The Ick: is London bad for love? Speakers annouced.
Turncoats takes to the Set main stage next week. And my take(s) on the Venice Biennale
Dating, love, London and landlords
Friends, it just over a week until the next Turncoats debate lands in Peckham at the main stage of Set Social. I’m thrilled to announce our full lineup features William Rayfet Hunter, author Sunstruck and junior doctor; Kimberly McIntosh, a former Southwark councillor and author of black girl, no magic; Olivia Petter, author of Millennial Love and Gold Rush. The Belgo-Nigerian architect
Ewa Effiom; co-curator of this season of Turncoats and architect Lucas Facer; and my favourite clown, the brilliant Paulina Lenoir.
Tickets were sold out this morning but we just released a few more. Romance vs gentrification. Sex and the cityscape. This event, mixing comedy with heartfelt debate asks, is London giving us The Ick? TICKETS
A Tech Bro Fever Dream: Venice Biennale 2025
I filed two reviews of the Venice Biennale this year, a straight-up and mostly scathing piece for Art Review and a shorter “Beginners Guide” for The Fence. Both articles are linked below.
ART REVIEW
Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 Review: A Tech Bro Fever Dream
Carlo Ratti’s exhibition is a claustrophobic mess of bio and techno theatrics, relying on expensive machines to solve problems that didn’t need fixing in the first place
THE FENCE
Get in the Gondola, we’re looking at architecture
The plucky upstart to its more venerable art world cousin, the Venice Architecture Biennale is usually the most hotly anticipated event in the architectural calendar. A vast Prosecco-fueled industry knees-up masquerading as high culture in a setting infinitely more agreeable than the Excel Centre – what’s not to love? But this year is different.
Finally, sculpture news
I’m thrilled to have a piece in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. The show runs from 17 June to 17 August and all ticket proceeds and art sales go to help support the RA’s charitable work. See you there!
Blue skies,
Phin