ART PODCASTS
Over the course of a weekend, Tanya Ling donned paint kettle and paint brush and set about creating 20 large works consisting solely of lines. These Line Paintings comprise her first solo show at London’s Mayor Gallery. Her designs dive and swoop, twist and turn and form abstract, elegant and delicate abstract shapes created entirely by the use of the line.
Porcelain is that most tough and translucent ceramic that yet seems most delicate and fragile. The Contemporary Ceramics Centre’s new exhibition Porcelain3 brings together the work of three relatively young ceramicists who are creating new perceptions of porcelain in their own special ways.
Continue reading “Porcelain3 – Contemporary Ceramics Centre”
Though I didn’t know it at the time, I first came across Humphrey Ocean while he was playing bass with Kilburn and the High Roads fronted by Ian Dury. The band was playing second fiddle to The Who at London’s Lyceum ballroom in 1973.
Ocean was then studying, under Dury, at Canterbury Art School and although he says he was a good bass player, he didn’t enjoy the rock business enough to continue with it. Continue reading “Humphrey Ocean – I’ve No Idea Either”
Almost 20 years ago, the Woolf Institute in Cambridge, with strong links to the university, was set up to undertake research and scholarship in understanding relations between three religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Its main aim was, and remains, to encourage tolerance and foster understanding between those of different faiths. Continue reading “Helaine Blumenfeld – Tree of Life: Encounter”
Kettle’s Yard is a gem of an art gallery in the centre of Cambridge. It was founded in 1957 by Jim Ede, a former curator at the Tate in London in the 1920s and ‘30s. He and his wife Helen bought four slum dwellings, knocked them together and filled his living room with a wonderful collection he had amassed that includes works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Joan Miró, Constantin Bracusi, Alfred Wallis and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Continue reading “Kettle’s Yard – Actions: The Image of the World Can Be Different”
As you step out of London’s North Greenwich tube station under the shadow of the O2 Arena, you will notice a bra, a stiletto shoe and a corset. You can’t miss them. They’re monumental in size and made of steel. Continue reading “Kalliopi Lemos – Bra, Corset and Stiletto Heel”
Through her mostly abstract work, Rachel Howard has long reflected the darker side of life. Past series have focused on sin, suffering and suicide. Recently, as with her new exhibition at Blain/Southern, Der Kuss (The Kiss), she has turned her attention to violence, the violence of the mind and the body. Continue reading “Rachel Howard – Der Kuss”
A couple of years ago, Amar Singh approached a group of feminist artists to take part in an exhibition celebrating women at his new gallery in north London. They turned him down. Continue reading “Eve – Amar Gallery”
Like many people, I find plane travel a necessary but uncomfortable experience. I’ve no fear of flying but being crammed in and cramped up inside a narrow cabin following hours of hanging around at airports is not my idea of heavenly bliss.
One of the few compensations is being able, assuming one has a window seat with a view not obstructed by a wing, to gaze out at the vast space above the clouds. Here the imagination can run wild as the formations of cloud become mountain ranges, volcanic eruptions or beds of cotton wool. Continue reading “Scott Mead – Above the Clouds”
Scottish artist Renny Tait, like many of us, admires the shape, design, craftsmanship and inherent sense of wonder that give certain buildings iconic status wherever they stand. What marks him out as an artist is the way in which he reconstructs these edifices, simplifying and minimising them to create an idealised form. Continue reading “Renny Tait – Thresholds to Brighter Worlds”
Considering Art 