Handsworth Park, Birmingham B20 2BY and podcast
Melissa Baksh responds to 'Reactivating Sounds of Blackness' by Vanley Burke & Gary Stewart with Museum X, a commission by Arts&Heritage, Part of the Arts&Heritage artist-led research programme Meeting Point.
Ikon, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS
‘THE END OF FUN!’ is the pertinent title of Krištof Kintera’s (b. 1973) timely solo show at Ikon. The Czech artist is internationally acclaimed for his mechanical sculptures, made from electronic waste, which critique hyper-capitalist systems, especially with respect to ecological concerns. Review by Ruth Millington
Grand Union, 19 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5RS
The term ‘community’ conjures images of disparate individuals joined by shared interests, experiences, cultures, or religion. But the term also groups unquestioningly, disregarding an acknowledgement that frictions can - and do - exist. Jamie Crewe’s ‘Love & Solidarity’ at Grand Union, Birmingham, the sister exhibition of ‘Solidarity & Love’ at Humber Street Gallery, Hull, offers a conflictual understanding of kinship, and parameters for queer love and disdain. Review by Ryan Kearney
Eastside Projects, 86 Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, B9 4AR
Curated by artist Rehana Zaman, ‘The Range’ features new work by six artists, including Ain Bailey, Adam Farah and Beverley Bennett, following close to a year of mostly digital correspondence amongst the group. Internet culture provides much of the source material for their shared exploration and humour, as well as the show’s title, which makes reference to a ‘Little Britain’ sketch and the popular Twitter thread it inspired. Review by Divya Osbon
Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham NG1 2GB
‘Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance’ is the first act of an exhibition showing a kind of history of resistance through the means of feminisms and intersectional queer thinking. The curators started to build the exhibition as an idea two years ago. Then, we didn’t have #metoo and #timesup, Trump wasn’t yet the POTUS, women’s marches weren’t so much in the news ... Review by Gulnaz Can
Centrala, Birmingham
In the intimate setting of Centrala, Birmingham, US mixed media artist, Matana Roberts and British sound artist/improviser, Kelly Jayne Jones were sat on either side of the stage...
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS
Internet Giants: Masters of the Universe at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery is a timely mediation on how dominant technology behemoths, like Facebook, have completely reshaped our cultural and social landscape. Teasing out these complexities through new sculptural and digital works, artists Langlands & Bell question if the opulent mega campuses of Apple and Google will define our age. Review by Jack Welsh
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS
The first UK-exhibition dedicated to the work of the Birmingham-born convict artist, Thomas Bock (c.1793 – 1855), at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, is paired with the concurrent exhibition, Edmund Clark: In Place of Hate. This was the the result of a three-year residency spent by the artist at HMP Grendon – Europe’s only entirely therapeutic prison. Despite widely differing careers they both viscerally remind us of the dangers of denying any person a sense of identity. Review by Sara Jaspan
Grand Union, 19 Minerva Works, Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5RS
Weaving in and out of sweaty bodies with a collection of singing, dancing, vaping and harp playing are Susie Green and Rory Pilgrim (together The Brilliant State.) The audience track both artists around the space (being careful not to get tangled in the trailing rope of ‘Slow Burn’ as Pilgrim and Green tenderly dress and undress each other to a mixture of choral, dance and pop music. Review by Amy Jones
Grand Union, Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley St, Birmingham B5 5RS
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In a time when saboteurs lurk at home and gossips snipe from afar, some reach for the shutters and draw them fast. Better to be kept in the dark, it’s presumed, than to risk the prying of the ill-intentioned. Britain pulls down the blinds. The Channel has rarely felt wider. Kit Webb reviews Seecum Cheung's 'The Dutch Window'.
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS
Beer’s practice is diverse – encompassing film, sound, and sculpture – and perhaps more easily related by sensibility than subject matter. His home video, ‘Mum’s Continuous Note’, which welcomes us into the exhibition, serves as our induction. Review by Kit Webb
Ort Gallery, 500-504 Moseley Road, Birmingham B12 9AH
This tight and timely show from Kristina Cranfeld comprises two projected films, ‘Manufactured Britishness’ and ‘Dukes Rise’, both absurdist takes on the current immigration crisis and the nostalgic fantasy of resurrecting the Great British identity. Review by Elli Resvanis
Centrala, Unit 4 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5RT
The centenary of the Russian Revolution is being celebrated in various exhibitions and cultural events this year. ‘Seventeen’ at Centrala more obliquely explores what a centenary of such significance might mean through the work of three UK-based Russian artists, Olga Grotova, Yelena Popova and Nika Neelova. Review by Jessie Bond
Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS
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Hiorns’ works are charged with a bodily materiality, bio-politics, time and collapse. An atomised jet engine is placed on the floor next to the video work ‘Benign’. A series of paintings in decaying latex depict sexual acts between men, surrounded by clusters of disembodied erections. Review by Cathy Wade.
