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Category Archives: Contemporary Art

Studio Visits: Sickboy – “Dreamworlds POV” @ Mirus Gallery (SF)

Returning to San Fransisco next Friday for his second exhibition with Mirus Gallery, Sickboy (interviewed) will be presenting a new series of paintings and sculpture entitled Dreamworlds POV. Arrested Motion paid a visit to the Bristol-based artist’s studio, which is housed in a former Victorian church, to see what he has in store. Sickboy’s installation at the Vanguard museum show (covered) takes viewers from a 2D painting, through a 3D sculpture and onwards to an ethereal 4D otherworld. This new body of work builds on that […]

Showing: “Vanguard” @ M-Shed

Currently midway through a four month run at Bristol’s M-Shed Museum, Vanguard explores the development of the city’s graffiti and street art scene and its global impact from the early 1980s until today. The exhibition opens with the story of the birth of graffiti in the city and how the spark lit by Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and the Z-Boys was kindled into a flame at the Dugout youth club in Barton Hill. That story has been told many times before, both in print and […]

Showing: Mr Jago – ‘Imbolc’ @ Unit London

Returning for his third exhibition with Unit London, Mr Jago is currently presenting a new body of work entitled Imbolc. The name is derived from the traditional Gaelic festival which marks the beginning of spring and the large-scale canvases, which strike a deliberately hopeful tone, are a celebration of renewal and new beginnings. Imbolc falls at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and there is a sense that the show’s optimism for brighter days to come is grounded in the realistic […]

Showing: Miss Van – ‘Pale Moonlight Muses’ @ Dorothy Circus (London)

Currently on view at Dorothy Circus’ recently opened London space, Pale Moonlight Muses presents a series of sensuous portraits by leading street artist Miss Van. The paintings are smaller and more intimate than those which we have become accustomed to seeing from the Toulouse-native. The seductive finish to the paintings and the blue velveteen walls on which they are hung have the effect of physically drawing the viewer in closer to the works which, in turn, triggers a heightened emotional response and connection. The canvases range […]

Recap: Lucy Sparrow – ‘Bourdon Street Chemist’ @ Lyndsey Ingram

The latest incarnation of Lucy Sparrow’s felt installations saw the Suffolk-based artist recreate a fully stocked drugstore selling everything from luxury perfume to hemorrhoid cream at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in London. Bourdon Street Chemist was the artist’s seventh major exhibition where all the items have been rendered out of felt and it followed on from her similarly exhaustive reimagining of a Soho sex shop in 2015 and a New York bodega in 2018 (covered). Some items that grace the shelves, like shampoo and Band-Aids, are so […]

Showing: Ana Benaroya – ‘The Passenger’ @ Carl Kostyál

For her first show in the UK, Ana Benaroya has presented a new exhibition at Carl Kostyál Gallery in Mayfair called ‘The Passenger‘. While the body of work references Americana and a bygone era of Hollywood glamour, it does so while employing a distinctly contemporary depiction of women. The New Jersey-based artist’s work is strongly informed by a lifelong passion for the aesthetics of Spider-Man, X-Men and DC Comics. However, the gender representations contained in that source material has been subverted here so that women […]

Showing: Katrin Fridriks – ‘A Certain Blue Enters Your Soul’ @ JD Malat

Returning to London for her third show at JD Malat Gallery, Katrin Fridriks (featured) is currently presenting a new body of work entitled A Certain Blue Enters Your Soul. The title references a quote by Henri Matisse, whose own work extensively utilised the same intense indigo which prevails throughout this exhibition. Two paintings hang adjacent to the gallery entrance which chromatically reference her previous Grey Area exhibition (covered). That collection of paintings explored the outer limits of scientific understanding and both the demonstrable knowledge and […]

Previews: “Domesticity” @ Volery Gallery

Opening on March 15th, the Domesticity group exhibition at Volery Gallery will explore the interior space as the fated environment for mankind with work from 17 international artists. Curated by Sasha Bogojev from Juxtapoz, the show features the art of Ojo Ayotunde, Ana Barriga, Pablo Benzo, Matt Bollinger, Deborah Brown, Mathieu Cherkit, Modou Dieng, Daniel Heidkamp, Yuichi Hirako, Jordy Kerwick, Sally Kindberg, Andrés Lozano, Alexis Ralaivao, Andy Rementer, Fabian Treiber, Ivana De Vivanco (seen above) and Guy Yanai. Take a look at some preview images below…             […]

Openings: “KAWS: WHAT PARTY” @ Brooklyn Museum

Tonight in New York, the Brooklyn Museum opened KAWS: WHAT PARTY to the public, featuring more than 100 works including drawings, paintings, sculptures, smaller collectibles, furniture, and larger-than-life COMPANION figures. The comprehensive exhibition is surprisingly the Brooklyn-based artist’s first major museum survey in New York, touching on the highlights of his 25 year career from his early rarely seen graffiti drawings and notebooks, to examples his now famous xx-eyed characters painted on fashion ads in phone booths and bus shelters, to the continuation of this figurative work into the fine […]

Previews: Shawn Huckins – “Skeptic” @ Stefanie Chefas Projects

Tomorrow night (October 17th) in Portland, Stefanie Chefas Projects will be opening Skeptic, a new show from  Shawn Huckins (featured). The Denver-based painter continues his practice of overlaying classic imagery ranging from still lifes to 18th century American portraiture with discordant and symbolic elements including text messages, disembodied hands, and Roman sculpture. The new body of work from Huckins delves into America’s relationship with the past and how that affects our current place in the world as well as what makes a society thrive – and what makes it […]