The Shock of the Now - Issue #187
Afternoon All - Welcome to Issue 187 of The Shock of the Now! I hope you’re having an enjoyable week.
This week, the full issue includes three Recommended Exhibitions, as well as twelve fresh Artist Opportunities.
Additionally, thanks once again to all those who have signed-up for a paid subscription recently! Last week I released The Shock of the Now’s Guide to Regional Institutions, an in-depth issue that provided insight into the best museum and institutional exhibitions currently on show around the country. I focused on spaces outside of London, in the hope that you might make the most of a day trip or even a staycation, and included 23 museums/institutions from Glasgow to Gateshead, Liverpool to Leeds, Charleston to Cornwall, Bristol to Birmingham, Manchester to Milton Keynes and more. There are plenty of excellent exhibitions to see, the majority free to visit and most open longer hours and more days than your average commercial gallery, so I provided full opening hours for each, as well as basic ticketing information. For those who missed out and wish to catch up, and my guide can be accessed with a paid subscription Here.
I hope you enjoy Issue 187, 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 :
Marcy Richardson & Akiko Wanaka - ‘Refuge’ Two-Person Exhibition - The Crypt Gallery, St Mary’s Church, Battersea (20th - 30th August, opening Wednesday 20th August, 12-5pm)
The Crypt Gallery at St Mary’s Church presents ‘Refuge’, a two-person exhibition by Marcy Richardson and Akiko Wanaka.
“This exhibition brings together two distinct practices that converge on the multifaceted concept of refuge. It will take place in the ancient crypt beneath the historic Grade I-listed church with a rich art history. J.M.W. Turner painted some of his riverscape studies of light from the vestry window, and William Blake was married to Catherine Boucher in the church in 1782. Set within the crypt’s quiet recesses, REFUGE becomes both sanctuary and site of inquiry. Whether through assemblage, sound or painterly metaphor, Richardson and Wanaka offer a space to contemplate the fragile architectures we build to find a sense of place in an increasingly unstable world.” - The Crypt Gallery
‘Carbon, Carbon Everywhere’ Group Exhibition - Hypha HQ, Euston (21st August - 2nd October, opening Thursday 21st August, 6-8pm)
Hypha presents ‘Carbon, Carbon Everywhere’, a group exhibition curated by Maria Hinel & Indira Dyussebayeva-Ziyabek, featuring Emii Alrai, Kate Daudy & Konstantin Novoselov, Susan Eyre, Simon Faithfull, Ania Mokrzycka, Nissa Nishikawa, Mariele Neudecker, Anousha Payne, Aimée Parrott, Lucia Pizzani, Lizi Sanchez and Meng Zhou.
“Integral to the constitution of our bodies, soil, air and some rocks, carbon is a highly bonding element that incessantly transmutes from state to state, each particle challenging the boundaries between life and non-life. Bringing together works by twelve international artists, Carbon, Carbon Everywhere explores the shifting states of carbon, an element that threads through organic and inorganic matter, linking bodies, environments, and temporal scales. The title of the exhibition is a quote from the landmark essay titled Carbon by the writer and chemist Primo Levi. In the essay, Levi traces a journey of a single particle of carbon across distinct states and beings, from resting on a rock edge for hundreds of millions of years, to entering the world of ‘things that change’ – swiftly shifting from the atmosphere to the lungs of a falcon, to the sea, to the trunk of a cedar, and eventually entering the writer’s own body from a glass of milk on his desk.” - Hypha
‘Interior Motives’ Group Exhibition - Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair (22nd August - 20th September, opening Friday 22nd August, 6-8pm)
Hauser & Wirth presents ‘Interior Motives’, a group exhibition featuring Koak, Ding Shilun and Cece Philips.
“Enter interior worlds imagined by contemporary painters Koak, Ding Shilun and Cece Philips this summer at Hauser & Wirth London. The exhibition explores how these artists engage with the interior both as a physical space and a psychological construct. Through distinct painterly vocabularies, each artist interrogates the architectural and domestic environments we inhabit, revealing how these frameworks shape our sense of self, memory and belonging. Interior Motives is part of an ongoing initiative at Hauser & Wirth that champions emerging and mid-career artists beyond the gallery’s roster. Produced in collaboration with Union Pacific and Bernheim Gallery, this exhibition reflects a shared commitment to a sustainable arts ecosystem.” - Hauser & Wirth