Getting artwork framed is a regular subject for discussion amongst artists. Yes, of course there are good ready-made frames on the market but they cater for the everyday. As a professional artist I collaborate with other experts to present my work in the best possible way and to protect it for a very long time. […]
One-minute blog of interesting things
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As a working contemporary artist I visit many exhibitions and shows, but sometimes it is the things I see that are part of daily life that capture my interest. My one-minute blog of interesting things reflects the fact that although we are increasingly time-poor, there is creativity all around us. Email me at info@carolinebanks.co.uk with your name and email to receive a weekly post that only takes 1 minute to read.
April Contemporary at London Art Fair
My visit to the London Art Fair was brief this year as my energy levels are still low but I was so pleased to have made it. One of the highlights for me was Encounters, a section of small and new galleries. April Contemporary , one of these, presented YOU ARE HERE 510’30 36″ N […]
Nigel Cooke at PACE London
Visiting Nigel Cooke’s recent solo show at PACE London was something of a surprise – I don’t know what I had expected but it was different to what I’d thought. It’s the contrast between what we see on a screen and the reality in the flesh. The brushstrokes in his oil paintings were more textured […]
Cezanne at Tate Modern
The thing about blockbuster shows is that you’re under pressure to take everything in while being crowded on all sides. It therefore took a second, more relaxed, visit to the large Cezanne exhibition at Tate Modern for me to really see the work properly. People rave about his still lives and landscapes but some of […]
Cluster at the Bargehouse Oxo Tower, London
Cluster, an exhibition at the Oxo Bargehouse was a real mixed bag (as so many group shows are). Perhaps that’s why the title was selected? There were some interesting artists to discover so here are a few of the pieces that spoke to me. Gentrification (Commercial Genocide/The Message) by Shaquille Keith is a dual piece […]
Soheila Sokhanvari’s Rebel Rebel at Barbican Curve
This exhibition of paintings by UK-based Iranian artist Soheila Sokhanvari celebrates and commemorates inspirational creative Iranian women. She uses the painstaking medium of egg tempera and traditional miniature painting techniques for these portraits. The installation in The Barbican Curve is quite wonderful, an immersive environment in which to view these small, highly detailed paintings. Performing […]
Kamala Ibrahim Ishag at the Serpentine Gallery.
I’ll start the year with a review about another underrepresented artist finally getting some of the exposure she deserves. Kamala Ibrahim Ishag (now in her 80s) has a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery till 29th January. While most of the attention is on her large canvasses, I was moved by her drawings and some […]
Magdalena Abakanowicz at Tate Modern
Although I had seen photos of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s work back in 1980, Every Tangle of Thread and Rope, the exhibition at Tate Modern was the first time I had experienced any of it in reality. Whoa, these sculptures (Abakans) are big. It was difficult to keep my hands off them – I so wanted to […]
Käthe Kollwitz at Making Modernism, Royal Academy.
One of the few artists celebrated during her lifetime and now revered, Käthe Kollwitz is, amazingly, still not a household name in the UK. Her inclusion in Making Modernism at the Royal Academy gives us the chance to experience a more diverse range of her work, a few examples of which are here. A talented […]
Making Modernism at the Royal Academy
Hmm, not sure about the title of this small exhibition at the Royal Academy but the content was extraordinary, leaving me thirsting for more information about the artists, several of whom were completely new to me. As with so much art history (HIStory full-stop) we’ve been fed a version showing only men’s work. In this […]