Cathy's Art Diary

Gentle exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of the results of a project with schools looking at how areas of natural convergence create unique biodiversity and how this is reflected in interacting communities. I admit I didn’t get that meaning from the show but it consisted of pale, gentle art works created over time by two schools. I loved the tent with books in it but most exciting was that this usually dark space was transformed by exposing the beautiful windows. Closed 26 May 2024

Interesting exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery by artist and experimental music producer Andrew Pierre Hart. The show consisted of a mural, paintings and a video drawing on Whitechapel history as a home for migrant communities. Having walked through the area earlier in the day I felt it had captured the sense of the place well. The paintings were a mix of two figurative works with some abstract pieces seeking to capture the sound of the place visually. The video was of dancers performing in the streets with a sound composition with could be felt as well as heard via a speaker system in the seating area. A novel addition to video art. Closed 7 July 2024  

Strange exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of work by Zineb Sedira. I say strange as Sedira has created a series of film sets based on films from the 60s and 70s as well as elements of her own life. I think the idea is that the viewer interacts with them but when I visited it was quiet and people were there on their own or in pairs which is not conducive to interaction. That said I liked the quiet yet dramatic nature of the week. I had seen most of the pieces at the Venice Biennale two years ago when Sedira featured in the French Pavilion. Ironically, I partly came to see this show to see the work with less people but realised it works better with more. Closed 12 May 2024 Review Guardian

Baffling exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery on the poet and artist Anna Mendelssohn. I admit I didn’t really understand the poetry or the art and the commentary which said Mendelssohn, also known as Grace Lake, was interested in the “the socio-historical mechanisms which influence the creation and destruction of language in public and private spheres” didn’t really help me. I was interested however to see the show was based on her archive which has been given to the University of Sussex. Closed 21 January 2024    

Interesting little exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of contemporary work using or referencing threads. Curated by the 2023 class of Whitechapel Gallery and LSBU’s MA in Curating Art and Public Programmes the show featured work from individual artists and created as part of community projects in the run up to the show. I must admit I didn’t understand them all but I liked Tilda Scarlett’s bright installation of weaving and old furniture and Katarzyna Perlak’s handkerchiefs embroidered with well-known sayings. Closed 14 January 2024    

Intriguing exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of the work of Nicole Eisenman. I had not come across the work of this American artist before and found it odd but engaging. I was interested in how she often referenced older works like quoting Brueghel’s “The Blind Leading the Blind” in one picture. I often found myself laughing out loud which always feels an odd thing to do in a gallery. I found it strange that a lot of her work seemed to quote Philip Guston with its pink, chubby fingered, one-eyed characters and yet this was never mentioned. I preferred the paintings to the sculpture but did find they worked well together. I loved the last room with a sculptural installation incorporating a figure using a working potter’s wheel. I could have watched it for hours. Closed 14 January 2024 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph    

Peaceful installation at the Whitechapel Gallery by Korean-Canadian artist Zadie Xa. At the centre of the work was a fabric structure inspired by a traditional Korean home known as a hanok. Around the top were small sculptures called kkoktu which are used in Korean funerary rituals to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. Other pieces including beautiful hanging cloaks and jackets are meant to lead you through the space. I didn’t really understand the commentary to the work other than that it represents power, home and belonging but I did find it a lovely calming, chill out space at the end of a number of vibrant exhibitions I’d already done at the gallery. Closed 30 April 2023

Eclectic exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of objects and archive material relating to the shared life and experiences of artists Delaine Le Bas and her late husband Damian Le Bas and their perspective as English Romani Gypsy Travellers. This was arranged like an installation with a mix of objects making up collages and interior settings. I loved the way drawings had been enlarged to cover the windows. I’d not seen that done in the archive space before. I loved the addition of a working record player and a selection of records the artists had played. It felt nostalgic to spin a single again. It was a wonderful way to show two lives and careers. I didn’t know either of their work but I’ll be looking out for it. Closed 31 May 2023

Strange space/installation at the Whitechapel Gallery exploring what public space should feel like.   This was an immersive environment created by Duchamp & Sons, Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, and London-based artist Gaby Sahhar, to be used to think about and discuss public space. It was full of comfortable sofas and everyday objects and people had been encouraged to write ideas in a pin board and on the walls. I’m not sure that it had morphed into a public space I wanted to inhabit for long. It looked more like my lounge on a bad day, except for the scribbling on the walls, or a trendy bar. Closed 7 May 2023  

Sister exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery to their main show on female abstract expressionist painters looking at women artists who use their bodies to express similar themes. Taking the dancer Martha Graham as a starting point, the show used film and photographs to highlight performance art by women. After the colour of the previous show I found it hard to calm my brain down to these small black and white works but there were some interesting projects I will look out for. I liked this work by Annegret Soltau in which, over 6 prints, a photo of her was obliterated with gestural brushstrokes. It could have been a metaphor for the women in the previous show. My favourite was Niki de Saint Phall’s “Shooting Pictures” where she hung balloons of pigment on a painting then shot them. This was shown via a Pathe Film of her. Closed 7 May 2023    

Colourful and interesting exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of work by female abstract expressionists. This was a well researched, bold show but I have to admit I didn’t warm to the art. It’s not a style I like but I did find this work less egotistical than their male counterparts. It was a truly international show with works by artists from all over the world but after a while this felt a little forced. I did learn about some fascinating women and am surprised that they have been largely forgotten as there seemed to be two power couples, Lee Krasner and Elaine and William de Kooning at the heart of the movement as well as an influential female gallery owner Betty Parsons.   I did find the work colourful and decorative but I just don’t respond emotionally to it. Closed 7 May 2023 Reviews Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Wonderful exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery examining how artists studios have developed and been used over the last 100 years. The show looked at studios as private and public space and was then divided into interesting topics such as the studio as performance space, as a collective space, as a place for research and experimentation and as a sanctuary. There was a wonderful selection of paintings and I am a sucker for a picture of a studio. There were also good photos and archive material. An amazing array of artists were represented from some of the greats of the 20th century such as Picasso, Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon as well as some lesser known ones who I will now look out for and a good selection of contemporary artists. There were a number of recreations of studios and this was good way of bringing the idea alive. Imagine my surprise at turning a corner and finding the fireplace of the Charleston studio,. The painted surround was there along with the objects from ...

Dense exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery by their archive department looking at three commercial galleries from the 1960s and 1970s which helped to transform the art scene. I wish I had known more about these galleries before I saw the show then I might have been more excited. It was quite text heavy with invitations, press reports etc and thickly displayed. The labels were often quite a long way from the objects so I found it quite hard to follow their stories. The galleries were the Robert Fraser Gallery which Bridget Riley premiered in the UK and where private views often became happenings, Wide White Space which transformed a domestic space into a hub for conceptual artists and Just Above Midtwon (JAM) in New York which represented African American artists and offered a community space for them. C loses 22 August 2022

Eclectic exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of a selection of work from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Paulina Olowska, a Polish contemporary artist, had selected these works from the collection of Christen Sveaas who has collected painting by Norwegian and international artists as well as antique silver and glass. Olowska was inspired by the largest travel agency in Poland, Orbis, which is known for its iconic travel posters, to look at how the collection reflects travel. I’m not sure I always saw the link with travel in the works but it was a bright, colourful selection of work. I’m afraid I don’t remember a lot of it now and my notes are a bit illegible and don’t give me much a clue but I do remember some vibrant works including that shown here by the curator of the show. Closes 8 May 2022

Strange installation at The Whitechapel Gallery of new work by contemporary artists Simone Fattal. There were some lovely works but I’m not sure I understood how they hung together. The commentary said there were “elements of an ancient landscape” but I’m not sure I got that. I liked the ceramic figures and how they related to the brick, kiln like walls. I liked this tower of bricks and how the exhibition related to their major show at the time of the work of Theaster Gates. Closes 19 June   2022  

Beautiful exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of a selection of work from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Ida Ekbland, a Norwegian contemporary artist, had selected these works from the collection of Christen Sveaas who has collected painting by Norwegian and international artists as well as antique silver and glass. Ekbland look at first line of a poem by W.H. Auden as their starting point and explores moonlit interiors and landscapes and how they “frame dreams, dramas and transgressions”.   I’m not sure how all the works fit this concept but there were some beautiful pieces and it was an interesting way of picking works from a collection to display. There were works be wellknown artists such as Giorgio de Chirico, Howard Hodgkin, Edvard Munch and Louise Bourgeois alongside artists I hadn’t come across before. I loved Per Krohg’s picture of a girl reading from 1916 and in the same vein a Freud like portrait of a girl by Christian Schad Tyskland from 1935. I was also dra...

Interesting installation at the Whitechapel Gallery by Yoko Ono. This work had first been presented as part of an exhibition in 1966 at the Indica Gallery. The idea draws on the Japanese concept of kintsugi, the repair of broken pottery with lacquer missed with gold and silver. There were tables laid out with broken white pottery, scissors, glue, strong and Sellotape. The idea was that you sat and ‘mended. The pot but in practice you made a new sculptural object which were then displayed on the shelves around the room. Part of the idea was that the mindful act of mending also mends the mind. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to sit and join in but I did admire the idea and the array of shapes around the room. Closed 2 January 2022 Reviews Guardian Evening Standard  

Fascinating exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery of work by the contemporary artist Theaster Gates. I confess I didn’t know Gates work so I found the introduction boards really helpful. He mainly works in clay quoting Isiah 64:8 which likens God and humanity to a potter and his clay. Gates himself said “as a potter you learn how to shape the world”. He has founded the Rebuild Foundation to rejuvenate his neighbourhood in Chicago where he trains potters. T he show started with a historic display of ceramics from his Stony Island Arts Bank, many linked to colonialism and global trade, and including items made by Gates. I was particularly interested to see works by Dave the Potter, recognized as the first enslaved potter to inscribe his work.   There was an excellent video of him talking about his work and clips of him working in his studio as well an inviting musicians in to play there. The upstairs room showed new work, such as that pictured here, made during a reside...

Quirky installation at the Whitechapel Gallery by Indian artist Nalini Malani. The immersion work consisted of animations projected simultaneously on all the walls gallery based on hand-drawn images and fragments of text with a subtle soundscape. The effect was of moving graffiti. You weren’t quite sure where to look to get all the effect. Evidently it is based on thoughts following the murder of a child in India but I didn’t get that and am not sure you need to know what it is about to appreciate it. Closes 5 September 2021  

Fascinating small exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery on the women involved with the surrealist movement. It took as its starting point Sheila Legge show stood in Trafalgar Square on 11 June 1936 with her head covered in red roses to launch the International Surrealism Exhibition and them discussed the other women who were involved with that show and Artists International Association show in 1939. The women of this movement are often overshadowed by the men but this show highlighted the female artists political campaigners, committee secretaries and organisers. Along the way I met some amazing characters such as Grace Pailthorpe who had been an surgeon in the First World War, a criminologist and an artist. I loved the fact the show included the receipt book of the 1936 exhibition as well as committee minutes. The centre piece of the show was a lovely miniature recreation of the 1936 show by Corelia Hughes showing both rooms of the show complete with Legge in her roses and Salv...