Nostalgic for the Future, Lisson Gallery

The larger of the Lisson Gallery's two spaces is currently hosting Nostalgic for the Future; an ambitious group exhibition marking the gallery’s 50th anniversary in 2017. It’s a densely packed show, presenting no fewer than 35 works by fifteen of the gallery’s artists as well as the renowned 1970s conceptual art collective Art & Language. 

This is a showcase of how, over the decades, the Lisson has kept its finger on the pulse of changing tastes within the art world. The knowing conceptualism of the 1970s is epitomised by Art & Language, the flourishing of land art in the early 1980s in Richard Long’s Grey Slate Spiral, and the slick Young British Artist aesthetic of the 1990s in Julian Opie. However, as is so frequently the case with Greatest Hits compilations, there is little tying the works together as a coherent whole.

That said, Nostalgic for the Future showcases some truly fantastic individual works. We loved Anish Kapoor’s elegantly rendered large-scale stainless steel disc (Untitled 2009), and Ryan Gander’s humorous 2010 work Ftt, Ft, Ftt, Ftt, Ffttt, Ftt, in which a whole room is filled with arrows from an archer’s bow. One of the highlights is one of the collection’s most recent works: Haroon Mirza’s 2012 Preoccupied Waveforms. This installation occupies the entirety of the gallery’s basement and comprises an assemblage of monitors, speakers and LED lights, filling the room with pulsing light and glitchy electronic sounds, like an avant-garde nightclub.

It’s clear that throughout its 50 years the Lisson has accumulated an embarrassment of riches which it’s eager to put on display. Cramming so much into a single exhibition ensures that there is bound to be something here to interest everybody. And ultimately, it is satisfying to have so many great works jostling for your attention.

Admission: FREE

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