There’s been a bit of a hiatus since I list posted a write-up of a show I’ve seen, and it’s not for lack of seeing good art. But here’s getting back on that horse again, and posting some pictures and reflections a little closer to the time.
Continue reading “Magdalena Abakanowicz – Every Tangle of Thread & Rope”Two excellent tech essays
One about AI versus human creativity and thought. And one about tech platforms purporting to be ‘eco-systems’ when in fact they are narrow little walled-gardens carefully controlled in a top-down manner by their corporate owners.
Continue reading “Two excellent tech essays”Tongue-tastic art!
I’m not sure why, but this year I’ve spotted a lot of contemporary art that features tongues. The last tongue-related work I spotted was a fantastic show by Alicia Radage at the Herbert Read Gallery in Canterbury, Kent – and has finally prompted me to put together this list of art with tongues!
Continue reading “Tongue-tastic art!”A Sea Change – Art in Romney Marsh
This autumn a rich and scenic treasure hunt of art has been unfolding in and around Romney Marsh. It’s exciting to see contemporary artists animating the evocative, historic sites of the medieval churches of Romney Marsh, originally built for the isolated shepherd communities living out on the marsh.
Continue reading “A Sea Change – Art in Romney Marsh”Full Disclosure – inside a Foundation Year
This year I had my first experience of academic art education, undertaking a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at The City Literary Institute, London. Though I’ve written at length my reflections on the course, I thought I would also go full disclosure and share the work I was assessed on during this course and the grades and feedback I received.
Continue reading “Full Disclosure – inside a Foundation Year”Reflections on a Year of Art Education
Despite cultivating my art practice in earnest since 2018, this year I embarked on my first year of full-time art education at an academic institution. This took the form of a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at The City Literary Institute. In some ways this felt ironic or like some kind of admission of failure, I had after all treated my first year of living in Spain as my own ‘self-directed foundation year’, even putting on my own show at the end of the year. But finding myself back in the UK, no longer part of an active art community and trying to move forward from the isolation of working through various lockdowns, the time felt right to embark on my first experience of something approaching ‘art school’. My last experience of formal art education had been taking GCSE art a very long time ago….
Continue reading “Reflections on a Year of Art Education”Off With Her Head by Lindsey Mendick at Carl Freedman Gallery
F*cking brilliant. A totally bombastic articulation of things which sadly still need to be said. A many-layered, nuanced show, crashing together epochs of references. And so much work, an immersive installation rich with detailed, damning observations in ceramic, sculpture, stained glass and video.
Continue reading “Off With Her Head by Lindsey Mendick at Carl Freedman Gallery”‘They/Them/Their: Naturally Not Binary’ at IMT Gallery
Tonight was the first art show I’ve been to in London which felt real. Real work – people trying to work something out, grappling with their materials to try and understand something, to get somewhere. Engaging with the work of trying to deconstruct some of the deeply embedded ideological fault lines in our society. Power structures that so often go unquestioned. But slowly, slowly, a critical mass of critical practitioners is blossoming.
Continue reading “‘They/Them/Their: Naturally Not Binary’ at IMT Gallery”Holly Hendry and Olivia Bax
Some great sculpture with materials that sing, I have found recently in London…
Continue reading “Holly Hendry and Olivia Bax”‘Cracked’ at Tristan Hoare Gallery
A show of hand-built ceramics, curated by Leonie Mir, as part of London Craft Week 2021. Some of my highlights …
Continue reading “‘Cracked’ at Tristan Hoare Gallery”