JW Anderson’s new exhibition ‘On Foot’ is an ode to London

In its 15 years in business, London-based fashion label JW Anderson – helmed by designer Jonathan Anderson, also creative director of Loewe – has fostered an enduring relationship with the art world, both at home and abroad. There was ‘Disobedient Bodies’, an Anderson-curated exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield – featuring his own works in conversation with artists spanning Constantin Brâncuşi, Louise Bourgeois and Alberto Giacometti – while collaborators have included Gilbert & George, Tom of Finland, Dame Magdalene Odundo and Shawanda Corbett. 

Now, Anderson is set to present his latest foray into the field with ’On Foot’ (18 September – 28 October 2023), a new exhibition at Mayfair’s Offer Waterman gallery that coincides with the arrival of London Fashion Week in the city. Much like ‘Disobedient Bodies’, the exhibition will combine artworks with pieces on display from his own collections, though here the focus is on London, ‘embracing the stark contrasts and unlikely juxtapositions that even a short journey through the city offers up’. Amid this, works of seminal British artists – including Barbara Hepworth, Lucian Freud and David Hockney – will be placed ‘in dialogue’ with a new generation of international contemporary artists, from Lynette Yiadom-Boakye to Florian Krewer.

In keeping with the theme, Anderson will playfully transform the rooms and corridors of the Georgian townhouse in which Offer Waterman is located into an imagined walk-through of London – conjuring both the refined streets of Mayfair and the hedonism of Soho, where JW Anderson’s London store is located. Imagined scenes will traverse ‘traffic-clogged streets’, a city park (complete with park bench), and a pub – the exhibition’s final stop – in which ‘a diverse cast of characters will each tell a story of the city they live in’.