In Parallel

Paintings and reliefs by Ben Nicholson from the 1930s are shown with Piet Mondrian's works during the same period at the Courtauld Gallery's current show In Parallel.  The show explores the parallel artistic paths Mondrian and Nicholson charted during this exciting decade in art history.

Nicholson at Courtauld, London 2012:

Mondrian at Courtauld, London 2012:

Geometric abstraction Standpoint

My visits to London are always fulfilling.  Very often, inspiring art shows pop up at unexpected places.  I ran into east London's Standpoint Gallery the first time, totally unprepared, during my recent visit to London.  Their group show Ha Ha What Does This Represent?, featuring abstraction pieces from mostly London-based artists, was a real treat to a geometric abstraction fan like me.

Alex Gene Morrison at Standpoint, London 2012:

James Ryan at Standpoint, London 2012:

Roger Kelly at Standpoint, London 2012:

Trevor Sutton at Standpoint, London 2012:

Allocated Space, 1:2

... Simon Grind's architecturally inclined contribution to Cultivate, Vyner Street's group show Rigid, London 2012:

Monument For The Living

Marwan Rechmaoui's Monument For The Living is a scale model of an unfinished office tower in Beirut, Lebanon.  The outbreak of civil war has made it impossible to finish the building   As a result, the building has only been used as a sniper outpost. Now it stands as a memorial to conflicts that have never been resolved.

Rechmaoui at Tate Modern, London 2012:

Shadows

... at Royal Academy of Arts GSK Contemporary's show Aware: Art Fashion Identity, London 2010:

Hutchinson's monochromatic seas

Daniel Hutchinson's recent show at Angell Gallery, Half-light Over The Baltic Sea, featured a series of seascapes observed when the sun was just below the horizon.  These monochromatic paintings are constantly on the verge of abstraction and disintegration, as the movement of light over the surface plunges areas into deep and endless blackness while bringing other areas into brilliant and reflected light.

Hutchinson at Angell, Toronto 2012:

Black and blue

I started this blog exactly 366 days (one leap year) ago.  One of my favourite artists Karla Black was featured in my first post.  So to celebrate the first anniversary of my blog, I am getting a little help from Black again.  This time I have rendered Black's work monochromatic blue ...

Black at Saatchi Gallery, London 2010:

Powerless Structures, Fig. 101

The fourth plinth in central London's Trafalgar Square has been used for a series of temporary works commissioned from international artists since 1999.  While the other three plinths in the square are each carrying a permanent sculpture, the fourth plinth was left empty for over 150 years.  It was originally intended to support an equestrian statue of King William IV.  With this reference in mind, Elmgreen & Dragset erected the statue Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 as the latest commissioned project on this legendary plinth.

Elmgreen and Dragset at Trafalgar Square, London 2012:

Suh's stairway to nowhere

Do Ho Suh's polyester staircase in red, hung upside down from the ceiling, is his dream-like rendition of an architectural space for spatial and psychological sojourners.

Suh at Tate Modern, London 2012:

Harm van den Dorpel About

Central to Harm van den Dorpel's outlook is the combination of discovery, trust and risk.  His latest solo exhibition About at Wilkinson Gallery follows the discovery and pursuit of his deepest impulse while staying true to his own rational thoughts.

Harm van den Dorpel at Wilkinson, London 2012:

Fabiola

Francis Alÿs' unusual installation for Schaulager I saw last summer was staged in Basel's historic Haus zum Kirschgarten.  There, hundreds of collected images of Saint Fabiola infested the architecture of the old town house like a Trojan Horse.  These portraits all looked similar at first glance.  Yet a closer scrutiny revealed a degree of variation between them.  The identity of Saint Fabiola was blurred in the flood of images.

Francis Alÿs at Haus zum Kirschgarten, Basel 2011:

New Romantic* Mahoney

All details were omitted in Nadine Mahoney's portraits.  The ghostly shadows of people in Mahoney's paintings are visions of distant memories that come to haunt us from the past. My week-long trip to London finished today. I hope I'll visit this vibrant city again soon.

Nadine Mahoney at Hoxton Art Gallery , London 2012:

Thank you, L, for the good show. Nice seeing you again.

*New Romantic is the title of one of Mahoney's paintings on view at Hoxton Art Gallery's latest group show Wunderkammer.

More colours in Peckham

I had another colourful day in south London.  Will Alsop's 2000 award-winning Peckham Library adds colours to the southern edge of London.  People in Toronto might think they have seen a different version of this building somewhere ...

Colours on Bankside

Besides the St. Patrick's greens, there were more bright colours to brighten up this grey day on London's Bankside.

Will Alsop's 2006 Palestra:

Danny Rolph at Poppy Sebire Gallery:

Graubner Flavin Kelly green

Gotthard Graubner at Museum Insel Hombroich, Neuss 2010:

Dan Flavin at Pinakothek der Moderne, München 2011:

Ellsworth Kelly at K20, Düsseldorf 2011:

Colours of early spring on Herald Street

Markus Amm at Herald St, London 2012:

Mirror image asymmetry

Ulla von Brandenburg at Pilar Corrias, London 2012:

Katrina Blannin at Standpoint Gallery, London 2012: