Cathy's Art Diary

Ugly exhibition at the ICA showing casing the work of new and recent fine art graduates. There was very little which was attractive about this show. There were a lot of strange badly produced paintings and installation/sculptures which looked more like piles of rubbish. In its defence a lot of the work was conceptual but the labels were minimal. Unless it’s obvious I think conceptual art needs some explanation to help the audience appreciate the thinking and process behind it. If a work is produced (and I’m making this up) by adding one empty tin can to a pile for every time the BBC mentioned Brexit then it has some meaning if you don’t know that it’s a pile of dirty old tin cans. So rant about conceptual art over, there were some things I liked, but not many! I liked “The King” by Jamie Fitzpatrick, a large wax figure on a plinth of a fallen king. I’m not sure what all the extra heads were about but I loved the one on the back with a mechanic jaw which clicked away every ...

Bemusing exhibition at the ICA of work by artists emerging from UK art schools. The show could do with a bit more commentary on the works. I found few of them aesthetically pleasing but I was willing to read a bit more about them to try to engage but there was little more than titles. Just give me clue! I quite liked Scott Lyman’s “Folly/Monument” which looked like a mini triumphal arch in pale pink but I have no idea why a video of the “Swimming Pool Library” was being shown inside it. I also liked Conor Rogers beautiful miniatures on unusual objects such as a dog looking out from under a gate on the back of a cigarette box. Most noticeable was reference to some strange materials being used! I give you testosterone powder on one work. Any ideas? Also one work described as “heat manipulated crocheted yarn and concrete”, yes please let’s have more of that! Closes on 24 January 2016. Review Evening Standard

Eclectic exhibition at the ICA showing work by promising artists emerging from art schools picked by established artists. I am cheating slightly with this as I have already seen and reviewed the show when I was in Liverpool but I thought it would be interesting to see it again in another venue and see if different works stood out. In the end the works I had liked before I still liked and the one’s I hadn’t liked I seemed to blank from my mind because I didn’t recognize them but still didn’t like them! There was a lot of rather shoddy painting and slightly odd sculpture as well as a room of video art which, as in Liverpool, I couldn’t be bothered to engage with. A lot of contemporary art seems to be about making a mess and then giving it a name! As before I loved Bee Flowers called “Flow Body I” an art nouveaux plaque but this time it was being mugged by a neon grafitti style animal with a loud swearing sound track. Poor Body Flow sat there elegantly next to it, in a ...

Annual touring exhibition currently at the World Museum Liverpool which seeks to show emerging talent in the contemporary art world. This was a nicely arranged show with screens of video art round the edge and painting and sculpture in the middle. The quality was a bit mixed and I am afraid while going round a show I don’t really have the time or inclination to watch 20 plus video works. My favourite work was an Art Nouveau style wall plaque by Bee Flowers called “Flow Body I”. It was a really beautiful elegant piece and therefore slightly out of place!   I also liked Rachael Crowder’s “How to dress” which consistent of a silk flag with a male torso on being blown gentle by a fan and grapes. I’m not sure I understand but it was rather lovely. Although I have been rude about the video art I did like Marco Godoy’s work as you came in which set slogans from Madrid rallies to music by Purcell and sung in a theatre by the Echo Protest Choir!