Cathy's Art Diary

Monumental exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of work by Jenny Saville. I love Saville’s work and it was dramatic to see so much of it together. The work is on a monumental scale. At first view it can be quite brutal but the more you look the more beautiful it appears and the clearer the detail becomes. I particularly liked the multi-figure works and the blending of different coloured flesh. Closed 7 September 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard    

Lovely summer iteration at Woolwich Works of this contemporary print fair. This was a sparser show than the winter version however it was all the better for that. There was some gallery representation but in the whole the more open stalls were for individual artists or collectives and in many cases there were local artists. It was also nice that the artists were there and up for a chat as it was quiet. Shout outs go to Melanie Bellis’s urban landscapes, Lucille Clerc’s botanical works and Maxine Gregson’s vintage collages. My favourite was this print of a train by Rebecca Choi. I felt you would always see new things in it. C losed 29 June 2025

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...

Fun exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery looking at the work of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. There were just two display cases but they featured a good cross section from her collections over the years including a suit worn by Holly Johnson. As they were at the end of the design gallery the display was quite cramped and it was hard to step back and look at the outfits or to read the labels. Closes 17 October 2025

Strange but beautiful exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery marking Graham Crowley winning the John Moores Painting Prize in 2023. Crowley had entered the prize 16 times over the years and had been shortlisted twice as well as being a juror. He won in 2023 and part of the prize was to have this display which was focused on his painting "Light Industry" which the gallery bought in 2021. All the works were in cadmium yellow and grey and yet they were amazingly detailed. They all showed his workshops, studios and gardens, all areas of creativity for him. They were slightly dazzling en mass but I loved the effect. He is in essence painting the light and shadow of the place. Closed 13 July 2025

Interesting exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery bringing together ceramics by the comedian Johnny Vegas and ceramicist Emma Rodgers. Vegas did a degree in art and ceramics and has returned to the studio three decades after he graduated. Having met Rodgers at the gallery their joint show explores ideas of mental and physical metamorphosis. I loved Vegas's piece "Broken Angel" in which an angel cradles her broken wing. I would like to know more about his method as this appeared to be a 3D print. I'm not sure why I feel differently about this than say a bronze which is also a reproduction of another piece. Rodgers work shows more of the hand of the maker. Closed 27 June 2025

Touching exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool marking the closing of Goodison Park, the Everton football stadium. The club are moving to a new ground on the banks of the Mersey at the start of the new season and the museum marked this with a display of photographs of match day rituals and activities in the surrounding streets. I loved this one of a man eating his regular chips on a wall. I hope he finds a new wall soon. Closes 21 September 2025    

Moving exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the work of Do Ho Suh. Walk the House is a South Korean saying which Suh takes to describe how we carry multiple places with us across space and time. This show examines art works he has made from and about his homes in South Korea, London and New York. I found the idea of us carrying the places we have lived deeply moving and the way he represents them delicate and touching. From the rubbing he made of his childhood home I was hooked. The show made you slow down and reflect. At the heart of the exhibition was a tunnel of spaces from his houses and flats made of diaphanous material. From the installation photographs I had assumed they were neon but they are much subtler than I expected. I loved the light effect within them but also the attention to detail like this electric plug. Reading the blurb I discovered he has measured all the spaces he has lived in in order to carry them with him and reproduce them. I loved the blend of imagi...

Disorientating exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the pioneers of electronic art. It was too much for me as I suspected it would be. Too many flashing lights and playing with perception.   The labels were quite convoluted plus hard to read with the flashing and I just couldn’t engage. I did like Jesus Rafael Soto’s “Cardinal” which hung rods in front of lines to appear 2D from the front, although 3D in reality, and Lilliane Lijn’s “Bride” however I just couldn’t stay very long in any of the installation style rooms. Oh well I tried! Closed 1 June 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard  

Welcome return of Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider sculpture to Tate Modern to mark 25 years since it was the first art work to greet visitors to the then newly opened gallery. I don’t remember seeing the work at the time so this was a lovely opportunity to fill that gap. It suits the space on the bridge of the Turbine Hall beautifully. This is a lovely way to mark the anniversary. Entitled “Maman” I hadn’t realised the sculpture includes a sack of eggs which seems to give it an infinite future. Closes 25 August 2025

Fun exhibition at the Tithe Barn in Lenham of work by artists in the Pilgrims' Way Artists group. We went along as a friend was showing there, the sculpture Eve Shepherd, and it was good to see her work in a different setting. Alongside her were some lovely painters including Claire Sparkes with delicate figurative work and Heidi Laughton's landscapes. It was also worth the trip to see the venue, an original medieval barn, and there was a nice welcome not least from a lovely black Labrador. Closed 26 May 2025  

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Masons’ Yard of lead works by Antony Gormley. In just a few sculptures the show charts the artist’s experimentations with lead between the 1970s and 1990s. I had seen some of the pieces before over the years. Upstairs were the smaller works but the more striking pieces were the full sized body works shown in the basement which looked impressive in the large white space. I loved that you could walk among them but it was a shame this wonderful standing figure with a girder for a head had to be guarded by four attendants. Closed 8 June 2025 Review Guardian

Surprising exhibition at the Royal Academy of drawings by the author Victor Hugo. I’d gone along on the basis I try to see everything but wasn’t expecting a lot, however I was blown away. There was an odd mix of works of amazing draftsmanship and surprisingly experimental and abstract work. It made me think of William Blake. I think my favourites were the detailed, accurate works including this amazing chain. I also liked the atmospheric castles. I loved that the first work was this cartoon called “The Art Lover” and here we ask were. Closed 29 June 2025 Reviews Times Telegraph Evening Standard  

Confusing exhibition at the Royal Academy, one of a series of three showcasing the work of 2nd year students in the schools. I have found all these shows annoying for the lack of information about the work. It’s often conceptual in nature and needs some explanation. It might cope with that if it was beautiful but on the whole it hasn’t been. This one took the biscuit as they had run out of the handout, not that it is that useful, so I didn’t even know which work was by which student. By checking the website I think I worked out that these striking paintings are by Djofray Makumbu and that possibly the small model is for an animation and is therefore by Zachariah Riley but if so it might have been nice to see one of his animations to put it in context. As for the other work presumably by Katrina Cowling and Joshua Fay who knows which was which. I rather liked a mechanical wave of corn which I thought was quite witty and the fact the arch of the staircase had been encased in fabri...

Interesting exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey showcasing the life and career of the sculptor Richard Hunt. I had not consciously come across Hunt’s work before which surprised me as he had been so prolific in America. The show started with an enlightening timeline of his life and I was impressed at how he broke down many barriers for a black artist. The worked looked good, if a bit sparse, in the large white space. I found it quite graphic in its style so it was interesting to see his drawings shown with the large sculptures. Closed 29 June 2025

Disappointing exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the role of textiles in history and society. It was disappointing as this was a huge topic to cover and might have worked better as a series of more focused shows on particular materials, eras or geographical areas. In trying to do it all it became muddled. There were some beautiful objects but as the narrative was unclear the labels became very long to describe the item and tie to a topic. It’s a shame as this museum normally presents much more precise shows. Closes 7 September 2025

Stunning exhibition at Eames Fine Art of the complete set of prints by Salvador Dali for Dante’s   Inferno. I think I had seen these once before in Barcelona but it was real treat to find them again on a walk along Bermondsey Street. The works have a real sense of being by Dali but respond sympathetically to the text. Sadly the planned book was never printed but the prints stand as an art work on their own. Closed 18 May 2025

Witty exhibition in the sales gallery of the Photographers’ Gallery of new work by Alma Haser. Haser explores the quirks of German idioms, their origins and often unexpected English translations by creating literal sculptures and collages of the words. These create fun works often with sausage-based translations which do make you think about words. Closed 22 June 2025  

Engaging exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery showcasing the work of documentary photographer, Peter Mitchell. The work focuses on the transformation of Northern England and was shown here to reflect several series of work. I found the work drew me in and I’d liken it to the work of Martin Parr for its wry look at people and life. I loved a series recording a ghost-ride which visited Leeds every year and a clever set “A New Refutation of the Viking 4 Space Mission” from 1979 comparing urban landscape to the exploration of Mars. I think my favourites were a poignant set recording the demolition of the Quarry Hill Flats in Sheffield. Closed 15 June 2025 Review Guardian    

Intriguing exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery using AI to interrogate archive photographs. It takes the archive of Cecil Rhodes, the miner and Imperialist, held at the University of Oxford and shows how applying AI learning to them to create single shot films enhances the original prejudices as AI replies on the data it finds in the original source. Planetary Portals (Casper Laing Ebbensgaard, Kerry Holden, Michael Salu & Kathryn Yusoff) is a research group that delves into imperial archives to produce critical cartographies. It made me think more generally about how AI works and how it can distort information rather than clarifying it. Closed 15 June 2025