The Shock of the Now - Issue #88
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Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well and welcome to Issue 88 of The Shock of the Now.
It’s undeniably a busy week for exhibition openings (eighty-two between now and next Tuesday, by my spreadsheet!), as the looming London Gallery Weekend combines with standard first-week-of-the-month scheduling. And while I believe every weekend to be a London gallery weekend, I have prepared an expanded selection of Recommended Exhibitions covering twenty of the capital’s small-to-mid-size galleries, project spaces or artist-led initiatives. Happy pavement pounding!
Additionally, there are still fourteen active Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 88, 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:
Samantha Roth - ‘A Bending Back’ Solo Exhibition & Tiffany Wellington - ‘Duppy Water’ Solo Exhibition - Public Gallery, Liverpool Street (31st May - 24th June, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-8pm)
Public Gallery presents ‘A Bending Back’, a solo exhibition by American artist Samantha Roth and ‘Duppy Water’, the debut solo exhibition of London-based artist Tiffany Wellington.
“A Bending Back features a new body of work in which meticulously framed and multilayered compositions superimpose enigmatic portraits of everyday life onto one another, bringing together a tableau of transparencies through which to explore various modes of reflection. Duppy Water investigates a Sulphur-rich mineral spring in St Ann Bay, Jamaica through a large-scale installation that interlaces photography, sound and sculpture across two floors of the gallery.” - Public Gallery
Nour Jaouda - ‘Where, if not faraway, is my place?’ Solo Exhibition - Union Pacific, Liverpool Street (31st May - 8th July, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-8pm)
Union Pacific presents Nour Jaouda’s solo exhibition ‘Where, if not faraway, is my place?’.
“Libyan-born artist Nour Jaouda’s textiles are a conduit for exploring sights relating to migration. Each of her large-scale dyed tapestries mirror the shape of prayer mats from her immediate surroundings in Cairo, Egypt. The metal structures beneath them are inspired by buildings in and around the streets beyond her studio. Working between there and London, her works jostle these two contrasting environments, intuiting a greater understanding about her own cultural identity.” - Union Pacific
Siân Newlove-Drew - ‘Oxytocin City’ Solo Exhibition - Piccalilli Gallery, Sydenham (1st - 25th June, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-10pm)
Piccalilli presents Siân Newlove-Drew’s solo exhibition ‘Oxytocin City’.
“Siân Newlove-Drew is a London-based artist, working across mediums including sculpture, installation, and writing. Exploring objects as live containers of emotion and materiality, facilitatory to glowing sites of processing, power, and personal discovery, her practice is led by feelings of specialness, involvement, and overwhelm. She is interested in the relationship or unison between what is succinct and arranged and what is mess, liquescent and energised.” - Piccalilli
Marcin Dudek - ‘NEOPLAN’ Solo Exhibition - Edel Assanti, Fitzrovia (31st May - 1st September, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-8pm)
Edel Assanti presents Marcin Dudek’s latest solo exhibition ‘NEOPLAN’.
“NEOPLAN continues Dudek’s practice of creating "memory boxes": installations archiving lost spaces specific to his own experiences, yet emblematic of the latent violence associated with the construction of group identity. An immersive installation comprising a disassembled football fan tour bus, multiple films and wall-based collage works dramatically transforms the gallery.” - Edel Assanti
‘Jupiter Walk’ Group Exhibition - Sherbet Green, Bethnal Green (1st - 24th June, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-8:30pm)
Sherbet Green presents ‘Jupiter Walk’, a group exhibition featuring Lulu Bennett, Steph Huang, Jean-François Krebs, Madeleine Pledge and Anna Woodward.
“Evoking both the desire to transcend the earthly, and the fear of what might be out there, Jupiter Walk draws together works by artists responding to the notion of planetary excursion. Across painting and sculpture, Bennett, Huang, Krebs, Pledge and Woodward contemplate space in relation to humanity. These objects, emblems of aspiration, ego, otherness, longing and fear, together form a collection of past-and-future totems. They constitute symbols of community, commodity, politics, Politics, and existence, and underline the bizarre reality of being so... human.” - Sherbet Green
‘Dancing in Outer Space’ Group Exhibition - Studio Chapple, Deptford (1st June - 1st July, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-9pm)
Studio Chapple presents ‘Dancing in Outer Space’, a group exhibition featuring Bill Daggs, Harold Offeh, Rene Matić and Sola Olulode.
“Taking its name from UK jazz-funk outfit Atmosfear’s seminal 1979 record, this exhibition seeks to examine how a distinct mode of cultural production, and its transgressive performativity, has acted as a subversive political force through acts of sonic worldbuilding on the dancefloors of the UK.” - Studio Chapple
‘Doing Time’ Group Exhibition - South Parade, Deptford (1st June - 8th July, opening Wednesday 31st May, 6-9pm)
South Parade presents ‘Doing Time’, a group exhibition featuring Juan Betancurth, Tristan Higginbottom, Georgina Hill, Garrett Lockhart, Stephen Polatch, Melanie Smith and Lucia Vidales.
“Doing Time takes its title from an essay by the anthropologist Tim Ingold on the Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh (b. 1950), who is best known for his “One Year” durational performances. On 26 September 1981, he began his third in New York when he would not enter any buildings or shelter of any sort (cars, trains, tents etc). Using Tsieh’s practice as a departure point, this exhibition draws together collage, painting, photography, sculpture and video of seven artists who explore or present time — measurements, duration and perception — through process, material and subject.” - South Parade
Benjamin Slinger - ‘Dungeon Inc.’ Solo Exhibition - Darren Flook, Fitzrovia (2nd June - 8th July, opening Thursday 1st June, 6-8pm)
Darren Flook presents Benjamin Slinger’s solo exhibition ‘Dungeon Inc.’.
“The exhibition is a psycho-political installation playing with the implications of socio-political happenings and their pop cultural hangovers via medieval themed fantasy role-playing games.” - Darren Flook
‘The Artificial Silk Girl’ Group Exhibition - Brunette Coleman, Bloomsbury (1st June - 22nd July, opening Thursday 1st June, 6-8pm)
Brunette Coleman presents their inaugural group exhibition ‘The Artificial Silk Girl’, featuring Antonia Brown, Clémence de la Tour du Pin, Nicola Gunnarsson, Poppy Jones, Carina Kehlet Schou, Valerie Kong, Michelle Rawlings, Emma Schwartz and Amy Stober.
‘Infinite Loop’ Group Exhibition - Alice Amati, Warren Street (1st June - 8th July, opening Thursday 1st June, 6-8pm)
Alice Amati presents their inaugural group exhibition ‘Infinite Loop’, featuring Danielle Fretwell, Dion Rosina, Ugo Sebastião and Ben Zawalich.
“The artists included in the exhibition adopt both classical and contemporary imagery and painterly lexicons, creating a dialogue with the past while questioning current modes of image consumption. With a particular focus on processes of appropriation and mediation of images, their paintings push the boundaries of the medium and demand a slow, thoughtful approach to viewing.” - Alice Amati
Minh Lan Tran - ‘Heat Generation’ Solo Exhibition - Harlesden High Street, Harlesden (1st June - 15th July, opening reception Monday 5th June, 6-9pm)
Harlesden High Street presents Minh Lan Tran’s solo exhibition ‘Heat Generation’, following the artist’s ‘Heat Generation (prayer)’ performance programme for London Gallery Weekend (Friday 2nd June, 2pm, St James Church, Picadilly; Saturday 3rd June, 12:30pm, Peckham Library Square; Sunday 4th June, 12:50pm, Hoxton Square)
“A solo exhibition centred around an installation featuring paintings and writing accompanied by a performance happening over London Gallery Weekend. The show will be an homage to acts of self-immolation as the ultimate act of expression of people resentment against the oppression of freedom and democracy, referring particularly to their recurrence in South Vietnam in the late 60’s against the oppression of Buddhist by the French colonial authorities and the uprising of Vietnamese people against the Vietnam war.” - Harlesden High Street
George Rouy - ‘Body Suit’ Solo Exhibition - Hannah Barry Gallery, Peckham (3rd June - 9th September, opening Friday 2nd June, 5-8pm)
Hannah Barry presents George Rouy’s latest solo exhibition ‘Body Suit’.
“Speaking to vexed subjects of desire, alienation, freedom and crisis, 'BODY SUIT' continues Rouy’s longstanding treatment of the human form expressed as rhapsodic portraits of identity in a globalised and technologically-driven 21st century. Focused on the relationship between interior landscapes and the body in motion, transformation and flux, 'BODY SUIT' brings to sharp focus recurring themes in Rouy’s work such as the face as a mask, the individual as a mirror, the self as a shadow.” - Hannah Barry Gallery
Shaan Syed - ‘Foliates’ Solo Exhibition - Sundy, Vauxhall (2nd June - 8th July, opening Friday 2nd June, 6-9pm)
Sundy presents Shaan Syed’s latest solo exhibition ‘Foliates’.
“Foliates refers to several motifs in the exhibition: the rubber plant, or Ficus Elastica, the pages of a book and the panels of decorative dividing screens. In these forms, Syed finds what he calls anchors; motifs rooted in the personal as it relates to the process of painting. Here, leaves, pages and panels are used as symbolic building blocks for formalist strategies paralleling those of Islamic art's principal use of the “arabesque” or biomorph, and the geometric.” - Sundy
Lisa-Marie Harris - ‘RESPONSES (To Things I’ve Been Told About My Body)’ Solo Exhibition - Cooke Latham, Battersea (2nd - 30th June, performance Saturday 3rd June, 11am)
Cooke Latham presents Lisa-Marie Harris’ debut UK solo exhibition ‘RESPONSES (To Things I’ve Been Told About My Body)’, as well as ‘Cover Yourself’, a sculptural performance work set to the sound of calypso, soca and an audio narrative recorded by Harris, in which the artist interacts with and activates the sculptures included in her exhibition.
“The exhibition is comprised of wall-mounted reliefs, sculptures and film which are presented as a provocative rebuttal of the unrelenting body shaming, body policing, and sexual objectification faced by women. Unpicking the often-contradictory rebuffs and slurs the artist first received during her pre-pubescent childhood in Trinidad – attacks which persisted to her present state as a mother in London – the works respond to and invert this negative catalogue of comments in sly, bombastic and uncanny ways.” - Cooke Latham
Narumi Nekpenekpen - ‘where you fit in my palm’ Solo Exhibition - Soft Opening, Bethnal Green (2nd June - 29th July, opening reception Sunday 4th June, 11am-5pm)
Soft Opening presents Narumi Nekpenekpen’s solo exhibition ‘where you fit in my palm’.
“Positioned atop a pair of glossy red heart-shaped plinths, Narumi Nekpenekpen’s complex figures and creatures appear frozen in states of feeling, with their clompy feet and oversized doe-shaped eyes peeking out from a whirl of colour, shape and texture. Nekpenekpen’s work involves and processes her emotions within an alternative subconscious, where layers of porcelain and glaze represent thoughts and memories. A reflection of her often indefinable innermost conflicts, in where you fit in my palm, clay becomes a translator for grief, fear, pain, hope, joy, love and desire.” - Soft Opening
Billy Fraser - ‘Shattered’ Solo Exhibition - Grove East, Shoreditch (2nd June - 15th July, opening reception Sunday 4th June, 3-7pm) & ‘Bite the Hand’ Group Exhibition - Grove, Battersea (2nd June - 8th July, opening reception Saturday 3rd June, 4-8pm)
Grove presents Billy Fraser’s latest solo exhibition ‘Shattered’ at their East London location, as well as the group exhibition ‘Bite the Hand’ at their Battersea location, featuring Bora Akincitürk, Filippo Cegani, Maggie Dulap, Paul Ferens, Patrick Quinn, Javi Ramirez, Victor Seaward, Noelia Towers and Malte Zenses.
Laila Majid & Louis Blue Newby - ‘Beautiful Girls On Top!’ Solo Exhibition - Xxijra Hii at Sadie Coles HQ’s The Shop, Soho (2nd June - 1st July, opening Friday 2nd June, 6-8pm)
Xxijra Hii presents Laila Majid & Louis Blue Newby’s latest solo exhibition ‘Beautiful Girls On Top!’ at Sadie Coles HQ’s The Shop.
“Turning to their extensive image archive, the imagery in this new body of work originates from a vast array of sources including, but not limited to, fetish and pornography magazines, wildlife encyclopaedias, cinema SFX / VFX journals, anime drawing manuals, iPhone photographs and images mined from online forums. Alongside image-based work, the artists are producing an editioned series of cast sculptures, focussing on objects that bear a connection to the corporeal.” - Xxijra Hii
Bora Akincitürk & Otto Byström - ‘Grim Grime Grimer’ Two-Person Exhibition - St Chads, Kings Cross (3rd - 24th June, opening Friday 2nd June, 6-9pm)
St Chads presents Bora Akincitürk & Otto Byström’s two-person exhibition ‘Grim Grime Grimer’.
Vikenti Komitski & Aaron Roth - ‘Dreams Are Made of This’ Two-Person Exhibition - Zéruì, Camberwell (2nd June - 14th July, opening Friday 2nd June, 6-9pm)
Zéruì presents Vikenti Komitski & Aaron Roth’s two-person exhibition ‘Dreams Are Made of This’.
“This exhibition highlights the ecological and social issues related to extraction, recycling, and disposal, as an attempt to deconstruct the digital-image world. Featuring paintings, objects, and installations by the two artists. The different bodies of works delve into the fantasies and desires that are transmitted through the virtual world, as mediated by technology, and the economic cycles and power dynamics that surround it. The show serves as a reminder that our reality is seen through technology, but it is also these very technologies that distract us from perceiving certain aspects of reality.” - Zéruì
Jaime Welsh - ‘Inward’ Solo Exhibition - Ginny On Frederick, Farringdon (3rd June - 22nd July, opening Saturday 3rd June, 5-8pm)
Ginny On Frederick presents Jaime Welsh’s solo exhibition ‘Inward’.
Artist Opportunities:
Open Call, The Photographers’ Gallery New Talent 23. Deadline - Sunday 4th June.
TPG New Talent 23 (TNT 23) is a unique platform to showcase new talent and support the most exciting and relevant UK-based emerging artists working in photography today. This year, six finalists will be selected from an open call by acclaimed artist Hoda Afshar and Karen McQuaid, Senior Curator at The Photographers’ Gallery. Now in its third edition, TNT 23 offers each finalist a bursary of £1,500, a year-long mentorship with a photographer or industry professional, the chance to work with the creative team at An Endless Supply on a bespoke exhibition website, and see your work at large-scale on a billboard in London and your hometown, supported by our partner Jack Arts, part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD.
Open Call, Solo Residency, Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop. Deadline - Monday 5th June.
Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop is offering one artist access for three months to one of its spectacular 350 ft² (35m²) studio spaces, with both natural and professional lighting. Working above the gallery space, the successful applicant has the opportunity to network with artists, curators, collectors and the wider public whilst visiting ongoing exhibitions and events organised in the gallery. The residency programme also provides guidance and promotion through our channels and network, as well as the Solo Residency Exhibition organised in the studio space upstairs. (Residency 19th June – 1st September 2023, with a Solo Residency Exhibition from 7th -17th September)
‘Desire Paths’ Open Call, Turf Projects. Deadline - Tuesday 6th June.
Desire Paths (19 August 2023 – 25 November 2023) is Turf Projects’ Croydon London Borough of Culture flagship project and part of Turf’s year exploring the theme ‘DEMYSTIFICATION’. A satellite arts festival across Croydon, the project aims to explore how communities and creatives can shape the spaces and places around them, with a focus on disused and underused spaces around the borough. Desire Paths will be led by artists, organisations or collectives chosen by open call. The project will start with a symposium event at Turf and then unfold and expand across Croydon via the projects commissioned through this open call. The open call will result in three large commissions (£5000 fee + £3000 production budget each) and six small commissions (£1000 fee + £500 production budget each). Turf Projects are also looking for expressions of interest from those in publication production.
Founded in 2017, ARCAthens is a not-for-profit organization offering two Athens Residency Fellowships (Visual Art and Curatorial). These fully-funded opportunities enable artists, curators, and scholars to live/work in Athens, Greece, and be immersed in—and consequently respond to—the ongoing cultural renaissance taking place here. The program has been lauded for providing promotional services and robust elective networking such as arranged studio and private collection visits, bespoke tours of institutions, as well as participation in varied community events. Residency Duration: Monday, October 2 – Monday, November 27 2023.
Open Call, Supported Commissions, Deptford X. Deadline - Sunday 11th June.
Deptford X Supported is back again this year with funding for 3 projects to be commissioned for the 2023 Deptford X festival. Deptford X Supported is open to early-career Black and People of Colour artists from the London Borough of Lewisham who have not previously received a commission for their work. Their project will be chosen by a panel of professional artists and art professionals and selected artists will receive a fee, a production budget and curatorial support to produce their work for this year’s Deptford X festival. All applicants, regardless of whether their project is selected, will be invited to attend free artist development workshops. Deptford X are open to all kinds of projects from installations, public realm works, films, performances, happenings, workshops, interventions, and other kinds of art project that will contribute to 2023’s 10 day festival.
Open Call, British Ceramics Biennial Fresh 2023. Deadline - Sunday 11th June.
Applications for British Ceramics Biennial Fresh 2023 are now open. The Fresh exhibition celebrates and promotes emerging talent in contemporary ceramics in the UK and Ireland. Twenty-five exhibitors will be selected by a panel composed of young-people, artists, makers, educators and learning designers. Fresh will be situated at the heart of the 2023 British Ceramics Biennial festival programme of exhibitions, projects and engagement. Each exhibitor in Fresh will receive a £300 exhibition payment and £50 towards the transport of the work to and from the exhibition venue. Fresh exhibitors will benefit from a national PR and marketing campaign. Exhibitors in Fresh will also be eligible for the Fresh Talent Awards.
Freelands Award 2023, Freelands Foundation. Deadline - Monday 12th June.
The annual Freelands Award was established in 2016 to enable a UK arts organisation to present a solo exhibition, including significant new work, by a mid-career woman artist who may not yet have received the acclaim or public recognition that her work deserves. The award is open to art organisations across the United Kingdom, including London, for a total of £110k, which includes a fee of £30k for the artist. There are nominee awards of £10k each – including a £3k artist fee – for shortlisted organisations
Cubitt Civic Fellowship 2023-25. Deadline - Thursday 15th June.
CUBITT is launching a new 2-year salaried fellowship for a cultural worker or artist working at the intersection of art, social justice, and community organising. This opportunity provides critical organisational support for a radical practitioner exploring ways that creative practice and collaboration with communities can productively navigate political struggle and chronic systemic inequities, building towards infrastructures for new realities to unfold. The fellowship allows those with expanded practices bridging the arts and social movement organising to develop creative ideas, build relationships with community members and activist groups in Cubitt’s neighbourhood, and test the liberatory possibilities of the arts.
Participation Residency, Gasworks. Deadline - Monday 19th June.
Gasworks is seeking to appoint an artist whose practice is concerned with the advancement of participation within a contemporary art environment. The candidate must be committed to engaging with the local migrant community around the Lambeth and Southwark areas, while addressing the issues of mental health and wellbeing which are of relevance to them. The candidate will deliver a diverse range of regular participatory activities in a creative and enjoyable way throughout the 8 months of the residency. Residency dates: September 2023 to April 2024 (8 months). Artist Fee: £250 per day. Working days: 2 days a week, flexible working days and hours. Programme budget: £4,500 (includes materials for activities and final output).
Stanley Picker Fellowships in Design & Fine Art 2023. Deadline - Monday 26th June.
The Stanley Picker Gallery at Kingston University is seeking to appoint two contemporary practitioners to the Stanley Picker Fellowships in Design & Fine Art 2023. 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.
Studio Prize, The Artists' Collecting Society. Deadline - Friday 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 the UK. This year, ACS has 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 (19 – 22 September 2023.). 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 Hari Art Prize 2023, A Space For Art. Deadline - Friday 30th June.
Applications are now open for The Hari Art Prize 2023, in collaboration with A Space For Art, celebrating the global roster of artistic talents attracted to London. The award will be open to all applicants who are self-taught or have graduated in the last two years (2021-2023) from UK art colleges from 3rd April until 30 June 2023 via A Space For Art’s website. A shortlist of artists will then be chosen by the judging panel, and once shortlisted, artists will have their individual pieces exhibited throughout the hotel from 1 September 2023 until January 2024. The three finalists will then be announced at a VIP award event at The Hari in November 2023. The winner will be presented with a £10,000 cash prize, kindly donated by The Hari’s CEO and Chairman, Dr. Aron Harliela, and the two runners-up will become The Hari’s Artists in Residence for 2024, taking over a room each for the month of January, followed by an exhibition of their work in The Hari’s public spaces.
The Contemporary British Painting Prize 2023. Deadline - Friday 30th June.
‘Contemporary British Painting’ (also known as CBP) is an artist-led organisation which explores and promotes current trends in British painting through group exhibitions, talks, publications, and by placing paintings in art museums. The Contemporary British Painting Prize Exhibition 2023 will be selected from an open call for contemporary painters working in the UK. The prize is in two stages: shortlisting for the exhibition; and judging. A minimum of twelve artists will be shortlisted to exhibit by a panel of four painter members of the artist-led group Contemporary British Painting. The panel of judges will select one prizewinner and one highly commended painter from the CBP Prize exhibition at Huddersfield. The winner will receive £8000, a catalogue essay on their work, an invitation to become a member of Contemporary British Painting as well as a selector for the CBP Prize 2024.
Michael O’Pray Prize 2023, Film and Video Umbrella & Art Monthly. Deadline - Monday 3rd July.
Submissions are open for the 2023 Michael O’Pray Prize, an award for new writing on innovation and experimentation in the moving image. There is a £750 prize for the winner, with £350 prizes for two further awardees. This year’s judging panel includes writer/filmmakers Kondo Heller and Juliet Jacques. Named in memory of the critic, historian and film programmer, Michael O’Pray, the Prize is open to all early-career writers based in the UK. Entry is free. Applicants are invited to send a short pitch for a new text, alongside an example of previous writing. All awarded texts will be published by Art Monthly and FVU.