FLUENT IN LONDON'S VIBRANCE

Journeys Drawn: Illustration from the Refugee Crisis

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This first UK exhibition to explore the refugee crisis through illustration features 40 multi-media works by 12 contemporary artists, two of whom are themselves refugees.

 

Illustrators have the unique opportunity to act as visual journalists, spending extended periods of time in situations where photography is banned or too intrusive. The exhibition also includes war zone reportage by George Butler from Syria, Olivier Kugler’s digital portraits of refugees arriving on the Greek Island of Kos and Kate Evans’ graphic novel that recounts her experience of volunteering in the Calais Jungle.

Anish Kapoor

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For the inaugural exhibition at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, Anish Kapoor will present a series of sculptures, some previously unseen in Britain, that engage the viewer and their surroundings in a constantly fluctuating form.

Within the newly restored gallery, with its three circular skylights, Kapoor’s sculptures challenge our traditional notion of form and space by disorientating the viewer and transforming their surroundings.

 

Anish Kapoor (b.1954 in Mumbai) has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s.  One of the most influential sculptors of his generation, his invention of sculptural language and form has constantly challenged the way we view the world.   

Miroslaw Balka: Random Access Memory review

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On first impression, it might look like Polish conceptual art behemoth Miroslaw Balka has made a couple of massive radiators. And on second impression too. And third. That’s because he sort of has. Both spaces of White Cube’s central London gallery have been sliced in two by enormous sheets of heated corrugated iron. You can’t walk around them or see over the one-metre gaps at the top. You’re penned in. Or maybe being kept out.

Is This Tomorrow?

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Visions of the future from leading architects and artists are unveiled at Whitechapel Gallery in February 2019 for headline exhibition Is This Tomorrow? . Creative practitioners from around the world are brought together in 10 groups specially selected by Whitechapel Gallery with participants working together for the first time, highlighting the exciting potential of collaboration. They present original projects addressing today’s key issues including new technologies, the environment, migration and resource scarcity. More than 60 years on, Is This Tomorrow? takes as its model the groundbreaking 1956 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition

Helene Schjerfbeck: Who?

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Helene Schjerbeck, that's who and, hopefully come 2019 you'll never need to ask again. Helene Schjerbeck might not be that well known outside her native Finland, but her paintings cry out for greater recognition. Over the course of a long career, Schjerbeck skipped lightly between different artistic trends and traditions, creating stunning self-portraits and many intimate images of her female friends and relatives. The Finnish Laura Knight, perhaps? Find out with this great bit of programming by the Royal Academy.

Tania Bruguera:  10,148,451

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The acclaimed Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera has created a series of subtle interventions in and around Tate Modern. The work’s title is an ever-increasing figure: the number of people who migrated from one country to another last year added to the number of migrant deaths recorded so far this year – to indicate the sheer scale of mass migration and the risks involved. In the Turbine Hall is a large heat-sensitive floor. By using your body heat and working together with other visitors, you can reveal a hidden portrait of Yousef, a young man who left Syria to come to London. Meanwhile, a low-frequency sound fills the space with an unsettling energy. In a small room nearby, an organic compound in the air induces tears and provokes what the artist describes as ‘forced empathy’

Hanna Moon & Joyce Ng: English as a Second Language review

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Learning a language is hard, especially it’s got as many exceptions to the rule as actual rules (hello, English). And when it comes to learning a new culture, ‘language’ means more than irregular verbs. Colours, items, gestures… everything has a ‘meaning’. This joint exhibition of photographers Hanna Moon and Joyce Ng is partly inspired by the Asian-born Londoners’ feeling of being ‘lost in translation’, in their new home and in the fashion industry. It starts with Moon’s new pictures of her muses, Heejin and Moffy, in scenes and outfits at odds with the stately-home neoclassicism of Somerset House. Then it moves on to Ng’s pictures of the various people who use the building – be it King’s College students or attendees of the African Art Fair – before ending with a display of their previous projects.

Daria Martin: Tonight the World

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Artist and Jarman Award 2018 winner Daria Martin revisits dreams and memories from her personal family history to create a complex portrait of migration, loss and resilience. Drawing upon dream diaries kept by her grandmother over a 35 year period, London-based artist Daria Martin creates a new installation for The Curve. Through atmospheric film and gaming technology Martin stages a series of intimate encounters, enveloping viewers in an exploration of the curious and traumatic history of her grandmother, who fled the imminent Nazi occupation of her country, Czechoslovakia

Parallax Art Fair

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With 16,000 visitors, 200 - 350 independent exhibitors (from around the world) and often 7000 products on display, Parallax ‘Art’ Fair is the most important fair of its kind in London today. It is family-owned and not run by a portfolio-corporate firm. It is also managed by artists and designers. It is an event for everyone whether you are young or old, black or white, rich or poor, “educated” or not. There are no barriers or expectations about how much you are to know about art/design. The viewer is sacrosanct. This underlies why you will not find art tours or lectures at the fairs claiming to tell you what art/design is supposed to mean, do or say. We consider all that to be bogus. What matters is that you take confidence in your own ideas about the art/design that you see on show. You are very special and so are your ideas.