Winners of the Troika Editions/FORMAT13 Award, Tim Bowditch and Nick Rochowski will exhibit their project Hind Land in a solo show at The Front Room Gallery, London, 5 – 30 June. An intricate and fascinating photographic survey, the work grew out of an interest in the interplay between the M25 and local woodland. Focusing on the forgotten spaces and pedestrian walkways found beneath the orbital M25 motorway, the photos uncover the relationship between nature and the man-made.
What is Contemporary? at Brancolini Grimaldi, London
Featuring ten artists working over the past two thousand years, this exceptional exhibition visually investigates the theme of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s essay What is the Contemporary?
Venice Biennale
The 55th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale is entitled Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace) and opens to the public tomorrow. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and chaired by Paolo Baratta, 88 National participants will be exhibiting in the historical Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the city of Venice. Among these, 10 countries are participating in the Exhibition for the first time: Angola, Bahamas, Kingdom of Bahrain, Republic of Ivory Coast, Republic of Kosovo, Kuwait, Maldives, the Holy See, Paraguay and Tuvalu. This year’s Italian Pavilion is entitled vice versa, and 47 Collateral Events, approved by the curator of the International Exhibition take place in several locations in Venice.
Karla Black at ICA, Philadelphia
Scottish artist Karla Black constructs large-scale, site-specific sculptures using amorphous yet everyday materials—from dirt, chalk, and dough to the powders, sprays, and gooey substances we use to coat our bodies. Her work reacts to the light and space of each site with a sense of play and indeterminacy. In forms that always seem to be on the brink of collapse, the unremarkable and commonplace are rendered transcendent through size and scale, grand abstractions infused with a sense of entropy. Black’s first self-titled US solo show is currently on display at ICA in Philadelphia until 28 July.
Set in Leeds during the First World War, The Jockstrap Raiders follows a group of misfits who have been left out of the conflict due to various abnormalities. Threatened by the invading Germany army, the unlikely heroes must learn to work as a team and conquer their shortcomings to save Britain and its allies from impending defeat. Produced at the University of California by director Mark Nelson, The Jockstrap Raiders was awarded the Best Animation title at last year’s Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF), and has also collected a string of other accolades at festivals worldwide. There is still chance to submit a short film for ASFF 2013, which runs 7 – 10 November across the city of York. The final deadline for submissions is this Friday, 31 May.The Jockstrap Raiders, Short Film from ASFF
Picturing Derry, Londonderry
Picturing Derry is the first major photographic exhibition of Derry-Londonderry’s UK City of Culture 2013. Opening to the public at the iconic City Factory venue on 31 May, the exhibition brings together, for the first time, some of the most iconic images of the troubles in the city in one exhibition. Legendary French photojournalist Gilles Caron’s previously unseen major body of work during the Battle of the Bogside in August 1969 forms a major part of the exhibition. It also includes the work of other visiting photographers from around the world as well as images by local news photographers.
Interview with Aesthetica Art Prize Longlisted Artist: Day Bowman
Aesthetica Art Prize longlisted artist, Day Bowman has been selected out of only five UK artists to exhibit her work at this year’s NordArt exhibition in June. Her work as a painter lies on the axis of figuration and abstraction, and combines collage, print and painting. Most recently Day has been collaborating with Ian Knox, award-winning filmmaker, and TransGlobal Underground on The Urban Wastelands Project that toured museum and gallery spaces in the UK throughout 2011 and 2012. Aesthetica found out more from Day on her work and what to look out for in the future.
Liz Hingley: Gods: Stories from the Soho Road, Glasgow
Set in the serene St Mungo’s Museum of Religious Life and Art, photographer Liz Hingley’s Under Gods: Stories from the Soho Road is quietly thought-provoking and provides a thorough and honest assessment of true multi-culturalism. In one of the poorest parts of Birmingham, Soho Road is home to a huge variety of religious denominations; Sikhs, Hare Krishnas, Buddhists, Jains, Polish Catholics, Baptists, Muslims, Anglicans and Hindus all feature in Hingley’s portraits of the road’s residents.
Stephen J. Morgan: The Other Side of Everything, London
Stephen J. Morgan’s The Other Side of Everything is a striking series of photographs, documenting familiar, urban places. Uncovering the artist’s own journey through life and examining his identity as a second generation Irish boy growing up in Birmingham, the photos follow his personal story within the wider narrative of England’s recent political history and the legacy of the British Empire. Running 31 May until 13 July at the Wapping Project Bankside, the images focus around the country’s most potent and ubiquitous symbol: the flag.
Stephen Willats: Conscious – Unconscious, Oxford
Stephen Willats’ latest exhibit at Modern Art Oxford, Conscious – Unconscious, is a collection of works ranging from 1998-2013. His fourth solo exhibit at the gallery, each work addresses Willats’ persistent interest in the mediation of personal and interpersonal relationships as they manifest in a world saturated with mass production and communication technology.
Bob van Reeth – Architect, Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels
Bob van Reeth, one of the most important postwar Belgian architects and the first Flemish Government Architect from 1999 to 2005, will be 70 this year. BOZAR ARCHITECTURE and A+ look back on his rich career with a retrospective exhibition and an accompanying publication about his work. The exhibition will unveil the secrets of some fifty projects and achievements, via sketches, plans, photographs, documents, models and films. The exhibition begins with his most recent projects (the Holocaust Museum in Mechelen that recently opened its doors to the public) and ending with his first student projects.
What is Contemporary? Brancolini Grimaldi, London
Curated by Domingo Milella and Bacarelli Botticelli, What is Contemporary? is now open at Brancolini Grimaldi, London. The group exhibition combines contemporary photography with works of art from the past and includes work from Dan Holdsworth, Lise Sarfati, Clare Strand and Milella alongside antique sculpture, painting and artefacts. With a range of works that span time periods, the show asks audiences to think outside of the usual prescribed categories of art and to re-consider boundaries determined by place and time.