SHOWNews: Your Weekly Arts Bulletin
EXHIBITION
Why Vlad Zorin’s Unmasked Exhibition at Upsilon Gallery Is as Spectacularly Shocking as It Is Intimate
'Some time ago, I started asking questions - questions about my own sexuality and my country. People were also asking me questions. The most common one being, 'Vlad, are you gay?' I didn't really have an answer. So, I embarked on this journey of interviewing other young men to find one. it was more a project of self-reflection, asking questions of other young men allowed me to sort of hold up a mirror so I could look at my own sexuality head-on.' - Vlad Zorin.
France-based photographer Vlad Zorin knows the power of asking questions; something his native country Russia actively discourages its citizens from doing so. His latest book With Love From France and subsequent upcoming exhibition at Upsilon Gallery Unmasked are proof of this, as they are also of Zorin's own personal journey of discovery. Beautiful in its vulnerability, while also emitting a tender sort of frankness that cuts through the noise around adolescence and identity, Zorin's photographs are as much of a testament to love as they are to the mundanity and silence in between.
You can buy With Love From France here. For more information on Unmasked, click here.
Unmasked at Upsilon Gallery is opened to the public until 19 January, 2025
SOUND INSTALLATION
New Sound Installation Explores the Afterlife of Technology to Create a Sanctuary of Sound
As the shelf life of modern technology becomes increasingly shorter, so does our attention span thanks to the hauntingly accurate Cookies that prove our phones know us better than we do ourselves. But what about the afterlife of our technological assets once discarded? We know they don't die with the end of our phone contract but what actually happens to them? For this question, we have no answer - beyond (of course) the bog-standard miscellaneous kitchen drawer found in every family's home. But we do know we're not the only ones asking the question, right? This is where we welcome Paul Cousins to the table, whose upcoming sound installation at Stone Nest Atomised Listening transforms one of London's most beloved art venues into a sanctuary of sound, where visitors will be able to mix a personal interpretation of the work by creating soundscapes using the analog equipment provided by Cousins to create a one-of-a-kind sonic sculpture. Acting as a celebration of the heart and soul of analog equipment while also advocating a more mindful consumption and relationship with technology, Atomised Listening makes new out of the old, preserving music's past while hopefully trying to steer its future.
Atomised Listening at Stone Nest will be open to the public on 22 November 16:00 - 22:00 GMT and 23 November, 15:00 - 22:00 GMT. For more information, click here.
EXHIBITION
Tate Britain’s New Exhibition The 80s: Photographing Britain Explores How the Camera Can Be Used as a Tool for Change
The 1980s is one of the UK's most critical decades for a multitude of reasons. From Thatcher to the AIDs pandemic to gentrification, if we agreed on one thing, it would be that it certainly wasn't without its headlines, many of which were memorialised by the decade's pioneering photographers who were there to document it all. Paying homage to those whose momentum (and camera lenses) never faltered is Tate Britain, whose latest exhibition The 80s: Photographing Britain traces the work of a variety of photographers, collectives and publications, all of whom were best known for creating radical responses to the turbulence of Thatcher's Britain. Our favourite, you ask? Nick Knight's debut publication Skinhead - known for its unflinching vision of Skinhead culture from the early '80s - makes an appearance, and for that alone, this exhibition is a must-see for gallery-goers everywhere as it invites them to get behind the lens to trace the remarkable transformation of photography in 1980s Britain.
The 80s: Photographing Britain at Tate Britain is open to the public until 5 May, 2025. For more information, click here.
EXHIBITION
The Henry Moore Institute Gets a Surrealist-Style Makeover
Kicking off this SHOWNews' surrealist spin (thanks Kafka), is the Henry Moore Institute's latest exhibition The Traumatic Surreal, which hones in on its focus on the sculptural creations by icons like Meret Oppenheim and Birgit Jürgenssen to address how seven artists across several generations looked at the medium as a way to channel their post-war anger at the patriarchy and fascism. All while steering surrealism in a new direction - mainly away from André Breton's intensely misogynistic surrealist manifesto of 1924 - and embracing the artistic practice of using found objects to create something new, The Traumatic Surreal is more than an ode to the movement itself as it forges it's own manifesto that reframes surrealism's story by putting women at the heart of it; where they've always belonged.
The Traumatic Surreal at Henry Moore Institute is open to the public until 16 March, 2025. For more information, click here.
Theatre
The Coronet Theatre’s Autumn Program Gets a Kafkaesque Rebrand
2024 has been quite the year for centenaries and celebrations. Firstly, there was the news that - unbeknownst to many - 2024 marked 100 years since the death of the Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin. Secondly, history of art nerds everywhere rejoiced at Centre Pompidou's Surréalisme exhibition, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the beloved movement (which all started with that damn manifesto mentioned above). Alas, that's not the only surrealist birthday that's piqued art and literature fanatics because 2024 also belongs to Franz Kafka. Why? The famed Czech surrealist novelist died on 3 June, 1924 making this year the centenary of his death and Notting Hill's The Coronet Theatre is not letting us forget thanks to their one-night-tell-all performance featuring three short cinematic masterpieces coupled with a mesmerising dance piece scheduled for 26 November. Looking for a Kafkaesque night about town? You know what to do.
For more information, click here.
Exhibition
Fashion History Retold in New Immersive Lightroom Exhibition Vogue: Inventing the Runway
Many of the industry's esteemed fashion editors remember their first experience of watching a fashion show unfold right in front of them, making history at that very moment. It's a thrill like no other, one that fashion is done with keeping behind a closed door. The latest exhibition to cast light on fashion's colourful past, extending from the intimate couture salons of early 20th-century Europe to the mass-media extravaganzas of today is Lightroom's Vogue: Inventing the Runway, which is on show to the public until 26 April next year and will be doing exactly that: 'offering a wonderful opportunity for a lot more people to experience first-hand the thrill of watching the history of fashion unfold right in front of them' (Wintour's words, not ours).
Vogue: Inventing the Runway at Lightroom will be open to the public until 26 April, 2025. For more information, click here.
EXHIBITION
Saatchi Yates Gets Surreal With Rachel Zhang
'Tenderness' as an emotion and experience may contradict what many people perceive as 'cruelty', but that doesn't mean one is more fundamental than the other, especially when it comes to questioning 'what it means to be human', something Chinese American artist Rachel Zhang knows all too well, as her recent Saatchi Yates debut proves.
Making work that dives into the absurdities of everyday life as well as the anxieties pertaining to systems of power, Zhang is a true master at bringing many of the unsettling parallels embedded in the human psyche to the surface, creating evocative oil paintings that make sure to put you on the edge of your seat. 'I’m interested in the dualities of rigidity and instability, conformity and transgression, the individual and the crowd, tenderness and cruelty', Zhang said in a statement to press. 'By working with imagined figures and narrative scenes... [I'm able to] question the future of our societies.' As for the societies she's choosing to question in her Saatchi Yates show? I feel like we've revealed too much already, you'll just have to go and see for yourself.
Rachel Zhang at Saatchi Yates is open to the public until 20 December. For more information, click here.
EXHIBITION
Albion Jeune’s Latest Exhibition With Artist Timur Si-Qin Is Telling You to Trust the River
Combining a divine mixture of wall-based installations, 3D-printed sculptures cast in stainless steel, and a central LED screen displaying a continuous flow of water, Timur Si-Qin's upcoming exhibition at Albion Jeune Trust the River isn't some pretty little show with nice pictures, it's hard-hitting and it's real, tactfully tackling themes at the intersection of ecology and culture. It's also happening now, purposefully coinciding with COP29 to help foster a conversation on our ever-changing geopolitical landscape - for the better and for the worse.
Wanting to actively show up for the climate instead of taking a passive stance, proceeds from a Rock panel work - made from 3-D scans of Saudi Arabian cliffs - will support the permanent conservation of 35,014 acres of land in Ausangate, Peru. In addition to this and as a strategic climate donation by the artist and the gallery, the sale of this artwork will receive a cumulative 300% in matching funds from partner organisations, with the funds supporting the formal declaration of the conservation area in Peru.
Trust the River at Albion Jeune is open to the public until 12 January. For more information, click here.