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Posts filed under gallery
Moores Better
When art is more inclusive, it’s always better. This might sound counter-intuitive to today’s media specific moments and our natural magnetism toward “vertical markets”. You wouldn’t, for example, want to follow everyone on Twitter, and while collecting millions of Face Book friends is an impressive feat, it doesn’t exactly mean anything. Exceptions occur, however, where… (read more)
new contemporaries
“Artists be crazy” I read on someone’s blog, or twitter – can’t remember where exactly. Somebody has to crown themselves the maddest of hatters, and I guess it might as well be artists. They seem to have a built-in, SatNav system to insanity-town. The trick for the contemporary artist, however, is sharing the experience (read:… (read more)
citrus oil
In the New York area, there exists a New York buzz for a New York art collective called The Bruce High Quality Foundation; or the Bruces, if you’re avoiding excessive typing. The Bruces are, at times, a cheeky bunch of prankster artists, not only in what they make, but how they make it. No names… (read more)
dust happens
Tate Modern is out with a new set of visiting directions for Ai Weiwei’s exhibit in its Turbine Hall. With the over-zealous prodding from Those That Know Best – the UK’s own disciplinarian and self-appointed headmaster, Health and Safety – gallery visitors are no longer permitted to walk onto the porcelain sunflower seeds. Turns out… (read more)
Dickensian Moments
In Dickensian fashion, a tale of two cities is exposed in the realm of British art. For rough and tumble adventures, Liverpool serves up its own, street-wise biennial, lasting from September through November. Meanwhile down in the sumptuous south, London slips us four days of glossy eye-candy at Frieze Art Fair at Regent’s Park. While… (read more)
seen this movie before?
I’m in a position to completely spoil a surprise here, so if you’re coming to IKON’s Eastside Gallery for the AVPD exhibition (until 14 Nov 2010), read no further. It’s an encounter that requires your presence and determination to go with the flow. For everyone else, pour yourself another cup of coffee or glass of… (read more)
Donald Judd IS Kitagawa
Just a few weeks back, the opportunity arose to attend two art house openings; same company, different locations. My town of Birmingham has a reluctant saviour for art in this part of the British Isles called the IKON gallery. For those not familiar, the IKON is to Birmingham, what spice is to Indian food. Fairly… (read more)
humour me just this once
In the Exhibit book for “Rude Britannia”, shown at Tate Britain earlier, the director of the Tate, Penelope Curtis, states matter-of-factly that “Understanding humour is never easy and understanding in a historical sense is especially difficult.”. Except, well, I don’t think it’s difficult at all, understanding humour, especially in “a” historical sense. In fact, history… (read more)
hypercomics: your move
Comic books are not everyone’s cup of tea, but nothing is “everyone’s” cup of tea. Except maybe tea. Everyone does, however, enjoy a witty comic story; if for no other reason than the text is much shorter than that of a novel. The comics creator, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, proves this point at a small show… (read more)
Diane Arbus: the missing link
Now that digital photography is ubiquitous, everyone can, and does, shoot photos. Without difficulty, we conveniently take shots of our friends, who are more than willing subjects to pose for the moment. Our insane family members, who will only open up to us because they have to, easily give up their privacy while we have… (read more)
slave to the Amazon
While the popular cry for the slow demise of Earth has been heard from every person, state, corporation, and politician for the past two decades, the Garden of Paradise appears to be handling it like a tough old grandmother. Think of a place on Earth that sees minimal human imprint. A green, square patch of… (read more)
calling all collections
Ikon Gallery violated one of my pet peeves from cultural institutions by organising a retrospective of its own existence. Ordinarily the realm of magazine publishers through distribution of anniversary issues, releasing new content is fairly non-existent. It’s like going to your granny’s 90th birthday where she recounts her memories of every year. In the end,… (read more)
palais de tokyo, my future thanks you
Thank the Art Gods on High for someone in the universe who is watching over each and every one of us gallery hustlers and museum freaks who just don’t have enough time in the day. Enough time in the day to pore over, wrestle through, sneer at and wonder through as much contemporary art as… (read more)
whither museum
Take comfort, common man and woman, in knowing that the world’s finest museums and galleries are thinking about the plural “you” and your struggles in appreciating art. Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not that they’re interested in your opinion. If they wanted that, as the saying almost goes, they’d box it up in a… (read more)
made in China, but possibly not
Can you ever really know someone, a country, or a culture? Armed with the worldwide inter-webby thing, a plane ticket to just about anywhere, and a credit card that purchases just about anything on the planet, you’d think our capacity to be global pals of the highest order is a cinch. What is it we… (read more)
gormley-under-white-cube
When men imagine themselves driving cars; we usually picture ourselves in an environment that suits the particular model. A Bugatti Veyron on Germany’s Nurburgring with the landscape visibly blurred as we roar through the air. Inside a Mitsubishi Evo, we’re tearing up a dirt track off-road, sliding around sharp bends in the trails of Northern… (read more)
revealing the obvious
Eberhard Havekost; every heard of him? Me neither. Knowing who he is, at this point, is unimportant as he’s unlikely to be remembered by anyone in say 10-20 years. But Eberhard Havekost deserves a look, if only to be example-boy for What’s Wrong With Contemporary Art. Let’s get the process out of the way first…. (read more)
agoraphobia finds a friend
Lately, the over-busy mega-populated, push-to-shove city of London has been overloaded with single artist shows at the Tates; Arshile Gorky and Van Doesburg at the Big Smokestack, Henry Moore at Old Tate. After being blitzed through the eyeballs with a supermarket full of Pop artists a few months ago at Tate Modern, it’s a relief… (read more)
decode the olde
Surely, this means War! The Victoria and Albert Museum, the traditional bearer of arch conservatism in London, the safe-house for fine arts and antiques, has fired a Victorian cannonball at the young, art-drunk pirates across the river at Tate Modern. So, it is with pressed trousers and starched, button-down shirt, I managed a clean and… (read more)