Tag Archives: United Kingdom

In this week’s roundup you’ll read about Tasmanian wolves, patented patterns, cartoon anthropomorphism, ancient mythology, portico projections, and a big gift: Bestiarium, a large-scale survey exhibition of watercolor paintings by …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Memento Mori

by Ben Street | Jan 11, 2010

Letter from London

Letter from London: Memento Mori

by Ben Street | Jan 11, 2010

The numbers kept coming up in the daily reports. Five here, fourteen there, one day after another. And then the growing figure mounting over a thousand. Peripherally it was ever-present, …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Jan 4, 2010

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Jan 4, 2010

This week Art21 artists illustrate NASA’s history, depict child’s play, map the Black Atlantic, render galaxies in glass, leave their mark on the last decade, and reflect on our future: …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Scrooged

by Ben Street | Dec 21, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Scrooged

by Ben Street | Dec 21, 2009

Tate Britain has just unveiled its 22nd annual Christmas Tree, designed, as usual, by a contemporary British artist. The Christmas Tree tradition at the Tate started in 1988 with Bill …

Rie Wares

by Kelly Rakowski | Dec 16, 2009

Rie Wares

by Kelly Rakowski | Dec 16, 2009

Lucie Rie’s solid, soft ceramics combine with the dark and light of these photographs to make welcoming images. Dame Lucie Rie was a prominent British potter who became internationally known …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Who Gets To Call It Art?

by Ben Street | Dec 7, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Who Gets To Call It Art?

by Ben Street | Dec 7, 2009

It is possible to read the Court’s opinion … in a variety of ways. In saying this, I imply no criticism of the Court, which in those cases was faced …

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Lisa Bradley

by Georgia Kotretsos | Nov 27, 2009

Inside the Artist's Studio

Inside the Artist’s Studio: Lisa Bradley

by Georgia Kotretsos | Nov 27, 2009

Detroiter by birth and New York-raised, Lisa Bradley is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sculpture & Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001, …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Nov 9, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Nov 9, 2009

Where in the world are Art21 artists? In Germany — where the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago today — a new suite of paintings by Season 5 artist Julie …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Outside-In

by Ben Street | Nov 9, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Outside-In

by Ben Street | Nov 9, 2009

How many artists are there in the world right now? Let’s be honest. No matter how globalized we’re constantly being reminded the art world is – in symposia, biennales, lists …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Nov 2, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Nov 2, 2009

White Snow, a solo exhibition of work by Season 5 artist Paul McCarthy, opens at Hauser & Wirth, New York on November 5. The gallery will debut pieces from a …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 26, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 26, 2009

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) will host a talk with Season 3 artist Matthew Ritchie and brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner (of indie rock band The National) on Saturday, …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Frieze! Rock!

by Ben Street | Oct 26, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Frieze! Rock!

by Ben Street | Oct 26, 2009

The Frieze Art Fair, like other kinds of trade fair, isn’t really designed for those outside of the trade it exists to buffer; it’s a bonus if you end up seeing …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Pop Life (It’s The Only Life I Know)

by Ben Street | Oct 13, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Pop Life (It’s The Only Life I Know)

by Ben Street | Oct 13, 2009

It’s not cool to be depressed by the brazen commercialism of certain facets of the art world, yet you’d have to have a heart of stone not to leave Pop …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 12, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 12, 2009

A new installation by James Turrell (Season 1) — a light-filled space in the tradition of his Ganzfeld Pieces — will open at the Wolfsburg Art Museum in Germany on …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 5, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Oct 5, 2009

Vital Signals: Japanese and American Video Art from the 1960s and 70s is a three-part screening program at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Presented in collaboration with Electronic …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Kapoortalism

by Ben Street | Sep 30, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Kapoortalism

by Ben Street | Sep 30, 2009

There’s a big lump of birdshit in the eye of Joshua Reynolds. The painter and founder of the Royal Academy, who once literally took a Titian painting to bits to …

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision: Art of the Pub

by Nicole J. Caruth | Sep 22, 2009

Gastro-Vision

Gastro-Vision: Art of the Pub

by Nicole J. Caruth | Sep 22, 2009

Gastro-Vision is a new monthly column dedicated to all things food in contemporary art and visual culture. Yara El-Sherbini has used pubs as a site for her work for the …

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Sep 14, 2009

Weekly Roundup

by Nicole J. Caruth | Sep 14, 2009

New works by Season 3 artist Josiah McElheny are on view at Andrea Rosen Gallery through Oct. 17. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an eight-foot tall sculpture based on …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Beck to the Future!

by Ben Street | Sep 14, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Beck to the Future!

by Ben Street | Sep 14, 2009

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcvrV4UhTM] The “cultural cringe” – the crippling inferiority complex that members of a particular country feel about their homeland, as evidenced in the bluffed provenance of just about every college …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Hot Scots, Part Deux

by Ben Street | Sep 7, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Hot Scots, Part Deux

by Ben Street | Sep 7, 2009

Sometimes the most interesting thing about an artist is the disparity between their work and the established perception of it. Eva Hesse, the late German-American sculptor of ratty latex and …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Hot Scots, Part Un

by Ben Street | Aug 24, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Hot Scots, Part Un

by Ben Street | Aug 24, 2009

In a big, sprawling, multi-tentacular artsfest like the Edinburgh Festival, certain forms of art – like, say, one-woman mime interpretations of the career of Robin Williams, or freestyle macrame workshops …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Doublecrossed

by Ben Street | Aug 10, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Doublecrossed

by Ben Street | Aug 10, 2009

News of artists famous in one field crossing over into another is very often met with public derision. Bruce Willis, one of the most talented pub-rockers of the late 1980s …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Jeff – Dumb and Blind(ing)

by Ben Street | Jul 27, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Jeff – Dumb and Blind(ing)

by Ben Street | Jul 27, 2009

In Herbert Ross’s magisterial 1987 film The Secret of My Success, Michael J. Fox plays Brantley Foster, a charming chancer who works his way up (spoiler alert!) from mailroom to …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Peyton for Godot

by Ben Street | Jul 20, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Peyton for Godot

by Ben Street | Jul 20, 2009

I don’t understand why anyone would like Elizabeth Peyton, but I also don’t understand why anyone would like egg whites or Coldplay or The Shawshank Redemption, so maybe I’ll never …

Flash Points

Understanding Pain

by Catherine Wagley | Jul 17, 2009

Flash Points

Understanding Pain

by Catherine Wagley | Jul 17, 2009

A friend of mine told me how she first learned of rape: rape happens when someone forces all your clothes off, her brother explained. My friend was, of course, horrified. …

Letter from London

Letter from London: YBA Baracas

by Ben Street | Jul 7, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: YBA Baracas

by Ben Street | Jul 7, 2009

There is a new display of contemporary British art at Tate Britain entitled Classified, whose title picks up on a number of predilections and inferences of the works it shows, …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Dead as a Dada

by Ben Street | Jun 30, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Dead as a Dada

by Ben Street | Jun 30, 2009

The problem with writing about contemporary painting is that it ends up being an excuse for a riffle through the thesaurus for the most headily baroque terms to describe the …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Everybody Be Cool, This Is An Art Gallery!

by Ben Street | Jun 22, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Everybody Be Cool, This Is An Art Gallery!

by Ben Street | Jun 22, 2009

If Abstract America, the new show of contemporary American painting and sculpture at the Saatchi Gallery, were a film, it’d be one of those earnest indie dramas made for hipster …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Pumping Irony

by Ben Street | Jun 15, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Pumping Irony

by Ben Street | Jun 15, 2009

Interactivity is now so commonplace at Tate Modern that I sometimes wonder if visitors are disappointed when they see works of art they aren’t allowed to touch. Not that they don’t. …

Letter from London

Letter from London: The Bubble with Troubles

by Ben Street | May 25, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: The Bubble with Troubles

by Ben Street | May 25, 2009

Working in contemporary art is like being part of a huge extended family of annoying extroverts. “Yes…I’m related to them,” you end up having to explain, as they pull …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Attempts on Her Life

by Ben Street | May 18, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Attempts on Her Life

by Ben Street | May 18, 2009

You go into a room full of paintings and every single one is identical, floor to ceiling. They’re packed in about an inch apart, each no more than the size …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Turner Round, Bright Eyes!

by Ben Street | May 4, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Turner Round, Bright Eyes!

by Ben Street | May 4, 2009

I don’t know: maybe there will be a time when the announcement of the Turner Prize nominees won’t be greeted with a tiresome trotting-out of hoary old journalistic cliches (yes, …

Flash Points

For the Love of God: The Artist as Capitalist

by Julia Steinmetz | Apr 29, 2009

Flash Points

For the Love of God: The Artist as Capitalist

by Julia Steinmetz | Apr 29, 2009

In 2007, artist Damien Hirst exhibited a work at the White Cube gallery in London which is reputed to be the most expensive contemporary artwork ever made. Entitled For the …

Letter from London

Letter from London: Golden Graham

by Ben Street | Apr 27, 2009

Letter from London

Letter from London: Golden Graham

by Ben Street | Apr 27, 2009

I’m sure (as in: I’m not sure) that there is a film in which Laurel or Hardy or Buster or Harpo rides a horse backwards, isn’t there, maybe after being …