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?
6 April 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s easy to find that, because there’s a time limit on changing exhibitions, you concentrate on those becasue you might miss them and never quite get round to looking at institutions’ permanent holdings, deep in the memory as they may be. So on visiting major new shows recently, I’ve also thought: let’s take a ride out, see what we can find…
30 March 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Woking may not be trendy… but it’s only 19 train minutes from Clapham Junction and has a new shopping centre! What do you mean, you still don’t want to go? It also has plenty of art at the moment:
23 March 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Like almost everyone, I guess, I take lots of photos with my phone without worrying too much about how I do so. Might I benefit from a book of photographic instruction? David Yarrow, known for his stunning black and white wildlife shots, has just published ‘How I Make Photographs’*, so here was a chance.
16 March 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Now the show in Leeds presents a 50-50 mixture of glass specialists and wider-ranging artists working in the material, all illuminatingly categorised by the material property foregrounded in the processes used. ‘SOLID’ features cast or moulded glass; ‘GAS’, sculptures made by blowing into the glass; ‘LIQUID’ the results of manipulating molten glass. Here’s one of each that order:
9 March 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Now ‘Surrealism Beyond Borders’ repeats the approach, but with 160 artists from around the world rather than concentrate on Surrealism’s Paris-based tradition.
2 March 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Want an art selfie? The most obvious chances are currently provided by the two mirror rooms in Tate Modern‘s Yayoi… Read More
23 February 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
The Royal Academy’s ‘Man and Beast’ offers the chance to see many prime paintings by Bacon
16 February 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s no surprise that sixteen self-portraits by Van Gogh make a great show: with all due respect to Frida Kahlo and Cindy Sherman, I guess it’s a face-off between Van Gogh and Rembrandt for GOAT status in the genre.
9 February 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It is easy to assume that artists want to leave a permanent mark, to make a work that will endure… Read More
2 February 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
What to see in London in February? Here’s my pick of ten shows which are (a) free and (b) open… Read More
26 January 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
Some galleries – the Hayward is exemplary in this regard – close for years to refurbish, only to leave re-visitors… Read More
19 January 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
I hadn’t clocked University College London as much of an art destination until recently: sure, the campus between Euston and Warren Street boasts the agreeably off-beat Grant Museum of Zoology and Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, but art?
12 January 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
It may not sound logical, but not only are there many interesting podcasts that talk to artists, but radio can… Read More
5 January 2022 • Paul Carey-Kent
I’m not sure you have to be obsessive to be an artist, but plenty of artists have made bodies of work that are naturally described that way. The best-known examples tend to be individually produced:
29 December 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
It’s not entirely out with the old in the gallery world. Here’s a choice of ten free-to-visit London shows which… Read More
22 December 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
The old distinctions between ‘art’ and ‘craft’ have reduced sufficiently in recent years that ceramics and textiles can now be… Read More
15 December 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
A seasonal tradition has developed of showing works small and affordable enough that they could plausibly make gifts. Flowers Gallery have the longest-running current exhibition with such a premise: this is the 39th year of ‘Small is Beautiful’
8 December 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Jane Hayes Greenwood: still from Silvery River, 2021 Recent years have seen an enhanced respect and attention for plants, consistent… Read More
1 December 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s still plenty of time to see this winter’s edition of the RA Summer Show, which runs on past Christmas…. Read More
17 November 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
People quite often ask me what galleries I recommend. For the last few weeks, and quite possibly the next few… Read More
10 November 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
It had never occurred to me to spend a day in Newbury – until I heard about Jemima Brown’s project there. Actually, a tour of that and the associated locations makes for a fascinating day out.
3 November 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Some of the best shows on now are presented in darkness…
27 October 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Drawing has an immediacy suited to responding to current events, so – although the entry and judging process naturally takes… Read More
20 October 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Painting is always the dominant medium in art fairs, and despite all the talk of NFTs and new media, that… Read More
