ArtCircle presents a pop-up with substance and we interview curator, Bettina Ruhrberg

May 19th sees the private view of the first show from the revolutionary new arts platform, ArtCircle. Taking the pop-up exhibition format but injecting it with a real dose of the high brow — think museum quality work, top notch curators and posh postcodes only — ArtCircle will no doubt finally solve the conundrum of fitting a brand new business concept seamlessly into the restrictive and not always welcoming art world.

The launch exhibition, which will take place at 48 Albemarle Street in London’s Mayfair, is entitled Focusing Room and will feature work straight from the Museum of Modern Art in Goslar Germany, mainly from the Zero, Kinetic Art and Op Art schools. Much of the art has never before been seen in the UK, so ArtCircle, with the help of curator, Bettina Ruhrberg, is bringing us something truly special.

Adolf Luther, Der Fokussierender Raum (Focusing Room), 1968

We had the chance to speak with Bettina, who is the director of the MoMA in Goslar about her experiences as a curator, her goals for this exhibition and her thoughts on the ArtCircle concept.

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Yayoi Kusama Comes to London! An immersive exhibition at Victoria Miro.

Victoria Miro presents a new exhibition by Yayoi Kusama. Spanning the gallery’s three locations and waterside garden, the exhibition features new paintings, pumpkin sculptures, and mirror rooms, all made especially for this presentation.

MY HEART’S ABODE, 2016.

This is the artist’s most extensive exhibition at the gallery to date, and it is the first time mirror rooms have gone on view in London since Kusama’s major retrospective at Tate Modern in 2012.

Radiohalo a major solo exhibition by Michael Joo, Blain|Southern

Blain|Southern presents Radiohalo, a major solo exhibition of new artworks by acclaimed New York-based artist Michael Joo.

MICHAEL JOO Untitled, To (Drive) 2015-2016, Silver nitrate and epoxy ink on canvas | Photo: Tim Pyle, 2016, Courtesy Blain|Southern

A conceptual artist who works across a variety of media, Joo is interested in themes of energy, nature, technology, history and perception, which he explores through narratives of places, people and objects.

The Broad: Making LA An Art Town

When I think of my hometown, Los Angeles, California, palm trees, expansive beaches and rainbow sunsets come to mind. I start to crave In n’Out Burger, hot pilates and early morning hikes in Runyon Canyon, $20 Juice Served Here smoothies (worth it, I swear) and the ever perfect ‘Trust Me’ menu at Sugarfish. I think of lazy strolls on Abbot Kinney, movie premieres taking over Hollywood Boulevard, hip hop nights at the club and performers on the Venice boardwalk. What I do not think of however, is art.

Now, before you go telling me how LA has a “killer art scene,” yes, of course I realize there is art in LA. From street art on every major boulevard, to Renaissance masterpieces at the Getty, and gallery private views with drinks flowing almost every weekend, by no stretch of the imagination is the City of Angels not a City of Art as well. However, living in London currently and having lived in New York, I never thought of my city as quite up to par with my adopted homes art-wise, at least not until The Broad.

The Broad, exterior

The Broad has changed everything.

Marketed, quite accurately, as ‘LA’s new contemporary art museum,’ the building, by design firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is a piece of art in itself gracing the skyline of Downtown LA. Inside, the vast-beyond-comprehenstion postwar and contemporary collection of philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad awaits. Just to be transparent, that’s 2,000 works of art collected over the course of 50 years, and including the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Takashi Murakami, Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman and Christopher Wool, to name but a few.

EXOTICA – A Dystopian Dreamland – 03/12/15

‘EXOTICA’ is a multimedia exhibition organised and curated by Varia Mhitarian and Imogen Parry – on for one night only at the Arch 402 Gallery (Hoxton), this ‘Dystopian Dreamland’ should not be missed.

Inspired by the artists’ personal experiences as well as the shared yearning of urban citizens for a slice of tropical beauty and the hedonistic possibilities that it brings, Exotica aims to create an ambience of idyllic decadence with a dark and unsettling heartbeat; combining music and visual art, immersing visitors in a party-like atmosphere.

I had the chance to speak with Imogen Parry about her artistic practice and forthcoming exhibition.

‘Ultimately in the end, everything for everyone will end in the same way’ – Miranda Donovan At CNB Gallery

Metaphors for Mankind at Mark Hix‘s CNB Gallery presents a new solo exhibition by the acclaimed British artist Miranda Donovan.

The assembled works, which the artist describes as ‘sculptural paintings’, are drawn from three series: her meticulously detailed brickwork pieces, skilfully created by carving out miniature bricks from building materials, her ‘steel sheet’ with rivets works which are in fact made from resin, and her smaller figurative works done on either cement or computer motherboards.

Gallery director Rebecca Lidert explains, “The power of Donovan’s work is that it reflects man’s ingenuity, his skills and strength, but in doing so lays bare its temporality, portrayed through the erosive and gritty imprint of decay.”

I had the chance to speak with Miranda about her artistic practice and forthcoming exhibition.

Miranda Donovan, Keep Walking, Oil, acrylic, enamel and resin on panel, 2014 | © Miranda Donovan. Photo: AJ Photographics, courtesy the artist and CNB Gallery

‘Weapons are not very far from artworks:’ Joanna Rajkowska at l’étrangère

The upcoming exhibition Painkillers at l’étrangère brings into conversation new and existing sculptural works by the renowned Polish artist, Joanna Rajkowska.

Noted for her ambitious interventions in public space, as well as her objects, films, photography, installations and ephemeral actions, Rajkowska’s practice interrogates individual and collective bodies as politicised sites of historical, ideological and psychological conflict. For her inaugural exhibition at l’étrangère, Rajkowska unites two object-based series under the rubric, Painkillers, in order to explore the at times uncomfortable connections between modern warfare, healing systems and the practices of Western science.

I had the chance to talk to Joanna about both her artistic practice and forthcoming exhibition.

Joanna Rajkowska, Uzi submachine gun, 2014 | © Joanna Rajkowska. Courtesy ŻAK | BRANICKA & l’étrangère

ArtAttack ArtCalendar: Our Top Must-See Art Show for September 2015

Blain Southern Showcases Their Behind-the-Scenes Talent with ‘Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain’

Consisting of 12 diverse artworks by 9 different artists, ‘Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain‘ is Blain Southern‘s summer tribute to its’ staff, “celebrating the wealth of emerging artistic talent within the gallery.” Benjamin Brett, Mark Couzens, Jamie George, Jonny Green, Benjamin Jamie, Deklan Kilfeather, Jonathan Kipps, Leon Matis Robin Monies and Ian Segrave all work for Blain Southern, as it were, behind the curtain; this show gives them a space to shine as artists in their own right.

Just downstairs from the gallery’s current Tony Cragg-curated ‘Andreas Schmitten, Gereon Lepper and Mathias Lanfer‘ you’ll find #BehindTheCurtain. The PV took place last evening, Tuesday 5th October, and was rightfully packed with a crowd of people, sipping icy Asahi and admiring the breadth of work on show, including painting, sculpture, textiles, conceptual pieces and illustration.

My personal favourite work of the exhibition is the sculpture. Entitled ‘Truss,‘ this large scale piece by Jonathan Kipps is made of burnt wood and resembles a sort of complex ladder. It takes command of the room and adds an exciting element as well, being the only non-hanging artwork on view.

Jonathan Kipps, ‘Truss,’ Burnt wood, 2015