Our regular arts writer Philomena Epps decided to check out some key art shows whilst on a trip to Japan. Here’s the second of her reports on the JR Exhibition – Could Art Change The World at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. This is the first international retrospective of the French artist JR’s work. The [...]
Our regular arts writer Philomena Epps decided to check out some key art shows whilst on a trip to Japan. Here’s the first of her reports on the All You Need is Love: from Chagall to Kusama and Hatsune Miku exhibition at the Mori Art Museum. All You Need is Love: from Chagall to Kusama [...]
On the 23rd of May, the exhibition Cacotopia started at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester. Inspired by the term “cacotopia” that Burgess introduced in a discussion of George Orwell’s fiction work Nineteen Eighty Four (1949), the curator Laura Mansfield has brought together materials from the foundation’s archive and contemporary artists’ works that relate [...]
Bedwyr Williams, Wales in Venice representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale, on Colin Farrell, Comedy and Clarkes shoes. “Sorry I missed your call,” says Bedwyr Williams, picking me up from Bangor station like an art taxi service, “I was on the other phone arguing with a woman from Clark’s shoes. I told her: ‘Go to [...]
Releasing this video is a bold move and rather clever idea by Amnesty International and Anish Kapoor that we support wholeheartedly. It’s also very funny. Watch as Anish and a whole host of famous and not so famous artists strut their stuff in fine form in similar Gangman style to the now legendary video. Those [...]
We’re really love the work of Reed + Rader here at Flux. We first came across the duo a few years back and were so taken with their cute and clever style that we asked them to contribute one of their inimitable fashion shoots. We went onto include more of their work and they even [...]
We were really impressed when we first got to see this poignant and cleverly conceived art film that collides art with science. The piece was actually made by Niamh O’Connor and Hettie Griffiths and their team for the ‘Beautiful Science Exhibition’ run by the Imperial College. The idea behind the project was to connect scientists [...]
Cutting edge international art from established and emerging artists
Our regular arts writer Philomena Epps decided to check out some key art shows whilst on a trip to Japan. Here’s the third of her reports on the The Kansai Collections at the The National Museum of Art, Osaka. The Kansai Collections show presents Western art from the 20th and 21st century from the collections [...]
Our regular arts writer Philomena Epps decided to check out some key art shows whilst on a trip to Japan. Here’s the second of her reports on the JR Exhibition – Could Art Change The World at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. This is the first international retrospective of the French artist JR’s work. The [...]
Our regular arts writer Philomena Epps decided to check out some key art shows whilst on a trip to Japan. Here’s the first of her reports on the All You Need is Love: from Chagall to Kusama and Hatsune Miku exhibition at the Mori Art Museum. All You Need is Love: from Chagall to Kusama [...]
On the 23rd of May, the exhibition Cacotopia started at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester. Inspired by the term “cacotopia” that Burgess introduced in a discussion of George Orwell’s fiction work Nineteen Eighty Four (1949), the curator Laura Mansfield has brought together materials from the foundation’s archive and contemporary artists’ works that relate [...]
Anyone with nyctophobia (otherwise known as a fear of the dark) would not fare well in Brighton Festival’s Ring. Set in Brighton’s The Basement, with its strange warehouse-esque atmosphere and abundant exposed brickwork, even stranger things were at play once the audience were summoned into the performance room. As the lights descended initially, [...]
Bedwyr Williams, Wales in Venice representative at the 2013 Venice Biennale, on Colin Farrell, Comedy and Clarkes shoes. “Sorry I missed your call,” says Bedwyr Williams, picking me up from Bangor station like an art taxi service, “I was on the other phone arguing with a woman from Clark’s shoes. I told her: ‘Go to [...]
Launching this evening at London’s ARTECO Gallery, photographer Daniele Tamagni’s ‘Global STYLE Battles’ takes us into the colourful and achingly hip worlds of ‘The Flying Cholitas’, ‘Playboys of Bacongo’, ‘Havana Glam’, ‘Afrometal’ and the original Django, spanning African hell riders and duelling Bolivian women. If you are in London, get down to ARTECO. But for [...]
If any of you are lucky enough to be in Venice for the 55th Biennale you will be able to visit the Ai Weiwei exhibition ‘Disposition’ a major new solo show curated by Maurizio Bortolotti. It will be presented across 2 locations in the floating city at the Zitelle complex, home of Zuecca Projects and [...]
‘When digital technology is no longer novel, when zeroes and ones become ubiquitous in everyday life, what happens to the way people write music?’ This was the question posed at Digital is Dead, a 3-day event in Oxford about ‘post-digital music practice’. At the final concert of the festival, I witnessed three disparate examples of [...]
Stonehenge is known across the world as an icon of Britishness and so a great symbol to represent these isles abroad. But much of the talk surrounding the ancient stone circle can be a bit po-faced – all a bit stiff upper lip and all. So the artist Jeremy Deller set about reintroducing some fun [...]
On Tuesday, I spoke with two Matthews. Darbyshire, the artist who will be collaborating with emerging arts students to produce work for his exhibition, ‘Big Dinner’ at Margate’s most edgy and experimental arts’ venue, and de Pulford, one of LIMBO’s directors who, in the final preparation stages will be “running around looking for electric cables [...]
Geoffrey Farmer’s The Surgeon and the Photographer is being shown in its completed form for the first time in the UK at the Barbican’s Curve gallery. The Curve is a unique 90-metre exhibition space that wraps around the back of the Barbican concert hall. Open since 2006, contemporary artists have been commissioned to respond to [...]
FLUX meets with Hormazd Narielwalla – one of the exhibiting artists at COLLECT: The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects Hormazd Narielwalla is one of the artists exhibiting in the Project Space at the COLLECT show at the Saatchi Gallery, London between 10 and 13 May. Narielwalla is currently artist in residence at Margaret Street [...]
It seems that what could be construed as two artistically distinct domains are in fact more closely related and compatible than we can imagine… Ryoji Ikeda, on the 27th and 28th March, demonstrated the extraordinary unity of science and art in his recent UK premiere of Superposition at the Barbican, through a stunning and thought-provoking [...]
“The order so often heard – ‘Be a man’ – implies that it does not go without saying that manliness may not be as natural as one would think… Being a man implies a labour, an effort that does not seem to be demanded of women. It is rare to hear the words ‘be a [...]
In the deepest, darkest, shadiest corner of pop is the world of painter Nathan James. This is a world like no other: a world in which you can expect to be offered pills by a tripped out Mickey Mouse, in which you can expect to meet perverts, groping, freaks and repulsiveness; this is a place [...]
Pae White’s installation at South London Gallery opened on the 12th of March. Prior to the exhibition opening, she led an artist talk in the Clore Studio that provided an insight into the history and inspirations behind her experimental practise. Pae White is a multi-media artist who lives and works in Los Angeles and has [...]
The Southbank Centre’s Harmonic Series, now in its third season, continues to excite and intrigue. Not everything works at artist-in-residence Oliver Coates’ attempt to pair pieces by Andrew Hamilton, Alvin Lucier, Morton Feldman (as well as Bach and John Dowland) with light installations at the Hayward Gallery Light Show, but the slightly shambolic nature of [...]
Located due east of Colchester, where Franco-Germanic rivers breakout into the North Sea, Rotterdam is one of the lesser known of our near-European neighbours. The largest port in the world until 2004, when the Shanghai juggernaut surpassed it, the city’s maritime relevance tends to dominate its image in the eyes of outsiders. More than a [...]
In the Jewish faith for eleven months after a person dies the mourner’s Kaddish is recited for them. The prayer is a sanctification of God’s name, a statement of rock solid belief spoken at a moment of intense emotional and personal crisis. “May His great Name be blessed for ever and ever. Blessed, praised, glorified, [...]
“I suppose I’m a performance artist, but I fucking hate that word”, says Jeremy Hutchinson grinning. He looks stubbly and slightly cheeky as he sips his tea. “It’s the connotations of performance artist, like noone wants to be a performance artist because…” he pauses thoughtfully. “They all sound like nobs.” Jeremy is a Slade graduate [...]
From Ella Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra, all the musical class acts have sung about their love for Paris in the springtime via the Cole Porter songbook staple. Well you can now add Mercedes-Benz to the list of Paris lovers with #Untamed, their somewhat more wild, photographic sojourn to the French cultural capital this April. Sifting [...]
November is a series of ink works produced by the artist Gerhard Richter on highly absorbent paper with additions in lacquer or pencil. If you view the series as a whole they seem almost organic in form as they evolve from one image to the next. Richter created the works by manipulating the ink in [...]
This Orientation is the first exhibition at Summit Gallery – a unique, new space in Hackney Wick, East London. Riccardo Iacono has been the artist in residence there for the last month. He expresses that he is “interested in environments that want to play and make a mess”. This seems well suited to Summit Gallery’s [...]
Cult art group BANK was active between 1991-2003, when I was holed up at school/university in the provinces and so heard nothing about London culture except ubiquitous YBAs, Britpoppers and later Blair’s champagne socialists, which all seemed tres sexy and escapist. In retrospect, I still love the era’s hedonism- bratty, self-conscious and ludicrously louche- but [...]
21st Century Britain: Like a Ray Harryhausen fantasy, the Coalition Gods are playing chess. Through the thick fug of entitlement, they watch corresponding mortals marching against each other; bristling police with batons raised, scruffy protesters lobbing street furniture. It’s an unwinnable war, fought by the wrong people for the right reasons. Both sides and middle [...]
Unknown Heroine is the first solo exhibition in the UK of Croatian artist, Sanja Iveković. Iveković’s artistic strategy ranges from collage, film and photography to performance and installation. The exhibition spans two venues, Calvert 22 in Shoreditch and the South London Gallery in Camberwell, and features work made against a background of political change and [...]
“Ars longa, vita brevis” – Life is short, Art eternal. ‘Death: A Self Portrait’ at the Wellcome Collection in London exhibits an array of around 300 diverse works devoted to the iconography and aesthetic that surrounds the theme of death. Richard Harris, a former antique print dealer based in Chicago, has assembled the exhibition out [...]
Turning a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, a giant water tank, and 408 pumps into a blank canvas for art with London’s Steak Studio. With its large 5.5 inch HD screen and pressure sensitive S Pen, the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is the one to watch. A rapidly developing platform, both to showcase your entertainment and [...]
Internationally acclaimed artist David Shrigley and Manchester based artist curator Mike Chavez-Dawson have collaborated with Teacup to create a new herbal tea. Aptly titled ‘David Shrigley’s Anti-Psychotic Tea’, it delivers an unequalled uplifting infusion of Damiana, Hibiscus, Vanilla and Bergamot. Mike Chavez-Dawson chats to David about his exhibition at The Cornerhouse, and how he likes [...]
FOLD Gallery is currently showing a solo exhibition by Tim Davies until 22nd of December. Davies lives and works in Swansea and was chosen to represent Wales at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. As a researcher, artist and curator, his work is often conceptual and site responsive, using an array of mediums to examine [...]
Tired of the omni-present Christmas markets in cities across the country and wanting to get your hands on unique Christmas gifts full of crafty goodness? Then combine your shopping with a shindig of the highest independent order and get down to the Tiny Parcels Christmas Party. Taking place on 14th December at The Kings [...]
Colour is important to Nell Beale. Reading like a pantone chart of block colour set against natural wood tones, her CoucouManou designer furniture range makes the word artisan both slick and functional whilst keeping its organic roots. Beale has actually been designing bespoke furniture for luxury household names for 18 years, so CoucouManou’s [...]
Releasing this video is a bold move and rather clever idea by Amnesty International and Anish Kapoor that we support wholeheartedly. It’s also very funny. Watch as Anish and a whole host of famous and not so famous artists strut their stuff in fine form in similar Gangman style to the now legendary video. Those [...]
It has now become the Open Eye Gallery’s turn as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2012 to host Kohei Yoshiyuki’s exhibition The Park and Love Hotel. The hotel captures frozen images trapped in a stack of television screens of couples in a pay hourly Japanese hotel seeking voluptuous pleasure. The Park consists of a series [...]
We’re really love the work of Reed + Rader here at Flux. We first came across the duo a few years back and were so taken with their cute and clever style that we asked them to contribute one of their inimitable fashion shoots. We went onto include more of their work and they even [...]
Fancy a trip to Hong Kong? Who wouldn’t. Every year tourists flock to sample the delights of this exciting city. In his exhibition for the Liverpool Biennial this year, Hong Kong artist Chow Chun-fai takes a closer at look at why so many are compelled to take a visit. Famous for facing political issues [...]
Sean Rogg is a tough man to track down. After several failed attempts to phone him I receive a call from a random number an hour or so later and a disembodied voice introduces itself as Sean. Amidst the weak signal, crackling in the background, and the dying phone battery, he discusses the intricacies of [...]
Last night jewellery designer, Alice Waese launched a solo London exhibition of her drawings and sculptural jewellery pieces at the 18 Hewett Street gallery. Jewellery designer Waese casts pieces that feel like they have been dug from the ground. Silver hunks of roughly hewn silver shaped into rings or bracelets, uncut jewels and organic [...]
So…Soap! Is the collaborative creation of Hong Kong’s SLOW and CoLAB, featuring at the Liverpool Biennial this year. They are a social venture who have come up with a 100% organic range of soaps, recognising that both our skin and our planet are commonly delicate. But possibly the most important and impressive factor of the [...]
‘I’ve had quite a lot of luck with drawing’, says Illustrator Brian Grimwood as we sit down to talk about his new book and retrospective. We are sat by the window whilst the finishing touches are being added to the exhibition around us at WORK Gallery. I have a quick look around before the interview [...]
When passing a homeless person on the street, we all wonder where they go, what they do and how they survive. Some might stick in our minds for a good while. Sadly, most of us soon forget them again, distracted by our own lives. Hong Kong artist, Leung Mee-Ping, was compelled to follow certain characters [...]
What are you into? Do your interests include cinema, faux drag queens, caravans or bioengineered footballs grown from living cells? If so, I hope you got down to AND festival of culture last week. “Abandon Normal Devices” took place in Manchester and around the North West with a unique partnership between Cornerhouse, FACT and loads [...]
Chinese Art has been making an increasingly significant impact on the international arts scene for the last few years now. We all know of Ai Weiwei’s legendary artwork of an Olympic stadium now known as the Bird’s Nest and we’ve covered Chen Man’s inspired photography recently here in Flux. The West’s dominance of international culture is being [...]
We were stunned and saddened when we heard the news. Castlefield Gallery, a supporter and champion of the North West arts scene had had its funding application turned down. Many people took this to mean the end for this much loved and vital institution. How could the Arts funding bodies be so short sighted? Were [...]
We were really impressed when we first got to see this poignant and cleverly conceived art film that collides art with science. The piece was actually made by Niamh O’Connor and Hettie Griffiths and their team for the ‘Beautiful Science Exhibition’ run by the Imperial College. The idea behind the project was to connect scientists [...]
How do you fancy wielding a guitar that actually doubles as a piece of art by none other than Damien Hirst himself? But do you frame it and mount it on your wall and wait a few years for the value to rise or do you use it on stage as you make your own [...]
Wondering where our all new, Olympic inspired background has come from? Well, we’ve been getting ready for the Olympics at FLUX with a few toe-touches and a lot of remote flicking. And for an alternative Olympic celebration, we’d like to point you in the direction of East London’s LIK+NEON who have commissioned illustrator, Tom Edwards, to bring [...]
Imagine, you’re doing a spot of shopping or heading to a bar and you suddenly find yourself over a great chasm staring down at a giant fireball. Well if you get yourself down to London’s Portobello Square you’ll be able to do just that. This is where brilliant street art really scores, away from the [...]
#Unravel is an experimental sound art piece by Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat and Glasgow art & music collective, FOUND. Supported by Dewar’s whisky, it takes a look at fluid versions of the truth. What is the truth? We often see the truth as something undeniable and solid. In actual fact truth is malleable and constantly evolving. [...]
Our favourite new sneakers from fashion to sportsfield!