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’
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
24 November 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Tessa Farmer: detail of Swarming Fever, 2021 Bournemouth rose to prominence as the favoured Victorian tourist destination by the sea,… 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
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
14 October 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Enough of the crowding and superficiality of Frieze London’s opening day, this year I opted for the more measured pace… Read More
6 October 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s plenty of sculpture lying around outside in London now: not just the permanent stuff dotted about or combined into… Read More
29 September 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
When wondering what artists are seeking to express, it is worth remembering that we may not be looking at what they intended us to see. That struck me as I strolled around the Ashmolean in Oxford – not a bad place to wander, of course.
22 September 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
I grew up in St Leonards-on-Sea, the 19th century addition to Hastings. The two towns suffered a 50 year decline… Read More
15 September 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Performance art had an increasingly high pre-pandemic profile, but the curtailment of live events affected that – and even in… Read More
28 July 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Poetry was good in lockdown, being better suited to the screen than most literature or art. That makes it timely that two ambitious London shows currently combine art with poetry
7 July 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
I visited three places not so typically associated with art last weekend: Beckenham, Penge and Reading. But all had their points:
23 June 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
In ‘Art, Life and Everything’, Julie Umerle chronicles her life as an artist from 1978-2010. She hasn’t had an easy ride – for example, she’s never been represented by a mainstream gallery – but…
16 June 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
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:
9 June 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
The first London Gallery Weekend (4-6 June) felt a very positive initiative, conveniently revealing the scale of London’s commercial art… Read More
26 May 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
I wait years for a really good dandelion painting to come along, then – on the same day – see… Read More
5 May 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
There’s a surfeit of new things to see just now, as pretty much every commercial gallery in London – and… Read More
28 April 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
Skarstedt’s fascinating new exhibition Painter / Sculptor brings together a sculpture and a painting by nine artists who, says the… Read More
21 April 2021 • Paul Carey-Kent
No doubt some galleries will close, but to counter that there are some new developments. Sticking with the Mayfair zone:
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
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).
