The Shock of the Now - Issue #166
Afternoon All - Welcome to Issue 166 of The Shock of the Now! I hope you’re having an enjoyable week.
This week, the full issue includes eighteen Recommended Exhibitions, as well as eight fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 166, 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 :
Søren Arildsen - ‘In the Seams’ Solo Exhibition - The Artist Room, Soho (27th March - 25th April, opening Wednesday 26th March, 6-8pm)
The Artist Room presents Søren Arildsen’s debut UK solo exhibition ‘In the Seams’.
“The exhibition features a new series of oil paintings on canvas set in artist-made porcelain frames, as well as ceramic paintings mounted in treated wood. Arildsen’s work explores the way memories take shape, blending reality with recollection and daydreams. While rooted in figuration, his use of materials and process creates a shifting quality, as if the images are drifting in and out of focus, leading the viewer to somewhere between the real and the imagined.” - The Artist Room
Kingsley Ifill - ‘Blue Roan’ Solo Exhibition - Hannah Barry, Peckham (27th March - 17th May, opening Wednesday 26th March, 5-8pm)
Hannah Barry presents Kingsley Ifill’s solo exhibition ‘Blue Roan’.
“Kingsley Ifill has a multidisciplinary practice, predominantly focused on process-based photography and incorporating painting, printmaking, artist books and sculpture. Ifill’s images are immediate and arresting, known for compositional austerity, dark psychological moods and analogue textures. Ifill carries out all aspects of the creative process by hand, from developing film to printing and bookmaking. Much of his work has a diaristic quality – he often captures a decisive moment in which characters are caught in states of passion, abandon or bravado, chronicling scenes of post-industrial British life alongside time spent in France, Japan and the United States.” - Hannah Barry
Qualeasha Wood - ‘Malware’ Solo Exhibition - Pippy Houldsworth, Mayfair (28th March - 26th April, opening + performance Thursday 27th March, 6-8pm)
Pippy Houldsworth presents Qualeasha Wood’s solo exhibition ‘Malware’.
“In new tapestries, tuftings, and videos, Wood examines overconsumption with a visual language that refers to glitch art, body horror, and consumerism, considering how identity can persist and transform in the face of systemic failure. On the occasion of the Private View, Wood will present a new durational live performance in the gallery, in which she enacts the state of ‘bed rotting’ – a phenomenon where prolonged rest blends with digital overstimulation – as a commentary on how selfhood and identity are increasingly shaped by technological mediation.” - Qualeasha Wood
James Cabaniuk - ‘I Don't Know What's Come Over Me’ Solo Exhibition - Workplace, Fitzrovia (28th March - 3rd May, opening Thursday 27th March, 6-8pm)
Workplace presents James Cabaniuk’s solo exhibition ‘I Don't Know What's Come Over Me’.
“James Cabaniuk employs abstraction and strategies of queer opacity and temporalities to construct thickly layered large scale abstract oil paintings. Seeking to liberate personal trauma from shame, and exploring queer identity and history, the authoritative singularity and machismo of 20th Century Abstract Expressionist painting becomes a world wherein Cabaniuk navigates their own complex relationship to the power it embodies - simultaneously fetishising and critiquing it. Materiality and performativity are held in tension by Cabaniuk and materials such as confetti, glitter, and soil serve as tools of celebration, resilience, and connection.” - Workplace
Si On - ‘Soft Armour, Heavy Bones’ Solo Exhibition - Edel Assanti, Fitzrovia (28th March - 13rd May, opening Thursday 27th March, 6-8pm)
Edel Assanti presents Si On’s solo exhibition ‘Soft Armour, Heavy Bones’.
“Si On’s artworks are developed through a deeply intuitive practice of daily creation, working in a vibrant palette across painting, sculpture and installation. They are built up in a process of repetitive material layering, using traditional techniques alongside the incorporation of all manner of objects and mediums. This practice is emblematic of Si On’s belief in art as a space in which superficial distractions must be peeled away to allow unseen dynamics to come into focus. Soft Armour, Heavy Bones unfolds across three rooms, each populated by defiant female protagonists roaming hypnotically swirling landscapes.” - Edel Assanti