Fine, I Guess
Just off a not-so-busy-not-so-quiet road in East London, Julia Sullivan has transformed the façade of our flat into a viewing atelier. Visible from the street, the solo exhibition, Fine, I Guess (2020) brings together work created by Julia during the last 6 months. These include collages, paintings, lino and screen prints. In the context of…
Young Artist Spotlight: Antonia Showering
With colour washes that cause form to merge with form like a colourfield entropy – the natural move of all things towards decay, to oneness – Antonia Showering is a formidably capable painter and first on The A R T S E I S T’s young artists spotlights. A Slade School of Art MA graduate,…
I,I,I,I,I,I,I, KATHY ACKER // ICA, LONDON
Published on THE SEEN “I’m always destroying,” the late Kathy Acker said in an interview at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (ICA) in 1986, “To hell with the word deconstructing. I’m always destroying, you know, rigidities, habitual meanings, habitual contents.” Coming full circle from that interview, I,I,I,I,I,I,I, Kathy Acker, the first UK exhibition dedicated to her work…
Faith Ringgold at Serpentine Gallery, London
Published on the A r t s i e s t Faith Ringgold at Serpentine Gallery, London Faith Ringgold Serpentine Gallery 6th June – 8th September 2019 By Rafael Powell On the 8th of October 1930, in Harlem Hospital New York, Faith Ringgold was brought into the world, presumably kicking and screaming. Since then, she’s…
Hyon Gyon
Published on The A R T S E I S T Hyon GyonParasol Unit Foundation For Contemporary Art, London 23 January – 31 March 2019Rafael Powell Bringing together paintings, sculptures and works that straddle that line, Gyon’s works are typically brightly-coloured, dark, disarmingly intimate windows into an unconscious world. Alive with fiery energy, the show’s…
Lisa Brice at Tate Britain Microreview
Lisa Brice’s (b.1968) practice explores the relationships between authors and images. Interested in the representation of women by male artists, Brice recreates and thus re-authors images from the artistic cannon. ‘Untitled’, by Brice, was painted to respond to ‘Parting at Morning’ (1981) by William Rothenstein (1872-1945), which hangs in the Tate. With an altered palette…
Dislocation of the Global Art Market: the flow of capital in the global art ecosystem
The Potential Dislocation of the Global Art Market: the flow of capital in the global art ecosystem ‘The global art market is threatened with at best dislocation and at worst collapse in the advent of growing international economic and cultural power from emerging markets.’ While this statement touches on many of the fears of the…
Hell is not a place, but a state of mind
Hell is not a place, but a state of mind Now I begin to hear the sad notes of pain now I have come to where loud cries beat upon my ears. I have reached a place mute of all light which roars like the sea in a tempest when beaten by conflicting winds. Dante…
From The Vapor of Gasoline
From the Vapor of Gasoline: explorations in curatorial dialogues White Cube Mason’s Yard 20 Sept – 21 October White Cube 1st Floor. October, 2017. From the Vapor of Gasoline, White Cube, Mason’s Yard, London, United Kingdom. From the Vapor of Gasoline is a group show spread across two main rooms and two ante-chamber spaces in…
Milly Peck Micro-review
Milly Peck at Assembly Point, Peckam Peck’s show at Assembly Point seems to be the aesthetic love-child of pop art and minimalism, blending stylised ‘pop’ representation with the colour and shape neutrality of minimalism. Despite the neutral palette of the show – black, white and grey – ‘Pressure Head’ contains visual dynamism created through the…
ATOM
*ATOM is a collective founded in Cape Town in 2016. Their aim is to host holistic events, through multi-sensory stimulation, which supports the shift of the social and entertainment scene from a highly stratified state to one of open engagement across social, cultural, economic and political barriers. While this may seem like a mouthful or…
Through the Woods: A review by Rafael Powell
In the paintings in Wilderness, Layzell’s most recent show, flickers of colour emerge from dark backgrounds. Abstract greens and whites create landscapes from the corner of your eye. The painting facing the street, on the show-wall of Salon 91, shows an abstracted landscape. It is constructed with strokes of Barbie-pinks, deep foreboding purples, guttural greens…
The 27th Letter
The ampersand is a misunderstood creature. While many believe it exists primarily for the ‘& sons’ of fathers or the ‘& partners’ of lawyers, the ampersand has a rich history than spans continents, cultures and millennia. The ampersand as we know it is evolved in from humble beginnings. Before we begin, a brief taxonomy and…
Haunting Streets
Haunting Streets or Street Hond Kloof Street, Julia Sullivan, watercolour on paper, 2016 Take a walk up Long street, towards the mountain, over Orange st and onto Kloof, passing the Wellness centre, Checkers and Kloof Street Antiques, and you’ll see an impossible world. Impossible if not for the fact it exists. Cape Town, particularly the…
Rafael Powell 