Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting talk at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair at Woolwich Works examining a collaboration between these cultural neighbours. In a day of disappointment around talks at the show (see my previous post) it seemed inevitable that the IT failed for this event and it started late but Georgia Figgis, Community Engagement Manager at the immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk, and Cia Durrante, Head of Partnerships and VIPs for the print fair coped well and luckily it was a talk that didn't really need images. They discussed how their collaboration had come about and why collaboration is important to artistic creation and to help in these straightened times for the arts. Figgis talked about how every visitors’ visit to the show was unique as they went round in their own way and like the way their theatrical productions work. The talk was full of ambition and hopefully will lead to great things in the future, but they talked about how this had to be tempered by reality so the ou...

Irritating version of this annual show at Woolwich Works focusing on the art of the print maker. The show had some good themes running through it but these weren't always clear. One featured 10 artists to mark the 10 years of the show which were scattered around the show but here was no distinct trail to find these. There were also curated sections with 50% of the hang being curated and the other 50% being space for galleries. Again this wasn't clear and some explanation of curatorial choices would have been interesting. I will also make my annual moan about the small labels often placed too low or too high to read or so close to a deep frame so they were overshadowed. Please get this right. Add to this a new moan that I booked a session with two talks I wanted to go to. The day before I got email reminders to both but on the day I found that one had been moved forward an hour and a half to a time I couldn’t make and the other had been moved to another day. As was type thi...

A striking iteration of this annual exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery featuring the shortlisted works in this year’s photo portrait prize. As ever there were some stunning images and themes of old age and disability seemed to emerge such as Donato Telesca's stunning photograph from above of a Parolympian weightlifter. Can I have my usual moan about reflective glass on photographs? I would have loved to show you an image of Luan Davide Gray's "We Dare to Hug" showing a tender older gay couple but the reflection means you see more of me and the other people and works in the show than the picture itself. My favourite this year was Timon Benson's "About to Leave" of his father shown here just before he moved back to Kenya, pictured through his living room window. Other shout outs to Tom Parker's picture of three Mongolian contortionist girls creating great shapes, Tamsyn Warde's picture of a small child, Benji, in a pub with his favour...

Innovative pop-up installation outside St Martin in the Fields by Female Invest, a website to promote financial learning and support for female investors. The work marked 50 years since women in the UK gained the right to open a bank account and get a mortgage or a credit card without the signature of a man. There was a very helpful lady with the work who explained this to me but it would have benefited from an information board to explain it as well as it was drawing a crowd. It consisted of a series of covered boxes, the lady described as seats, with labels on them naming inspirational women including those in the world of finance. You could add names to blank labels to be placed in the centre of the work. It was simple but effective. It made me realise I had benefited from this change when I opened my first bank account at 18 just a couple of years later even though I remember my father accompanying me to the bank for this historic moment partly I suspect as he was going to h...

Thought provoking exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ of three series of new work by Lisa Brice. I have come across Brice's work a number of times and love her cut back palette for works depicting female empowerment often quoting historical works and these didn't disappoint. My favourite pieces were those set in a bar, hung so the bar formed a horizon across the room. The figures at the top were reflected in the bar below. At first view they look like a party but as you look more closely there are sinister features like bottles on the bar waiting to be used as weapons and women holding the heads of men like a Renaissance Judith and Holofernes. Closed 20 December 2025 Review Times

Interesting exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of three sculptures by Cristina Iglesias. The works come from Iglesias series Littoral (Lunar Meteorite) which are evidently part of her ongoing exploration of geological themes. Made of bronze with matt and gloss surfaces, inside there is a water feature from an invisible source giving sound and movement to the work. The works looks stark in the white space but drew you in to investigate where the sound was coming from. Closed 20 December 2025