fri 19/09/2025

Visual Arts Features

Sir Brian Clarke (1953-2025) - a personal tribute

mark Kidel

Brian Clarke died on 1 July 2025, after a long illness. He was one of the most original British artists of our time – wide-ranging, ground-breaking and influential. His painting was first-class, but it was in the field of architectural stained glass, which he approached as a fine artist, and in a radically innovative manner, that he truly made a name for himself. 

Read more...

Bill Viola (1951-2024) - a personal tribute

mark Kidel

The artist Bill Viola died, after a long illness, early in the morning of Friday 12 July. I had the privilege of getting to know him while making a documentary about his life and work in 2001-2003. He quickly became a friend, as did his wife Kira and his sons, Blake and and Andrei. He felt like a kind of brother, who’d grown up through the same changes that shook culture up in the 1960s and 70s. Although he was American, I felt that we spoke the same language.

Read more...

10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby

Hannah Hutching

“Is she at a pivotal point in her life but unable to pivot…?” Eve, the young heroine of Chloë Ashby’s dazzling debut novel, Wet Paint, asks this question standing in front of Édouard Manet’s painting "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" (1882). Yet she could easily be asking herself the same question.

Read more...

Venice Biennale 2022 review - The Milk of Dreams Part 1: The Giardini

Mark Hudson

Cecelia Alemani's vision for The Milk of Dreams, the International Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2022 had me excited – and perplexed – from the moment I heard about it.

Read more...

'A nun destroyed my tent': artist Kate Daudy talks about NFTs, refugees, and having her work thrown out with the trash

Jessica Baldwin

It’s been a turbulent week for British artist Kate Daudy. Am I My Brother’s Keeper, her refugee tent (main picture), the art installation and seminal work that propelled her to international fame is gone, thrown out with the trash.

Read more...

'Of course art doesn't change the world': Situationist artist Jacqueline de Jong on violence, eroticism and the importance of humour

Mark Sheerin

Jacqueline de Jong doesn’t want to talk politics. But this should have been foreseeable. After all, she has travelled to Mostyn, in Llandudno, for her first solo exhibition in a UK art institution. And this is a painting show, not a political rally.

Read more...

Christo (1935-2020) - 'Beauty, science and art will always triumph'

Florence Hallett

The death of Christo, aged 84, was announced on Sunday, marking the end of a visionary and flamboyant artistic career.

Read more...

Visual Arts Lockdown Special 2: read, search, listen, create

Katherine Waters

Arguably one of the most poignant effects of the lockdown has been to simultaneously draw attention to the connections between the arts and the distinct ways they have evolved into their own forms.

Read more...

Visual Arts Lockdown Special 1: DIY art, Russell Tovey's chat show, and guided tours online

Florence Hallett

As the art world adjusts to our new reality, social media has allowed galleries and museums to remain open in spirit at least.

Read more...

Foragers of the Foreshore - London's mudlarks on show

Adrian Evans

Over the weekend, exhibitions and installations have started to bubble-up on the riverside walkway in London. Still-life photography of mudlark finds and a "scented history" of Barking Creek outside the National Theatre. Artwork from a dozen national and international river cities at the Royal Docks. An installation of 550 jerry cans at the Oxo Tower.

Read more...

Pages

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Cho, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - finely-focused stormy w...

It was a hefty evening, as it needn't necessarily have been throughout, since Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony can conceal more darkness between the...

The Code, Southwark Playhouse Elephant review - superbly cas...

Hot on the heels of Goodnight, Oscar comes another fictional meeting of real entertainment giants in Los Angeles, this time...

Can I get a Witness? review - time to die before you get old

Some time in the not too distant future, there are only two films on offer: Duck Soup, and, if you order the DVD in advance, ...

Reunion, Kiln Theatre review - a stormy night in every sense...

If you ever wanted to know what a mash up of Martin McDonagh and Conor McPherson, stirred (and there’s a lot of stirring in this...

The Lady from the Sea, Bridge Theatre review - flashes of br...

Like the lighting that crackles now and again to indicate an abrupt change of scene or mood, Simon Stone's version of The Lady from...

How to be a Dancer in 72,000 Easy Lessons, Teaċ Daṁsa review...

Anyone who has followed the trajectory of choreographer-director Michael Keegan-Dolan and his West Kerry-based company Teaċ Daṁsa (House of...

Happyend review - the kids are never alright

Perhaps only in Japan might it be thought the height of delinquency for a bunch of schoolkids is to spend the night sneaking back to school,...

Romans: A Novel, Almeida Theatre review - a uniquely extraor...

OMG! I mean OMG doubled!! This is amazing! Or is it? Can Alice Birch’s Romans: A Novel at the...

Album: Biffy Clyro - Futique

For the trio of Biffy Clyro, the years since their previous album, 2021’s The Myth Of The Happily...