London

Contemporary art crawl in London this weekend.
Saturday: "Universal Experience: Art, Life & The Tourists Eye", a group show at the Hayward Gallery (disturbing views of the flipside of touristy cities, their facades and hidden political agendas). Then to Tate Britain to see the Turner Prize Shortlist (disappointing, only 1 painter this yr, Gillian Carnegie), then to the Serpentine Gallery in the Kensington Gardens to see the "House of Dreams" installation by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov (wonderfully tranquil 'all-encompassing environment'). I also went to the "Edvard Munch By Himself" show at the Royal Academy, which turned out to be more inspiring than I expected. His use of light and palette were beautiful and so simply executed. It was a nice reminder that things don't always need to be complicated or overly-worked to constitute an 'art' piece.
Sunday: Tate Modern to see the Rachel Whiteread installation, Jeff Wall, and Henri Rousseau exhibits. Re-visiting some old favourites in the permanent collection (Neel, Beuyse, Richter, and Kiefer) was far more interesting and worth the trip there. Then went to Whitechapel gallery for an exhibition tour of "Paul McCarthy: LaLa Land parody Paradise" a grotesque, yet comical view on the human condition a-la Paul McCarthys Disney-esque pirate installations and cartoons.
Monday: Visited all of the commercial galleries on Cork street. Saw some amazing Picasso and Braque pieces for sale. Walked to the National Gallery to visit my favourite daVinci, Holbein, and Velazquez.
Shown: Simon Starling installation (Tate), Velazquez, and Paola Pivi (untitled:Donkey).