This retrospective Paula Rego exhibition at Tate Britain only confirmed my admiration for the artist. I have never seen so much of her work in one place and have already booked a return visit. The first piece in the exhibition, “Interrogation” was painted when she was only 15 years old. In it Rego has already […]
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.
Chantal Joffe: Story at Victoria Miro
Not having seen much of Chantal Joffe‘s work in the flesh I was expecting everything to be as large scale as this painting above. I was therefore surprised at the domestic size of the majority of paintings in her exhibition, Story at Victoria Miro. The intimacy of familial relationships was echoed in this use of […]
The Making of Rodin at Tate Modern
This exhibition, The Making of Rodin at Tate Modern, presents the sculptor’s work in a slightly different light, revealing his use of multiple elements, repetition and iteration, processes normally kept out of sight and behind the scenes. After his first sculpture, The Age of Bronze (L’Age d’airain), was deemed by the critics too lifelike to […]
Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity rooms at Tate Modern
There are so many photographs of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity mirror rooms yet I hadn’t visited any: I have a deep aversion to queuing. So the recent Tate Modern exhibition finally gave me the opportunity to experience them alone and for several minutes. Restrictions still in place meant that I had the spaces to myself. This […]
Sanya Kantarovsky at Modern Gallery
My friend and I stopped chatting when we saw this exhibition of Sanya Kantarovsky’s work at Modern Art on Helmet Row. There’s a strong sense of unease and foreboding in these life-sized paintings from 2019-20. You know things are wrong; something terrible has happened or is just about to. Life is frightening and unpredictable. And […]
Ellen Gallagher: Ecstatic Draught of Fishes at Hauser & Wirth
This exhibition coincided with the Mayfair Art Weekend in June which I worked on so I directed everyone to see it at Hauser & Wirth. I hadn’t come across Ellen Gallagher before but was impressed by the work in Ecstatic Draught of Fishes. Gallagher explores the Afro-futurist mythology of Drexciya in these large paint, collage […]
Helen Frankenthaler at Gagosian
Now widely recognised for her importance to Abstract Expressionism, Imagining Landscapes, the Helen Frankenthaler exhibition currently at Gagosian in London shows fourteen paintings from 1952 to 1976, some of which have never been shown before. I have included a detail shot for each painting shown as so much is about the paint and mark-making. I […]
Michael Armitage at the Royal Academy
Michael Armitage gained his postgraduate diploma from the Royal Academy Schools ten years ago and returns to the Royal Academy with Paradise Edict, a powerful exhibition of paintings. Some were inspired by the 2017 Kenyan elections, others explore East African society, landscapes and figures referencing classical narratives. The lushness of colour and assured mark-making belies […]
Brutal Beauty: Jean Dubuffet at the Barbican
“I aim for an art that is directly plugged into our current life” – Jean Dubuffet An artist I have been aware of for most of my life, Brutal Beauty, an exhibition of Jean Dubuffet at the Barbican, was an unexpected joy to visit. There was a strong current of energy running from the work […]
Zanele Muholi at Tate Modern
As exhibitions everywhere have been disrupted over the past 15 months I was determined to get to Zanele Muholi at Tate Britain before it closed. I had seen an exhibition walk-through online but, as ever, you just can’t beat seeing art in reality. The photos and videos are a key element of Muholi’s activism, coming […]
