Since I’m fairly new to Berlin, I start each month by browsing through the holy trinity — The Berliner, Visit Berlin Blog and Berlin.de (the official website of Berlin), looking for events, festivals and exhibitions that I may wish to attend. Given that the month of February is largely defined by Valentine’s Day, this month’s… Continue reading Gallery Looks — exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie
In contemporary society, resistance is no longer just a political act; it is an embodied experience that is expressed through the body, in the sounds of protest and in the creation of art. Across galleries, digital spaces and city streets, art has become one of the most powerful soft tools for challenging authority by creating… Continue reading The art of resistance
It is February in Rio de Janeiro, and the sweltering summer is showing no signs of surrender. “Bafado, né?” affirms Mateus, who will show me around. A lush green canopy stretches overhead, its leaves casting a dappled glow over the cobbled driveway as they soak up the morning rays. I am at Sítio Roberto Burle… Continue reading Roberto Burle Marx and the art of the tropical garden
There are times when I think of Monet, not the artist immortalised on posters and tote bags, but the man standing knee-deep in mud beside the Seine, brush trembling in cold fingers on an autumn morning much like this one. The sting of rejections whirling through his mind, and the quiet ache of believing in… Continue reading Monet and the cost of creation
There are nights when the rain sounds like it’s trying to speak to me. It taps on the window in hesitant rhythms, as if unsure whether I’m listening. I slip into my darkroom with a roll of film in my pocket, nothing remarkable, just small moments I wasn’t sure were worth remembering, and close the… Continue reading Hopper and the art of being alone
In her latest body of work, artist Tarka Kings turns her eye to the ritual of outdoor swimming, focusing on the Serpentine Lido in London’s Hyde Park — a place she swims most mornings. The result is Mornings at the Lido, a quietly absorbing exhibition of new drawings at Offer Waterman, on view from 25… Continue reading The quiet ritual — Tarka Kings’ morning meditations at the Serpentine Lido
The Haitian scholar Michel-Rolph Trouillot once observed, “Silences are inherent in history… something is always left out while something else is recorded.” The esea contemporary attempts to rewrite these silences and showcase the artwork and voices of the East and Southeast Asian community both in Manchester and globally. The esea contemporary — formerly known as… Continue reading Rewriting erased histories — esea contemporary’s mission to amplify East and Southeast Asian voices
A new initiative aimed at supporting art professionals from working-class backgrounds is launching in London. The Working Arts Club, founded by Meg Molloy, Head of Communications at Stephen Friedman Gallery, is an independent organisation designed to bring together those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who work in the UK’s visual arts sector. The club’s focus is… Continue reading The Working Arts Club: breaking down barriers for working-class creatives in the Art world
Tarot cards are everywhere in contemporary culture — but where do they come from, and what is at stake in the different forms they have taken? Few sets of symbols have travelled as widely or been put to such a diverse range of uses. The exhibition presents a series of key moments in tarot’s long… Continue reading Tarot — Origins & Afterlives at the Warburg Institute
One day, not long after Mark Edwards had completed his first collection of ‘white wood’ paintings, he got chatting to a tourist who was visiting Mark’s native Scotland. The visitor was a psychologist and he was very interested in the work. “The trees in your paintings…” said the psychologist. “They’re all dead aren’t they?” The… Continue reading Overcoats and snow, the mystery of Mark Edward’s exhibitions
