The Shock of the Now - Issue #134
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well, and welcome to Issue 134 of The Shock of the Now.
This week there are eight weekly Recommended Exhibitions, as well as six fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 134, 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:
Mitch Vowles - ‘Miami Trip 3’ Solo Exhibition - Soup, Elephant & Castle (13th June - 20th July, opening Wednesday 12th June, 6-9pm)
Soup presents Mitch Vowles’ debut solo exhibition ‘Miami Trip 3’.
“In preparation for ‘Miami Trip 3’, Vowles immersed himself in the idiosyncratic subculture of funfair art enthusiasts. Akin to trainspotters, these fairground fanatics travel the length and breadth of the country to catch a glimpse of their favourite thrill rides, doggedly documenting each one on Facebook pages or online forums such as Trip Art (522 members, at time of writing). Popularised in the 1970’s by the late Paul Wright, these elaborate, eye-catching, airbrush-painted panoramas often appropriate imagery from blockbuster film franchises and the top pop stars of the time, rendered in hyper-realistic high-definition.” - Soup
Chantal X.W. - ‘LUCKY STAR, LOVE YOU FOREVER’ Solo Exhibition - Soho Revue, Soho (12th June - 3rd August, opening Wednesday 12th June, 6-9pm)
Soho Revue presents Chantal X.W.’s solo exhibition ‘LUCKY STAR, LOVE YOU FOREVER’.
“LUCKY STAR, LOVE YOU FOREVER, presents an installation which merges representations of Asiastic femininity into sentimental objects, excavating questions of subjectivity, agency, and representation. X.W. considers the image of girl as material, placing her within pinball games and lightboxes, probing what it means to live as ornamental surface. The exhibition’s largest sculpture, an extensive assemblage of zinc etching plates, depicts a formidably cutified girl whom we watch as she watches herself.” - Soho Revue
Rahima Gambo - ‘Alternative Central Area Locations’ Solo Exhibition - Gasworks, Oval (13th June - 8th September, opening Wednesday 12th June, 6:30-8:30pm)
Gasworks presents Rahima Gambo’s solo exhibition ‘Alternative Central Area Locations’.
“Alternative Central Area Locations brings together new and evolving works by Rahima Gambo that examine her diasporic relationship to Abuja, Nigeria. Using archival records and blueprints as source material, the exhibition is envisaged as a form of cartography, drifting from the past into a present and possible future.” - Gasworks
Anh-Phuong Nguyen & Stanley Tilyard-French - ‘APT Introduces’ Two-Person Exhibition - APT Gallery, Deptford (13th - 23rd June, opening Thursday 13th June, 6-8pm)
APT presents Anh-Phuong Nguyen and Stanley Tilyard-French’s ‘APT Introduces’ two-person exhibition.
“Year three recipients of the APT & Fenton Arts Trust Mentoring Award Anh-Phuong Nguyen and Stanley Tilyard-French celebrate their year at APT with an exhibition of work, made over the last 12 months. Jointly Funded by the Fenton Arts Trust and APT, this is the last year of our annual Award which has provided a free studio space for a year, alongside regular mentoring for two emerging artists. Sculpture was the focus in year three and we are delighted to introduce Anh-Phuong and Stanley’s work, mentored this past year by APT artists Chris Marshall and Bernice Donszelmann.” - APT
Florian Höulker & Sophie Lourdes Knight - ‘Arte Et Labore’ Two-Person Exhibition - The Second Act, Shoreditch (14th June - 13th July, opening Thursday 13th June, 6:30-8:30pm)
The Second Act presents Florian Höulker and Sophie Lourdes Knight’s two-person exhibition ‘Arte Et Labore’.
“Florian Houlker’s renditions of the Accrington brick establish the foundation of a selection of works dedicated to emblems of early and post-industrial devices. Sophie Lourdes Knight’s practice revolves around the dualities and contradictions of all things, seeds of doubt and unknowing, absurdity and seriousness. Both artists elevate common objects, often with a playfulness that unlocks the value they hold as storytelling both as devices or metaphors for our social or emotional states.” - The Second Act
Jordan Derrien - ‘Painted on The Wall of The Inn at Marlotte’ Solo Exhibition - Des Bains, Fitzrovia (14th June - 20th July, opening Thursday 13th June, 6-8pm)
Des Bains presents Jordan Derrien’s solo exhibition ‘Painted on The Wall of The Inn at Marlotte’.
‘don't worry i won't forget you’ Group Exhibition - Forma, Elephant & Castle (14th June - 10th August, opening Thursday 13th June, 7-10pm)
Forma presents ‘don't worry i won't forget you’, an interactive library, exhibition and public programme guest curated by Êvar Hussayni and Sarah Hamed. Featuring Ayreen Anastas & Rene Gabri, Xece "Khadija Baker", Meriem Bennani, Shamiran Istifan, Olivia Melkonian, and Sara Rahman.
“Reimagining how archives are built, activated and used, don’t worry i won’t forget you presents the entire physical archive of the West Asian and North African Women’s Art Library (WANAWAL) for the first time since it's inception. Books, tapes, magazines, research and various ephemera are displayed to create an intimate and welcoming setting that encourages visitors to engage directly with the material. By rejecting traditional and hierarchical approaches, this alternative environment explores how experimental archival methods can facilitate inclusive, generative experiences.” - Forma
Douglas Gordon & Miles Greenberg - ‘Twenty Four Twenty Four’ Two-Person Exhibition - Albion Jeune, Fitzrovia (18th June - 28th July, opening Tuesday 18th June, 6-8pm)
Albion Jeune presents ‘Twenty Four Twenty Four’, a continuous screening of Miles Greenberg’s twenty-four-hour durational performance ‘Oysterknife’ (2020) alongside Douglas Gordon’s film ‘24 Hour Psycho’ (1993).
“The exhibition highlights the diverse approaches and perspectives of both artists in their exploration of the human body’s physiological relationship to time and space. Viewers can experience both seminal films inside the gallery, during opening hours, and through the glass façade when the space is closed.” - Albion Jeune
Artist Opportunities:
Access Fund & Accessibility Framework Consultation, Starving Artists. Deadline - Friday 14th June.
Starving Artists’ Access Fund for Artists is an initiative designed to provide sustainable support and free memberships to marginalised and economically disadvantaged artists. They want to develop and promote opportunities tailored for individuals who need them the most, ensuring no artist is left behind due to financial constraints or lack of resources.
The project has two main aims; To improve access to opportunities, foster career development, and enhance the professional visibility of marginalised artists. The Fund will support the professional growth of artists by not just providing free memberships to Starving Artists but also educational resources, workshops, and mentorship programs; And to develop an accessible submission process. Starving Artists have found that often Access Funds can be confusing, ambiguous and ultimately inaccessible. They want to co-create this Access Fund in collaboration with an artist focus group in order to truly make the application process accessible.
Residency, Working Class Creatives Database x SET Woolwich. Deadline - Friday 14th June.
Since 2021 the Working Class Creatives Database has hosted 10 residencies in their studio space in SET Woolwich. They are delighted to announce another residency period from the 20th July - 31st December 2024 You must be a Working Class Creative to apply 2 Artists will receive a studio space. They will prioritise those who do not have access to a working art-making space. Due to a lack of funds, they are unable to subsidise travel or accommodation. As such, you must be based in London or able to commute to Woolwich.
Open Call, Offerings: Food for the Gods, Suck Green and See Issue 005. Deadline - Saturday 15th June.
Suck Green and See invites contributions for their forthcoming autumn 2024 issue 05, on the theme - Offerings: Food for the Gods. “In many religious ceremonies, it's common to make some sort of offering or sacrifice to the gods. Do you have that kind of experience and is it inspired you? Do you know something about it? Or you have created some works about it? Please share with us your hometown tradition about food for the gods.” To submit to the open call please email oldtheifrogfairy@gmail.com along with a short bio of yourself, one/a few drawings/ pics/ writings/ poems/ tracks, a brief description of the work, either published or unpublished.
Open Call, image, scrape, synthesise, collapse, The Photographers’ Gallery. Deadline - Sunday 16th June.
The Photographers’ Gallery invites proposals for an artist or collective to develop research and create a new digital commission to be presented online and at the Gallery in February 2025. This free open call is for artists or collectives to undertake or extend research around generative AI, self-made tools or similar advanced technology. The research will in turn form a new commission to feature on Unthinking Photography and at The Photographers’ Gallery. The opportunity is open to artists and collectives working with photography, digital and moving image practices. The selected artist/collective will receive a £4,000 fee and £5,000 production costs. Applicants can be based in the UK and internationally.
Open Call, SET Film Festival 2024, SET Social. Deadline - Sunday 16th June.
Submissions are now open for the second edition of SET’s annual festival of contemporary, artist, and archival film. They’re interested in short films (under 30 minutes in length) of all genres and production techniques, including animation, documentary, experimental or artists’ films, and projects spanning low to high budgets. Films must have been completed after 1 January 2019. Screenings will take place every Thursday from 7 November to 5 December 2024 at SET Social in Peckham.
The FLAMIN Fellowship, Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network. Deadline - Monday 17th June.
Film London and Arts Council England with the support of The Fenton Arts Trust present The FLAMIN Fellowship, a major development programme for early-career artist filmmakers living in England. Part of Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN), the Fellowship aims to support the most exciting, innovative and challenging moving image practices from filmmakers at the early stages of their careers, with development and funding for new work. The FLAMIN Fellowship offers a unique opportunity in developing professional artistic practice with a series of monthly workshops, which cover key areas including selling artwork, film festival strategy, writing funding applications, archiving your work, sound design, insurance, copyright and sustaining a practice.
In October this year, Bow Arts will present In the footsteps of the East London Group – an exhibition exploring the past and present of east London, bringing together the historical paintings of the East London Group with their 21st century contemporaries. For the exhibition, they are inviting artists with a connection to east London to submit their proposals for a new, contemporary sound piece to be exhibited in the show. The piece will activate the gallery and provide an atmospheric soundtrack which will immerse visitors as they move through the exhibition and encounter the streets, scenes, and communities which make up the fabric of east London, then and now.
Bow Arts are looking for proposals for sound artworks in a range of different formats – from soundscapes, field recordings, conversations, and interviews, to community radio broadcasts, audio experiments, songs, chants, incantations, and more. There are no explicit requirements for format or length of the audio artwork – they only ask that the work must be suitable to be played/looped throughout the exhibition, but they are open to different interpretations of this and more experimental installations too.
Open Call, Ethereality, Photobook Cafe. Deadline - Thursday 20th June.
A photographic one evening group exhibition and print/publication sales event curated by Alice Campos. In response to Lyle Rexer’s Antiquarian Avant Garde, Ethereality brings together artists using photographic forms of image making to transform the physical world, and the acquisition of power-the power to separate out spirits of metals.
Open Call, Shoes Shoes Shoes, outhouse Gallery. Deadline - Friday 21st June.
outhouse Gallery are collecting shoes! Do you have any shoes/ shoe look alikes/ shoes with stories/ shoe paraphernalia/ shoe artworks, props, costumes? Chosen artefacts/artworks will be exhibited at outhouse Gallery in Camberwell and you will need to drop any work off in person by 1st July. You do not need to think of yourself as an artist - all are welcome. Please email outhouse your submission with a photo and description. Open to interpretation. Curated by Stella Pearce and Robin Pickering. wewantshoesplease@gmail.com
International Curators Forum (ICF) is accepting applications for an emerging or early career UK-based Black or Brown researcher/curator with an interest in working on an exciting, new project addressing the legacy and contemporary relevance of Ten.8 Magazine. Their research into the Ten.8 archives will inform their development of a public event which they will curate and produce with the ICF programmes team, at The Photographers’ Gallery in London to correspond with an archival exhibition on the legacy of Ten.8 in January 2025; a major exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall activating the Ten.8 archive and bringing it into dialogue with artworks and other materials set to take place between April and September 2026; digital programming or outputs activating the Ten.8 archive; a contribution to a new publication on the legacy of Ten.8, bringing together key existing texts and new commissions.
The Hari Art Prize 2024. Deadline - Sunday 23rd June.
A Space For Art is delighted to announce the Third edition of The Hari Art Prize, celebrating the global roster of artistic talents attracted to London. A Space for Art is pleased to collaborate again with award-winning luxury hotel The Hari in Belgravia for the return of The Hari Art Prize for 2024, with a cash prize of £10,000 awarded to the finalist. The two runners-up will receive £3000 in second place, and £1000 in third place. The prize is open to applicants who have graduated within the last five years (2019-2024) from UK art colleges or Art Students who are currently studying at a UK Art College. All shortlisted artists will be invited to exhibit a work in The Hari Art Prize Shortlist exhibition which will be on view at The Hari Hotel in September.
Open Call, Participation Residency, Gasworks. Deadline - Monday 24th June.
This residency open call is for artists of all disciplines, based in London, who have experience of working on participatory projects. Over eight months (2 September 2024 to 31 May 2025, with a one month break from mid-December to mid-January), the selected artist will work directly with migrant communities in Lambeth and Southwark. The aim of the residency is to widen access to contemporary art through collaborative projects co-developed with these communities, such as workshops and events. The artist will receive administrative, pastoral, and curatorial support from Gasworks’ Participation Coordinator, Curator and from the Participation Advisory Board.
Open Call, Antigone Revisted, Marcelle Joseph x Hypha Studios. Deadline - Wednesday 26th June.
Hypha Studios are excited to be partnering with Marcelle Joseph on a special Frieze London opportunity. Marcelle is curating “Antigone Revisted” in Hypha HQ and this is your chance to be part of it. To apply to be part of the exhibition, submit up to 5 works that are engaged with the theme, and Marcelle will judge the applicants to select successful work to be in the exhibition.
The theme: Antigone Revisited. The tragedy of Antigone written by Sophocles in 441 BC has attracted writers and dramatists throughout the ages from Jean Cocteau in 1922 to this excerpt from Anne Carson’s 2000 anthology of essays and poetry. Just as Cocteau turned to the drama of ancient Greece for inspiration after the upheaval of World War I, this exhibition turns to the contemporary poet Anne Carson and her interpretation of the Greek heroine of Antigone for guidance in our present era of societal crisis.
The Muse Residency Competition 2024, The Muse Gallery. Deadline - Wednesday 26th June.
Since 2004 The Muse / Gallery & Studio has supported a residency program, offering recent graduates subsidised studio space, a gallery to show and the means to cultivate both client and industry connections. Each year they host a group competition show, awarding the residency positions to a few successful artists; they appeal to all disciplines, with a BA minimum qualification from the previous two years. Artwork is then reviewed by their panel of esteemed industry professionals, curators and collectors, with an emphasis on professionalism from the onset. Their curators will award three or four artists with a residency from 13th January to the 30th June 2025. The residency will begin with a group show in January 2025 and conclude with a second group show in June 2025. Further to the residency program, a chosen artist will be awarded a three-week solo show during their 2025 calendar year.
The Zsuzsi Roboz Scholarship, Morley College London. Deadline - Saturday 29th June.
This Scholarship is offered in memory of the celebrated painter, Zsuzsi Roboz. Funds have been made available to support contemporary figurative artists of promise working primarily in painting and drawing to study for one year at Morley College London, thanks to the generosity of the ‘Alfred Teddy Smith and Zsuzsi Roboz Art Trust’. In this context Figurative primarily refers to drawing and painting or sculpture related to human form and other forms of figuration that depicts people and considers the politics of representation. The Scholarship offers the recipient one year’s part-time programme of free classes at Morley College, personal tutoring and mentoring from a professional artist and teacher, and an opportunity to exhibit work in their Gallery at the end of the year.
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.
Artists’ Collecting Society Studio Prize 2024. Deadline - Sunday 30th June.
The Artists' Collecting Society (ACS) is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that administers intellectual property rights on behalf of visual artists. ACS is offering a recent graduate the chance to win £6,000 to contribute to the cost of an artist’s studio in a UK city of their choice. ACS has once again partnered with Gurr Johns International, a global independent art advisory and appraisal group, to offer this year’s five finalists the opportunity to take part in a group exhibition at Gurr Johns. The exhibition will take place in their St James’s first-floor gallery in autumn 2024. If you are a UK or EEA national and are an undergraduate or postgraduate university student on an accredited art course who is about to graduate, or if you have graduated from a university accredited art course within the last four years, and you work in pictures, collage, painting, sculpture, tapestry, ceramics, glassware or photography, then you are eligible to apply for the prize.
The Stanley Picker Gallery at Kingston University is seeking to appoint two contemporary practitioners to the Stanley Picker Fellowships in Design & Fine Art 2024. Each Fellowship provides up to £16,000 and valuable access to the extensive material workshops, technical resources and expertise within Kingston School of Art and the wider University departments, to support a practice-based, innovative research project that will result in an exhibition of international standing at the Stanley Picker Gallery.
Open Call, Residency 11:11 x Iniva. Deadline - Monday 1st July.
11:11’s London residency is a one-month residency set in Residency 11:11 founders Alex Bell and Giulia Shah’s home in London. For a duration of one month, the residency aims to connect its guests to the city’s artistic landscape, encouraging practitioners to explore local discourses and collaborations. 11:11 do not offer studio space, but time to reflect and research. For their November residency 11:11 are partnering with Iniva’s archive and Stuart Hall Library, offering a research residency to a practitioner with a strong interest in special collections, artists archives and archival practices. With Stuart Hall Library being a specialist library that centres art and theory publications from the Global Majority, African, Asian, Caribbean, Polynesian, Latinx, and Diaspora perspectives, 11:11 are seeking proposals that centre diasporic perspectives and identity.
DoBeDo Book Award, DoBeDo Projects. Deadline - Monday 8th July.
The DoBeDo Projects Book Award will be accepting submissions for the publication of a photo book by photographers at any stage of their career with an unpublished photographic project (that is complete, or close to completion). This award offers start-to-finish production of a photobook for those selected by the jury; edited, designed, printed and published by DoBeDo Projects, which also includes distribution, press and promotion of the publication. Different publication formats and budgets will be awarded on a project-by-project basis up to £50,000. Winners will be selected by a jury of established industry professionals.
Open Call, Circa Prize 2024. Deadline - Monday 15th July.
Marina Abramović and Ai Weiwei announce the return of the CIRCA PRIZE 2024, with an open call for artists to win £40,000. Now in its fourth consecutive year, the prize aims to discover, platform and champion the future visionaries who are shaping our world for the better. The CIRCA PRIZE is searching for emerging and mid-career artists aged over 18, of all nationalities and from every location across the planet. To enter, artists must submit a 2.5 minute video work in response to the CIRCA 20:24 manifesto ‘<<Break Free>> Time’s Arrow Flies Forever Forward’. Throughout September, 30 international artists will see their work appear at 20:24 local time on the iconic Piccadilly Lights and across the CIRCA global platform of digital screens in Milan and Berlin, chosen by a jury made up of CIRCA artists and collaborators.
Open Call, Art for Change Prize 2024. Deadline - Wednesday 17th July.
Open to emerging artists around the world in the first five years of active practice. This year’s prize asks artists to creatively respond to the theme 'Tomorrow'ing: Visions of a better future'. A total prize fund of £20,000 will be split between six winners, five to receive £2,000 and one overall winner to receive £10,000. Winning artists will exhibit their work at Saatchi Gallery in London. As part of a shared mission in making art, culture, and creativity accessible to everyone, this prize is a celebration of emerging artistic talent. It will highlight and stimulate dialogue around visual arts as a medium for positive global and social change and give exposure to emerging artists worldwide.
Inclusive Practices Fund, Freelands Foundation. Deadline - Friday 19th July.
The Inclusive Practices Fund will support organisations to reimagine engagement and education; aiming to foster belonging and connection between young people in primary and secondary school, their teachers and visual arts spaces. Freelands Foundation are looking for bold and diverse approaches to art education initiatives which meet the needs of all young people, with specific attention to representation of work by minority ethnic* artists and the norms of engagement which may impact young people’s experience and comfort.