Paul’s Show of the Month
3 December 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
It is certainly worth paying £10 to see The Photographers’ Gallery’s retrospective of the influential Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov
Paul’s Art Stuff
Most days Art Critic Paul Carey-Kent spends hours on the train, traveling between his home in Southampton and his day job in London. Could he, we asked, jot down whatever came into his head?
Paul’s Work of The Month. Dana Schutz: The Kiss, 2025
19 November 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
In the simpler composition of ‘The Kiss’, just two figures become one in an embrace that seems equally readable as sex, violence or dance.
Paul’s Puff for Prints
30 October 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s easy to pass on by because you have already seen them – yet how fully have you looked?
Paul’s World Tour of Frieze
16 October 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
This, then, is my even more convenient world tour, undertaken virtually from the cancer unit in Southampton General Hospital…
Paul’s Trip to Oxford
8 October 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
Oxford (like Cambridge) is a much-visited city that has plenty of art:
Paul’s trip to Hastings
1 October 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s always a lively programme in the purpose-built galleries in Hastings old town
Paul’s trip to Bruton.
24 September 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
The small market town of Bruton, nestled in Somerset 120 miles from London has become a cultural hub over the past decade
Paul’s Index of Art Tragedy
26 August 2025 • Paul Carey-Kent
What was the most tragic early death of an artist? Welcome to: Paul Carey Kent’s ‘Index of Art Tragedy’
PAUL’S HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM SIX SNOWMEN
23 December 2024 • Paul Carey-Kent
Six Contemporary artist who have made more permanent snowmen…
Paul’s Shows: ING Discerning Eye
6 November 2024 • Paul Carey-Kent
I’m one of the six selectors for this year’s ING Discerning Eye show
A Trip to TEFAF
13 March 2023 • Paul Carey-Kent
A Trip to TEFAF – the world’s premier wide-ranging art fair – design, jewellery, clocks, books etc, across 270 stands
Navigating Venice
14 September 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Autumn is a good time to visit the Venice Biennale, it being cooler and less crowded than earlier in the year. Moreover, the 2022 edition is considered one of the best and the central exhibition, ‘The Milk of Dreams’, has been particularly widely praised. So here are my tips for the first time visitor:
Artists not making art
7 September 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Artists are, logically enough, the centre of the art world. And that needn’t be simply for making art. They might… Read More
A very Nice Combination
24 August 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s a seamless art transition and only a hundred yards to move from the solo shows of Milton Avery (1885-1965) to that of his daughter March Avery (born 1932, and still painting six days a week in her New York studio).
When The Heat is On…
17 August 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Hiraki Sawa: installation view of the Attic Shed in flown, 2022 Fancy a quiet stroll around some shows? It’s tricky… Read More
An unusual documenta
10 August 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Every five years the massive documenta show in Kassel, Germany, looks to anticipate the art world’s curatorial trends. documenta fifteen (to Sept 25) has been curated by Indonesian artist collective Lumbung inviting other collectives to issue invites.
Art in Bloom
3 August 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Perhaps it is to be expected that plenty of flowers featured in London galleries at the height of an over-hot summer. For example:
Where to Go to Find Out Where We Came From: The Artists Self-Publishers’ Fair
27 July 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
The Seventh Artists Self-Publishers’ Fair takes place this Saturday 30 July 2022 at Conway Hall in London WC1. Free to… Read More
Fontana’s Cuts
20 July 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s easy to think Fontana’s ‘cut’ works are all the same, aside from the number of slashes and the colour…. Read More
Animal Parade at the Royal Academy
13 July 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
There are 1,465 works in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, a third of them in the two galleries curated by Grayson Perry, who declares his approach ‘democratic’. So there’s no lack of options for making a selection of, say, six.
Edvard Munch, Rock Star
29 June 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
I’ve seen a lot of Edvard Munch lately: in Oslo’s new 13-floor ‘Munch’ and even newer National Museum (both of which have versions of ‘The Scream’ and plenty else) and at the Courtauld in London. ‘Masterpieces from Bergen’ (to 3 Sept) has a comparatively modest but high standard 18 canvasses.
Everybody’s Doing It: Painting at Art Basel
22 June 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Art Basel and it’s satellite fair seem to be back to normal this year. There’s plenty of variety – more so than at Frize London last year –
Not So Grey
15 June 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Is grey a colour? Some claim so because it contains every other colour. The tradition of grisaille paintings suggests otherwise, given it is set up as a contrast with painting in colour.
Christmas Already?
8 June 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
What makes art so inexhaustible? Not only does it responds to a vast and ever-changing world, but the artist chooses… Read More