The Shock of the Now - Issue #136
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well, and welcome to Issue 136 of The Shock of the Now.
We open the newsletter this week with a spotlight on Art on a Postcard’s Summer Auction 2024, for which I have curated a collection of postcard-sized artworks! Bidding is now live for the next two-weeks, and money raised supports The Hepatitis C Trust.
Alongside, there are eight weekly Recommended Exhibitions, as well as two fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 136, 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
Art on a Postcard - Summer Auction 2024
My curated collection for Art on a Postcard’s Summer Auction 2024 is now live for bidding! I am delighted to be collaborating with Gemma and the team at Art on a Postcard for their annual summer auction. I have long been a fan of the organisation and the excellent work they do to support not only The Hepatitis C Trust but also the national artistic ecosystem more broadly, and it has been a pleasure to bring together a group of artists and friends to contribute to the auction, many of whom are working with Art on a Postcard for the first time.
All money raised will support The Hepatitis C Trust’s program to improve prison health, including increasing screening and treatment rates for viruses such as hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV. The Trust has worked in prisons for over a decade, tested over 46,000 people, and engaged almost 150,000 in outreach and education programs since 2019. Expanding the program to support wider health, including preventing heart disease and cancer, is a crucial priority for 2024.
All works will be on display for one night only next Tuesday, 2nd July, at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation’s Chelsea location. Bidding continues online until July 9th.
Thanks to Gemma for the kind invitation; to Rosie, Moriah and all the team at Art on a Postcard for their continued hard work; and to all the artists for their generous artwork donations!
Above (L-R): Alia Hamaoui, Chamoun St. Idols I, UV Print on dyed sand, 2024. Nina Silverberg, Rain, Oil on paper, 2024. Anna Clegg, Interior 10, Pencil on paper, 2024. Athen Kardashian and Nina Mhach Durban, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, Collage on paper, 2024.
Recommended Exhibitions Opening This Week:
Garrett Lockhart - ‘The World Awake’ Solo Exhibition + Aidan Duffy & Jonghwan Lee - ‘CYLINDER X South Parade’ Two-Person Exhibition - South Parade, Farringdon (27th June - 3rd August, opening Wednesday 26th June, 6-8pm)
South Parade presents Garrett Lockhart debut UK solo exhibition ‘The World Awake’, alongside a collaborative two-person exhibition with CYLINDER (Seoul, South Korea) featuring paintings by Jonghwan Lee and sculpture by Aidan Duffy.
“Garrett Lockhart is often searching for an expanded, metaphysical sense of home. For their exhibition at South Parade, the artist finds home in the stars, the lit window of strangers and a crackling fire. The exhibition presents a collection of sculpture, assemblage, and a video work to examine dwelling as an embodied practice of memory, time and displacement.” - South Parade
Alexi Marshall - ‘Nostalgia for the Mud’ Solo Exhibition - Brooke Benington, Fitzrovia (28th June - 3rd August, opening Thursday 27th June, 6-8pm)
Brooke Benington presents Alexi Marshall’s solo exhibition ‘Nostalgia for the Mud’.
“Marshall often draws on myths, folklore, and animism as allegories for contemporary concerns, particularly of women. Through a series of layered hand-cut “lino-paintings,” Nostalgia for the Mud delves into themes of biological time, transformation, and the primal instincts that connect us to our origins, inspired by the enigmatic life cycle of the eel.” - Brooke Benington
Pia Eikaas - ‘Public Intimacies’ Solo Exhibition - Under the Spell, Vauxhall (28th June - 4th August, opening Thursday 27th June, 6-9pm)
Under the Spell presents Pia Eikaas’ solo exhibition ‘Public Intimacies’, curated by Jéssica Varrichio.
“Pia Eikaas is a Norwegian artist. For the past decade, her research has been anchored in walking, documenting bodies of water (rivers, fountains) and manipulating textiles into ghostly sculptures. The artist is interested in bringing her queer gaze upon the city fabric, its architecture and its elements of decoration such as public sculptures.” - Under the Spell
Corri-Lynn Tetz - ‘Tender Buttons’ Solo Exhibition - Sim Smith, Camberwell (28th June - 27th July, opening & talk with Nancy Dewe Mathews, Thursday 4th July, 6:30pm)
Sim Smith presents Corri-Lynn Tetz’ debut UK solo exhibition ‘Tender Buttons’.
“Corri-Lynn Tetz is a Canadian artist whose practice concentrates on the female figure, with imagery taken from a collected archive of found imagery and personal photographs, to createindulgent, dream-like painted scenes that capture the vulnerabilities, enactments, and clichés of femininity.” - Sim Smith
Camilo Parra - ‘Falling Skins Falling Skies’ Solo Exhibition - The Residence Gallery, Hackney (29th June - 28th July, opening Friday 28th June, 7-9pm)
The Residence Gallery presents Camilo Parra’s solo exhibition ‘Falling Skins Falling Skies’.
Meera Shakti Osborne - ‘Hold Me Close (the forest is full of police)’ Solo Exhibition - Peer, Hoxton (29th June - 31st August, opening Friday 28th June, 6:30-8:30pm)
Peer presents ‘Hold Me Close (the forest is full of police)’, a newly commissioned exhibition comprising painting, sound, installation and zines from London-based artist Meera Shakti Osborne. The project is the artist’s first major solo exhibition and marks the culmination of their time as the Peer Ambassador Artist-in-Residence.
“Over the course of their residency, Osborne worked closely with three different groups of Peer Ambassadors, young artists and creatives (aged 17–25) from Peer’s local area. Osborne's youth work often focuses on different ways young people can express themselves. Informed by Osborne’s experiences of their time with the Peer Ambassadors and their wider research and work as a Youth Worker, the exhibition explores how we navigate the city and questions who has access to safety and care.” - Peer
Cristiano Di Martino & Oscar Chan Yik - ‘Long In the Darkness of Bones’ Two-Person Exhibition - St. Chads, King’s Cross (30th June - 20th July, opening Saturday 29th June, 6-9pm)
St. Chads presents ‘Long In the Darkness of Bones’, a two-person exhibition featuring Cristiano Di Martino and Oscar Chan Yik.
Dominique White - ‘Deadweight’ Solo Exhibition - Whitechapel Gallery, Whitechapel (2nd July - 15th September, opening Tuesday 2nd July)
Whitechapel Gallery presents ‘Deadweight’, a new body of work by Dominique White, winner of the ninth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women.
“A thought-provoking exploration of rebellion and transformation, Deadweight comprises four large-scale sculptural works which continue the artist’s interest in creating new worlds for ‘Blackness’ and fascination with the metaphoric potency and regenerative power of the sea. The title Deadweight derives from a nautical term which collapses everything on a ship into a single unit which determines the ship’s ability to float and function as intended. White deliberately inverts this, offering disruption as opposed to stability – a reckoning with the tipping point of the ship to offer the possibility of emancipation through abolition.” - Whitechapel Gallery
Artist Opportunities:
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.
The Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize 2024. Deadline - Monday 15th July.
The Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize seeks to discover talented writers on contemporary art. The winner of the Prize receives £1,000, their review is published on Burlington Contemporary and they have the opportunity to publish a review of a future contemporary art exhibition in The Burlington Magazine. This year’s judges are the scholar and author Julia Bryan-Wilson and the artist Trevor Paglen. Entrants must have published no more than six pieces of writing in print or online, in any language or country, prior to their submission. This does not include personal blogs and websites. Before entering, applicants are encouraged to read reviews recently published on Burlington Contemporary.
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.
Open Call, Dreamtime Fellowship 2024–25. Deadline - Sunday 29th July.
Spike Island is pleased to announce the fifth edition of the Dreamtime Fellowship, a programme initiated and fully funded by Bristol-based artist Luke Jerram. The Dreamtime Fellowship 2024-25, is now open to applications from artists currently living in Bristol, working across any media. The successful applicant will be granted: 24-hour access to a shared studio space at Spike Island for a year (from October 2024 to September 2025); Annual membership to the Spike Island Associates network, which offers free access to regular talks, studio visits from artists, critics and curators, and peer-to-peer learning and support; A £5,000 bursary; Three one-to-one mentoring sessions with Luke Jerram throughout the year.
Young Wimbledon Artist in Residence 2024, Wimbledon Museum. Deadline - Friday 2nd August.
The YWA in Residence Scheme at Wimbledon Museum provides a collaborative platform for Merton-based artists aged between 18-25 to explore items from their archives which are not usually on display, and bring them to life. This is a one-month opportunity for creatives to develop and then exhibit work in a studio and gallery space and to interact with the historic Wimbledon Village Club and Lecture Hall, the local community and visitors to the Museum.
The 2025 East London Art Prize, Bow Arts. Deadline - Tuesday 27th August.
The East London Art Prize celebrates and promotes the incredible talent and diversity of art made in the cultural hive of east London. Proudly sponsored by Minerva and Prue MacLeod, the winner receives a cash prize of £15,000 and a solo exhibition at Bow Arts’ Nunnery Gallery. The runner-up second prize is a year’s studio space with Bow Arts. The entire shortlist is presented at an exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery, with all artists given mentoring and career development opportunities. The prize is open to any artist living or working within an ‘E’ postcode, encompassing E1-E20, SE1-SE28 and EC1-EC4. Submitting artists should hold an arts degree, equivalent arts qualification or be able to show demonstrable commitment to their practice. Artist collectives/joint submissions are accepted.