Gina Fischli, detail from Ravenous and Predatory (2021)
A new public art commission in Mayfair will introduce a menagerie of furry and feathered fauna next month to the historic London gallery hub. To be unveiled on 4 June, the first day of London Gallery Weekend, five sets of 3m-high banners depicting photos of woodland animals such as foxes and squirrels will tower over visitors to Cork Street, which hosts prominent galleries including Goodman, Saatchi Yates as well as Frieze's first exhibition space.
These large-scale 'pawtraits' have been made by the Swiss-born artist Gina Fischli, who used internet screengrabs as the basis for the works. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Arts, which is situated a stone's throw away from Cork Street, Fischli says she is fascinated by "the tension of Mayfair, which visualises so much of what London as a city is right now but also a fantasy landscape of what it once was. It is an intriguingly beautiful woman that has undergone over 30 facelifts and stands apart from any timeline". Fischli's banners will stay up for six months until November.