SHOWnews: Your Weekly Arts Bulletin

EXHIBITION

SHADOW-BAN at SHOWstudio

What do Peter Saville, Harley Weir and Nobuyoshi Araki all have in common? Yes, they're artists, but as they're also all equipped with greatly differing practices, making the invisible thread that binds them and their art together take on a new precedent in SHOWstudio's brand-new exhibition SHADOW-BAN, which includes existing and new paintings, sculpture, film, photography and performances by the likes of George Rouy, Von Wolfe, Simon Foxton, Tom of Finland and more.

Born from the desire to challenge the increasingly worrying surveillance that often relegates artists (or those who express so much as a thought) on social media to the shadows, SHADOW-BAN cuts through the insidious nature of 'censorship' pervading many online platforms today under the guise of 'protecting' and 'safeguarding' users. At its core, SHADOW-BAN isn't there to 'attack' such platforms, it's there to ask questions and, for the most part, ask us - the viewers - to reconsider the nature of what makes an artwork 'obscene' and the moral judgments which led us here.

To familiarise yourself with the exhibition, click here.

EXHIBITION

GUT by Talia Chetrit at 10 Corso Como

Acting as an exploration of artist Talia Chetrit life's work, GUT at 10 Corso Como makes the impossible, possible by 'flattening time' thanks to a spectacular curation of works by Alessandro Rabottini and Anna Castelli that bring together a wide array of the artist's photographs incorporating her experiments in self-portraiture, street photography and depictions of still life. It goes without saying but thanks to the showcase's unapologetically bold study of contemporary notions such as self-representation, sexuality, power, and relationships, all of which encompass a 29-year-period, GUT is refreshingly honest as well as wholeheartedly real... we have a gut feeling it'll blow your socks off.

For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

Mike Silva at De La Warr Pavilion

London-based artist Mike Silva, (known for his paintings that transgress the photorealist genre), has hit a career milestone - his first institutional solo exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion. Located near the ocean in East Sussex, Silva’s work explores themes of memory and time (through subjects shown), all while focusing on the intense act and process that is painting. Opening on 21 September until the beginning of next year, the eponymous show demands your attention, just like Mike Silva’s elaborate paintings.

For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

Nike: Form Follows Motion at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany

We all know that form follows function, but what about form following motion? Welcome to Nike's new exhibition detailing the company’s rise to fame with a history lesson starting in the 1960s.

Touching on Nike’s involvement in technological and social change, Nike: Form Follows Motion pulls from the brand's archive (which holds over 200,000 items) to document the company’s five-decade ascent from a grassroots start-up to a global phenomenon, reflecting on the relationship between sport, the human body, and design. Starting on 21 September, the museum will be hosting events and workshops alongside the exhibition... we say ‘just do it’; head on over to their website to learn more.

EXHIBITION

DUST TO DUST at Sid Motion Gallery

A recurring inspiration for many artists is the ever-evolving relationship between man and nature; the human condition and the natural world. And so although not the first to riff off such a pertinent theme, DUST TO DUST at Sid Motion Gallery is the latest exhibition exploring the outcome of what it means when these themes intertwine.

Showcasing the work of esteemed artists Magdalena Abakanowicz, Phoebe Cummings and Robert Mapplethorpe - all of whom are framed front and centre in order to encourage new contexts and threads of meaning to emerge - DUST TO DUST plays on the decorative tradition of using flowers to ask much deeper and profound questions of our place in the world, as well the fragility, tenderness and transience of life.

DUST TO DUST at Sid Motion Gallery opened on 20 September. For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

SPIT at NıCOLETTı

Testing the tensions between light and darkness, desire and melancholy, SPIT by Tarek Lakhrissi - currently on show NıCOLETTı - looks at how the potential of fiction and eroticism can be used as tools for emancipation from 'marginalisation' (and, not to mention, segregation). Rather than go down the metaphorical path of interpreting what SPIT could mean, (or indeed if it's referring to that thing we all think it is), the title of the show actually comes from a real-life experience Lakhrissi's own. Inspired by an experience in which the artist was spat on while verbally attacked during Paris Pride (Lakhrissi was carrying both the Palestinian and Algerian flags), the exhibition purposefully and playfully merges the meanings of the physical act of ejecting liquid from one’s mouth with the erotic and aggressive dimensions involved, stirring the pot to explore tensions between violence and desire, subversion and resistance.

For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

Paper Museums at the Zaha Hadid Foundation

Let's talk about paper - the type you write on to make notes. Although it's not one of the most flexible materials in the world (have you ever tried to make a paper aeroplane, for example?), particularly when it comes to soft curves and dramatic bends, it has helped thousands of artists create demo maquettes to help realise their vision and the late great architect Zaha Hadid is no exception.

Reflecting on the importance of paper reliefs for Hadid, particularly when viewed in the context of three of the architect's key museum designs (Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), Cincinnati, USA (1997-2003), MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy (1998-2009) and Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar (1997, unrealised), this exhibition reveals the starting point for Hadid in developing and sculpting her trademark curvature - who'd have thought it was all thanks to a bit of paper?

For more information on the exhibition, click here.

EXHIBITION

Bobbi Essers at Unit London

'I'm so interested in this generation's culture - our clothing, our actions - and I'm proud to archive our fun, love, and the beautiful moments we share' - Bobbi Essers.

Each generation has its own attributes that make up a collective identity (informed by everyone else's individuality), and with that comes a photographer every few generations who steps up to the challenge of documenting that era in all its glory. Meet Bobbi Essers, who has long charmed the art world with her profound exploration of adventure, friendship, and the intricacies of human connections. Choosing to immortalise her friends within the intimate and spontaneous settings they share, Esser's work stands out as a face in the crowd for challenging conventional perceptions of gender and sexuality, portraying these traits as transcending specific appearances and roles.

EXHIBITION AND PERFORMANCE

Human Puzzle at Sarabande

Let's talk about the overview effect: a cognitive shift reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. Although such an overwhelming emotion or state of mind may be utterly unrelatable to most of us, compare it to the feeling of looking down from a plane while taking off or landing. What do you see? There's only one answer: one giant puzzle.

Being able to identify patterns in even the most random of circumstances is, arguably, part of what makes us human. Few creatives know this better than Sarabande artist-in-residence Lulu Wang, whose latest exhibition Human Puzzle - curated by Jessica Wan and supported by WePresent - not only picks up on the intricate puzzle of human existence, but also the the complexities of intimacy, identity, and connection that come along with it.

To find out more, you can read about the performance here.

EXHIBITION

Sound & Vision at 180 Studios

You may not know George Underwood's name (David Bowie fans keep quiet), but you certainly know his work (Bowie fanatic or not). As the artist behind the era-defining album covers Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, Underwood isn't just someone who is 'a part' of history, he's made history. Reflecting on his vast catalogue of work - most of which goes hand-in-hand with his childhood friend (yes, of course we're talking about Bowie), Underwood's latest project Sound & Vision at 180 Studios compiles a vast array of artistic interpretations of the lyric We like Dancing and we Look Divine, in support of War Child - the only specialist charity for children in conflict. 

Speaking of the project, Underwood told SHOWstudio:

'The reason War Child is important to me is because of all the horrible wars that are happening in the world...recently, when I was asked to do a painting with the theme ‘We like Dancing and we Look Divine’, I remembered David (Bowie) doing some artwork for War Child 30 years ago and wanted to be involved... my contribution is inspired by the cobweb-like costumes as seen on the backing dancers that performed with Bowie at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1972, namely Lindsay Kemp’s ‘Astronettes’.

For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

Heartlands at Flexitron Gallery

Curated by arts writer Ella Slater, Heartlands at Flexitron Gallery masters the importance of storytelling when it comes to developing an identity through paint. Focusing on the narratives embedded in both Gabriel Kidd and Olivia England's artwork, the exhibition acts as an exploration of queerness by channelling the significance of discarded ephemera in order to present alternate visions - none of which are held in a particular time. At its core, Heartlands looks to consider the ways in which both imagined and inherited stories shape our understanding of not only ourselves but everything around us - the objects we hold on to as well as the ones we discard. Honest and candid, this is certainly one not to miss. For more information, click here.

EXHIBITION

The Future Room at Christie's Lates

As part of Christie's Black History Month programming, ex-studio and partnerships manager at Sarabande Foundation Charlotte Leseberg Smith, has lent her talents to pastures anew to help co-curate a small exhibition as part of Christie's Lates with the intention of acting as a pause in the present to serve as a portal to the future, showcasing how emerging and established black artists are shaping their practice today. Straddling the undefined space between finding inspiration, activism, rest and love, the room is there to help entice moments of reflection, while also introducing the next generation of talented artists along the way.

Victor Boullet at The Artist Room

Ask any artist for their 'list of inspirations' and you're guaranteed the same dead-end response 'Anything', they say, or worse, they try to defend their answer by clarifying 'it's in the little moments, I find inspiration in the mundanity of life'. Now, normally at this point, I yawn, they yawn, or at the very least, someone yawns. Alas, let me present you the work of 55-year-old painter Victor Boullet, who says exactly that, but the difference is, he means it.

Neither flashy nor trendy, there's something intensely primitive about Boullet's artworks, all of which display the same modernist belief in brushwork, colour, and vision. The point of their existence may be to reject a numbness present in our contemporary condition but they are also there to comfort and console as part of their mission in channelling the perennial physical compulsions of humans. We'll leave it there for now but if you want to experience painting for the sake of painting itself, or you're attracted to equal amount wit and chaos, Boullet is your man, The Artist Room is your gateway to heaven.