art blog since 2009
The art of Francis Alÿs is a reflection of political realities. In this film he pushes a block of ice around the streets of Mexico City for six or seven hours until it melts. On the same streets, thousands of locals spend their days pushing, carrying or towing wares or chattels. The results are the …
June 14, 2010
Exhibition: Cage Mix – Sound and Sculpture, BALTIC, Gateshead, until September 19 2010 If ever a course sounded challenging, it was this one: Experimental Composition at the New School for Social Research; tutor: John Cage. Cage taught the classes towards the end of the 1950s and his students were by and not musicians, but artists. …
June 11, 2010
With more than 300 museums in the South East, it is little surprise to find nearly a dozen major destinations for modern and contemporary art. This guide, written for Culture24, takes you around the region from Bucks to Kent, where three exciting projects are due to come on line in the next couple of years. …
June 11, 2010
With surrealism and sound, fauna and flesh, there is much to tempt you indoors this June. Here’s some monthly highlights for contemporary art written for Culture24. Cage Mix: Sculpture and Sound, BALTIC, Gateshead Eight artists who work with the ideas and writings of John Cage are brought together by design rather than chance. Their schemes …
June 9, 2010
Exhibition: Goldsmiths Design 2010 – Curious, 10th Annual Free Range Art and Design Show, Old Truman Brewery, London. Free Range runs until July 26 2010 Necessity is not always the mother of invention. For the students in Goldsmiths Design 2010 it would appear to be the last thing on their minds. How else could you …
June 9, 2010
Exhibition: Susan Stockwell – Flood, York St. Mary’s, York, June 18 – October 31 2010 The cutting edge of technology in 1020, the year York St. Mary’s is thought to date from, was the astrolabe. So it may come as a shock to find the medieval church soon filled with obsolete computer components. The wires …
June 9, 2010
Sixties Pop Art had a “culpable banality” and Andy Warhol’s sculpture of Brillo boxes was a “real travesty”, according to one of the movement’s pioneers, Gerald Laing. The Scottish artist features heavily in a new show at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, in which Pop Art finds politics. Many of the works are from the past ten …
June 3, 2010
Exhibition: Mark Leckey and Martin McGeown: Life and Times of Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes Gallery, Milton Keynes, until June 27 2010 900 Midsummer Boulevard does not sound like an address for a provincial English gallery. But then again, Milton Keynes is not just any other provincial English town. Conceived as a utopia, it is …
June 2, 2010
Exhibition: A Horse Walks Into A Bar, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, June 18 – August 8 2010 That a non-domestic animal in a pub should occasion hilarity tells us something about our relationship with nature. The proverbial horse in a bar is an old joke. Perhaps the nine artists in this group show at Castlefield Gallery …
June 2, 2010
Exhibition: Lily van der Stokker – No Big Deal Thing, Tate St Ives, St Ives, until September 26 2010 The last great taboo in art appears not to be death, sex or religion. Instead, Lily van der Stokker suggests it is niceness. The Dutch artist works in coloured pencil and pastel colours. She draws on …
May 27, 2010