ART PODCASTS
For the art lover frustrated by the closure of galleries and museums during these fraught virus-infected times, there exists some possible respite with a new socially distancing-friendly exhibition by that maestro of public sculpture, Helaine Blumenfeld.
Continue reading “Helaine Blumenfeld – Looking Up”
Every picture tells a story goes the saying. For Georgian artist Toma Stenko, narrative abounds in her paintings, driven by colour and figurative symbols. Her first London solo exhibition, as the title says, is about love in all its guises, seen from a female perspective. It’s not all sweetness and light since her works are intensely autobiographical, reflecting a fascinating but troubled childhood.
Continue reading “Toma Stenko – How Love Feels”
The stark and arresting picture of the skull towards the left of the top picture is entitled Vessel. It forms the centrepiece of this new exhibition and faces you as you enter the Unit London gallery. It’s typical of what Tom French has earned a reputation for – monochrome works featuring an illusory quality. Recent circumstances have given such works an extra poignancy.
Continue reading “Tom French – Transcend”
Overlooking the 126 galleries exhibiting at this year’s London Art Fair is Photo50, the fair’s annual guest-curated show devoted to the most distinctive elements of current photographic practice. This year, the curator is writer and gallerist Laura Noble who has assembled 10 esteemed female photographers all over the age of 50.
Continue reading “Photo50 – London Art Fair”
Jeff Lowe has been up there with the leading lights of British sculpture for decades. He secured his first solo exhibition in Cork Street while he was still a student at Central Saint Martins in the 1970s and has represented Britain at the Paris Biennale among many other achievements. His new exhibition at London’s Pangolin Gallery shows that his passion to innovate and test himself with new approaches and materials is as strong as ever.
Continue reading “Jeff Lowe – In the Close Distance”
“I’ve been trying to get a bright pink for 20 years and haven’t managed it yet,” declares ceramicist Sophie Cook, famous for her elegantly sculpted bottle, pod and teardrop forms. Yet there are plenty of other rich and vibrant colours to behold in her new exhibition entitled Multiplicity at London’s Contemporary Ceramics Centre.
Continue reading “Sophie Cook – Multiplicity”
“I’m a total believer in absolute nonsense. The absurdity of life is my single goal.” So says artist Glen Baxter whose latest exhibition has just opened at London’s Flowers Gallery in Cork Street. Its very title is appropriately absurd. Gamboge is a yellow pigment that Buddhist monks use to dye their robes. Put it next to the wonderful word “unflinchingly” and you get what he calls “a little explosion”.
Continue reading “Glen Baxter – Unflinchingly Gamboge”
As the UK’s contemporary art scene gears up for the announcement of this year’s prestigious Turner Prize winner, University of the Arts London (UAL) has mounted a fascinating exhibition featuring the work of alumni, both teachers and students, who have either won or been nominated for the prize since its inception in 1984.
Continue reading “Counter Acts: Incomplete Histories 1984 – present”
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”
There’s a scene in her son Nick Willing’s BBC documentary, timed to coincide with the opening of this exhibition, in which Paula Rego tells that the first thing her future husband said to her at a party in the 1950s was to ask her to take her knickers off. She complied. It seemed to encapsulate so much of the essence of this remarkable show at MK Gallery – explicit, sexually charged and compliant.
Continue reading “Paula Rego – Obedience and Defiance”
Considering Art 