ART PODCASTS
Surrealism has come to Islington in a most macabre form as the James Freeman Gallery exhibits two masters of the contemporary style of the genre in Carolein Smit and Ray Caesar. The pair are quite unalike and work in different media. Yet both share a penchant for unsettling the viewer with images intended to disturb. They also both reference art history in their own ways. Continue reading “Carolein Smit and Ray Caesar”
Iran is something of a dirty word in the west, associated as it is with a repressive theocracy at home and support for groups hostile to western interests abroad. Yet Persian culture has a proud and rich history dating back thousands of years distinguishing itself in architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy and sculpture.
The art scene in Iran has exploded in recent years. The capital, Tehran, now boasts more than a hundred galleries whereas five years ago you could count the number on one hand. The Iranian art market is outperforming that of any other Middle-Eastern country. For example, at last years’s 20th Century Art: Middle East auction at Sotheby’s, Iranian artists accounted for more than 60% of the sales. Continue reading “Sensation – Iranian artists”
A group of female runners complete with all the typical paraphernalia – caps, earphones, water bottle, Nike swooshes on their trainers – are caught in mid-flight and their features reduced down to cartoon-like images and colour. It’s classic Julian Opie. Running Women represents an everyday occurrence, distilled down and given a new dynamic by becoming an amalgamation of different moving figures. Continue reading “Julian Opie”
If you like Banksy, then you will love Nancy Fouts. The two artists share that same subversive humour, cleverness and imagination. With Fouts, however, you get a new dimension, literally, as she expresses herself through a variety of styles of sculpture as well as painting.
In particular, she loves to juxtapose seemingly disconnected objects in order to subvert their function in a playful way. As she puts it, “the real and the surreal go together”. So, a gun is covered in rose thorns to make it impossible to use without hurting oneself, a hummingbird’s long bill acts as a stylus on a record turntable, a rabbit is wearing curlers, a peacock’s fan becomes an Indian chief’s headdress, a lovebird plays with the ring pull of a grenade, a crow wears a ponytail and so on and so forth. As Sir Peter Blake once said, “she makes everyday objects extraordinary”. Continue reading “Nancy Fouts, Down the Rabbit Hole”
The photo of Sarah Lucas eating a banana from 1990, above, typifies a certain self-confidence, defiance and brashness about the work of the so-called Young Brit Artists of the age which caught the art world’s imagination and made Britannia cool for a while.
Lucas is one of 25 UK-based artists featured in the Arts Council Collection show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s spacious Longside Gallery at the start of a nationwide tour. It’s entitled In My Shoes – Art and the Self since the 1990s and showcases how the age-old idea of self-portraiture has been developed and adapted in recent years. Many of these artists included themselves in their work not only through portraits in various styles but also in performative ways through film and photography. Continue reading “In My Shoes – Art and the Self since the 1990s”
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”
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”
Considering Art 