ART REVIEWS
Beauty and what defines it is the overriding theme in this two-hander at the James Freeman Gallery. Both Anne von Freyburg and Nigel Grimmer, in their different ways, investigate the way beauty is both constructed and distorted, and both use textiles to help make the point.
Continue reading “Anne von Freyburg and Nigel Grimmer – Skin Deep”
In the 18th and 19th centuries, it became something of a rite of passage for upper class Europeans, mostly from Britain, to embark on the Grand Tour taking in cities such as Paris, Rome, Venice and Florence in order to learn about Classical and Renaissance art and architecture. They’d accumulate works and souvenirs as they did so. Four artists have given a contemporary spin on this phenomenon in Grand Tour at London’s James Freeman Galley.
Continue reading “The Grand Tour – Claire Partington, Emily Allchurch, James B Webster, Matt Smith”
One of the effects of this current pandemic is that many of us are wondering what changes the virus will have wrought upon our society after it goes away (if it ever does go away!).
In a broader sense, this zeitgeist has been taken up by Kovet.Art, a new arts organisation designed to help collectors discover the best emerging talent in the UK and to harness and mentor that talent. Its inaugural online exhibition, Delineating Dreams, invites eight of its artists to delve into a dream world expressing visually both the conscious and the subconscious. It’s a surrealism-heavy show just as our current plight has many such characteristics.
Continue reading “Kovet.Art – Delineating Dreams”
A silver sun sends out waves in pulses that suddenly dissolve into a swirling mass of tadpole-like shapes. A molten core waxes and wanes while shooting stars erupt around it in seemingly endless and varied sequences. These white light installations, one nearly 40 foot wide, some as individual pieces, others as triptychs, are by American artist Leo Villareal in his first solo exhibition at London’s Pace Gallery.
Continue reading “Leo Villareal – Pace Gallery”
This new exhibition by Patrick Altes, a leading light in the emerging French-Algerian art movement, is something of a ‘cri de coeur’. As the title spells out, each work, be it digital print, painting, sculpture or installation, engenders a plea for understanding in a world beset by seemingly insoluble problems and dissension.
Continue reading “Patrick Altes – Tolerance”
The world of Suzanne Moxhay is one of decrepit interiors where plants seem to grow out of the floorboards, where ceilings have collapsed, fireplaces cracked, walls broken and where the wallpaper dissolves into fading images of old romantic landscapes.
Continue reading “Suzanne Moxhay – Conservatory”
Multimedia contemporary artist Samantha Louise Emery has created a series of 10 portraits celebrating the women who have inspired her throughout her life. Entitled IKONA Mirrored Interior, they are currently on show (and on sale) at London’s Mediaworks.
Continue reading “Samantha Louise Emery – IKONA Mirrored Interior”
American artist Peter Gronquist draws on a wide range of media for his works – fabric, metal, ceramics, frosted glass, mirrors, even taxidermy. Working from his barn by a lake near Portland, Oregon, his oeuvre is multi-disciplinary – sculpture, painting and installation.
In whatever medium, his themes have revolved chiefly around American obsessions with material wealth, consumerism, guns, and religion. He once said, “Our culture puts money and violence on way too high a pedestal. I think these days people no longer see the line between entertainment and reality.”
Continue reading “Peter Gronquist – Shape Shifter”
As the latest in a series of artists who use Virtual and Augmented Reality as part of their working practice, the Gazelli Art House, London features a new exhibition by Russian duo, The Recycle Group, named because they use both recycled imagery and materials. The pair have won awards for their pioneering use of technologies and the way they bridge incompatible subjects such as the classic and the contemporary. They represented Russia at the 57th Venice biennale. Now they examine the relationship between man and machine.
Continue reading “Recycle Group – Nature of Non-Existence”
For more than 25 years, the New York-based collaborative duo Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher have addressed current political dilemmas through large format digitally enhanced photographs and video installations. However, a visit to a Renaissance tapestry exhibition at the New York Met a few years ago inspired this latest exhibition at London’s Gazelli Art House of four monumental tapestries as well as a series of accompanying works on paper. Continue reading “Aziz and Cucher – Tapestries and New Works on Paper”
Considering Art 