ArrestedMotion logo
Posts from Patrick Nguyen...

Streets: Banksy (North London)

Banksy is back, with a new, large-scale street piece appearing overnight on a residential building on Hornsey Road, midway between the Archway and Finsbury Park areas of North London. AM was prompted out of hermit mode, jumped on a bus, and went to have look, before the artwork could be dogged by the petty-minded/envious, sidebusted by coattail-riders, or covered in perspex.  The whimsical mural interacts with a tree in the foreground — a rather sad-looking, currently leafless specimen that was aggressively lopped and topped by local authorities. Having taken matters […]

Showing: Banksy – ‘Gross Domestic Product’ (Greater London)

Unless required for work or family reasons, many Londoners balk at the prospect of journeying to the other side of their city. Localism or laziness are often at play. So if you ever wish to check the status of your relationship with a Londoner, there’s a simple test we believe is about 50% reliable: In case that person is based in West London, suggest meeting up for drinks in East London (or vice versa). And if they live north of the River Thames, invite them […]

Previews: ‘Olafur Eliasson: In real life’ @ Tate Modern (London)

Olafur Eliasson returns to Tate Modern with Olafur Eliasson: In real life. This is the Danish-Icelandic artist’s first major UK exhibition and survey of his career to date. It comes 16 years after 2003’s The weather project, his world-renown piece which transformed the museum’s Turbine Hall “into a social space where sculpture was bound up with the experience of being together with other visitors.” The show consists of over 40 works including immersive installations, sculpture, photography and paintings — on Level 2 of the Blavatnik Building, but also at the Terrace […]

Highlights: London Art Fair 2018

The 30th anniversary edition of the London Art Fair opened to the public on Wednesday with 131 exhibitors participating. Traditionally focused on British Modern and Contemporary Art, the fair’s outlook is becoming increasingly global. AM understands that a quarter of the galleries this year are based outside the UK. This evolution is not too surprising and may be welcomed by many as a breath of fresh air. But it also results in a certain loss of identity or distinctiveness. And in today’s art fair environment, that’s […]

Previews: Pejac – ‘Law of the Weakest’ Pop-Up Show (London)

Law of the Weakest, the first major solo exhibition by Spanish artist Pejac, opens this Friday, 22 July in London. Held at Londonewcastle Project Space (28 Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP), the pop-up will run until Sunday 31 July. AM initially mentioned a forthcoming show back in January. Yesterday, we had a look around during the setup, taking just a few snapshots so as to not ruin the whole surprise. The exhibition will be an ambitious affair incorporating around 35 pieces: paintings on canvas and wood; […]

Highlights: Affordable Art Fair (Hampstead, London)

The London edition of the Affordable Art Fair is a twice-yearly event alternating between both sides of the River Thames. From 16–19 June, it was held in Hampstead Heath with over 100 galleries exhibiting works priced between £100 and £5,000. AM rarely discovers much it would sacrifice a finger for when visiting the AAF. But as with flea markets and record stores, the real fun is in trawling and sifting, searching for that elusive gem. At cheaper fairs especially, a default curatorial and hanging style […]

Highlights: Art16 (London)

Art16 returned to Olympia, London from 19–22 May for the fourth year of this contemporary art fair. More than 100 galleries were brought together from over 30 countries, along with not-for-profit exhibitors and commissioned-artist installations. With the founders of Art16 being the same team that launched Art Central Hong Kong, Art International Istanbul (postponed this year) and Sydney Contemporary, it was no surprise to sense a strong presence from Asian galleries. The high point and fresh discovery for AM was the stall by the Taiwanese gallery, […]

Viewpoints / Recap: Dran – ‘Public Execution’ pop up show in Soho, London (Part II)

AM recently covered the opening and first week of the last show by Dran, which was hosted by Pictures On Walls and closed on Saturday 21 February. The uniqueness of Public Execution is that it was produced by the artist — bit by bit and in public view — over the course of its duration. A white space filled with spraypainted images of blank canvases on Day 1 evolved into a picture-rich multicoloured venue on Day 17, the grand finale. Some visitors have referred to […]

Viewpoints / Openings: Dran — ‘Public Execution’ pop-up show in Soho, London

It’s been some time since Pictures On Walls has organised an art exhibition. The previous one was in December 2013 with the Shok-1 solo show, X-Rainbow. Last year, POW gave up its premises on Commercial Street in East London. With a permanent show space no longer retained, the number of print releases in 2014 restricted to a small handful (by Paul Insect, Maya Hayuk and Invader), and plenty of competitors arriving on the street art scene eager to fill the void, many wondered what the […]

Previews: Lush – ‘You Become What You Hate…’ pop-up show in Hackney Wick, London

Melbourne-based Lush opens his first UK solo exhibition, You Become What You Hate…, tonight at a warehouse space in London’s Hackney Wick. The show includes installations, sculptures, paintings, sketches, prints, t-shirts and zines. If you enjoy Lush’s deliberately offensive, illustration-style work, it promises to be a fun spectacle: sexually explicit imagery of large-scale vaginas, fornicating unicorns, rainbow-coloured guts, urine and ejaculate, scenes of gratuitous violence, and various pieces based on the theme of ACAB / All Cops Are Bastards. Knowingly biting the hand that feeds […]