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What You Need to Know: In these long, warm days, public art shines as the ideal art-viewing format. For art lovers living in (or visiting) London this summer, the artist David Breuer-Weil has debuted two new monumental and evocative new sculptures well worth seeking out in Berkeley Square (on view through July 31). His Visitor V and Visitor I (both 2022) have taken up residence on the green as part of a six-week installation organized by Arts in Mayfair, Mayfair Art Weekend, and Mayfair Sculpture Trail (which also includes works by Yoshitomo Nara, Antony Gormley, Banksy, and Henry Moore). Breuer-Weil’s installation is accompanied by an exhibition of his working models at nearby gallery E & R Cyzer.
Breuer-Weil’s ties to London run as deep as they come; the sculptor was born there in 1965 and studied at what is today known as Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design under Moore’s assistant Shelley Fausset. While he is highly regarded for his monumental canvases, Breuer-Weil is most widely known for his public art installations, which over the years have appeared in a number of other major public spaces throughout London, including Hampstead Heath, Hanover Square, Grosvenor Gardens, and Marble Arch.
Why We Like It: Breuer-Weil’s monumental sculptures pack a punch both visually and thematically, alluding to the most pressing social issues of our time. Visitor V and Visitor I speak to the plights of immigrants and refugees in London and around the world. The artist has conjured these figures from a “personal imaginary universe.” Coinciding with the installation of these sculptures, Breuer-Weil recently completed a painting titled Invasion (2022), which reflects on the ongoing war in Ukraine. The artist made the work at the exact scale of Picasso’s Guernica, one of the most iconic antiwar artworks of the 20th century. Breuer-Weil hopes his sculptures will engage passersby with their monumentality while also invoking contemplation and consideration of the struggles of those often in our midsts.
According to the Artist: “My ‘Visitor’ sculptures portray figures that have crash-landed from another place. They are refugees, outsiders. That is a very relevant subject today, when thousands of people are fleeing from Ukraine. In the painting Invasion, I show crowds of people fleeing an apocalyptic landscape—a scene is watched over by two mothers. As always, it is the mothers from both sides who are the greatest victims as they watch the fate of their children,” said Breuer-Weil.
David Breuer-Weil, Visitor I (2022). Photo: Sam Roberts. Courtesy of Galerie B. Weil.
David Breuer-Weil, Visitor V (2022). Photo: Sam Roberts, courtesy of Galerie B. Weil.
David Breuer-Weil, Visitor V (2022). Photo: Sam Roberts, courtesy of Galerie B. Weil.
David Breuer-Weil‘s sculptures Visitor V and Visitor I are on view in Berkeley Square, London, through July 31, 2022.