ART REVIEWS
Last summer, as a result of the UK’s prolonged heatwave, ancient archaeological features began mysteriously appearing in our countryside visible from the air, only to vanish again when the rains came. For a short time, you could detect the outlines of ancient farms, burial mounds and neolithic settlements. I was reminded of this when viewing Naomi Frears work in her new exhibition at London’s Beaux Arts Gallery.
Continue reading “Naomi Frears – Beaux Arts”
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”
Superimposition is a well-known term among graphic designers as the process of laying one image on top of another. In the new group exhibition at London’s Partners and Mucciaccia Gallery, four painters take the idea further both physically and intellectually. Paul Morrison, Barry Reigate, Michael Stubbs and Mark Titchner are leading British contemporary artists who, in their different ways, reference art history yet incorporate what they see in life around them in a mash up of styles and genres, all of which involve some type of superimposition. Continue reading “Superimposition – Stubbs, Titchner, Reigate and Morrison”
“I think we invent. We make up our own mythology about our past quite often without even realising it, and those moments were not all that fantastic.” So says Morwenna Morrison on the subject of nostalgia, the central theme of her work in a new two-handed exhibition with fellow artist Andrew McIntosh at London’s James Freeman Gallery. In their different ways, both artists merge past and present, giving familiar landscapes an enigmatic twist. Continue reading “Just Putting It Out There – Morwenna Morrison and Andrew McIntosh”
There are two things that immediately strike you when viewing Sassan Benham-Bakhtiar’s paintings together in this new exhibition – their large size and the abundance of colour within them.
This young France-based Iranian artist has spent the past seven years on a spiritual journey through meditative and energy-balancing practices to try to achieve a better understanding of himself and others. He has translated these ideas by visually depicting that energy through the vibrancy of colour and through a variety of brush techniques that accentuate it. Continue reading “Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar – Oneness Wholeness”
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”
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”
