Archive
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The art behind the activist: Adrian Locke talks about Ai Weiwei
A rebel, an iconoclast and a playful symbolist – Ai Weiwei is all these things, but surely history will remember him as one of China’s most influential dissident artists. Curator Adrian Locke talks about Ai’s latest exhibition at the Royal…
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Zakkir Hussain and Rakhi Peswani
Two solo exhibitions featuring alumni from India’s premier art institute in Baroda throw up interesting questions about violence, self and the processes of survival
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Liberties
This exhibition of contemporary artworks by more than 20 women artists reflects the changes in art practice in the 40 years since the Sex Discrimination Act was introduced in the UK
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The Israel National Museum
After 17 years of statehood Israel at last boasts a national museum. When one compares nearby countries, Greece for instance, where there are no national museums devoted to European painting, let alone modern art, it is no mean achievement. In…
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Dineo Seshee Bopape: slow -co- ruption
For the artist’s first UK solo exhibition, she combines experimental video works and sculptural installations of found objects in order to explore sociopolitical notions of narration, memory and representation
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Jackson Pollock’s Mural: Energy Made Visible
Mural, Pollock’s largest-ever painting, has been credited with breaking the ice for abstract expressionism. This exhibition explores the context in which it was produced and its effect on the contemporary art world
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Judy Chicago: ‘I’ll leave it to others to change the world’
The artist talks about her career trajectory, the continuing need for feminist art, and the way in which she hopes to spend her remaining years
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Jonas Mekas: ‘I have a need to film small, almost invisible daily moments’
The legendary independent film-maker talks about avant garde, utopia, his latest projects, the importance of history and improvisation, and why he rarely films anything outside his close circle of friends
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Wilmer Wilson IV: ‘Moving between mediums is my way of remaining nimble’
The artist explains some of his performances, his interest in intervening in monuments in public spaces, why he uses detritus from the streets, and how he uses his body to push back against social and cultural control
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Jennifer Campbell and Chloë Manasseh: ‘We’re both interested in the temporal state of the landscape’
The artists talk about how they explore the conflicting psychological and physical states of being ‘grounded’, Manasseh through the diverse landscapes of the desert, and Campbell through the metropolis
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Hank Willis Thomas: ‘Ideas crop up out of thin air, like bubbles, and I’m just trying to trap them’
The artist talks about grabbing people’s attention to make them think about things they normally wouldn’t think about, recapturing or re-experiencing historical moments, and how he still has the mind of a photographer, even if that’s not where he always…
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Tadeusz Kantor: Inbetween Structures
As two exhibitions celebrate the centenary of the birth of Polish artist and theatre director Tadeusz Kantor, Richard Demarco, who first brought him to Britain and has ensured his legacy continues, talks about his work
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Roman Signer: Installations
From kayaks filled with scotch to empty boots on a ladder, Signer has a lightness of touch and mischief that almost tips into menace. His art is lighthearted, but it is also thought-provoking and atmospheric while appearing almost throwaway
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Anna Dumitriu: ‘Bacteria are living organisms that you can work with – almost in a painterly kind of way’
Not many artists would want to work with bacteria, smelly faecal transplants or anthrax, but Dumitriu is at the crossover between science and art, as happy in a microbiology lab as she is in a studio. Here, she talks about…
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Construction Industry: Contemporary Assemblage, Construction and Relief
This group exhibition makes a strong case that assemblage – as an art form – is still influential and prevalent among today’s contemporary artists
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Derek Michael Besant: ‘A stitching together of each person’s voice allows a glimpse into the psychology of living in Edinburgh’
The artist talks about his project, which involved 50 strangers from Scotland’s capital city sending him photos of themselves and answering questions he posed. He explains how he played with the visuals and text to explore how people see things
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My Dear BB … The Letters of Bernard Berenson and Kenneth Clark, 1925-1959
The 34-year correspondence between two legends of the Anglo-American art world evokes the life and times of the 20th-century cultural establishment
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Thomas Ruff: Nature Morte
The German photographer known for his forward thinking and experimentation has gone back in time for his latest show, examining the negative, considering it for itself rather than seeing it as a means to an end
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Vincent Meessen: ‘In the western world, we still think that we created everything’ – Venice Biennale 2015
Eleven artists come together to reflect on colonialism and its aftermath in a complex, multimedia, collaborative exhibition, which pulls apart the notions of origin and authorship
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‘Oswaldo Vigas said he found the root of his work in ancient culture’
At an exhibition of Oswaldo Vigas’s work in Bogotá, his son Lorenzo talked about his father’s love of people, how mythology and witchcraft shaped his output, and his friendship with Picasso
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Facing History: Contemporary Portraiture
This show looks at how contemporary artists are influenced by the past as they seek to represent their present, and questions the nature of what a portrait depicts
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Larry Bell: ‘You have to trust what you’re doing, to trust the work’
The artist discusses his latest solo exhibition, at the White Cube gallery, the spontaneity that occurs during the making process, why he chose to stop painting, and going to tea with Marcel Duchamp
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Charles Lim: ‘It’s very easy to see the sea as a sublime space where you can even find God’ – Venice Biennale 2015
With his sailing background, Charles Lim explains, he sees the sea as ‘just an office’. His 10-year-old, 10-part project, Sea State, explores the biophysical, political and psychic contours of Singapore, which this year celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence
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Nathan Coley: ‘I’m the travelling storyteller who’s come to town for the summer’
Nathan Coley tells the stories behind his two text-light sculptures in the Bruges Triennial, peeling back the layers and exploring the meanings. Ultimately, he is happy that he still doesn’t know the definitive answer himself
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