Canary Wharf’s Summer Lights Display is Back for 2022 – 10.06.22

• Unique outdoor exhibition returning for summer from Tuesday 21 June to Saturday 20 August
• Free display to feature 17 artworks and a hand-blown glass exhibition

Canary Wharf’s unique Summer Lights display is back to celebrate the beauty of natural light with a series of colourful outdoor light installations, officially opening on summer solstice.

The outdoor exhibition will run from Tuesday 21 June to Saturday 20 August, letting visitors take advantage of the long summer days when visiting the showcase that is enhanced by the play of natural light.

The free display will see Canary Wharf’s six permanent light installations joined by 11 newly commissioned sculptures. The sparkling and colourful artworks will come to life at sunrise as the daylight shines through, creating beautiful patterns across the ground and nearby structures.

People are invited to visit during daylight hours to see the light artworks play with the sun’s rays revealing ever-changing refractions and colours. To guide visitors through the display, a digital map will be available to help visitors navigate their way around the sculptures.

Canary Wharf is home to a vast and rapidly growing collection of artworks including a number of exhibitions in addition to London’s largest collection of public outdoor art which features over 110 works available to view for free around the estate. From Helaine Blumenfeld’s ‘Look Up’ sculpture exhibition to Camille Walala’s ‘Captivated by Colour’ artwork which reimagines the Adam Plaza Bridge with enchanting geometric shapes and every aspect of the colour wheel.  For little ones, the Children’s Art Trail features 12 pieces of art chosen to inspire young minds, plus a handy map to show where to find them.

With hundreds of cafés, bars and restaurants, Canary Wharf offers plenty of options to choose from whether visitors want to grab an iced coffee as they make their way around or book in for a cocktail once the sun starts to set, while new restaurant openings include Hawksmoor, Caravan, Seoul Bird, Marugame Udon, Gallio and Six by Nico.

New artworks include:

• Bird by Yoni Alter at Wren Landing

Yoni Alter has taken inspiration from the pointillist movement of the 1880s characterised by the painting technique of applying small dots of paint to build up the whole picture. Here she creates a 3-metre-wide pointillist bird, made of 98 colourful translucent discs suspended in mid-air on wires.

• Helix by Calidos at Cabot Square

Specifically inspired and designed for Summer Lights, Helix is a representation of the DNA chain, the basic structure of life. It works with the natural elements: wind gently rotates the structure while sunlight catches and highlights the multi-coloured, reflective metal.

• Love Birds by Atelier Sisu at Jubilee Park

An immersive and naturally kinetic installation. Gliding above the audience the colourful birds flutter in the wind, catching the sunlight and casting mesmerising shadows on the ground.

• Lights on Data by Fisheye at Reuters Plaza

As visitors enjoy this conceptual piece of city furniture, the sun creates an alluring shadow play filled with colour, reflection and data.

• Planet @ Risk by Mark Swysen at Water Street

A welded construction in aluminium representing the eight meridians and the Arctic and Antarctic polar circles in a huge see-through globe. On a sunny day the installation will appear to radiate through the reflection of sunlight in the central cylindrical mirrors.

• Infinity and Beyond by Martin Richman at Harbour Quay Gardens

This artwork offers a layered and visually ambiguous experience of Harbour Quay Gardens, presenting infinite reflections of adjacent buildings and multi-image patterns of the surroundings within each structure.

• Expanded Landscapes by Nathaniel Rackowe at Harbord Square Gardens

Timber studding and scaffolding netting are used to create layered panels that overlap and shift, becoming transparent and then opaque by turns. As natural light filters through, it will create shadows that change colour as the sun moves through the sky.

• Gleamhhh by OGE Design Group at Cubitt Steps

Art sculpture entirely powered by nature that actively creates wonder, awe and satisfaction by harnessing the natural elements of sunshine and wind, creating fantastic moving colourful reflections and colourful shadows and playing tunes from a music box.

• The Long and Winding Road by Ottotto at Harbour Quay Gardens

Made from corrugated drainpipes on a steel structure, this installation encourages people to walk within and be bathed in yellow light streaming through the pipes.

• T. 1131 by Stefan Reiss at Crossrail Place Level – 1

An originally digital drawing is transformed into three-dimensional space using real, tactile materials. The digital is transformed into a multicoloured, mesh surface allowing natural daylight to interact with, and bring life to the artificial, digital design.

• Love IRL by Stuart Langley at Adam’s Plaza

A captivating sculptural heart acts as a jewel-like beacon composed of intersecting linear lines and shards of colour.

• Ebb and Flow by Louis Thompson at One Canada Square

Ebb and Flow presents 13 glass installations in the lobby of One Canada Square, with each blown or solid sculpted glass artwork telling a different story.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Press Office
Canary Wharf Group plc
T: 020 7418 2166
E: pressoffice@canarywharf.com