August feed currently suggests that everyone except you is on a yacht ...
15/08/2026

Always trying to keep up with the Joneses?

If your August feed currently suggests that everyone except you is on a yacht somewhere in the Mediterranean, consider this your reminder that comparison rarely gets us very far.

There will always be a bigger boat, a better view or somebody apparently having the summer of their life. What is far more interesting is what you’re doing with your own.

Words worth remembering, on and offline.

“‘What do you think is the biggest waste of time?’

‘Comparing yourself to others,’ said the mole.”

- Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the fox and the Horse Charlie Mackesy

Diving into the weekend.This is ‘Summer, Mid-Sentence - Ibiza, 2026’ by Maryam Eisler, capturing a fleeting moment of su...
15/08/2026

Diving into the weekend.

This is ‘Summer, Mid-Sentence - Ibiza, 2026’ by Maryam Eisler, capturing a fleeting moment of summer suspended between movement and stillness.

A true global citizen, Eisler is an artist and author born in Iran, educated in France and the US and currently residing and working in London. The crux of Eisler’s photographic work is centred around the sublime feminine, often combining timeless and classic beauty in dreamy locations.

Consider this your cue to make a splash this weekend.



Maryam Eisler

Stay cool, London.First an eclipse, now a heatwave. With temperatures in the city soaring into the mid-30s today, Martin...
14/08/2026

Stay cool, London.

First an eclipse, now a heatwave. With temperatures in the city soaring into the mid-30s today, Martin Parr’s sun-soaked 1997 photograph from Benidorm is looking particularly relatable.

One of Britain’s most influential photographers, Parr is celebrated for his sharply observed, often humorous studies of everyday life, leisure and British society. Here, his iconic eye turns to the rituals of the summer holiday, capturing a sunbather equipped with a vibrant pair of blue eye shields.

Consider this your reminder to enjoy the sunshine safely and keep the sunscreen close - Parr’s famously committed sunbather certainly has the eyewear covered.

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