The Phyllida Barlow room was, as you can see, pretty busy when I visited (and no, I don’t know the smiley woman in front of Tony Cragg’s Lost in Thoughts sculptures in this shot) The beautifully smooth laminated wood invited touch which practically everyone seemed to do. David Nash showed Red Holed Column, this wooden trunk […]
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.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: 1 of 4
As the years go on I seem to know and recognise the work of an increasing number of artists exhibiting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, several of whom have featured in previous blog posts. Kate MccGwire is one such and I was delighted to see that she had won the Jack Goldhill Award for sculpture […]
All Too Human: Bacon, Freud & a Century of Painting Life at Tate Britain
A recent study of oil painting techniques led me to visit Tate Britain for this exhibition of figure painting. I enjoyed the standard greats including Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud but was more interested in examining the less-famous artists in the last room of the show; these painters were really exciting for their handling of materials. […]
Forgotten Streams by Cristina Iglesias
Most of my journeys through the City of London are by bike so I’d missed this low-level sculpture outside the prestigious Bloomberg Building, installed in 2017. Forgotten Streams by Cristina Iglesias reminds us of the rivers of London, most of which are now hidden underground. It marks the Walbrook river which flowed on this site. […]
Sculpture in the City
My former studio-mate, Amanda Lwin, is one of the artists in this year’s Sculpture in the City and led a tour for Nocturnal Creatures, the arts festival organised by Whitechapel Gallery so here are a few pictures of her work with some of the others we saw. Her piece, A Worldwide Web of Somewheres is in […]
East Wall – Storm The Tower, directed by Hofesh Schechter
I know it’s a sign of climate change – I’ve even stopped checking my weather app – but I do love it when you can plan an evening out and know it’ll be warm and dry. This was the case for East Wall at the Tower of London, part of LIFT festival. A collaboration between […]
Mark-making workshop by Modern Eccentrics at Cass Art
Ever keen to learn new skills I signed up recently for a workshop run by Ross and Jonny of ModernEccentrics at Cass Art where we learned about making our own brushes and ink. Here are some of Ross’s beautiful brushes – these are not actually intended for use. and the trolley selection of materials to make […]
A couple of Amin Taha Architects’ buildings in North London
It’s exciting that 15 Clerkenwell Close by Amin Taha Architects , will be open for this year’s Open House London Weekend. It’s built on the site of an 11th century Norman Abbey which stood here till the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century and now houses the architect’s office as well as flats and […]
Ilhwa Kim at The House of Fine Art
A new art gallery has recently opened in the West End of London, The House of Fine Art (or HOFA for short). I went along there recently and saw these works by Ilhwa Kim. Each little piece of mulberry paper is hand dyed and rolled up into a “seed”. some contain messages (never to be read) […]
The Florence Trust’s 2018 summer show
As it says on its website, The Florence Trust provides a dynamic mentoring programme and studio residency in London for twelve international artists each year. Each residency programme lasts for 12 months and is a real lifeline for artists to develop their practice in London. I went along to the summer exhibition private view in […]