Post-script: This piece was initially intended as a review of the exhibition ‘Takis’Tate Modern. Sadly, since the time of writing the artist has passed away, on the morning of the 9th of August. This piece has subsequently been revised as something of a tribute to a singular figure of contemporary art.
10 August 2019
I have personal reasons to be interested in this book – Company Curiosities, by Arthur Macgregor. A direct ancestor of mine, not however mentioned in the text, was Chairman of the British East India Company in some of its glory days at the end of the 18th century.
31 July 2019
Kiss My Genders at the Hayward Gallery curated by Vincent Honore is a dynamic voyage and vivacious celebration of infinite representations of gender-diversity, gender non-conformity, androgyny and gender-subversion over the course of 50 years, featuring a mélange of 100 artworks by 35 international artists.
17 June 2019
I’ve just read a piece on the web complaining that the one area of the contemporary art world where gender equality is making no progress is in the exhibition programmes of big commercial galleries.
11 June 2019
Art Basel brings together some of the world’s leading galleries exhibiting the works of over 4,000 artists. A full program… Read More
6 June 2019
In 1983 John Bellany painted a double portrait depicting himself alongside Alan Davie. These two influential artists are Scotland’s best-known post-war artists. Cradle of Magic at Newport Street Gallery sets the work of each alongside the other and begins with a portrait of Davie by Bellany which hangs beside a self-portrait of Bellany from the time of his hospitalisation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
2 June 2019
Unit London & their emergence as a leading gallery brand on Instagram, (355K people can’t be that wrong?) are a serious force to be reckoned with. Surprisingly very few galleries have attempted to learn from these young social wizards, despite the fact they’ve proven how effective their approach to selling art via social media can be. The second solo show of the Flemish artist Johan Van Mullem is on display in the gallery until 13 April.
11 April 2019
Taking the last glimpse of freedom of our united Europe before the grand departure of Britain, (if ever), I went to Paris for precisely 30 hours to visit a handful of exhibitions everyone is talking about.
26 March 2019
Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) was one of the worlds’ most influential cult figures, performance artists, fashion designers, nightclub proprietors and art objects, in the 1980s and 1990s. He was above all an icon whose influence traversed music, art, film and the fashion world.
12 March 2019
The Royal College of Art (RCA), which has consistently topped the tables as ‘best art school in the world’ has launched GenerationRCA, an ambitious five-year campaign/programme
28 January 2019
Looking forward to the art year ahead of us – 2019 – there are certain things one notices immediately, in the announcements so far made by various official and semi-official institutions based here in Britain and more specifically in plans announced by galleries here in London.
31 December 2018
The Alt Power 100 Artlyst 2018, now in its 8th edition is a celebration of artists and art professionals who have made a difference in 2018.
30 October 2018
At the moment the London art scene is not rich in bright young artists, elbowing their elders aside, eager to make themselves visible.
19 September 2018
I don’t often read the financial sections of newspapers. I’m too dim and out of touch for that. Occasionally, however, when flipping through the pages on my way to something that’s more my cup of tea I encounter something so splendidly deranged that I have to stop and give it a go.
29 August 2018
Through the subject of outland, the festival in Riga looks at local and internationally significant issue of global migration, which has brought to the forefront a row of other problems: racism, growing right-wing nationalism and intolerance towards difference.
28 August 2018
There can be no doubt that the Turner Prize is pretty much of a sick puppy right now.
28 August 2018
The London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery is a triennial event. As the curators, Emily Butler and Cameron Foote, say in their catalogue introduction the London art world has gone through a great deal of change.
12 August 2018
At a time when London’s big art museums are going all out to be populist, they also seem to be witnessing a fairly general fall in attendances.
9 August 2018
The appearance of a new Banksy in London can create quite a media frenzy.
11 July 2018
Art Basel 2018 which launches 14-17 June offers a Premier line-up of galleries at Art Basel’s 2018 edition in Basel Switzerland.
11 June 2018
Gallery 46 is presenting the first joint exhibition in London and first full collaboration by Paul Renner and Paul Sakoilsky.
25 May 2018
The Griffin Gallery in West London which has been a stalwart of inspiring exhibitions and programmes is to close its doors on 24 May.
15 May 2018
Art Brussels is a fair dedicated to promoting vibrant young galleries that are on the road to becoming the new generation of shakers and movers in the art world.
3 April 2018
I am thinking of the Owlman. Ask any insomniac about “The Shadow People”, and their eyes will widen, and they tell you a dozen tales.
22 March 2018
Art Dubai Contemporary and Modern is the most diverse. edition to date.
18 March 2018
Camden Arts Centre is currently presenting the first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom of Giorgio Griffa, an Italian abstract… Read More
4 March 2018
Camden Arts Centre is currently presenting the first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom of Giorgio Griffa, an Italian abstract painter who has been closely linked to the Arte Povera movement.
4 March 2018
The contemporary art world seems an increasingly strange place to be.
21 February 2018
Hugh Mendes has created his most controversial image to date, for his latest exhibition, a group show at CHARLIE SMITH LONDON.
17 February 2018
Luke Heng is an emerging Singaporean artist, born in 1987. He lives and works in Singapore and holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Fine Arts from LASALLE College of the Arts, graduating in 2013.
11 February 2018
Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s first contemporary art exhibition of 2018 is a reconfiguration of the Diaspora Pavilion, which took place in Venice during the 57th Venice Biennale
5 February 2018
I was asked to go out to Maspeth to meet an artist. I wasn’t even sure where Maspeth was. Queens itself intimidates me since it’s a maze of unlikely numbers in opposition with themselves all intersecting in nonsensical disunity. The only thing I knew about Shui Shi Liu is that he is a painter visiting from China who has his studio in Maspeth where he created an installation.
18 November 2017
