art blog since 2009
The UK’s biggest art prize, Artes Mundi, is vying to become the most talked about. At £40,000 it is worth twice as much as the Turner, which should provide twice as much scope for controversy. While installing work by shortlisted artists at National Museum Cardiff, the organisers make clear their intent. “We’ve taken down a …
March 18, 2010
Marcus Coates, The Plover’s Wing, 2009. Courtesy the Artist and Workplace Gallery. Marcus Coates arrives wearing neither badger fur nor stag antlers. He drinks tea, not peyote, and does not bark, yelp or fall into a trance. In fact there is no evidence at all this man has a hotline to the animal kingdom. His …
March 11, 2010
Exhibition: Imogen Stidworthy, Arnolfini, Bristol, until April 25 In some ways the work of Imogen Stidworthy goes beyond the limits of visual art, because her main area of interest is speech. Accent, slang and speech therapy are all explored in her new show at Arnolfini. It is the first UK survey of the Liverpool-based artist. …
March 6, 2010
Ai Weiwei, best known for helping create a ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium for the Beijing Olympics, is bringing his talents for grand scale work to the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. Ai becomes the eleventh artist to accept the Unilever-sponsored commission, yet still the first who lives and works in the Asia-Pacific region. Vicente Todolà described …
March 6, 2010
Exhibition: Richard Hamilton – Modern Moral Matters, Serpentine Gallery, London, until April 25 2010 More than 50 years since Pop Art began, it is a 1960s aphorism which best explains the varying effects in this show. Marshall McLuhan may have coined the phrase, but it is Richard Hamilton who really demonstrates the adage that “the …
March 4, 2010
Here are my visual arts picks from around the UK for March. Written for Culture24. Richard Hamilton – Modern Moral Matters, Serpentine Gallery, London 60 years after his first solo show, Richard Hamilton is still making loaded images. His show at Serpentine is a mixed media commentary on conflict in Northern Ireland, the Middle East …
March 4, 2010
Exhibtion: Nicholas Hedges – Mine the Mountain, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, March 6 – March 19 2010 Artists may travel, but it is debatable whether they take holidays. Certainly, in his choice of European destinations, Nicholas Hedges has not made it easy for himself While preparing his mixed-media installation for the new show at Surface Gallery, …
March 4, 2010
Exhibition: Jordan Baseman – The Most Powerful Weapon in this World, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, until May 9 2010 Jordan Baseman knows a thing or two about juxtaposition, as you might expect from an artist with roots in the US who now lives and works in the UK At Baltic he uses unlikely …
February 27, 2010
Exhibition: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Parasol Unit, London, until April 25 2010 “Human dramas” may bring to mind the worst sort of sunday evening TV, but don’t be put off by Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s description of her own work. It’s true the Finnish video artist deals with universal themes, such as love and death. Her primal emotions and …
February 27, 2010
Exhibition: Tom Pope – The Escapades of the Higher Man, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, until April 18 2010 Having foreseen the coming of the Higher Man, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had, surely, grand deeds in mind. He could not have predicted a photographer from Bristol would come along and try to catch a bucket of …
February 25, 2010