LOWDOWN: Mischievous or murderous creatures?
Our final instalment before our summer holiday <3
Greetings all,
I’m writing from sunny Cornwall - that’s right - I’ve been allowed out of the clutches of LOST ART HQ! I won’t be gone for long, however, as this Wednesday we’re hosting the launch of our collector’s edition of ‘Spill The Beanz: Digital Arts and Cultures’ at The Sloane Club.
This is not only chance to get your hands on this very beautiful bumper mag, but also to attend a panel talk from some of the thought-leaders and pioneers featured in the issue. Drinks, canapés and ever-so-sophisticated mingling are also on the evening’s agenda. We can’t wait to see you there.
Now, it’s not only me taking a little holiday, for throughout August, THE LOWDOWN is also going to get some much needed R&R. In this final edition, we’ve got a little bit of shameless navel gazing, mischievous creatures and a striking power struggle.
We’ll be back with you on the first Monday of September for more hot takes, reviews and recommendations.
Have the most GLORIOUS summer,
Maya Sall x
Writer and editorial assistant
THE LOWDOWN by LOST ART
A ‘lil recap of 2025 thus far… (leaving you very impressed before our August wind down!)
LOST ART is one of the few fully independent arts and culture magazines left on the scene, and we’re incredibly proud to say that. It’s not an easy task - we’re a team of three, who all work part time and have other jobs - but the hours we put into this little mag are filled with love, grit and fuelled by copious amounts of caffeine.
We’re dedicated to LOST ART because we believe in its mission: to bring you excellent journalism. Proper stories written by real people, not AI, which delve into the crux of modern life, and all the weird, wonderful and creative humans which populate it.
The first six months of this year have been one of a rebirth at LOST ART (that may sound ever so pretentious, but it’s true!), and we wanted to share our wins with you, both big and small:
OUR REBRAND: For a decade we were called LONDNR, but in March we became LOST ART. As our mag has grown, it’s a name that better fits our agenda: sniffing out the most interesting arts and culture stories which fall between the cracks.
TWO PRINT MAGAZINES: Spill the Beanz: Digital Arts and Cultures is our first magazine under our new name. It tackles digital art, NFTs and AI, big topics which are on everybody’s lips, but are rarely covered thoughtfully and accessibly. We’ve distributed over 7000 mini mags, and the launch of our collectors edition is this Wednesday. Tickets are £15, and for that you get a copy of the mag (retailing at £16), and panel talk with some of the thought leaders featured in our coverage.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: you have to get creative when funding an indie mag, but sometimes the biggest risks reap the biggest rewards. This year we secured project funding from WEB3 leaders AZUKI (or as Maya likes to call it, ‘Big Daddy WEB3’), allowing us to create our first magazine under our new name.
MORE CONTENT, EVEN BETTER STORIES: every week we bring you a new feature to sink your teeth into. These stories are meticulously research, crafted with care, and not covered by any other publication. Our personal favourites from this year have been our investigation into what happens to artist’s careers as they age, a deep dive into how horses are healing Londoners, and an interview with the spellbinding cellist Abel Selaocoe.
WE’RE DOING EVENTS AGAIN: we don’t just want you to read about wonderful people - we want you to meet them too. Over the past six months, we’ve relaunched our events programme, with panel talks on sustainable fashion and glamorous print launch parties. We’ve held them at chic, hallowed art institutions such as Gazelli Art House and the Cardi Gallery, and been sponsored by some major brands (thank you Red Bull, for providing us caffeine when we needed it the most!)
SECRET CEREMONY: this is our pop-up film club where we screen cult-classics and forgotten little gems which blend the esoteric and aesthetic. Last month, 250 of you came to our sold our screening of The Wicker Man - our biggest screening to date. If you missed it, or are hungry for more, our next showing is Endless Poetry on September 9th. Early bird tickets are going fast - so get yours soon.
THERE’S MORE OF YOU THAN EVER: this year, we’ve had an influx of over 400 new subscribers (hello, if that’s you!). None of this would be possible without you, our dear, dedicated readership, and we’re very lucky to have you on board, championing us. If you’d like to get your hands on a complimentary copy of our recent print magazine (and future issues to come), as well as get discounts to events and a whole slew of other perks, please consider supporting us for £5.00 a month. Thank you <3
Yoshitomo Nara: A Haunting Sense of Humour
By Maya Sall
The mood to visit: you want to revisit the long-forgotten twisted fantasies of childhood
Chubby cheeks and weeping-wide-eyes - Yoshitomo Nara’s giant portraits are instantly recognisable, with a fame that transgresses the name of the artist who created them. The Hayward Gallery’s major retrospective of Nara’s seeks to readdress this imbalance, displaying over 150 paintings, drawings and sculptures spanning four decades of the Japanese artist’s career.
Nara’s life is put front and centre. The exhibition opens with a monumental wall of vinyl covers: Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie. They are a portal into Nara’s world. Growing up in isolated northern Japan, record sleeves were the gateway to his exploration of visual art. In the exhibition, these records are not only seen, but heard, and a compilation of various tracks is a welcome soundtrack when viewing Nara’s creations.
It's an oeuvre populated by cute, mischievous, sad and murderous figures. Defiant, angry figures are pitched against figures of endless sadness, with golden glittering eyes flooded with tears. I was particularly taken with a sculptural fountain, where water drips from the eyes of animal-human hybrid heads.
These works are punctured with humour, particularly self-parody. ‘He wasn’t a fan of drawing hands’, observes my friend who accompanied me. Only a couple of paintings later, Nara has scribbled out the digits of his subject and written ‘can’t draw hands’.
Non-sensical sketches are the unexpected delights of the exhibition. My personal highlights was the spikey-haired head of a baby plonked on a Christmas tree, and the stick-figure contorted to resemble a lampshade peeing into the street.
Yoshitomo Nara is both silly, introspective and intensely beautiful. The perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon this summer.
WHERE: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd SE1 8XX
WHEN: Until August 31st 2025
WEBSITE: click here
Ruthless Romans: Kaarina Parker’s Fulvia
By Wang Sum Luk
The mood to read: you’d like to follow a cunning protagonist as she rises to power against the odds
‘I was born Fulvia Flacca Bambula, though I had other names throughout my life. I was a daughter, a wife, a sister, a mother, a leader, a politician, a general.’
Roman history has its heroes and villains. In the standard tellings, the monumentally influential statesman Cicero was a hero, opposing villainous populists like the scandal-ridden politician Clodius Pulcher, fictionalised in last year’s movie Megalopolis as a degenerate playboy who has sex with his aunt.
Of course, Cicero’s own writings define our knowledge of this era, whereas we know far less about his rivals. Kaarina Parker’s debut novel Fulvia fills in the blanks imaginatively, following the titular woman’s first marriage to Clodius Pulcher. As glamorous as it is seedy, Parker’s depiction of Rome is a morally ambiguous world governed by gossip, with Cicero’s actions being no less corrupt than Clodius’ and Fulvia’s schemes.
Fulvia is an engaging story of its protagonist’s transformation from a provincial ingenue into an unlikely political mastermind and opponent of Cicero. While it’s occasionally unevenly paced—some major political developments are dealt with surprisingly briefly—historical-fiction fans will find plenty to love in this twisty story and its delightfully unscrupulous protagonist.
A key sequence in Fulvia involves the mystery-cult of the Bona Dea, whose rites were restricted to women alone. We know little about this sect, but happily London is home to the temple of another mysterious Roman deity. A visit to the Mithraeum, where the god Mithras received sacrifices from his ardent worshippers, will allow you to imagine stepping foot into Fulvia’s Rome, and to wonder if it’s all that different from the dirty dealings of modern-day London.