Cathy's Art Diary

Neat little exhibition at the Royal Academy of preparatory drawings for Lubiana Himid’s large installation work. The large work of 100 cut out figures is in the “Entangled Lands” show in the other side of the building. Each figure represents an imagined, forgotten Black figure with a rhyme on the back about who character had been and who they were made to become. It’s a work I have seen parts of many times. These preparatory studies paired a sketch with a collaged version of a figure. They were in the same bright palette of the final work and it was interesting to see her working through ideas. I was interested to see that this was Himid’s diploma work on her admission to the academy. Closes 16 June 2024  

Interesting exhibition at Glyndebourne by Lubaina Himid. Himid draws on her love of opera to respond to the current season at the opera house. Himid trained as a theatre designer before turning to art and grew up listening to opera records owned by her grandfather. The centrepiece, which is also the cover of the season's programme, looks at what love sounds like combine the title with an abstract piece based on the structure of the ear. This was combined with some of her signature pieces painted on the inside of draws. The commentary says she images the portraits are people involved in the operas. Himid has also done paintings inspired by the operas in the current season which are used in the programme to introduce each work which I think are on display in another venue. I must investigate as I am due to go again! Closes 27 August 2023 Review Guardian    

Thoughtful exhibition at Cristea Roberts of new work by Lubiana Himid. These were a fascinating blend of painting and screen printing presenting focused images from Hogarth print series. Himid had painted the canvas with a colourful abstract which was then overprinted with etching ink passed through silkscreens to a layered surface.   I loved the way sometimes the print affect used the positive version of a Hogarth print but at others the negative. Also the way she picked very specific deals which made me see things in the image I’d not noticed before such as an auction lot number on a figure a young black boy sorts through in a Marriage a la Mode print. It was an aesthetically pleasing and thoughtful way to comment on the images. Closed 22 April 2023    

Enlightening online interview from the Art Fund with contemporary artists Lubaina Himid. Himid was interviewed by Zoe Whitney, director of the Chisham Hill Gallery and former phd student of Himid to mark the current exhibition of her work at Tate Modern. They discussed her work in detail including the current show and a work for the New York High Line in 2019. It was fascinating to hear Himid say how she doesn’t fee a piece of work has been finished until it’s been seen by an audience and how she likes to revisit shows to see how people are interacting with the work. They talked about HImid’s early life and how she was influenced by her textile designing mother who took her around art galleries, museums and department stores looking for inspiration for her work but also discussing what they were looking at. The Q&A session was lively with good questions which widened the discussion through what effect winning the Turner Prize had had, what responses to her art had she had wh...

Interesting exhibition at Tate Modern of work by Lubaina Himid, winner of the Turner Prize in 2017. The show was shaped around a series of questions about how the built environment, history, personal relationships and conflict shape our lives and is envisaged as a series of scenes in a theatrical performance. I like was interested in the concepts that were presented but didn’t always engage with the art. strangely for me, I preferred the conceptual work to the paintings. Of the paintings I loved an abstract picture of the sea and some portraits of men mounted in upturned drawers. I liked “The Jelly Mould Project” in which she had decorated Victorian jelly moulds to point at the role of sugar in the transatlantic trade and the growth of British cities. They were originally shown in shops across Liverpool and I would love to have seen them in that setting. I also liked the cut outs, shown here, which are a revised version of Hogarth’s “Marriage-a-la-Mode” put into the context of t...

Small exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the art of Lubaina Himid. The show looked at the common theme in her work of women together including how textile becomes a secret yet visible language between women. I loved a collage inspired by a Picasso of two women joyfully walking dogs who have escaped.   I love Himid’s vivid used of colour. My favourite piece was a painted piano lid called “Chopin’s Heart” shades of the Pre-Raphaelites except it was no longer attached to the piano. Closes 26 April 2020

Fascinating talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival by Turner Prize Winner Lubaina Himid.   The chair, Jennifer Higgie, led Himid though her career with intelligent questions leading her to talk about her early role as a curator and the importance of arts centre to the cultural scene through to the experience of winning the Turner Prize last year.   Himid talked in detail about her work Naming the Money, one hundred cut outs of black servants with trades some of which I had been lucky to see in Liverpool last year.   They also discussed how Himid is more interested in placing her work in museum spaces than commercial galleries and making work to fill the gaps in collections. She also touched on why it is important to her to be based in north of England and to have her studio as part of her living space.   All in all great opportunity to hear a leading contemporary artist talk about their life and work and lovely to find that Him...

Interesting exhibition at the Walker Art in Liverpool of work by contemporary artist Lubaina Himid. The core of the show was a selection of work made by Himid of work by women from the Walker Gallery’s own collections which used a sculpture of Henry Longfellow by Edmonia Lewis as the starting point. The selection included work by Nina Hamnett, Prunella Clough and Tacita Dean. These sculptures were shown with Himid’s watercolour series “Scenes from the Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture”. Toussaint was a Haitian leader of the only successful slave uprising in the Caribbean. The pictures were delightful and read like a cartoon strip. Best though was a wonderful series of colourful, life-sized cut-out figures which were scattered around the gallery which were part of an installation called “Naming the Money” which show examine how European’s showed their wealth and power by using African’s as slaves. They were placed to open up a conversation with the art around them and to m...