advent calendar 2016 - part 4 (19 - 24 December)

The final entries of our advent calendar series have the following artists and works featured -

Day 19: Now Gallery recommends 'Bullet From A Shooting Star' based at Greenwich Peninsula by artist Alex Chinneck, who time and time again shows that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. @alexchinneck creates inventive pieces of art using the familiar & transforming it into the unique. Don’t miss his melting Christmas Tree on display at Granary Square during this festive period. 

Day 20: Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams brings @barbicancentre Curve gallery to life with his quest into The Gulch. The curious & often subversive internal dialogue @bedwyr_williams plays out along the Curve’s space in this fantastical installation. Physical & metaphorical twists & turns guide you through the gallery and ultimately inspire you to give your own performance, one that will fill the cavernous gorge of the gulch for those following in your footsteps.

Day 21: close up of Anselm Kiefer's nuber pluant ustem (2016) currently on display in @whitecubeofficial bermondsey. Kiefer employs a range of media – oil, acrylic, emulsion and shellac - to emphasise the space of painting as a threshold into a mythic, imaginative realm.

Day 22: @GRAD_London recommends 'Destined To Be Happy', Russian artist Irina Korina's new solo installation which runs until 28 February 2017. Experience the macabre reality of Korina’s greyscale domain, punctuated with characters whose emotional relatability is laid bare for scrutiny.

Day 23: Berlin-based artist @AlicjaKwade ’s commission in @whitechapelgallery "Medium Median" explores our relationship to space and time through technology, culture and senses.

Day 24: Spring (2015) by Tony Cragg shown previously in @lisson_gallery. His axiom “There are many more things that do not exist than things that do exist” points to a deep well of things & forms that are as yet beyond our perception. Sculpture is for Cragg a method to unlock this enormous potential not just for new forms but the new meanings, dreams and language that will become associated to them. For him it is a method for discovering the as yet unseen. 

top picks in the frieze week 2012

Venue Design by Kevin Carmody & Andrew Groarke for Frieze Art Fair 2011

With the return of Frieze Art Fair to its home town after a trans-atlantic conquer in New York earlier this year, it would be interesting to see how its spin-off fair Frieze Masters would fare among fellow art critics and audience. Continuing its well-praised tradition last year, Carmody & Groarke is reappointed (see photo above) to design the venue of the main fair this year. The Masters show next door would be, interestingly, designed by New York-based Selldorf Architects. It seems the competition between the two global cities are everywhere.

As usual, apart from the Giant Frieze, Moniker Art Fair in Village Underground and Sunday Art Fair in Ambika P3 are catering to a slightly more specific audience and do not cost a penny to get in. For the numerous shows in galleries around the whole city, we have shortlisted the followings for those who have no time to do the window-shopping: (in no particular order)

Kris Ruhs in the Wapping Project - full photo set here

Landing on Earth by Kris Ruhs in the Wapping Project
Kris has created a series of large installations in the power station (see photo above) that have a dialogue with each other as well as the space.

Elmgreen & Dragset's transformed attic space in Victoria Miro

Harvest by Elmgreen & Dragset in Victoria Miro (@victoriamiro) -
The duo who put a bronze boy on a rocking horse on the 4th plinth is making two distinct spaces inside the gallery's two floors in their latest show in town.

snails on junk in one of Bertozzi & Casoni's works in the show

Regeneration by Bertozzi & Casoni in All Visual Arts (@allvisualarts) -
Examine the bizarrely colourful life-like works of the Italian duo which are almost renaissance paintings come alive in 3D.

Left: Untitled 12050; Right: Untitled 12044 (2012) by Lee Knagwook

Invisible by Lee Kangwook in Hada Contemporary -
Korean artist Lee uses colour pencils and charoal to create minimalist works (see photo above) that look vibrant yet intriguing in order as a whole. The sparkle highlights in his works make a glam touch to the works.

Revolver presents works by ten artists made between 1983 and 2012 in discrete spaces in the gallery in a three-part series of short exhibitions. Show 2 features Anna Barham's live installation, Graham Gussin's sepia toned photographs and Tai Shani's sound-tracked installation.


Spazio di Luce by Giuseppe Penone in Whitechapel Gallery (@_thewhitechapel) -
No other artist have made a more poetic piece for Whitechapel Gallery's columned room yet than Penone (see photo above).

Ligurian Sea Saviore (1993) by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Dark Paintings & Seascapes by Rothko and Sugimoto in Pace (@pacegallery) -
If you think David Chipperfield's museum space is a must-see, a joint show of Mark Rothko & Hiroshi Sugimoto inside a space designed by Chipperfield would be one that is seen to be believed. See the above teaser photo. We hope the show can stay forever, it is timeless.

 

 

Blastfurnace by Atelier Van Lieshout in Carpenters Workshop (@cwgparislondon) - 
Carpenters Workshop is renown for their taste of craft designs. It is showing a few pieces of AVL's works that viewers can view the chemistry among them when they are all in the same space. 

On a sidenote, there was outrageous queue everyday in the Barbican Curve gallery since its current show opened last week (see below photo), those who live in London should avoid getting there in frieze week to save your valuable time in this period.

Random International (also represented by Carpenter Workshop)'s interactive Rain installation in the Barbican Curve gallery

A Kassen's work in Sunday Art Fair 2011 represented by New Gallerie Paris

A Kassen's work in Nettie Horn, 17A Riding House Street

17A Riding House Street by A Kassen in Nettie Horn (@nettiehorn) -

Danish Collective A Kassen is known for their reaction with the environment and space in their works. The show would see how they respond to the relocated gallery (from Vyner Street) in its new premise and hence an one-off not to be missed.

art september in london . part 1

Salon (London)
02-11.09.2009
295 Regent Street

salon gallery by you.

full photo set here

The pop-up space at 295 Regent Street are filled with interesting works ranging from photography & installations to paintings and live performances. Having a colourful walking man in the middle of a disused floor space is quite an amazing encounter.

*****

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton
09.07-20.09.2009
Whitechapel Gallery

current reading . 13.09.2009 by you.

current reading . 13.09.2009 by you.

Elizabeth Peyton's show in Whitechapel Gallery, as reported by "art & music" magazine (summer 2009 issue)

Something special about her works is that she seems to use small formats most of the time - 95% of the paintings are so small that they could be fit in your handbag or messenger bag. Yet despite the tiny size of each piece, the subject is usually of big fame. As seen in the show and as listed in wikipedia, her celebrity subjects have included Noel and Liam Gallagher of the rock band Oasis, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, Chloë Sevigny, Princes William and Harry, Abraham Lincoln, Graham Coxon, Keith Richards, John Lennon, Marc Jacobs, Kurt Cobain, Eminem, Ludwig II of Bavaria, and members of The Kennedy Family.

Another signature of her works is the vivid palette she uses. However, the vivid background and/or surrounding would very often leave the subject looks particularly pale and stand-out in the painting. She also manages to capture gestures well.

To see the show is like witnessing a period of time which Elizabeth Peyton captured with her selection of the 'icons of the era'.

*****

Anthony Burrill: In a New Place

24.07-05.09.2009
Kemistry Gallery


Kemistry Gallery at Shoreditch featuring Anthony Burrill's trademark at the garage door

Anthony Burrill's new works in Kemistry Gallery is a collection of rainbow synthetic perspex cuts with the very mastery black, white and a bits of reflective mirror surfaces. There are also a few pieces about the meterological symbols - clouds, lightning and so on. Highly conceptual yet simple and pleasant. 

For those who don't know him, A.B. (as his initials like what's shown above) is a reknown designer famous for his many websites for Air, Kraftwerk, David Holmes etc.

*****
Cold Corners by Eva Rothschild
Duveens Commission series
30.06-29.11.2009
Tate Britain

eva rothschild in tate britain by you.
The pointy metal pipes bounce up and down across the main passage

*****

The Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground

this is london || 05.09.2009 by you.

rootstein hopkins foundation parade ground by you.

First time I visited this place which is next to Tate Britain. Nice open ground ideal for public exhibitions and/or performances. Would get to know more about its upcoming events and the works &/or artists on display.

Further reading -

Official page for Salon - 295 Regent Street
Wikipedia's entry for Elizabeth Peyton
Official gallery of Anthony Burrill's installation for the Kemistry Gallery show
Anthony Burrill's interview with Pixelsurgeon
Official page of Anthony Burill's show in Kemistry Gallery's website
Official page of Eva Rothschild's installation in Tate Britain
Official page of the Rootstein Hopkins Parade Ground
Anish Kapoor Opens London's New 'Gallery Without Walls' by Marian Cleary for culture24
Chelsea College of Art & Design's online archive about the parade ground