Cathy's Art Diary

Eclectic exhibition at Somerset House for these annual photography awards. I always look forward to this show. I thought this year’s felt sparse. There was only a small space for the open work which is usually the most fun plus each section just showed the winners and runners up. Again normally there are more entries shown. That being said, it did mean you saw more work by each photographer. I started with the west wing of the exhibition. There was some amazing work and you learn so much about the subjects too. There seems to be a lot of work from South America. Loved some pictures of wildlife in cities by Corly Arnold and a wonderful Cubist looking picture of silos by Mark Beham which looked constructed but was real. The east wing, by chance, seemed to have more abstracted work from aerial landscapes to pictures of a disused cement factory in China. There were also galleries showcasing the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, Rinko Kawauchi, which were p

Fun online award ceremony from Apollo Magazine. I’d not done an online awards before so thought I’d give it a go and enjoyed it. I poured myself a glass of wine and pretended I had dressed up! They were introduced by Fatema Ahmed, the acting editor of the magazine, with the usual listing of the short-listed entries and interviews with he winners. I was pleased how many of the short-listers I had heard speak recently or visited over the past year. So the winners were : Exhibition of the Year – Alice Neel: People Come First at the Metropolitan Museum. OK I’d not seen it but I had read a lot about it and would love to have gone. Museum Opening of the Year – Musee Carnavelet, Paris I’d not heard of this. It looks are the history of Paris and is in a refurbished Renaissance mansion so it’s now on my list of things to do. Book of the Year – Painting in Stone   by Fabio Barry. I listened to him in an online discussion the other week. Digital Innovation of the Year – NFTs enou

Intriguing exhibition at the Science Museum organised by the Royal Photographic Society of prize winning science photographs. The show had some lovely quotes around the walls on science and looking including from Proust “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new lands but in seeing with new eyes”. A lot of these pictures illustrated this by taking pictures from new angles or using photographic techniques to show something which couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. There were some astonishing images such as the attached by Norm Baker of a collection of gall stones and Kym Cox’ picture of a close up of a soap bubble. I also loved Viktor Sykora’s close up of a stage beetle. My only criticism was why the room was so cold when I went! It would have been nice to linger a bit longer over some of the images but you had to keep moving to keep warm. Closes 5 January 2020

Nice little exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showing the prize winners from their illustration awards for this year. Evidently this award has been running since 1972 but I must admit I’d not come across it before.   There were three categories book cover design, book illustration and illustrated journalism as well as a student award. The book illustration award has been won by “Heimat” by Nora Krug, a memoir of her journal investigating the lives of family members in Nazi Germany. It includes family photos and archive material brought together with illustrations to tell the story. It did make me want to read the book. The journalism award went to A. Richard Allen for a piece on the front page of the Money section of the Daily Telegraph. I loved the student award which went to Sophie Burrows’s wordless book which looked at loneliness in crowded places such as tube platforms. I have used a photograph of the book cover award work by Yehrin Tong to mark the 40th

Disappointing exhibition at Somerset House of the shortlisted pictures from this year’s Sony World Photography Award. I say disappointing because I usually love this show but I thought it felt a bit thin this year. It’s always an eclectic mix of professional portfolios and an open completion. I prefer the open section as it’s about single good pictures whereas the portfolios are more about the stories they are telling as a set. I sometimes feel the story is more important than the images.   Also can I make a plea for commentaries that talk about the context of the picture not the meaning of life! Stand out images this year include a large work by Christie Lee Rogers called “Harmony” of girls in swirling dresses floating underwater. It had a feel of a Baroque ceiling painting. I loved a quirky picture by Christine Mittermeher of a Chinese woman with a live goose on her head also a still life of broken china by Gaurav Doshi. This year’s featured photographer was Nadav Ka

Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was

Small exhibition at the Royal Academy to showcase the four finalists in this award which champions new talent in architecture that re-image the possible futures for architecture in a changing world. The show features innovative projects by the firms using photographs and models. I loved atelier masomi’s design for a market place in rural Niger which retained its original structure around an ancestral tree but provided new stalls using brightly coloured metal canopies to provide shade and brick stalls that cooled the space. Who could resist Bangkok Project Studio’s design for an elephant stadium and observation tower?   I loved the idea that the tower will weather to create an almost transparent structure and the large space where the animals can move freely as if in a forest. Closes 27 May 2029

Nice exhibition   at London Bridge Station of the winner and runners up in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018. I was delighted to find this show at London Bridge when catching a train as I’d missed it when it was at Waterloo. It is now touring the country so do check out the link and see if it’s coming to anywhere near you. I always like to see photography in public spaces and there were some lovely works in this show. I liked the fact it included townscapes as well as countryside and looked at details as well as big scenes. Highlights included Alex Wolfe-Warman’s aerial views of rows of terraced houses, Peter North’s stunning picture of raindrops on a washing line each reflecting a tree and Shaun Quilter’s long view of the Peak District. Closes on 10 March 2019

Interesting exhibition at the National Maritime Museum of the 31 prize winning entries in this completion for astronomical photographs and highlights entries from the previous three years. The categories in this competition and therefore themes in this show were clearly laid out. The pictures were beautiful displayed as back lit images on light boxes and each picture included good commentaries with a quote from the photographs and another from a judge. There were also technical details of how the picture was taken for the geeks. I tended to prefer the works which included some reference to the earth or people. The deep space images were fascinating but as images looked like abstract art and were hard to understand. My highlights included Mark McNeil’s of the sky through a gap in Hadrian’s Wall with a real sense of the ancient about it and Andrew Whyte’s of the Milky Way over a housing estate in Sussex. However my favourite was Brad Goldpaint’s of a rocky valley in Utah

Delightful exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum showing the finalists of the Women’ Hour Craft Prize which was run to mark the 70th anniversary of the radio programme. The work was an eclectic collection from Caren Hartley’s handmade bicycles to exquisite delicate boxes by Romily Saumarez-Smith based on found objects. Some of the work seemed more to be like art works than a craft work such as Phoebe Cummings’ temporary sculptures made from raw clay which I loved. I do though think of craft as the making of an object which has a longer term use and life. Closed on 5 February 2018. Review Evening Standard  

Small exhibition at the Bodleian Library for this annual book binding competition. The theme this year was heroic works and there were some lovely examples. Quite often the binding picked up the story in the book others were just beautiful covers. I loved Tom McEwan’s binding in purple goatskin with gold patterning. Also Troy Moore’s “Alice in Wonderland” which was a bottle with a copy of the book on a tiny scroll inside and of course a label saying “Drink me”. My favourite though was Sylvester Pacura’s cover for “The Golden Legend” which had a tooled stained glass window in the leather binding. Closed on 20 August 2017

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House presenting the prize winners in the World Illustration Awards organised by the Association of Illustrators. I have been to the show before and am always amazed by the range of work on show through books, posters, information boards, stamps and wine labels. The works are arranged in the eight categories of the competition. I liked the way the exhibition showed the illustrations and then showed how they had been used in cases in the centre of the rooms. I loved a picture by Lisk Feng of a woman in a boat wearing a big hat pictured from above and Neil Webb’s design for Agatha Christie stamps. I was integrated by Joast Swarte’s pictures for a children’s book on artists related to the De Stiyl movement which seemed an odd idea. My favourite was Peter Greenwood’s poster for the Great Western Railway V150 train with its carriages made up of London landmarks. Closes on 28 August 2017  

Delightful exhibition at the Natural History Museum of the shortlisted entries in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. There were 100 images arranged in broad categories. The pictures were well displayed, back lit in a large format. Some of the works were amazing studies of patience with the photographers waiting weeks or months to get the shot they want. Each picture has a good commentary telling you about how and where it was taken. There were so many good images it’d hard to pick favourites. I’d include “The Alley Cat” by Nayan Khanolkor of a leopard in an enclosed alley looking right into the camera. Also the work used on the poster of a fox peeping over a wall called “Nosey Neighbour” by Sam Hobson. I liked the gruesome picture of the aftermath of a wildebeest stampede where the dead beasts are being eaten by hyenas and I smiled at “Puddle of Procreation” by Cyril Ruoso of randy frogs as my screen saver is a picture I took of happy frogs in a pond

Interesting and varied exhibition at Somerset House of the shortlisted winners in these years’ Sony World Photography Awards. I always enjoy this show for the snapshots it gives of different worlds and stories as well as for the great photographs that creates. All the pictures are displayed beautifully treating them like paintings. I like the open competition rooms but wish more those pictures had more detailed labels to tell the stories behind the pictures. Themes which emerged for me this year were work from and about China and one which looked at the Syrian/Libyan refugee crisis’s. Pictures which stood out for me included Yuan Peng’s pictures of twin Chinese gymnasts. I loved the one of them working on a bar suspended in space with expressions of pain and concentration. I two joyous pictures,   Benjamino Pisati’s of a baptism in Georgia and Tasneem Aisultan’s of an Arabic woman tossing her son in the air. This year’s outstanding contribution award went to Martin Pa

Fascinating exhibition at Somerset House of the short listed candidates for these illustration awards. It’s always interesting to see the diversity of places where illustrations are used. I loved Rose Gray’s picture of women looking out from a tall building at a city in shades of brown. Also Andy Tuohy’s Great Modern Artists A-Z, pictures of modern artists in their own styles as book illustrations. I particularly liked the Mondrian. The most exquisite pictures were stamp designs of bees by Richard Lewington but my favourite picture was Anna + Elena = Balbusso Twins’ of Richard II for the cover of his Penguin Monarchs Series. It was a new take on the old Westminster Abbey portrait. Closes on 29 August 2016

Interesting exhibition at the Photographers’  Gallery for the shortlisted entries in this annual photography prize awarded to a photographer for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format. My favourite section was by Erik Kessels which explored the relationship between him and his father via the work his father did to refurbish a car. He photographed every element of the car and the work done on it including making a new wooden steering wheel. The centre of the display was the part finished car in the state it was in when his father died. The installation looked at memory and loss and was very moving. Laura El-Tantawy’s installation was based on her book of photographs looking at rising tensions in Egypt and consistent of one static screen and others of rolling images. Trevor Paglen, who won the prize, examined mass surveillance and data collection but I admit I didn’t really understand the commentary and how the works hung together. Finally Tobia Zielong h

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House shortlisted entries for this global award in photography and sustainability with the theme this year of disorder. There were some beautiful images. Oddly enough two photographers played with the idea of the classic still life. Valerie Belin drew on vanitas and momento mori paintings but using modern decorative but functionless mass produced articles. Ori Gersht played with floral still lives doing photos of flower arrangements being blown up. I saw a work by him at the Science Museum and they are very striking as bits of roses appear to fly towards you. Many of the works were very hard hitting and moving such as Alixandra Fazzina’s picture of Somali refugees wading out to a boat to take them to Yemen the title of which records that only 11 of them arrived alive. My favourite was a stunning picture of a man neck deep in water by Gideon Mendel which is part of a project called Drowning World in which he travels to flooded area to

Excellent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of the wining pictures in this year’s BP Portrait Award. This was one of the best years for a while of this annual exhibition. For the first time candidates were able to submit work digitally with only the shortlist having to show the real works. Whether this widened the pool of entrants, and there were certainly more overseas entrees, or whether more abstract pictures didn’t work so well digitally I’m not sure but the works tended to be more realistic and a better quality. It’s hard to pick a favourite out of so many good pictures. I loved Sam Goldofsky’s picture of David Jon Kassan, an Auschwitz survivor, with his tattooed number showing on lovely wrinkled arms. Also a pair of portraits by Leslie Watts “Charlotte and Emily”, Renaissance style pictures of her daughter and her partner. I liked Nancy Fletcher’s matching pictures of Hamish and Sophie Forsyth which they commissioned after meeting the artist at the 2012 sho

Inspiring exhibition at the Design Museum of nominees in the Design of the Year completion with six categories of architecture, fashion, digital, product, graphics and transport. There was a wonderful array of great ideas! My favorites this year included the new take on a kettle which was a rod you put in a cup on a heat conducting pad which boiled water for you, or I think that’s my understanding of it! Most inspiring was a toilet for developing world which could be put in areas with no water supply. These seemed to produce water for washing hands and the waste product could be collected and made into fertilizer and other products. Fun ideas included a street light which records shadow patterns of people passing beneath and replays them. These are already around in Bristol and there was a delightful film of people dancing with other people’s shadows and devising things they could do to create weird shadows.   Things I was not so convinced by included a building in Au

Thought provoking exhibition for the second Syngenta Photography Award at Somerset House focusing on scarcity and waste to spark dialogue about our changing planet. I am not usually very interested in climate change issues, sorry I know I should be, but this really got me thinking about the contrast of not having enough of something causing problems while in other areas having too much is the issue!   The quotes around the rooms were as interesting as the pictures such as the fact that in less than two hours the waste produced by the UK could fill the Albert Hall. The pictures of unplanned industrialisation in developing countries was interesting.   It’s great that these countries have developed heavy industries but the cost of doing this in an unplanned unregulated way are shocking such as the sand mining in West Bengal. I was horrified by the city of Cerro de Pasco in Peru which is surrounded by an open pit mine which is expanding and eroding the city. Striking pict