A review of Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel at the Barbican in London. This small exhibition in the Barbican’s Curve space is a shrine to the women of pre-Revolutionary Iran. Soheila Sokhanvari I enjoy the Barbican’s Curve space as an opportunity to discover new artists. The long, sleek, one room exhibitions are often provocative. And so […]
The British Museum’s exhibition Hieroglyphs focuses on the Rosetta Stone in order to tell the story of the decipherment of the language of Ancient Egypt. A Little Pre-Reading I wrote once several years ago about an exhibition at the British Museum which left me with a feeling of disappointment: what I thought was quite an […]
A commission at the London Mithraeum’s Bloomberg SPACE sees artist Mariana Castillo Deball responding to the often discarded, lost or unwanted objects that become archaeological finds. Roman Rubbish, in other words. A Return To The Mithraeum It has been quite a while since I visited London’s Mithraeum. I walked past on a Roman London walk […]
A review of Carolee Schneemann: Body Politics, on for a few more weeks at the Barbican. Schneemann’s politically engaged work, often focused on her body and sexuality, still appears radical to audiences decades after its creation. Female/Feminist Artists: Under The Spotlight It seems to me like female artists are undergoing something of a rebalancing at […]
Two exhibitions at the Courtauld Gallery which deal with modern women, but in very different ways: as artist or as muse, as private pleasure or as active participant in new art movements. The Courtauld: Come For The Gift Shop, Stay For The Art The Salterton Arts Review has a bit of a pre-Christmas rush on […]
A review of Forrest Bess: Out of the Blue, on at the Camden Art Centre. A captivating (and free) exhibition of work by an artist who straddled the boundary between art world insider and outsider. An Outing To The Camden Art Centre I don’t remember where I came across this exhibition. It might have been […]
A review of Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, on now at the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery. This most fundamental of materials, used for millennia in various artistic ways, proves to be ultra-contemporary as well. Strange Clay For some reason I didn’t expect this exhibition to be quite as popular as it is. I’m not […]
A review of Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery at London’s Estorick Collection of Italian art. This artist’s unusual trajectory makes for an absorbing exhibition. Luigi Pericle I hadn’t heard of Luigi Pericle before. You probably haven’t either. That’s partly because, after some initial artistic success, Pericle became reclusive, choosing to focus on philosophical and esoteric studies […]
At an intriguing space in Islington, this exhibition of work by artist and filmmaker Jim Threapleton is abstraction flirting with figurative representation. Lorem Ipsum It’s one of those exhibition titles that makes sense the second you see the works. Lorem Ipsum. You know, like the placeholder text? It looks like Latin but is actually nonsense, […]
A review of William Kentridge at the Royal Academy. The RA’s large galleries give these thoughtful and creative works the space they deserve. William Kentridge Before seeing Sybil at the Barbican earlier this year, William Kentridge was an artist about whom I knew very little. Perhaps you are in the same boat? Let me explain […]