It seemed to me that the interrelation between these two sides: order in nature on the one side, and the human condition on the other, was the undefinable drama to be grasped, dealt with and communicated by me. – Franciszka Themerson, Bi-abstract Pictures, 1957
One of our favourite London gallery’s, l’étrangère, is coming to us November 4 with a brand new solo exhibition of paintings drawings and calligrammes by Franciszka Themerson, a seminal figure in the Polish pre-war avant-garde.
Keith Coventry‘s latest exhibition at the Pace Gallery in London, ‘White Black Gold,’ will be on view at the ground floor galleries of 6 Burlington Gardens until 28 May 2016.
The artist archly monumentalises the bleak debris of our cultural landscape with an exhibition which ‘ennobles the ignoble’.
McDonalds ‘Golden Arches’ are now a well-worn emblem of late capitalism, so programmed into the popular imagination, that Coventry need only depict a colorless fragment of the golden ‘M’ for his audience to be bombarded with a litany of red, yellow and white memories – of bombastic adverts, Happy Meals and any host of relatable motifs that have come to represent 20th Century American capitalism.
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 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.
Over the last few years Nick Campbell has built a reputation as London’s go to consultant for finding artworks under £10,000.
After studying History of Art and Arts Management at Oxford Brookes University, Nick worked at some high-end galleries such as Emmanuel Perrotin, Haunch of Venison, Victoria Miro, White Cube and Christies in New York. Since 2013 Nick has dedicated all of his time to developing Narcissus Arts and it’s sister company, Narcissus Interiors. In 2014 Spears Magazine chose Nick as the UK’s best art consultant under 35.
I had the chance to speak to Nick about Narcissus Arts and the state of London’s emerging art scene.
After two weeks being spoiled by the LA sunshine, ArtAttack is back in London and back on the blog! For those who haven’t traveled to the City of Angels lately, I’m happy to report that the art scene is booming. To give you an idea of the diversity and depth of LA’s art world, here are three of our favourite shows from this most recent visit.
1) Otis College of Art & Design, MA Graduate Show
As you’ve probably noticed already, uni shows are a soft spot for me. I find few things as exciting as discovering emerging talent, and school exhibitions are of course some of the best places to do so. This particular show took place in the Otis College graduate students’ own studios, so the vibe was casual — works in progress mingling with completed pieces, and tables filled with candy, food and drink lining the hallways. Like any show, I did not love everything I saw, but the thing is, the pieces that did stand out to me, are still at the forefront of my mind almost 2 weeks later — that’s definitely a testament to the talent in the room. Here are a few of these works:
Don’t get me wrong, when I enter a contemporary gallery and am greeted by an outpour of natural light, pale floors and stark, white walls loosely dotted with art, my OCD side whistles a happy tune. I love that pristine look. It’s clean and effective. I feel comfortable and yet supremely on my toes, which is perhaps the perfect mindset with which to delve into an exhibition. However, sometimes enough is enough. Sometimes I want to just bask in the art, lose myself entirely, and this can be very difficult when the gallery space I’m standing in could just as easily be the hospital room of a great collector who wants to die surrounded by his art.
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