The Shock of the Now - Issue #122
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well, and welcome to Issue 122 of The Shock of the Now.
This week there are ten weekly Recommended Exhibitions, as well as three fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 122, and if so do forward it along! As always any questions, comments or feedback are welcome, so feel free to get in touch.
All the best, and speak soon, H x
Recommended Exhibitions Opening This Week:
Sophie Mei Birkin & Elli Antoniou - ‘-a brief interval- spills within’ Two-Person Exhibition - Split Gallery, Bethnal Green (21st March - 7th April, opening Wednesday 20th March, 6-9pm)
Split Gallery presents ‘-a brief interval- spills within’, a two-person exhibition of new work by Sophie Mei Birkin and Elli Antoniou.
“Sophie Mei Birkin and Elli Antoniou both reimagine basic components, formulating run-of-the-mill materials and assembly-line artifacts into aberrational assemblages, albeit through highly differentiated lenses. Elli narrativises material agency and inanimate complicity, while Sophie Mei explores an alchemical change through a lens of adaptation. By participating in their adjacent realities, we highlight the inherent fallacy within assumed oppositions, allowing us to peek under the hood and squint into the enmeshing of otherwise irreconcilable categories.” - Split Gallery
‘With Urgency’ Group Exhibition - Ilenia, Shoreditch (21st March - 11th May, opening Wednesday 20th March, 6-8pm)
Ilenia presents ‘With Urgency’, a group exhibition of works by Daria Blum, Guendalina Cerruti, and Mary Stephenson.
“The exhibition centres on a newly commissioned collaborative video by the artists and close friends, shown alongside their individual works.” - Ilenia
Claire Barrow - ‘Tombstone Freeway’ Solo Exhibition - The Koppel Project, Chalk Farm (22nd March - 5th April, opening Thursday 21st March, 6-9pm)
The Koppel Project presents Claire Barrow’s latest solo exhibition ‘Tombstone Freeway’ at their Koppel Collective location in North West London. As a special addition, the exhibition features a newly commissioned film by archivist and documentarian Daisy Davidson, entitled A Visual History of Online Subculture & Cursed Images.
“The roots of Barrow’s new body of work dig deep into the soil of aggressive capitalism and the mythmaking advertising practices that shaped the world the millennial generation grew into. Objects, music, and culture that held profound meaning to many were crafted in the crucible of hyper-individualism, exemplified by the 2000s emo and scene subcultures. Teenage fear, anxiety, isolation and rebellion were wrapped up in Halloween branding with faux-Tim Burton flourishes.” - The Koppel Project
Jack Hirons - ‘Fowl Play’ Solo Exhibition - OOF, Tottenham (22nd March - 11th May, opening Thursday 21st March, 6:30-8:30pm)
OOF presents Jack Hirons’ debut London solo ‘Fowl Play’.
“Painter Jack Hirons uses a very unusual medium. All the pigment in his solo show comes from the charred and crushed bones of fried chicken, bought on a matchday on Tottenham High Road from the legendary Chick-King fast food restaurant. Hirons blackens the bones himself and grinds them into powder to make his deep black pigment. The resulting stark, monochromatic paintings are filled with nods to chicken as sporting and cultural icon, as pre-match ritual, as political history, and – obviously – as greasy sustenance.” - OOF
Ross Hammond - ‘O, o, o, o.’ Solo Exhibition - Chemist, Lewisham (21st March - 28th April, opening Thursday 21st March, 6:30-8:30pm)
Chemist presents Ross Hammond’s solo exhibition ‘O, o, o, o.’.
“Ross Hammond has moved into Chemist. On the front ground floor large walls lean against the gallery’s own. Uprooted and relocated from elsewhere, they’re treated with wallpaper and paint, ornamented with coving and skirting. Some sections have been cut into, ripped open or taken apart revealing their own fabrication and hidden layers of found and imagined objects and imagery. Situated around these are a series of miniature models of his childhood home, a receding battalion and a barren countryside field. Behind the gallery space, in the back room of the house, an ageing mediaeval period costume from a Shakespearian BBC production is resting on a hanger while a sound piece of a single speaker is performing.” - Chemist
‘Material Girls and their Muses’ Group Exhibition - Vitrine, Fitzrovia (22nd March - 18th May, opening Thursday 21st March, 6-9pm)
Vitrine presents ‘Material Girls and their Muses’, a group exhibition curated by Marcelle Joseph featuring the work of five female-identifying sculptors with material-led practices (Saelia Aparicio, Ludovica Gioscia, Sacha Ingber, Hannah Lim, Cathie Pilkington), alongside their chosen muses (Ovartaci, Polly Apfelbaum, Heidi Bucher, Mariko Mori, Marion Adnams).
“Appropriating Madonna’s 1984 theme song in the title, this exhibition interrogates both gender and the meaning of the muse. Muses throughout art history have been characterized as passive, powerless female models at the beck and call of a dominant, influential older male artist. This exhibition turns that romanticised definition of an artist and his muse on its heads: all featured artists identify as female, femme or non-binary, and the exhibition goes back to the ancient Greek origins of the word ‘muse’ when muses were far removed from being submissive feminine objects of desire. “ - Marcelle Joseph
‘Our Teeth are Reefs’ Group Exhibition - Slugtown x Collective Ending HQ, Deptford (23rd March - 14th April, opening Friday 22nd March, 6-9pm)
Slugtown x Collective Ending presents ‘Our Teeth are Reefs’, a group exhibition featuring work by Jungwon Jay Hur, Lucien Anderson, Rebecca Halliwell-Sutton and Rhett Leinster, organised by Alia Hamaoui & Georgia Stephenson.
“We are pleased to announce the unfolding of a long-form reciprocal exchange between Slugtown and Collective Ending, taking place over 2024-25. Exchange in this context, looks to the geographical, spatial and contextual and invites both organisations to form a dialogue between one another’s programming. As a provocation to the themes and dialogues formulated in the conception of Our Teeth are Reefs, Collective Ending will programme a closing event performance evening expanding on ideas of value and excavation, belonging and the slippery properties of materials.” - Slugtown x Collective Ending
Alfie Rouy - ‘Earth Eater’ Solo Exhibition - Guts Gallery, Hackney (22nd March - 16th April, opening Friday 22nd March, 6-9pm)
Guts Gallery presents Alfie Rouy’s debut UK solo exhibition ‘Earth Eater’.
“Earth Eater is a daring expansion of Rouy’s collection of work that aspires to uncover blessings in disguise that come from Earth’s evolution. Using symbols that are at times both unsettling and beautiful, Rouy hopes that viewers will think beyond the borders of what we are force-fed by certain sources, and indulge in the idea that Earth and everything on it can, like the Phoenix, flourish in its ashes.” - Guts Gallery
Oliver Clegg - ‘Sometimes, Forever’ Solo Exhibition + Paul Bonnet - ‘Abeyance’ Solo Exhibition - Mamoth, Euston (22nd March - 4th May, opening Friday 22nd March, 6-8pm)
Mamoth presents Oliver Clegg’s latest solo exhibition ‘Sometimes, Forever’ and Paul Bonnet’s debut London solo exhibition ‘Abeyance’.
“Oliver Clegg is the ultimate jester. His aptitude for painterly play and invocations of the medium’s history entwine on the makeshift canvases he assembles from scrap wood. They inscribe the work with not only the artist’s immediate context, but his interest in the rehabilitative methods of Dadaism. Clegg’s style can be directly linked to mid-century Spanish painters such as Diego Velázquez and Jusepe de Ribera, the latter figure notable for his Caravaggistic impulse.” - Mamoth
“Paul Bonnet’s haunted dreamscapes have the appearance of molten wax. The oil has been daubed and smeared onto the canvas forming stratigraphic layers. They form the depths and shallows of an imagined environment depicted long after the human has finished figuring themselves at its centre. Bonnet’s scenes of overgrowth, collapse and ruin draw the viewer to consider what comes inevitably next, far off in the centuries that will follow the impending collapse of our anthropocene.” - Mamoth
Artist Opportunities:
Spring 2024 Open Call, The Stone Space. Deadline - Sunday 24th March.
The Stone Space is currently accepting proposals for exhibitions taking place from the 31st July onwards. All media and exhibition formats will be considered. Solo and group show proposals are welcome. Selected artists will be contacted to arrange the best time for their exhibition.
Please note that the gallery is a not-for-profit space run by volunteers and receives very little funding. To cover basic costs a fee is charged for each exhibition, details of this and further information regarding the terms and conditions of exhibiting with The Stone Space can be found in the proposal form. If you feel that this fee is a barrier to you making a submission please let them know as they are sometimes able to sponsor exhibitions.
Open Call, Surreal Art, Phantasmal Gallery. Deadline - Sunday 24th March.
Phantasmal is inviting artists to submit their work to a captivating art exhibition centred around the theme of Surrealism. This exhibition aims to celebrate the uncanny and unconscious. Inviting artists to express the dreamlike through a diverse range of mediums. From painting and sculpture to digital art and mixed media, all forms of artistic expression are welcomed. The exhibition seeks to transport viewers into the mysterious and dreamlike space. Artists are encouraged to delve into the strange, beautiful and unconventional. The exhibition will take place at 44ad ArtSpace in Bath Spa, UK. Spanning over two rooms in the Ground floor exhibition space from the 9th to the 14th of April 2024.
Call for Submissions, New Contemporaries 2024. Deadline - Monday 25th March.
New Contemporaries welcome submissions from emerging and early career artists who are final year students, recent graduates and post-graduate students from UK art schools and alternative learning programmes. Being selected for New Contemporaries programme includes: exhibiting as part of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024. Selected artists are offered an artist’s fee and reasonable travel and accommodation costs covered for the private view of both exhibitions; participating in New Contemporaries Artist Development Programme, which includes 1 to 1 mentoring; Peer Networking Sessions; Workshops, Talks and other artist development opportunities; contributing to the Digital Programme and the opportunity to present work on their channels including the online platform which complements the exhibitions; being eligible, as NC alumni, for Studio Bursaries, Residencies, Fellowships, Scholarships and other opportunities
BLURT Open Call, Sonic Experiments in Text, TACO!. Deadline - Tuesday 26th March.
BLURT is an experimental platform supporting artists to develop text-based works for performance and live-to-air broadcast on RTM.FM. In this testing site for testing text, TACO! invites artists to consider radio broadcast as an expanded form of publishing. TACO! perform to publish, which is to say, to make public. And their moment of thinking is live on air. TACO! is seeking proposals for sonic experiments in text: aural encounters, vernacular enquiries, conversations, radio plays and other weird waves.
Open Call for Exhibitions 2025, San Mei Gallery. Deadline - Tuesday 26th March.
San Mei Gallery is looking for exhibition proposals from artists, creatives, designers, architects and makers (solo or groups) with research-based practices to stage an exhibition in our Brixton-based gallery in 2025. San Mei Gallery is a not-for-profit independent space for contemporary art in South London, committed to research-led, educational and collaborative exchanges. Operating with an artist-led approach, we support artists and curators to experiment with new ideas. The gallery promotes and facilitates emerging artistic practice, through exhibitions, residencies, studios and events. This open call is looking for three exhibitions to be held at San Mei Gallery in 2025, which will be selected by the San Mei Gallery curatorial team.
iniva is pleased to announce an open call for writing commissions as part of Unseen Guests - Post-National Digital Pavilion. This opportunity is open to writers based in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) working across new media, audio-visual and writing to create new works in dialogue with the work of filmmaker and artist John Akomfrah, representing Great Britain at the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale.
Selected writers will develop a written work which will be hosted on the Unseen Guests Digital Pavilion, alongside audio and film commissions and will engage in the digital public programme curated by Renée Akitelek Mboya. We are particularly interested in working with writers whose practices are informed by anticolonial methodologies, Pan-African thinking, climate justice and archival research, and who are keen to work in collaboration with others.
Writers will receive a fee of £1000 each and will have the opportunity to attend the 60th Venice Biennale in May, as part of their research.
The Biodiversity Fingerprint Commission, Proposition Studios. Deadline - Wednesday 27th March.
Proposition Camden is commissioning a major artwork to provoke dialogue about the potential for human beings to have a positive impact on our planet’s ecology. Envisaged as a digital print on fabric, the artwork will be 15m wide by 9m high with an Augmented Reality (AR) layer on the Northwest wall of Proposition Camden in Chalk Farm Road, facing the iconic, circular building of The Roundhouse.
Artists will received £7,000. A budget of up to £10,000 is allocated to the production and installation of the artwork. The production budget will be managed by Proposition Studios The artwork will be displayed publicly for 3-6 months with unveiling celebration at the end of the process.
Paid Practice Development Series, Jesse Scott Projects. Deadline - Friday 29th March.
Calling emerging arts practitioners of any creative backgrounds for a paid summer practice development project! This project aims to put you in control over building your creative future — identifying future practice goals, curatorial support and networking needs to develop a new body of work, alongside two other emerging artists. This four-month project will combine aspects of peer learning and supported mentorship by London-based artists and curators. Additional mentorship will be delivered through a short workshop series, facilitated by arts professionals, and designed to meet professional development goals that you define during our first meetings. This project will culminate in a public exhibition, performance/event, or workshop series to be held between September and November, 2024.
Email your CV, a sample of your work (this could include video, writing, sound recordings, or images), and a statement of 500 words or less outlining what you envision bringing to a collaborative project, and how you will benefit from taking part to Jesse, at jesse.scott.projects@gmail.com.
Are you an artist, performer, curator or researcher interested in peer learning and collaborative practices? This paid opportunity invites 3-4 individuals or collectives to support a four-month-long young artist development programme launching in May 2024, intended to support emerging artists finding barriers to entering creative careers, as well as new arts graduates struggling to find early career opportunities. Delivered through a combination of participant-led peer-learning workshops and three mentorship or practice development sessions, this project will offer participants reflexive mentorship and networking opportunities with artists and gallery professionals in London. It will culminate with participants publicly sharing a new body of work as an exhibition, event/performance, or workshop held within or nearby Newham, Dagenham, Barking, or Enfield between, September and November 2024.
Please provide a CV, and a statement of 500 words or less, outlining what you envision bringing to a programme like this, and what most excites you about collaborative practices to Jesse, at jesse.scott.projects@gmail.com.
Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 31st March.
The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award is the most significant award for emerging artists working in the field of sculpture in the UK. The award offers £10,000 in financial support towards the production of new work, plus a funded solo exhibition to an exceptional sculptor. The award also includes a national touring programme, taking MTSA artists to partner venues across the UK. MTSA seek to reward outstanding and innovative practice in the field of sculpture and is particularly interested in work that demonstrates a commitment to process and materials. There is no age limit, applicants will be judged on the quality of their work and the ability of the award to make beneficial impact on their practice and future development.
The Waverton Art Prize 2024. Deadline - Sunday 31st March.
The Waverton Art Prize is a platform for emerging talent, offering the winning artist the opportunity to invest time and resources into developing their vocation. The prize was founded in 2022 by Waverton, Ranald Macdonald, Founder and Owner of Boisdale Restaurants, and Mark Connolly, Founder and Director of Paint Talk, and is an open submission with a single prize of £10,000.
The prize is open to artists under the age of 40 and based in the UK. The prize is open to all 2D media, Drawing, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Collage, Textiles, Collage, Digital Print. Artists at any stage of their career can apply. Submitted works must not exceed 50x40cm, inclusive of frame. (The shortlisted works must be ready to hang on delivery). The shortlisted submissions will be exhibited in The Gallery Room at Boisdale of Canary Wharf, London. The longlisted submissions will be hosted on Boisdale's website.
Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grants, Art Fund. Deadline - Monday 1st April.
Supports UK curators, museum professionals and researchers to undertake travel and other activities that will extend and develop their curatorial expertise, collections-based knowledge and art historical interests. The grants can support, for example: UK and international travel and accommodation for research trips and conferences; Training courses and programmes of study (including online); Subscriptions, for example archive subscriptions; Other kinds of activity where a strong case can be made for its contribution to the development of curatorial skills and collections-based research projects.
WIP Space Residencies. Deadline - Monday 1st April.
WIP Space Residencies offer a free 24/7 studio space for 3 months or 6 months to creative practitioners. WIP Space Residencies support the participating practitioners by offering space and time to produce new work as well as a public platform to share and develop their ideas. WIP would like to prioritise those who are in most need of a studio. They ask those applying to reflect on the opportunities that have been available to you in education, income, overall financial security, occupation, living conditions, resources, and opportunities afforded to you within society. WIP offer 2 individual studio spaces (1 studio for the 3 month, 1 studio for the 6 month) with an adjoining shared project space. The studio space are suitable for most practices apart from any processes needing hot work or firing.
Summer Residencies Call Out 2024, Chisenhale Studios. Deadline - Tuesday 2nd April.
Chisenhale Studios are inviting proposals for their Studio4 Residencies. Residencies will take place between May and September 2024, ranging between 4-6 weeks depending on your project needs (special exceptions can be made on timescales depending on need). The residencies provide free use of the Studio4 Project Space to artists seeking a short-term studio to develop an idea or execute a project. The aim of each residency is to provide opportunity for a visual artist to experiment with new work or ideas in a fresh, uncluttered space that facilitates sharing and participation while making artistic processes visible to new audiences.
In exchange for use of the studio, the artist undertaking each residency is expected to engage a wider artistic network as well as people who live and work in our local area, involving them in the artistic process through the development of the work itself or a small public-facing or community event, showing or workshop.
The Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School. Deadline - Wednesday 3rd April.
The Drawing Year is a full scholarship postgraduate-level course offering up to thirty students the opportunity to focus on drawing from observation for one year. There are no tuition fees for The Drawing Year – all students are awarded a full scholarship and receive a free studio space. Every course offered at the School is taught at postgraduate level by distinguished artists and teachers from leading institutions including the Royal Academy, the Royal College of Art and The Slade. In addition to a minimum of 21 hours tutor contact time each week, students are also offered tutorials with visiting tutors.
The Exhibitions Hub is pleased to launch its third Alumni Commission Award, in partnership with the Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and Forma. The commission invites Department of Art Alumni to develop new work in response to or inspired by LADA’s archive that will be presented at Forma in November 2024. Following a period of research and development with LADA’s archive, the selected artist will develop new performance work to be presented at Forma in November 2024. The outcome is intentionally open to allow for creative experimentation and engagement approaches. The award is only open to Goldsmiths Department of Art Alumni. You should have graduated from the Department of Art between 2019-2023.
Open Call, 11:11 Online Residency. Deadline - Sunday 7th April.
Residency 11:11’s open call is now live for a 3-month artist development research residency held across June – August 2024, please share far and wide. They are interested in research proposals that explore the intersections between art and technology, access in digital & non-digital spaces, and what roles ‘the digital’ can take in social justice movements and action. Residency 11:11 offer a £600 artist fee, professional and artistic mentorship, project development and curatorial support, a dedicated session with a technical or specialist advisor, support in developing an online public event at the end of the residency, be part of their 11:11 network and build long-lasting relationships with your residency peers.
Turps Studio Programme, Turps Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 14th April.
Turps Studio Programme is a unique opportunity for a select group of painters to take up residence in their own dedicated studios within an exciting studio and gallery development in South East London, just 10 minutes from Elephant and Castle. Participants embark on a year-long programme of intensive mentoring, dynamic group seminars, talks, and crits with the option to continue for a second year. It allows painters time to take risks, make mistakes and experiment with the emphasis firmly on an artist being supported to find their voice without the external pressures of the art market or current trends.
Turps Off-Site Programme, Turps Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 14th April.
Turps Off-Site is an exciting mentoring opportunity for London-based painters who want to develop their practice through the ethos of Turps Studio Programme but wish to remain working in their own studio. A team of Turps Mentors visit participants in their own studios for one-to-one tutorials, and painters will develop a supportive network of peers across London, through group studio visits to each other’s studios, crits based at Turps Studios and regular visits to attend talks at Turps Art School across the year.
Turps | Hastings Off-Site Programme, Turps Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 14th April.
Turps | Hastings Off-Site is a new mentoring programme for painters whose studios are based within the geographical triangle between Brighton, Tunbridge Wells and Rye. A team of Turps Mentors visit participants in their own studios for one-to-one tutorials. Participants develop a supportive network of peers across the region through regular programmed group crits and monthly artists talks at Hastings Contemporary. The programme runs from September 2024 through June 2025.
MASS Sculpture Programme, MASS Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 14th April.
MASS Sculpture Programmes launched in October 2021 at their new MASS HQ Studios at Thames-Side Studios, Woolwich, London, SE18 5NR. MASS HQ is in the heart of the largest single-site community of artists and creatives in London and in close proximity to the London Sculpture Workshop. They offer a number of on-site studio spaces and a flexible crit and talks space to enable them to build a sustainable community of peers and mentors.
In 2023/24, MASS combined the Studio Programme and Off-Site programme into ONE MASS Sculpture Programme to reflect the responses of participants on the programmes over the past two years. Participants will all follow one programme. Participants work in their own studio and come to MASS HQ for talks, crits and seminars - with the option of taking a year-long space at MASS HQ see below.
Open Call, Movies for the Apocalypse, SET. Deadline - Friday 19th April (Rolling).
Movies for the Apocalypse is a London based film festival screening May 2024. They are selecting films for a post-apocalyptic time capsule, to show people of the future what our lives were like before the (maybe) impending Big Collapse. They are looking to capture that strange nostalgia-for-now that is haunting life these days. The festival is being organised by Agatha Scaggiante and Gisela Mulindwa. It is being hosted by SET at the SET Vault in Woolwich. They are both creatives based in London who are sick of having to endlessly apply to festivals and galleries to find a platform for our work. In that vein, they are trying to make the process to be a part of the festival very easy and accessible. People whose work they like will be accepted on a rolling basis until the programme is full – no hunger games, no popularity contests and no submission fees.
If you would like to submit some work, please DM either @agathapple or @gisela.mulindwa on Instagram, or email at agatha.scaggiante@gmail.com.
Call for Events, Climate Justice, Autograph. Deadline - Monday 22nd April.
Are you a creative practitioner or collective looking to take up space, share and inspire conversation, or build creativity and connection? Autograph are inviting artists, producers, performers, musicians, curators to suggest, shape and host a public programme event to take place either in our gallery in Hackney or via their online platforms. This year is Autograph's 35th anniversary. As part of their celebrations we are sharing three Open Call opportunities over the course of 12 months, each focusing on a different theme that relate to moments in their history. The theme of the third and final open call for their anniversary year is climate justice and brings us to the present day, connecting to their current exhibitions Wilfred Ukpong: Niger-Delta / Future-Cosmos and Mónica Alcázar-Duarte: Digital Clouds Don't Carry Rain. The successful applicant will receive a £600 budget as well as a £400 curatorial fee. The selected event proposal will take place in either June or July 2024.
Turps Correspondence Course, Turps Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 30th June.
Turps Correspondence Course is an innovative programme of online mentoring facilitated through critical, supportive written reviews delivered by a dedicated mentor. The course is aimed at painters who want to develop or reinvigorate their work, whether recently graduated from art school, mid-career or those without any formal arts education. The course is designed and structured to be delivered entirely online so that painters, based anywhere in the world and at any stage in their career, can participate and receive informed, critical feedback from a mentor who is practising painter selected by Turps. There are 5 review points throughout the year when you will be required to upload images of your work and a short statement or ‘letter’ to your mentor. Your mentor will then review what has been uploaded and write their response. It is a very different type of feedback from more conventional face-to-face tutorials but Turps believe this is what makes the correspondence course such an appealing and sought-after professional development course.
MASS Correspondence Course, MASS Art School 2024/25. Deadline - Sunday 30th June.
Mass Correspondence Course is an innovative distance-learning programme of online mentoring facilitated through critical, supportive written reviews by a dedicated mentor. The course is aimed at sculptors based anywhere in the world and at any stage in their career who want to develop or reinvigorate their work, whether recently graduated from art school or those without any formal arts education.