Review: "Future Ruins" by Michael Landy at the Sir John Soane Museum

It was my very great pleasure yesterday to meet former "Young British Artist" Michael Landy RA. He is an amazing draughtsman who is justly renowned for his meticulous drawings

As I'm a huge fan of drawing, I've always very much enjoyed his series of etchings of weeds titled "Nourishment" - which I've been to see in the Archive of Tate Britain.

This series was created immediately after and maybe in response to possibly his most famous work. His major 2001 installation work Breakdown — saw all 7,227 of his personal possessions being destroyed in the windows of the defunct C&A store on London's Oxford Street - after which he was left with nothing.

In the series Nourishment (2002) the overlooked city weeds were collected from city pavements.

They served as personal metaphors for resilience, survival, and finding life in hostile urban environments. (see also Nourishment (2024) at the Thomas Dane Gallery which includes weeds collected from the streets of Naples).

That's by way of a very long preamble and introduction to his current work....

Future Ruins

His series "Future Ruins" imagines what some iconic buildings might look like in future after an event which left them in ruins. 

For anybody who likes drawing and/or architecture or both, I'd highly recommend you pay a visit ot the Sir John Soane Museum in Lincoln's In Fields.

The exhibition features new and recent work which is shown in the context of the art that first inspired Landy to create the series.

A work from the museum’s collection - Joseph Michael Gandy’s watercolour Architectural Ruins - A Vision (1798) - commissioned by Sir John Soane and depicting the then-Bank of England as a Roman ruin was an inspiration for Landy. Now this work will be displayed alongside the artist’s own imagining of a future filled with overgrown nature and crumbling structures.

The vast majority of the drawings of imaginary future ruins. Some are drawings done of existing ruined buildings.

The scope of buildings includes everything from the Bank of England, to the art shop where he used to buy his art materials and his old home in Ilford to Mar A Largo and Kanye West's house in Malibu at 24844 Malibu Road - which oddly was one of the houses which burned during the bad Californian fires last year.

Imaginary view of The Bank of England in ruins (2023)

after Joseph Michael Gandy
signed titled verso indelible pen
permanent pen on paper
76 x 56.1 cm. 30 x 22 in.

(WHINGE! I've now officially given up trying to do the correct full captions as the publicist has created them such that they cannot be copied and pasted - even if I remove the formating. I have never ever seen such a bad set of captions for press purposes!)

Imaginary view of Owen Clark in ruins (2022)
(where Michael Landy used to buy his art materials)

Imaginary view of "The Landy Family House in Ruins" (2026)

The weeds also return again and (most) of the buildings are covered with weeds. Some also acquire graffiti.

There are two version's of Landy's drawings of the Soane Museum 

• just a ruined facade with weeds 
• a larger version with graffiti as well

I prefer the smaller one (not being a big fan of graffiti)

Oh! What a falling off do these ruins present.
Sir John Soane’s Museum as a ruin, 2026
by Michael Landy

There are also a number of continental buildings as imagined ruins.

He also has a set of drawings of traditional Irish family homes which became his drawing subjects, via the Internet, during Covid.

Plus a set of drawings of bins - because Landy does love a bin! There's even a bin sculpture on the ground floor which attempts to be a spin off of the assembled coloumn created by Sir John Soane. One of the curators told me that even the rubbish was artfully designed!

The American / Trump Subtext

There's a subtext to the exhibition which revolves around Trump. I gather Michael Landy is maybe not hugely impressed by Trump. 

One is a drawing of Mar-a-Lago in ruins

Mar-a-Lago in Ruins (2026) by Michael Landy
signed, dated, titled verso
watercolour, permanent pen on paper
34 x 84.7 cm. 13 1/2 x 33 1/4 in

It was interesting to see how he builds up to his final drawing via smaller sketches

One is of the "Arc de Trump" (his yet to be built triumphal arch / copy of the Arc de Triomphe near La Defence in Paris).

Arc de Trump in ruins (2026) by Michael Landy
watercolour, permanent pen on paper
44 x 32cm

Then we have a famous Malibu mansion, designed by Tadao Andu and bought by Kanye West (before he became Ye), which actually burned in the Malibu Fires. Apparently he had aspirations to turn it into a “1910s-insipred bomb shelter.”

Landy has reimagined it as a different sort of ruin - with graffiti and lots of cans. 

I thought I might have driven past it when I did my epic drive down Highway 1 from Monterey to San Diego 20 years ago, however it turns out that this house is on Malibu Road. Nevertheless the road is at the height of the second floor.

Kanye West's former Tadao Ando designed Malibu mansion in ruins , 2026

The award-winning rapper and entrepreneur purchased the home in 2021 for $57.3 million. The minimalist seaside manse was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese starchitect Tadao Ando, and was originally built for, and then bought from, financier and art collector Richard Sachs. 

The Saga of Kanye West’s Tadao Ando Mansion Is Far From Over | Architectural Digest

It left me thinking that Landy's themes of loss and ruin would have a LOT of resonance with the art collectors of California who lost their homes in the ferocious fires in recent years. He maybe ought to see what else he can find on the Internet....

Maybe he should try an American Tour - as an artist or with the exhibition?

His exhibition "Future Ruins" opens tomorrow (14th October) at the Sir John Soane Museum in Lincoln Inn's Fields. It runs until 17th January. The Museum open on  is Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.

Future Ruins at Sir John Soane’s Museum will feature new and recent work showcasing the detailed drawings that continue the artist’s reputation as one of the most talented draughtsmen of his generation.

Odd Inconsequential Note: My very first "proper job" was a hop skip and jump away from the Sir John Museum - at The Public Trustee on the corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields. It always feels very peculiar to be going back and sitting on a bench at lunchtime in the fields after nearly 50 years!