After a freakishly cold January, it is time to take a reading of the artistic temperature up and down the land. Here’s our guide to what’s hot in February.
Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic, Tate Liverpool
Europe, North America, Africa and South America are connected by two important things, black culture and a busy ocean. So a generation of global black artists emerges from a modernist movement inspired by African art. This show has plenty to say.
Andr̩ Stitt РSubstance, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast
Life in Belfast during the 70s and 80s has left its mark on Stitt, whose performance work is so hard hitting he refers to his “akshuns” with a blunt misspelling. In a more objective time, Golden Thread Gallery now offers a career retrospective of sorts.
Party!, The New Art Gallery Walsall
It could be time to end your new year detox at the New Art Gallery. Ten year birthday celebrations are afoot and among the guests are Goya, Chagall and Gilbert & George. The show opens mid month and promises to explore the darker side of partying.
Modern Times: Responding to Chaos, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
Perhaps you can’t have too many surveys of modernism, so here is another with a personal touch. Film maker Lutz Becker demonstrates how the greatest ‘isms’ of twentieth century art can be seen as responses to political upheaval and dictatorship.
Michael Landy – Art Bin, the South London Gallery
It is the show with work by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Gary Hume, and many more, all of which will be destroyed after six weeks. The 600m³ polycarbonate and steel bin will surely be the most talked about skip of 2010.
Richard Grayson, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Richard Grayson has apparently spent much of the last five years on the internet. His work at the De La Warr Pavilion draws on blogs, apocalyptic predictions, star charts and theories about the location of the tomb of Jesus Christ. Art to believe in, or not.