These days, the galleries of London, on the occasion of the Frieze 2015, present a wealth of solo and group exhibitions from well-known and established artists, we chosen a few of them and make a small presentation for you. We will be back soon in the most important of them for a full presentation…
By Efi Michalarou
Broomberg & Chanarin’s debut solo exhibition “Rudiments” at Lisson Gallery consists of new photographic, moving image and performative works that collectively explore tensions between discipline and chance, precision and chaos, empathy and the involuntary pleasure of watching the pain of others. Central to the show is a new film work, Rudiments (2015). Their artistic practice frequently leads them to directly engage with existing power relations within the production and use of images. The artists are questioning not only the task of the photographer, but also the medium itself and its role as a political instrument. Info: Lisson Gallery, 52 Bell Street, London, Duration: 25/9-31/10/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.lissongallery.com
“Ryan Gander: Fieldwork” is an exhibition of interlinking new works by the artist, each offering a glimpse of the inspirations that feed his practice. Encompassing everything including a kitchen sink, the exhibition presents an individuated encyclopaedia that includes a year’s worth of skies, the clothes of absentee statues, a tent, a helium balloon, the artist’s phone number and a pebble beach. As ever with Gander’s art, the forms convened in “Fieldwork” are elliptic and opaque, starting stories for the viewer to invent or complete. Info: Lisson Gallery, 27 Bell Street, London, Duration: 25/9-31/10/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00, www.lissongallery.com
Born in Milan in 1937, Grazia Varisco has been a key representative of programmed and kinetic art throughout her artistic career. Together with Giovanni Anceschi, Gianni Colombo, Davide Boriani and Gabriele De Vecchi, she was a member of the Italian Gruppo T. In her first solo exhibition in London, the visitors will have the opportunity to experience a comprehensive overview of Varisco’s research, with works spanning from the early ‘60s to the recent years. Info: If…, Curator: Michele Robecchi, Cortesi Gallery London, 41&43 Maddox Street, London, Duration: 1/10-28/11/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri: 10:00-18:00, Sat: 12:00-18:00, http://cortesigallery.com
The exhibition “Losing the Compass” focuses on the rich symbolism of textiles and their political, social and aesthetic significance through both art and craft practice. Beginning with the metaphorically charged conceptual work of Alighiero e Boetti, the exhibition traces the poetic and subversive use of the textile medium through works by Mona Hatoum, Mike Kelley, Sergej Jensen, Sterling Ruby, Rudolf Stingel, Danh Vo and Franz West, wallpaper by 19th century English designer, craftsman and socialist William Morris and a series of quilts made collectively by the Amish and Gee’s Bend communities in USA during the late 19th and early 20th Century. Info: Curators: Scott Cameron Weaver & Mathieu Paris, White Cube Bermondsey, 144-152 Bermondsey Street, London, Duration: 8/10/15-9/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, http://whitecube.com
Focusing on women artists working in Italy during the 70s, the exhibition “The Body as Language: Women and Performance” examines the birth and development of performance art in relation to gender, the body, language and the expression of the self. Focusing on women artists working in Italy during the 70s, the exhibition features work by Gina Pane, Ketty La Rocca, Suzanne Santoro and Renate Bertlmann, Trisha Brown, Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer. In addition, the exhibition looks at the enduring influence of these artists on a younger generation: Silvia Giambrone, Alice Schivardi and Sara Goldschmied & Eleonora Chiari. Info: Curator: Paola Ugolini, Richard Saltoun Gallery, 111 Great Titchfield Street, London, Duration: 9/10-27/11/15, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, www.richardsaltoun.com
The first ever exhibition devoted to Nancy Holt’s “Locator” sculptures. This seminal body of work, which Holt inaugurated in the early 1970s, has been very rarely seen. Nonetheless, within her oeuvre the ‘Locators’ are crucially important. The innovations and experimentation that they embody lead directly to Holt’s iconic Land Art work, Sun Tunnels and inform many of her groundbreaking public commissions of the ‘80s and 90s. The exhibition was conceived in discussion with the artist before her death in 2014, includes a selected group of “Locators” alongside preparatory drawings and related photographic pieces, including some works which have never been exhibited. Info: Parafin Gallery, 18 Woodstock Street, London, Duration: 9/10-21/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-17:00, www.parafin.co.uk
“Elmgreen & Dragset’s Self-Portraits” exhibition features a new series of works that are representations of museum wall labels of other artists’ works, A wall label is normally not an integral part of a work of art. It is there to inform the viewer. Apart from the facts it communicates, it has no particular value as an object. Not so in “Elmgreen & Dragset’s Self-Portraits”. In this new series of works, the artist duo have appropriated wall labels describing other artists’ work, and transformed them into art works in their own right. Info: Self-Portraits, Victoria Miro Gallery, 14 St George Street, London, Duration: 13/10-7/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com
The German sculptor & photographer Thomas Demand is known for making photographs of three-dimensional models that look like real images of rooms and other spaces, often sites loaded with social and political meanings. He thus describes himself not as a photographer, but as a conceptual artist for whom photography is an intrinsic part of his creative process. For the new series “Latent Forms” the artist focused on details: lines, curves and portals are foregrounded, intensifying their abstract potential. The models were originally built to convey ideas in concrete form, to provide the architects a target image of a given proposal. Some of the photographs express serene elegance, suggesting a utopian space for human habitation, while others have a more cluttered, disposable atmosphere, Info: Latent Forms, Sprüth Magers London, 7A Grafton Street, London, Duration: 13/10-19/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat: 10:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com
“Alighiero Boetti: A Private Collection”, presents a unique single-owner collection dedicated exclusively to Alighiero Boetti’s oeuvre. Featuring over sixty works from the years 1965–1990, the collection on display offers an opportunity to follow a collector’s long and measured process of selecting and balancing individual pieces in order to unfold the philosophical questions that motivated Boetti’s prolific making for more than forty years. The exhibition includes both rare and celebrated works from the artist’s diverse career. Info: Luxemburg & Dayan, 2 Savile Row Street, London, Duration: 13/10-12/12/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-17:00, Sat: 12:00-16:00, www.luxembourgdayan.com
“Gerhard Richter: Colour Charts”, is an exhibition featuring a vital group of paintings selected from the artist’s original 19 Colour Charts produced in 1966. Presented with the support of the Gerhard Richter Archive, the exhibition is the first to focus on the earliest works of this series since their inaugural appearance at Galerie Friedrich & Dahlem, Munich in 1966. At once paradoxical and coalescent, the Colour Charts highlight an important moment in the artist’s career and are situated across multiple leading art movements of the twentieth century. Info: Dominique Levy Gallery, 22 Old Bond Street, London, Duration: 13/10/15-16/1/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.dominique-levy.com
The exhibition “Forces in Nature” explores the idea of man in nature and includes works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Verne Dawson, Peter Doig, NS Harsha, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Celia Paul, Tal R, Sarah Sze, Kara Walker, and Francesca Woodman. The exhibition exhamine the question “Does nature mean more to us when seen against the background of the human form? Or do we understand a landscape or seascape more acutely when the form is absent? Do women artists want to “stand in the middle of a thing” as defiantly as male artists?”. Info: Curator: Hilton Als, Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Road, London, Duration: 13/10-14/11/15, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.victoria-miro.com