The Shock of the Now - Issue #160
Afternoon All - Welcome to Issue 160 of The Shock of the Now! I hope you’re having an enjoyable week.
This week, the full issue includes sixteen Recommended Exhibitions, as well as ten fresh Artist Opportunities.
Thanks again to all those who have signed-up for a paid subscription recently! My exclusive Guide to Condo 2025 (with many exhibitions closing this Saturday), as well as all previous full issues, can be accessed exclusively by paid subscribers Here.
I hope you enjoy Issue 160, and if so do forward it along! As always, questions and comments are welcome, so feel free to get in touch, H x
Recommended Exhibitions Opening This Week :
‘Nature Morte’ Group Exhibition - The Artist Room, Soho (13th February - 14th March, opening Wednesday 12th February, 6-8pm)
The Artist Room presents ‘Nature Morte’, a group exhibition curated by Pieter-Jan De Paepe, featuring Leah Ke Yi Zheng, Owen Westberg (above), Max Xeno Karnig, Peter Davies, Henry Curchod, Kenneth Winterschladen, Sara Knowland, David Flaugher, Andrew Cranston and Alice Frey.
Alongside, Plaster Magazine launches their new Plaster Store, featuring merchandise and objects curated by the Plaster team.
“The Artist Room presents Nature Morte, a group exhibition curated by Pieter-Jan De Paepe that examines the painted still life, bringing together works by artists who either make still life their primary focus or, explore it as an occasional experiment. Some have devoted much of their practice to depicting inanimate objects, refining thei technique over time, while others treat still life as a creative challenge - an opportunity to explore composition, form, or new artistic methods. Though this distinction is subtle, the dynamic tension between these approaches creates a compelling dialogue, bridging tradition and experimentation.” - The Artist Room
‘The Cave in the Mind’ Group Exhibition - Ione & Mann, Mayfair (13th February - 29th March, opening Wednesday 12th February, 6-8pm)
Ione & Mann presents ‘The Cave in the Mind’, a group exhibition curated by Marcelle Joseph featuring the recipients of the 2024 GIRLPOWER Residency; Melania Toma (above), Paula Turmina and Atalanta Xanthe.
“Thirty-five thousand years ago, image-makers were shamans not artists. Equally, Toma, Turmina and Xanthe are image-makers inspired by their own dreams and visions after witnessing the ‘spirit animals’ made real by these hunter-gatherer shamans. From the rock walls of these dark caves to the white walls of the modern-day gallery space, these artists have translated a shamanistic conception of the world and created artworks that reflect upon the new spiritual dawn that occurred at these Ice Age cave sites in southwestern France.” - Marcelle Joseph
Hardeep Pandhal - ‘Inner World’ Solo Exhibiton - Drawing Room, Bermondsey (13th February - 13th April, opening Wednesday 12th February, 6-8pm)
Drawing Room presents Hardeep Pandhal’s debut London institutional solo exhibition ‘Inner World’.
“Born in Birmingham (1985) to Indian migrants and now living and working between Birmingham and Glasgow, Pandhal uses wall drawings, small and large-scale drawings on paper and animations to create mythical narratives that explore the complexities of contemporary culture, class, racial violence and power. Pandhal’s drawings introduce audiences to a rabble of creatures conjured and mutated from an ambitious range of sources – religion, video games, comics, mainstream music – from the Sikh martyr Baba Deep Singh to black metal. This multilayered exhibition will feature a site-specific wall drawing that snakes and wraps around the entire gallery, as well as other new drawings alongside earlier work by the artist.” - Drawing Room
Donald Rodney - ‘Visceral Canker’ Solo Exhibiton - Whitechapel Gallery, Whitechapel (12th February - 4th May)
Whitechapel Gallery presents Donald Rodney’s survey exhibition ‘Visceral Canker’, following acclaimed presentations at both Spike Island (Bristol) and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham).
“Visceral Canker encompasses the majority of Rodney’s surviving works from 1982 to 1997 including large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures as well as his sketchbooks and rare archival materials. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary breadth and influence of Rodney’s work, confirming him as a vital figure in British art, and introducing him to a new generation of audiences. Rodney experimented with new materials and technologies throughout his all too brief career. Working across sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and digital media, Rodney’s wide-ranging practice resists simple categorisation both thematically and materially, due to his innovative approach to both mediums and technical processes.” - Whitechapel Gallery
Stella Grigor McGarvey - ‘Lacunary’ Solo Exhibiton - Rabbet Gallery, Peckham (13th - 17th February, opening Wednesday 12th February, 6-9pm)
Rabbet Gallery presents Stella Grigor McGarvey’s debut solo exhibition ‘Lacunary’, curated by Francesca Hummer.
“This show is a glimpse into the push and pull of loneliness and optimistic acceptance. It's a study of absence, and of what we wish was there. It's an immersion into MeGarvey's thinking in the negative, a space in which we find ourselves inverted. There are different ways of conceptualising space and experience. Often we think in the positive, the image as captured, an object placed into a gap. We have a notion of a base state of things, onto which experience is projected. This results in our notion of absence as being 'something taken away'- a depletion of accumulated experience or time or connection.” - Ava Cowperthwaite