SOUTHAMPTON, UK — The British artist Tom Dale works at a time when speed has lost its innocence.
Mark Sheerin
Mark Sheerin is an art writer from the UK. He also contributes to Culture24 and Frame & Reference, together with his own blog Criticismism. In 2012 he appeared in Nature, a volume in the series Documents of Contemporary Art from Whitechapel/MIT.
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With Tech, Satisfying a Need for Artistic Speed
BRIGHTON, UK — Attempting an interview with Chicks on Speed is a logistical challenge, as members of the art and music collective are dispersed around the world.
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Painting “Peaceful” Rather Than “Perfect”
LONDON — Regarding the use of photographs in painting, it’s no shortcut, at least not in the work of Ben Johnson.
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The Psychedelic and Porcine Provocations of Oreet Ashery
LONDON — If you like bacon and don’t have a menial job, here’s the show to make you feel bad.
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Between the Mystic and the Mundane: Charles Thomson Defends Stuckism
LONDON — Eighteen short months ago, Charles Thomson, the world’s most vocal champion of figurative painting, nearly hung up his brush. After some 30 years painting thick black lines and flat planes of color (“I called it Cloisonism, which was a 19th century practice which Van Gogh was involved with for a time”) the artist considered himself stuck. But this was only what the art world elite had always said about him.
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Pixels and Peas: A Supermarket Digital Drawing Odyssey
LONDON — For those not already aware of its existence, Middle England is, in its way, as mythical as Middle Earth. But copies of the Daily Mail outnumber the elvish runes.
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Despite Dementia, a Life of Art Continues to Thrive
BIRMINGHAM, UK — Britain’s second city is arguably its most ethnically diverse. In a recent search for Birmingham’s most archetypal family, led by Turner-Prize winner Gillian Wearing, the winners were two mixed-race, single parent sisters.
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The Unbearable Lightness of Frances Stark
LONDON — In a 21st-century take on the artist and his model, Frances Stark has performed a gender swap and had her wicked way with up to ten male muses.
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Interwoven Histories: Exploring Britain and Haiti
BRIGHTON, UK — If the thought of a white artist from Britain making work about race in Haiti causes your hackles to rise, please bear with us. What Leah Gordon has to say about history concerns us all.
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Inside the World’s Largest Loan Collection of British Art
NOTTINGHAM, UK — A cultural mission to enlighten and educate the public is, it might be said, as British as the BBC. This mindset has been called Reithian, after Lord Reith, first general manager of the broadcasting organisation. For a good example of Reithianism, look no further than the 13-part documentary Civilisation, presented on the BBC in 1969 by art historian Kenneth Clark.
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Real Live Painting in Britain
BEXHILL-ON-SEA, England — Liveness is a difficult quality to prescribe in a work of art. But to borrow a phrase from an obscenity trial, you will know it when you see it. This is especially true when the medium is painting. It is alive, yes, but it is not always so vital as in the current show, I Cheer a Dead Man’s Sweetheart, at De La Warr Pavilion.
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Counting Up With Martin Creed
LONDON — The fact he gives each work a number is the first thing anyone learns about Martin Creed. His website lists “Work No. 3” up to “Work No. 1674” and counting. Pointing out the UK artist likes seriality is like pointing out that Pollock liked drips or that Duchamp liked plumbing or even the fact that Michelangelo could paint upside down.
