FAD Magazine covers contemporary art- News, Exhibitions, Interviews and cool art stuff reported on from London
Plenty of shows bring together paintings of figures and objects in unusual contexts or brought into unexpected conjunctions: the words ‘uncanny’ and ‘enigmatic’, ‘disturbing’ and ‘surreal’ are likely to be invoked. But, even if the paintings are good, you need more to turn such a display into a compelling whole. Two current exhibitions demonstrate how:
The first London Gallery Weekend (4-6 June) felt a very positive initiative, conveniently revealing the scale of London’s commercial art… Read More
I wait years for a really good dandelion painting to come along, then – on the same day – see… Read More
There’s a surfeit of new things to see just now, as pretty much every commercial gallery in London – and… Read More
Skarstedt’s fascinating new exhibition Painter / Sculptor brings together a sculpture and a painting by nine artists who, says the… Read More
No doubt some galleries will close, but to counter that there are some new developments. Sticking with the Mayfair zone:
There’s something enticing about knowing what artists look like, even though it isn’t usually relevant to the work. Performance artists… Read More
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).
Kim Tschang-Yeul: ‘Waterdrops’, 1979 ‘If I were called in / To construct a religion’, wrote Philip Larkin, ‘I should make… Read More
Considering it’s fairly small (750,000) a lot of interesting work is made by artists in or from Winnipeg in Canada –
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?
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….
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.
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.
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:
Back in the days when people asked ‘does my bum look big in this?’ rather than ‘does my bum look… Read More
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…
One characteristic of the computer is its potential to cause glitches. That’s been of interest to artists, either as a… Read More
Artist jewellery isn’t rare, but it is normally produced by specialists in collaboration with the artist using the artist’s motifs,… Read More
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?’ is often a sensible question once you’re used to the tricky ways of artists. Four current shows are evidence.
You could say that 1:54 is the Frieze fair this week – at any rate it’s the only real life fair in the city during ‘Frieze week’. So it seems only fair to pay it attention.
You can’t put everything on the increasingly central art medium of Instagram, as it’s censored. Specifically, any photographic image of genitals, naked buttocks or bare female breasts are out. The fact that it’s art isn’t held to make any difference, which has caused some annoyance.
I was sorry to hear that the small but splendid Tintype Gallery is sailing into the sunset.
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