Patrick Nguyen « Arrested Motion

Posts from Patrick Nguyen...

Previews: Charming Baker — ‘Every Thing Must Go’ @ Mercer Street Studios, London

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, July 7, 2011

Charming Baker is back in London with a new pop-up exhibition that previews this evening at Mercer Street Studios (16 Mercer Street), an attractive space in Covent Garden. AM had a nose around the venue during the final preparations to check out Baker’s recent canvases, prints, as well as sculptures — a medium we haven’t associated with him before. All the canvases have already pre-sold, which may help to explain why the artist appeared so relaxed on the eve of his show. Every Thing Must […]

Openings: Barry McGee @ Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, July 4, 2011

AM has been keeping a watchful eye on Continental European shows featuring works by Barry McGee. Whenever the cashflow gods have been on our side, we’ve booked the necessary flights or trains to attend as well. This was the case with the 2010 joint show with Danish artist HuskMitNavn at A.L.I.C.E. Gallery in Brussels, and the 2009 three-man show (which also included Ed Templeton and Raymond Pettibon) curated by Aaron Rose at Berlin’s Circleculture Gallery. However, the last time McGee exhibited in the UK was […]

Openings: Ron English – ‘Skin Deep’ @ Lazarides Gallery

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, June 27, 2011

It’s been a little while since 2009’s Lazarus Rising at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, the last UK solo exhibition by Ron English. Two years and a gallery switch later, the pop surrealist, street artist and culture jammer is back — in the streets as well as indoors with Skin Deep: Post-Instinctual Afterthoughts On Psychological Portraiture, his new solo effort (previewed) at Lazarides Gallery in London. English confirmed to AM that the show’s 16 canvases (on display with a couple of sculptures) have been 12 months […]

Set-up / Teasers: Retna – ‘The Hallelujah World Tour’ (London) @ The Dairy

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, June 7, 2011

Retna has been keeping himself busy recently — among other things, by participating in the Art in the Streets exhibition at MOCA, Street Cred at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and painting the tail of a business jet in Geneva for VistaJet. He’s currently in the UK for the London limb of his Hallelujah World Tour which began in New York City in February (featured). The pop-up event is being held at the Dairy, with the opening taking place on the evening of Wednesday […]

Showing / Viewpoints: Sage Vaughn – ‘Children of a Lesser God’ @ Lazarides Gallery

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, June 5, 2011

The first UK solo show by LA-based Sage Vaughn (referred to in early May) opened a few weeks back at Lazarides Gallery in London with a title ostensibly borrowed from the 1980 play by Mark Medoff or its subsequent film adaptation. While Children of a Lesser God presents no radical thematic or stylistic departures for Vaughn, the exhibition is a strong one — especially the part in the gallery’s main space on the ground floor, where canvases from the artist’s Wildlife series have been hung […]

Openings: Tracey Emin – ‘Love is What You Want’ @ Hayward Gallery

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, May 19, 2011

The major retrospective of work by Tracey Emin, Love is What You Want, is currently on at London’s Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre. AM attended the preview on Tuesday evening and was duly impressed. If you’re fond of Emin’s intensely personal, confessional and often provocative art, you’ll love this show. There’s certainly a great deal to take in, covering every phase of her career and the wide diversity of media she’s worked with: installation, embroidered and appliquéd blankets, neon, film, animation, photography, sculpture, painting, drawing […]

Openings: Ai Weiwei @ Lisson Gallery

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, May 17, 2011

On Thursday 12 May, AM attended the opening of the Ai Weiwei exhibition at Lisson Gallery (previewed), spread across both of its spaces on Bell Street in West London. The wide selection of work on display — produced over the last six years and agreed with the artist at the beginning of 2011 — does well to illustrate the playful, evocative and provocative nature of the Ai’s output. Given the show’s breadth and overall strength, we’re sticking our neck out and calling it a must-see. […]

Viewpoints: Peter Kennard + War Boutique — ‘shooting@earth’ @ Black Rat Projects

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, May 10, 2011

Black Rat Projects in London recently hosted shooting@earth, a three-day event running from 5 to 7 May which launched @earth, the new photo-essay by Peter Kennard, assisted by Tarek Salhany. The exhibition also showcased a collection of works that packed a punch by former armour designer, War Boutique. Although AM felt War Boutique’s art was sometimes a little easy or obvious, at other times it was remarkable: You think it has the subtlety of an old Panzer IV, that you can see it coming from […]

Studio Visit: Sage Vaughn

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, May 5, 2011

Children of a Lesser God, the first UK solo show by Los Angeles-based artist Sage Vaughn opens today at Lazarides Gallery in London. AM visited the artist’s studio last year as he prepared for both this exhibition and the release of hand-painted multiples — the latter screenprinted by Modern Multiples and painted with watercolours. Vaughn’s sunlit space seemed like the ideal environment for working. There was also an additional and immediate source of inspiration right outside his studio: a bird-feeding area that apparently attracts sparrows, […]

Showing: Gabriel Orozco @ Tate Modern

Posted by Patrick Nguyen, April 6, 2011

The Gabriel Orozco exhibition at London’s Tate Modern has been on since mid-January. AM is a fan of both the artist and this diverse yet cohesive show, curated by Jessica Morgan and Iria Candela. We’ve already been to visit three times. The works and installations, often consisting of common and familiar objects that have been altered or simply recontextualised, combine playfulness, subtlety and wit. It’s a thought-provoking display, one that we see as an exploration and celebration of beauty — beauty in symmetry, simplicity, the […]