Cathy's Art Diary

Eclectic exhibition at various venues around the city of Liverpool of contemporary art taking inspiration from the bedrock of the city. OK I admit I am slightly cheating on this one! I was in the city for a Springsteen concert and left on the day before the show opened however I saw a couple of previews and some of the works which had already gone up in the streets so I am allowing myself to blog it! My first find was a sculpture by Anna Gonzalez-Noguchi outside the Open Eye Gallery referencing exotic plants which were imported into the city. I loved their tactile element with pieces which turned and dangled. At the Walker Art Gallery I loved Isabel Nolan's wall carpets in bright colours but my favourite pieces were Cevdet Erek's models of football stadium shown like picture frames. As I'd been at Anfield the night before and am fascinated by frames this pushed my buttons. I also liked Leasho Johnson's dense colourful paintings. Thanks to a chat to a gallery as...

Eclectic exhibition at the Bluecoat in Liverpool using work which has been displayed at the Bluecoat to reflect on the history of the building in its 300th year. There was an interesting section on damage to the building starting with a print of the building under construction and including a picture of the damage to it in the Blitz and photographs of a fire in 2008. Also a section on the Sandon Studios Society which were based in the building in the early 20th century which included a pastiche of “When Did You Last See Your Father?” by Donald Lynch showing the Sandon Committee viewing contemporary art with two paintings shown in the picture shown alongside it. I loved some still lives by Edward Carter Preston, one of the Sandon artists, who also designed the Dead Man’s Penny, a plaque given to the families of soldiers who died in the First World War. The show also included Epstein’s “Genesis”, a controversial statue shown at the Bluecoat in 1931 when nearly 50,000 pa...