Tag Archive "london"

London Drops an H-Bomb or Two

It is difficult to commute on the Tube everyday without seeing some mention of the upcoming 2012 Olympics. In light of this increased global attention and the spirit of the world’s nations coming together, I’d like to consider this year’s museum offerings and the subsequent pressure to represent England’s national identity.  Of all the shows happening this year, Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern and David Hockney at The Royal Academy come to the forefront. Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on the very British of the British (especially as a Canadian living in London), but intend, instead, ... More » »

London: the V&A’s Aesthetic Movement , Saatchi Gallery; and Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900, through July 17 at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is perhaps most interesting for emphasizing that the Pre-Raphaelites set out to make their living space a Gesamptkunstwerk, complete with paintings, furniture, wallpaper, decorative objects and artistically-clad women, who clearly were part of the decoration; hence the exhibition includes all facets of fine and decorative arts, including  photography, printed books and rarely-seen items of jewelry and clothing.  Women’s clothing, that is. While the men established, developed and prosthelytized on behalf the style, it didn’t extend to their own dress. Even the dandy, ... More » »

A Present Absence: Ai Weiwei in London

It was rather ominous to see, a few weeks ago, a group of twelve wrapped sculptures populate the courtyard of Somerset House (a neoclassical building in Central London that once housed The Royal Academy and now is home to The Courtauld Institute and various art events). Ominous because their creator, Ai Weiwei, had himself been under wraps, imprisoned by the Chinese police and not heard from since the beginning of April (recently, he has been allowed a a visit from his wife). Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is both the first contemporary art installation in the historic courtyard and the first ... More » »

Yohji Yamamoto All Over London

The current feature exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto spreads itself out. Not only does this first UK solo retrospective spill out of the V&A’s main exhibition display room – popping up in spaces all over the museum – the celebration of Yamamoto’s work also appears at The Wapping Project Bankside as well as The Wapping Project in Wapping. The V&A features an extensive collection of garments covering the Japanese designer’s career since his Paris debut in 1981. While the fashion photographs shown at the Bankside location are unusual and captivating, the installation at ... More » »

Angela de la Cruz and Rashid Rana at Lisson Gallery

In the works of Angela de la Cruz and Rashid Rana currently on display at Lisson Gallery in London, there is more than meets the eye. Both artists beckon the viewer to reconsider their works’ seemingly simple form and look across their oeuvre to the rich ideas that lie beneath.

New Gallery EB&Flow Opens in London

Last night, the tide of well-wishers and curious aesthetes was roaring at the new Shoreditch gallery EB&Flow. Their inaugural exhibit showcases the work of eleven young, up and coming contemporary artists. Entitled Since Tomorrow (which in itself encourages imaginative exploration and definition), the group show is a variable mélange presenting a dialogue of artworks, some brilliant and some bland, but creating an overall visual/intellectual hum, the energy of a fresh space filled with art and ideas.

Meekyoung Shin at Haunch of Venison, London

The London gallery Haunch of Venison, currently housed in the back of the Royal Academy, would seem to be out of place. While its main location undergoes renovation, the contemporary art gallery is running its shows in the cavernous spaces of the eighteenth-century museum. Upon first impression, however, the sculpture (a polychrome fragment of Roman Antiquity?) in the niche at the top of the landing of the grand main staircase appears to fit right in. The sculpture, though, reveals itself to be Korean artist Meekyoung Shin’s Translation- Greek (1998), a figure made entirely of soap. Within this artist’s first major ... More » »

Susan Philipsz wins Turner Prize

Glasgow-native Susan Philipsz was awarded the Turner Prize at the Tate Britain earlier tonight for Lowlands, a sound installation featured at the 2010 Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. The fourth woman to win the illustrious Turner Prize, Philipsz is also the first ever artist to have her sound piece garner the accolade recognizing the best in contemporary British art exhibitions. Lowlands is an incantation, the multi-channel sound piece originally haunted the undersides of three bridges in Glasgow with the shuddering song from a drowned sailor. (Read more to hear an excerpt of the winning piece…)

Under An English Sky [Part II] : Christian Boltanski’s Les Archives Du Coeur At The Serpentine Gallery

London, Kensington Gardens, August, Sunday, blue skies, warmish. Just off the entrance to The Serpentine Gallery stands a temporary pavilion in hospital white.  I approach the small building just as one of the last English heartbeats is recorded for posterity; that is, copied to a fat hard drive to be added to yet another fat hard drive then shipped to the uninhabited Japanese island of Teshima and digitally secured at the Benesse Art Site Naoshima…until Doomsday. This is the premise of the expanding and ongoing work of Christian Boltanski, Les Archives du Coeur, registering a rambling sample of the world’s ... More » »

Under An English Sky [Part I ] : Wolfgang Tillmans At The Serpentine Gallery, London

I spent a week in London in August, and each day attempted to focus on a substantial outing, an interesting exhibition.  My first jaunt was to cross Kensington Gardens to The Serpentine Gallery where the German artist Wolfgang Tillmans put on something of a retrospective, an expansive display of his alchemical results with photography. The 2000 Turner Prize winner, born in 1968, today a bona fide blue chip in the art world, offers a cornucopia of stolen, manipulated and performative photographic works in his first full-on exhibition in London in seven years. Each piece conspires to reveal the over-reproduced world ... More » »