Joana Vasconcelos/ Polly Morgan, Haunch of Venison

Two artists whose work manages to be both seductive and slightly creepy

by Fisun GunerWednesday, 04 August 2010

Joana Vasconcelos: 'Garden of Eden': 'As the flowers quiver, you can hear their motors faintly clicking, like a field of crickets'

The former Museum of Mankind, just behind the Royal Academy, has been the temporary home of the Haunch of Venison gallery for some two years. They’re moving back to their original home next spring, and though the newly extended building (Lord Nelson’s former residence at Haunch of Venison Yard, near Old Bond Street) is big and rather grand, the former museum is even bigger and grander. With neither longevity nor reputation to rely on, it’s a tough space for any young artist to fill. Still, if you think Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos might be better served in a tighter space, her first UK exhibition certainly proves her an artist worth looking out for.

Morgan's work is both exquisite and creepy, seductive and slightly repellent.

Explore topics

Share this article

The future of Arts Journalism

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

more Visual arts

Help to give theartsdesk a future! Support our GoFundMe appeal

Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall

ARK: United States V by Laurie Anderson, Aviva Studios, Manchester review - a vessel for the thoughts and imaginings of a lifetime Despite anticipating disaster, this mesmerising voyage is full of hope

Vanessa Bell, MK Gallery review - diving into and out of abstraction A variation of styles as the Bloomsbury artist breaks free from Victorian mores

Lygia Clark: The I and the You, Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation, Whitechapel Gallery review - breaking boundaries Two artists, 50 years apart, invite audience participation

Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit, Tate Modern review - adolescent angst indefinitely extended The artist who refused to grow up

Monet and London, Courtauld Gallery review - utterly sublime smog Never has pollution looked so compellingly beautiful

Michael Craig-Martin, Royal Academy review - from clever conceptual art to digital decor A career in art that starts high and ends low

Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers, National Gallery review - passions translated into paint Turmoil made manifest

Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent, Whitechapel Gallery review - photomontages sizzling with rage Fifty years of political protest by a master craftsman

Dominique White: Deadweight, Whitechapel Gallery review - sculptures that seem freighted with history Dunked in the sea to give them a patina of age, sculptures that feel timeless

Bill Viola (1951-2024) - a personal tribute Video art and the transcendent

Follow @theartsdesk