art blog since 2009
Zineb Sedira, Une Génération de Femmes, 1997. Courtesy: The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester Walls Are Talking – Wallpaper, Art and Culture at The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, February 6 – May 3 2010 Wallpaper is often used as a pejorative term for art or music that asks for little …
February 4, 2010
The very first gallery pays homage to Ghandi. 4,479 fibreglass bones spell out a text which pleads for non-violence so it seems perverse to name this show The Empire Strikes Back. But violent reactions wait round every corner of the Saatchi Gallery’s 11 main spaces. On this evidence, Indian art causes shudders, sharp intakes of …
February 2, 2010
Put work in a gallery and it becomes art. Put it in a bin and it becomes rubbish. But put work in a bin in a gallery, and you may find it becomes both. Such is the strange new context for the many damaged pieces already piling up in the Art Bin. Take the glass-encrusted …
January 29, 2010
Modern Times – Responding to Chaos, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, until March 14 2010 Attempts to build a world order invariably result in chaos. Some of the outcomes can be seen at a new exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Modern Times: Responding to Chaos is the first of a series of shows in which creative protagonists …
January 28, 2010
Here’s a(n incomplete) pick of East London galleries written up for Culture24. Could be of interest if you’re not familiar with the area. It’s a follow up to this previously posted piece on the current scene over there.
January 28, 2010
 Exhibition: Michael Landy – Art Bin, the South London Gallery, January 29 – March 14 2010 Michael Landy, who famously destroyed all his possessions in the name of art, is set to dispose of a whole gallery of art, perhaps in the name of destruction. For six weeks Landy will turn the South London …
January 26, 2010
Cultex – Textile as a Cross-Cultural Language, The Hub: National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, January 30 – April 18 2010 The cultures of Norway and Japan are as far removed geographically as almost any but the UK premiere of a new exhibition shows bridges built across continents using textiles. Cultex, which opens …
January 25, 2010
Spike Island will hold the first major solo show in a public space for Amanda Beech. The West Country gallery promises a nightmarish trip to America’s West Coast. Sanity Assassin is a three screen video installation with a sinister sculptural element, a series of chainsaws atop a mirrored plinth. This display, based on a real …
January 23, 2010
Work by modern day shaman Marcus Coates is on show at Milton Keynes Gallery in the first UK public space to hold a survey of the artist’s work. Psychopomp includes early film pieces, sculpture, sound, costume, photography as well as new work. In many of the pieces Coates goes to extreme lengths to commune with …
January 23, 2010
Self Portrait as an Artist by Van Gogh is a defining image of the modern artist. The blue smock and bright palette are shorthand for genius. The red beard hints at the wildness we expect from this self-destructive master. But alongside this painting, the Royal Academy offers us Van Gogh in context as a hard-working …
January 20, 2010