contemporary art
Lindsay Seers: Nowhere Less NowThursday, 06 September 2012![]() Lindsay Seers is one of the most exciting artists to have emerged in Britain over the last 10 years. Preoccupied with big philosophical questions, her work explores notions of truth, memory, imagination and history. Nowhere Less Now, commissioned by... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Kiev: The International Biennale for Contemporary ArtMonday, 06 August 2012![]() Giving his press conference speech at the opening of Kiev’s first international art biennale, David Elliott, the seasoned British curator charged with its organisation, looked exhausted, though far from triumphant and more than a little irate. “It’s... Read more... |
Liza Lou, White Cube HoxtonMonday, 23 April 2012![]() There was something perverse about the opening of Liza Lou’s show at White Cube in Hoxton Square on a wet Thursday evening. It was as quiet as I’ve ever known it inside, while outside, barred from drinking among Lou’s fragile works, a throng of... Read more... |
Jamie Shovlin: Various Arrangements, Haunch of VenisonThursday, 19 April 2012![]() I come not to praise Jamie but to Shovl'im… Jamie Shovlin's new show of covers for unpublished books in the Fontana Modern Masters series would seem to have everything for the viewer who prides himself on his good taste: serialism, mathematics,... Read more... |
Damien Hirst: Genius or Con Artist?Sunday, 01 April 2012![]() As Damien Hirst’s Tate retrospective looms large on the horizon, the million-dollar question is whether the work has withstood the test of time. Will exciting and provocative sculptures like the pickled shark, which became an icon of Brit Art the... Read more... |
Gillian Wearing, Whitechapel GalleryWednesday, 28 March 2012![]() The first major retrospective of the videos, photographs and sculptures of Gillian Wearing is a deeply disturbing experience. Her videos can be just a few minutes, or as long as an hour, but are not sequential narratives. They can be dipped in and... Read more... |
Mixed Media, Haunch of VenisonMonday, 05 March 2012![]() Group shows can be strained: the rubric can be so narrow that it has to be stretched to accommodate the artists at hand. That is one reason why Haunch of Venison's new show, Mixed Media, is so pleasing: it features contemporary sculpture with an... Read more... |
David Hockney: The Art of Seeing, BBC TwoTuesday, 28 February 2012![]() It’s hard to imagine a bad documentary on David Hockney. Hockney always gives good Hockney: the quotable sentences come thick and fast; his enthusiasm for his craft is never less than exhilarating, and like that other great British artist of his... Read more... |
David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, Royal AcademyWednesday, 18 January 2012![]() These are, we are told, David Hockney's landscape works, and in that they depict the outdoors - early Grand Canyons and LA scenes, Yorkshire from the Nineties to now - that is correct. As a description, however, it comes nowhere near encapsulating... Read more... |
Survivor, Hofesh Shechter & Anthony Gormley, Barbican TheatreFriday, 13 January 2012![]() Empty vessels make the most noise. That pithy old aphorism floated into my head a scant few minutes into the much-heralded new work by the undoubtedly talented, but here way off-beam, Hofesh Shechter. And again, a few minutes later. And again, and... Read more... |
2011: Unlovely Love Stories and Unerotic Erotic TalesWednesday, 28 December 2011![]() While I'm still learning to disentangle my mezzo from my Meistersinger, I enjoyed a lot of the opera on offer in London this year, especially at English National Opera. Parsifal was perfect and Rameau's Castor and Pollux, while probably a little too... Read more... |
Damien Hirst's spots go globalSaturday, 17 December 2011![]() Brace yourselves for pure Damien Hirst madness next year. As well as Tate Modern’s retrospective survey opening in April, there will be a “worldwide” retrospective of Hirst’s spot paintings opening next month.The Gagosian Gallery will be... Read more... |
