ART REVIEWS
In keeping with his focus on artists who confront current themes by referencing art history, gallery owner James Freeman has invited five European artists to show work for his latest exhibition who take their inspiration from the political and social upheavals of the Early Modern period from the 1500s onwards. Continue reading “Early Modern Matters – various artists”
As you turn from the corridor of Somerset House’s West Wing into Room 12, you’re in for something of a surprise. It’s quite dark, for a start, with the only light emanating from the film of a tropical rainforest being projected on to a woodpile structure in the centre. Around it are stools created from cylindrical branches of wood on which you can sit and watch the film. And you’re enveloped by a soundtrack of the forest – the birds, insects and rainfall. Continue reading “Desmatamento – David Elia”
Like most ceramic artists, Bev Bell-Hughes began by making functional slipware, producing cups, saucers, pots and suchlike and selling them in markets in London. At Harrow art school, she began intuitively pinching the clay, a technique she has refined and which is in abundant evidence at her latest exhibition of 45 new works at London’s Contemporary Ceramics Centre entitled Tidal Echo. Continue reading “Tidal Echo – Bev Bell-Hughes”
1968 was a tumultuous year in world politics. Authority was being challenged in various ways in different parts of the world. The Tet offensive by the Viet Cong had dealt a psychological, if not military, blow to the American government and gave a huge impetus to the war’s opponents. Matters reached a head when protesters were brutally put down by the police outside the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago. Continue reading “The Day Spring Ended – Robert Aish”
For 10 years until 2017, Sophie Morrish was a familiar sight to many of the 1200 inhabitants of North Uist, the remote island in the Outer Hebrides and one of the most bio-diverse places in the UK. It’s a windy place where the calmness of the top image, Evening light from Kyles Beach, 2013, is an all-too rare occurrence for more than a few days at a time.
As a self-confessed obsessive, Morrish would walk the beaches of the 100 square mile island, observing, finding, photographing and collecting some of the remains of the fauna washed up on the shore. Continue reading “Sophie Morrish – Island Time: North Uist Works”
It’s not often you can say that you can actually affect the nature of a sculpture. In Johannes Girardoni’s first solo exhibition in the UK, entitled Sensing Singularity at London’s Lévy Gorvy Gallery, the viewer gets to be part of the action. Continue reading “Johannes Girardoni-Sensing Singularity”
Orlanda Broom’s paintings are unmistakable. Her landscapes portray steaming jungles of vegetation, full-on nature with colours vivid enough to make a Fauvist blanch. Leaves and stems swirl, shoot and flow in this riot of hues that entice the viewer with their luscious intensity. Continue reading “Ambiguous Nature – Orlanda Broom”
It could be the face, perhaps just a look, or maybe a certain personality trait. The attraction of the muse has been an ever-present phenomenon in art history, someone who can inspire creativity in an artist, someone they might return to time and again.
When you talk about the muse, historically it’s normally associated with the male gaze, but in a new joint exhibition at London’s James Freeman Gallery, entitled Muse, two contemporary artists, Gill Button and Sikelela Owen, offer us a female perspective on what a modern muse might be. Continue reading “Muse – Gill Button and Sikelela Owen”
There’s an anecdote recounted in this exhibition’s catalogue in which the American artist Walter Pach spends several hours talking about art to Henri Matisse. When Matisse asked the American if he could make an etching of him, Pach replied that he had an appointment and had to leave in five minutes, Matisse put his watch on the table and, within those five minutes, drew Pach’s outline on an etching plate. Continue reading “Matisse Prints- Bernard Jacobson Gallery”
