The Artists Themselves
7 April 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s something enticing about knowing what artists look like, even though it isn’t usually relevant to the work. Performance artists… Read More
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?
Around the World with Ed van der Elsken
31 March 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Who’s the most important Dutch photographer of the 20th century? I’m a fan of the largely street-based work of Ed van der Elsken (1925-90).
Water Everywhere
24 March 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Kim Tschang-Yeul: ‘Waterdrops’, 1979 ‘If I were called in / To construct a religion’, wrote Philip Larkin, ‘I should make… Read More
Crazy Prices?
17 March 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Two market developments have attracted recent attention: A Damien Hirst edition limited by time and Beeple’s NFT sale..
Quatre Bites
10 March 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
In a fair the size of FIAC – 215 galleries, normally in Paris in October but also online in March this year – there’s no shortage of themes one can bring together. Here are four offerings across which I detected some sort of connection:
The World from the South
3 March 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
SOUTH SOUTH is an online community to bring together galleries with at least 40% of their artists coming from the ‘Global South’. Its lockdown-driven first commercial initiative with 50 galleries runs to March 7th.
Not Quite in Winnipeg
24 February 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Considering it’s fairly small (750,000) a lot of interesting work is made by artists in or from Winnipeg in Canada –
Being an Octopus
17 February 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
What is it like to be an octopus? Would that be a better model for how an AI might be regarded as ‘intelligent’ than assessing how its responses differ from the human? And what would that mean for the way people look at the world?
Virtually There
10 February 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Normally, I see virtually everything. Now I see everything virtually. But it’s not all bad. Not surprisingly, the big galleries have upped their game: see for example….
Exclusive Artist Interview: Arturo the Cat
3 February 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
In a playful yet pointed counter to the human-centric view of the world, London-based Italian artist Ludovica Gioscia collaborates with her cat, Arturo. I was pleased to obtain an exclusive interview with him just as they opened a major show at Baert Gallery in Los Angeles.
Human Relations in the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2020
27 January 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
The annual Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize exhibition – virtual, of course, this year – includes plenty of drawings directly referencing the locked down circumstances of their making.
Now and Then at the London Art Fair
20 January 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
The London Art Fair’s online edition runs 18th-31st Jan. As in the physical versions, the best material is fairly evenly split between 20th century British classics and contemporary work – so here are two picks from each category:
What to Make of John Kacere?
13 January 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Back in the days when people asked ‘does my bum look big in this?’ rather than ‘does my bum look… Read More
An Array of Arrays
6 January 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s a mode of work, developing from the found object tradition, which simply presents lots of something to potentially transformative effect.
Christmas Carrying On…
30 December 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
Just how long does Christmas last? Maybe it’s because covid time passes oddly, but I’ve recently noticed some artworks which might be taken as stretching it out somewhat…
Means of Glitching
23 December 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
One characteristic of the computer is its potential to cause glitches. That’s been of interest to artists, either as a… Read More
Jewellery by Artists
16 December 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
Artist jewellery isn’t rare, but it is normally produced by specialists in collaboration with the artist using the artist’s motifs,… Read More
Reporting from ‘Miami’
9 December 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
Already it seems somewhat normal that Art Basel Miami and its numerous satellites were held online this year. That doesn’t mean the sun and parties and in-person experiences of art aren’t missed, but they’re not easy to get to anyway… Here are four works which interested me among the 2600 works ‘shown’:
Plates
2 December 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
Plates are a rather convenient way to display art, somewhere between ceramic – for the most part, though metals are possible – and painting. Ceramics are in vogue anyway, and as functional objects go, plates are easy to display. In ascending order of price, here are three recent initiatives which have stepped up to the plate:
Shapes of Science
25 November 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
In this selection, which came out of research for the arts-meets-sciences magazine Seisma, five international artists use the theories and methods of science to generate art with distinctive shapes.
Dale Lewis’ Discerning Eye
18 November 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
The Discerning Eye (19 Nov- 31 Dec) is a show – usually in the Mall Galleries, online only this year… Read More
Clare Price: Trauma, Glamour and Luck in Abstraction
4 November 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
I like it when you can track an artist’s development through their own account…
Clare Price hasn’t followed a conventional path:
Do Try This at Home
28 October 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
For the ‘festival in a box’ – in Director Shoair Mavlain’s words – ‘the artworks travelled to people’s homes, classrooms and community spaces’, so eliminating the reliance on personal travel ‘which itself relies on economic privilege’ and allowing the viewer to ‘become the curator’ by choosing how to hang the work.
What is that Really?
21 October 2020 • Paul Carey-Kent
‘What is that really?’ is often a sensible question once you’re used to the tricky ways of artists. Four current shows are evidence.