What are art fairs good for? They get a bad press, but I particularly like the chance to catch up with developments in the work of familiar artists. Art Berlin (11-15 Sept) gave plenty of such chances. Here are five directions which were new to me:
Continue Reading...YOU ARE BROWSING: Paul Carey Kent
Artists Writing: Paul Winstanley
Michael Craig-Martin is almost as famous for his collection of writings ‘On Being An Artist’ as he is for his impeccably flat yet crisply sculptural drawing style.
Continue Reading...Tribal Taster
The first fair of the new art season (Sept 3-7 at the Mall Galleries) covers an area I find interesting without knowing much about it. In Tribal Art London,
Continue Reading...Life in Perm
The Russian city of Perm, 1,500 kilometres east of Moscow, is the start of Europe if you travel from Asia. Photographer John Peter Askew has visited regularly for two decades
Continue Reading...Saatchi Changes…
If you haven’t been to the Saatchi Gallery lately, the current shows might surprise you. Free presentations of Saatchi’s own acquisitions, typically foregrounding big paintings, are absent. The two main shows are pay-to-enter affairs
Continue Reading...I found myself in Colchester last week
I found myself in Colchester last week. Obviously, it’s known mainly for its Roman history, but there is also contemporary art interest. At the purpose-built Firstsite, there are four shows well worth seeing.
Continue Reading...Frank Bowling, full of colour and tactility, chance and control
Yet Frank Bowling hasn’t generated the same publicity, though he has arguably been consistently good over a longer period
Continue Reading...Modes of Performance
Performance is present in many – maybe even all – artworks in some way, given that making is itself a performance. Here are three performative works I’ve liked recently:
Continue Reading...Portrait of the NPG
The National Portrait Gallery’s mixture of history, people and art can is currently at its strongest. The pay-for exhibition, of Cindy Sherman, is a convincing presentation of 40 years of self-images which includes some fascinating rarely-seen early works and new-to-Britain late works as well as her most seminal series, including all 70 ‘screen tests’.
Continue Reading...Destination Bracknell
I like it when art takes me somewhere I might not otherwise go. Bracknell, the Berkshire new town of 100,000 where many IT companies have their offices, has something of Slough’s unglamorous cachet without the double-edged compensation of having been the setting for ‘The Office’.
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