Mint Art Gallery showed work by Tom Down at the recent London Art Fair. Using as his starting point the grand romantic landscape paintings of 19th Century artists such as Casper David Friedrich & Auguste Capelen amongst others, he explores the contrast of our current environmental situation making gorgeous models from humble, often discarded materials […]
Tom Down exhibited by Mint Art Gallery
Encounter at the London Art Fair
I’m a sucker for monochrome which was one of the reasons Encounter, a London-based contemporary art gallery, caught my eye as soon as I walked into the fair with the freshness of the work and totally distracted me from my planned schedule. I don’t want to say anything more – just look and hopefully you’ll […]
Picasso and Paper at the Royal Academy
This is a mammoth show with lots of very serious and historically important work which I highly recommend visiting if you can. I wanted to focus here though on the wit, humour and playfulness of some of the many exhibits such as this 1943 portrait of Dora Maar’s recently deceased pet dog made from a […]
Themes from Cars: Accelerating the Modern World at the V&A
This exhibition at the V&A wasn’t high on my list but I popped in as was in the area and was surprised to find it connected to so many other aspects of our lives in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Spoiler alert: no actual car photos in this post. Aspects covered included the role of women […]
Steve McQueen – Year 3 at Tate Britain
With everything going on in the world this exhibition in the Duveen Gallery is a much-needed example of hope in our future. As you may already know, the project, initiated by artist Steve McQueen, involved taking class photos of year 3 primary school pupils in every London borough. 1,504 schools took part (that’s 76,000 children) […]
Nam June Paik at Tate Modern
Nam June Paik at Tate Modern is a reminder of art’s prescience in raising awareness of changes in our world. His viewpoint on the way technology can and has changed our lives is, by and large, accurate. It’s startling to note the dates of pieces and see just how ahead of his time he was. […]