Abingdon Studios, 14 Abingdon Street, Blackpool FY1 1DE
Exposed pipes from the building’s radiators lead the visitor from the entrance, weaving upstairs and through walls to ‘Slot’, the first solo presentation by artist Rafał Zajko in the North of England, comprised of five wall-based sculptures and accompanying hand-painted murals. Review by Ryan Kearney
Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Rd, London SE21 7AD
For many decades after its initial rise, the Abstract Expressionist movement remained synonymous with a distinctive iconography: cue the paint-splattered male, a tragic hero sprawled across the canvas. Although its cast is variously misleading...
Bobinska Brownlee New River, Canonbury Street, London, N1 2US
‘Anomaly’ expands and builds on Hicks’ previous preoccupation with the everyday, which he suggests has taken on a different tone since lockdown. His paintings (made in lockdown one) and sculptures (made in lockdown two), feature the same symbols over and over: sun, sky, pylons and city. But the works feel as if they are reiterating a new kind of feeling. There is a suggestion that these idealised structures and symbols around us are in fact what leads us to being susceptible to conspiracy theories; the tight order of our surroundings are settings ripe for myth and ignorance. Interview by Alexander Harding
Hauser & Wirth Publishing
Hurtado’s conversations with Obrist stay true to her character and reveal many of her most admirable traits to the reader. We learn that she was humble and hilarious: at the admirable age of 97, she kept the menu of the Serpentine opening night dinner as a keepsake. She explained to Obrist, “you have to understand, this is one of the happiest days of my life. This will help me remember this wonderful evening once I’m old.” Review by Maximiliane Leuschner
Fondation CAB, Rue Borrens 32, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
The advent of the shaped canvas proved to be a pivotal moment in the history of 20th century art. It quashed the rectangle’s dominance and subverted the idea of the painting as a window. Suddenly, canvases could be egg-shaped or any irregular polygon that was desired. A few artists, such as the American painters Ron Gorchov (1930-2020) and Otis Jones (b. 1946), even pushed the idea further by making paintings that projected off the wall. Now for the first time, their works are being shown together in this unprecedented overview. Review by John Gayer
On Sydney’s Northern Beaches During the Time of COVID
Five abstract artists working on Sydney’s Northern Beaches reveal a colourful oeuvre that responds directly to site and place. For each of the artists, the famous stretch of coastline north of the city, dominated by suburbia, the Aussie ‘bush’, and the vast ocean, is intrinsically connected to their psyche—made even more relevant by the outbreak of COVID-19. Feature by Emma-Kate Wilson
NiCOLETTi Contemporary, 12A Vyner St, London E2 9DG
NiCOLETTi re-opened its doors to the public in early December, continuing its programme with ‘Loreum’, an exhibition by American artist Tyler Eash. Having completed an MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London last year, Eash now lives and works in Mexico. His practice encompasses film, painting, sculpture, writing and sound art as a means to disclose thoughts on having, and holding onto, an identity. These works are unapologetically jumbled, or topsy-turvy, as if badly downloaded from the internet, becoming more encrypted as they travel through digital space and enter into the physical world. Perhaps more plausibly, these works in painting, sculpture, film and photography are a figuring of things that Eash has encountered on the internet, in his mind’s eye and in daily life. Review by Olivia Fletcher
PUBLIC Gallery, 91 Middlesex St, Spitalfields, London E1 7DA
German artist, Cathrin Hoffmann, makes paintings of the contemporary individual; alienated, caught up in the temporary pleasures and quick fixes of our techno-capitalist reality. The paintings in her recent exhibition 'IT STILL SMELLS OF NOTHING' at Public Gallery in London are filled with such lonesome individuals, twisting and folding into themselves. Their exposed, blemished flesh is compartmentalised into exaggerated body parts, organised into various suggestive poses. Interview by Sonja Teszler
David Kordansky Gallery, 5130 W Edgewood Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90019, United States
Adam Pendleton is a New York-based artist whose current exhibition, ‘Begin Again’, is showing at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Pendleton’s work is significant because it highlights the politics surrounding race and identity, but also demonstrates the chaotic nature of the artistic mediums he uses. Pendleton works with a thick application of paint on canvas, a polyester film called ‘mylar’, and video. His various methods of representing words through mediums allow viewers to separate themselves from any preconceived meanings of language. Pendleton’s work is a representation of the intersections that connect art to the political and social interpretations that text can present. Review by Sheena Carrington
Collezione Maramotti, RVia Fratelli Cervi, 66, 42124 Reggio Emilia RE, Italy
At risk of stating the obvious, Svenja Deininger’s work is really something to be seen up close. The pared back minimalism of the Austrian artist’s paintings mean that subtle textural shifts take on an important nuanced role in the articulation between tessellating panels of colour and abstract forms. Noticing the fine grain of a wood panel slotted into the canvas, or the highly buffed sheen of a protrusion like nubuck leather, is one of the small rewards that come by spending more than a fleeting glance on each work. Review by Jessica Saxby
Towner Eastbourne, Devonshire Park College Road Eastbourne BN21 4JJ
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A new biennial exhibition, with a £10,000 prize, features 24 artists selected from an open call by art world heavy weights: Polly Staple (Director of Collections, British Art, Tate), Turner Prize nominee Mike Nelson and Towner’s own Curator, Noelle Collins. There’s a lot of good things to be said about Towner International, Towner Gallery’s new biennial exhibition. It celebrates artists in the vicinity of Towner’s East Sussex location—10 have been chosen from Sussex, nearby Kent and Hampshire, 10 from elsewhere across the UK and 4 from international locations. Review by Kirsty White
Gagosian, 22 Anapiron Polemou Street, Athina 115 21, Greece
Gagosian’s new space in Athens opens with work by American artist Brice Marden. The show is focused primarily on paintings made since the 1980s on pieces of salvaged marble, found on the idyllic island of Hydra, where the artist has lived and worked since the 1970s. Review by William Summerfield
The Cob Gallery, 205 Royal College St, London NW1 0SG
There’s an orgy of misdemeanours taking place—breasts are being grabbed and bottoms are being fondled, lecherous eyes are smirking and clownish faces are locking lips. It’s hard to tell where one mound of flesh ends and the next begins. Cat Roissetter’s exhibition ‘English Filth’ at The Cob Gallery is populated by some disreputable characters who look suspiciously like the lively heroes of fairy-tales and bedtime stories—gone feral. Review by Claire Phillips
Cooke Latham Gallery, 41 Parkgate Rd, Battersea, London SW11 4NP
“Each subject moves further away from reality as it becomes an image found, manipulated, photoshopped, drawn etc. This world between the familiar and the unfamiliar is where I want my work to exist.” I asked Izatt-Lowry about the inspirations behind his uncanny, dreamlike painterly worlds and his most recent Cooke Latham exhibition: ‘BY DAY, BUT THEN AGAIN BY NIGHT’. Interview by Sonja Teszler
