The Shock of the Now - Issue #91
Discover more from The Shock of the Now
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well and welcome to Issue 91 of The Shock of the Now.
This week there are nine weekly Recommended Exhibitions, as well as three fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 91, 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:
Leon Scott-Engel - ‘Handle With Care’ Solo Exhibition - Pipeline, Fitzrovia (22nd June - 5th August, opening Wednesday 21st June, 6-8pm)
Pipeline presents Leon Scott-Engel’s solo exhibition ‘Handle With Care’
“Scott-Engel invites a vulnerability and tenderness into his work whilst undermining conventional ideas surrounding masculinity and arbitrary gender roles. Playing off stereotypes, Scott-Engel borrows the structures of boxing equipment such as sparring pads or kick shields to create canvases that serve a safeguard function. Disregarding the rigidity of traditional painting frames, his canvases bend and shield. In doing so, they soften the physical architecture of the gallery itself.” - Pipeline
‘Support Structures’ Group Exhibition + Nina Mhach Durban & Athen Kardashian’s solo presentation ‘Athen & Nina: Sleepover' - Gathering, Soho (22nd June - 23rd July, opening Thursday 22nd June, 6-8pm)
Gathering presents ‘Support Structures’, a group exhibition “bringing together artists exploring the ‘fixed instability’ of the human condition, and the notions of care and fragility as a collective responsibility”. Featuring Phyllida Barlow, Ivana Bašić, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Louise Bourgeois, Emanuel de Carvalho, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Tishan Hsu, Geumhyung Jeong, Maren Karlson, On Kawara, Martin Kippenberger, Jack O’Brien, Berenice Olmedo, Nam June Paik, Alina Szapocznikow and Rafał Zajko.
Alongside, Gathering inaugurates their GLASSHOUSE programme with Nina Mhach Durban & Athen Kardashian’s solo presentation ‘Athen & Nina: Sleepover'. The new programme “presents a fluid approach to programming, fostering emergent creative practitioners alongside Gathering’s main exhibitions. Expanding outwards from the gallery’s Viewing Room space, GLASSHOUSE encompasses exhibitions, performances and events from artists and creatives at a wide range of career stages.”
YaYa Yajie Liang - ‘Summer Palace’ Solo Exhibition + Dominic Watson - ‘God Bless Strawberry Jam’ End-of-Residency Exhibition - Cob Gallery, Camden (23rd June - 22nd July + 23rd June - 1st July, both opening Thursday 22nd June, 6-9pm)
Cob Gallery presents YaYa Yajie Liang’s debut solo exhibition ‘Summer Palace’, curated by Kat Sapera.
“At its core, Liang’s ongoing artistic and academic enquiry investigates animality, becoming other and the interconnectivity between organisms in the natural world. To be experienced much like an axis mundi, Liang’s paintings traverse a spiritual realm and a natural world.” - Cob Gallery
Alongside, Cob Gallery presents Dominic Watson’s site-specific exhibition ‘God Bless Strawberry Jam’, representing the culmination of six weeks of research and development as the first recipient of The Cob Award.
Victor Lim Seaward - ‘Midnight Oil’ Solo Exhibition - Brooke Benington, Fitzrovia (23rd June - 29th July, opening Thursday 22nd June, 6-8pm)
Brooke Benington presents Victor Lim Seaward’s latest solo exhibition ‘Midnight Oil’.
“There is a sense of slippage from the familiar to the sublime as we find ourselves entering a space reminiscent of museum archive, or a Wellsian alchemists workshop. We encounter many of the themes Seaward has grappled with in his recent practice; cross-cultural artefacts and colonial histories, nascent technologies and ancestral knowledge, scarcity, mass-production, aesthetic, artistic, intellectual and commercial values.” - Brooke Benington
Emmanuel Awuni - ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ Solo Exhibition + Ty Locke - ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’ Solo Exhibition - Copperfield, Borough (23rd June - 5th August, opening Thursday 22nd June, 6-8:30pm)
Copperfield presents Emmanuel Awuni’s latest solo exhibition ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ and Ty Locke’s debut London solo exhibition ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’.
“Awuni has titled his solo show with Copperfield after Maya Angelou’s 1969 text of the same name, and it is fitting that his first notes on the exhibition came in the form of lyrics or poetry. Angelou, herself a poet, has so well encapsulated the idea of non-violent resistance and growing self-worth through expression, not just in her text but in her title alone that Awuni can extend it to think further about culture, objects, music, people and heritage.
For ‘Kitchen Sink Drama’, Ty Locke has taken over the gallery’s back office and kitchenette, working with the walls, surfaces, sink and cupboards. Locke’s works often deal with domestic breakdown, reflecting on his own childhood as one of 7 siblings growing up in working class Kent with a good helping of bad luck.” - Copperfield
Millie Layton & Eleni Zervou - ‘APT Introduces’ Two-Person Exhibition - APT Gallery, Deptford (22nd June - 2nd July, opening Thursday 22nd June, 6-8pm)
APT presents ‘APT Introduces’, a two-person exhibition from the recipients of the APT & Fenton Arts Trust Mentoring Award, Millie Layton & Eleni Zervou.
“Jointly Funded by the Fenton Arts Trust and APT, this annual Award, which runs until 2025, provides free studio space for a year, alongside regular mentoring for 2 emerging artists, each year specialising in a different practice. Sculpture was the focus in year two and we are delighted to introduce Millie and Eleni’s work, mentored this past year by APT artists Sheila Vollmer and Victoria Rance.” - APT
Lucy Evetts - ‘Limelight’ Solo Exhibition - The Residence Gallery, Hackney (24th June - 30th July, opening Friday 23rd June, 7-9pm)
The Residence Gallery presents Lucy Evetts’ latest solo exhibition ‘Limelight’, with an accompanying text by Molly Eliza Gough.
“The exhibition questions the relationship between celebrities and fame as a metaphor for the ego, exploring the camera lens and screen as a barrier between individual perception and connection with others. The paintings feature stills of Julia Roberts as Anna Scott from the 1999 Rom-com Notting Hill. Throughout the film, the protagonist played by Julia Roberts (also an actor) features as many different personas such as an astronaut and a character from a Henry James novel. The exhibition focuses on the sub-narrative and parody (of a film within a film and an actor acting as an actor) as a conduit to explore pretense, performance and multiple 'selves'.” - The Residence Gallery
Jame St Findlay - ‘Lone’ Solo Exhibition - Luca's Gallery, Camberwell (25th June - 22nd July, opening Saturday 24th June, 6-9pm w. performance 7:30pm)
Luca’s Gallery presents its inaugural exhibition, Jame St Findlay’s solo ‘Lone’.
Hannah Lees & Laurence Watchorn - Two-Person Exhibition - Sim Smith, Camberwell (24th June - 22nd July, opening Saturday 24th June, 3-5pm)
Sim Smith presents a two-person exhibition by British artists Hannah Lees and Laurence Watchorn.
“Working across painting and sculpture the artists reveal layers of unknowing and open-endedness, exploring our relationships to our environment, both past and present and removing context to allow more freedom for ideas and interpretation. Plaster tablets filled with remnants of sea glass and beach combings by Lees and large hanging canvas works by Watchorn are unequivocally made by action, where some matter is compelled into creation whilst others emerge spontaneously from intuition. Either way, the hand of the artist is omnipresent in the work, in a space that conjures its content from the world around us.” - Sim Smith
Artist Opportunities:
Open Call, Summer Studio Programme, Roman Road Studios. Deadline - Sunday 25th June.
Advancing on its mission to create a cultural and community-driven space fostering collaboration and cross-pollination amongst artists’ practices, RR Studios & Curation is pleased to announce its second studio programme in London. Providing a unique opportunity for artists to collaborate and grow with coaching seminars and networking possibilities, the Summer Studio Programme is a special edition aimed at artists who are seeking to develop a new project or concept, offering the chance to work with expert guidance in London throughout the summer. The Summer Studio Programme will welcome four artists in Bethnal Green, East London, for a period of 2 months starting on Monday 03 July.
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.
Open Call, ‘Well Worn’ Group Exhibition, Deadline - Friday 30th June.
Curators Aleksander Mechlinski and Alexander Harding are seeking artists to take part in an exhibition opening in West London in September. The exhibition, ‘Well Worn' aims to challenge traditional exhibition dynamics by inviting artists to work with a reclaimed item of clothing and distil their practice into the garment. The resulting works will be installed in a gallery space, utilising visual devices and systems that suggest a retail environment. The audience will then be invited to physically engage with the artworks by wearing the garments when visiting the exhibition. This unique approach will foster a direct and physical connection between the audience and the artworks, questioning ideas of identity within art making, the perception of artists' practices, and the importance of audience. Central to the exhibition will be an additional program of performances responding to the themes and form of the show. Please send them a few photos of your work and your website/ portfolio to wellwornexhibiton@gmail.com
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.
The Painswick Open Call, ARC Salon. Deadline - Wednesday 5th July.
ARC Salon invites artists to submit work for their Autumn Group Exhibition at ARC Painswick, which will run from September 2023 - May 2024. Selected artists will also be invited to an artists’ weekend in Autumn 2023 to celebrate the exhibition. To enter, email salon@arc.club w. email subject Painswick Open Call + a PDF including 5 proposed artworks w. title, dimensions and materials/medium + a 250 word artist statement.
Call for Proposals, Drawing Research Forum 2023, Drawing Room. Deadline - Monday 10th July.
Drawing Room invites proposals that examine critical issues around contemporary drawing. We offer postgraduate students and scholars the chance to field test research, and to network and engage with a wider community of academics and specialists. Outset Study is a space for knowledge exchange between disciplines, encouraging cross-fertilisation of ideas and methodology, and fostering collaborations between artists and researchers. Drawing Room are now inviting proposals of a high quality that reflect a strong research focus. Proposals should include a summary of your research, outline the key questions it raises and how these will be addressed by your project. Proposals must have an explicit connection to drawing, and discuss why the medium of drawing specifically has been utilised in your research. Please include supporting visual material and a bibliography of key texts or existing research to which you are responding. Please state how presenting at the Drawing Research Forum will benefit your project. Selected papers will be presented at the next Drawing Research Forum in September 2023.
Art for Change Prize, M&C Saatchi Group & Saatchi Gallery. Deadline - Monday 17th July.
Applications are now open for the free-to-enter Art for Change Prize, an international art initiative from M&C Saatchi Group and Saatchi Gallery, open to artists working in the first five years of their career. This year’s prize asks artists to creatively respond to the theme Regeneration. 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 also have the unique opportunity to exhibit their work at Saatchi Gallery in London.
Open Call, Circa Prize 2023. Deadline - Thursday 20th July.
This year, CIRCA has eyes for one thing above all else: hope. Now is a time for hope. As the CIRCA 20:23 Manifesto made clear, hope is not an empty affirmation or a luxury for the privileged but the animating force of today’s struggles for a better world. For the III edition of the CIRCA PRIZE, CIRCA are searching the Earth for works of hope. In an open call for emerging and mid-career artists of all ages, we are inviting a global community of artists, performers, poets, activists, architects, gamers and filmmakers to respond to the CIRCA 20:23 manifesto, ‘Hope: The Art of Reading What Is Not Yet Written’. Throughout September, 30 international artists will see their work appear at 20:23 local time on the iconic Piccadilly Lights and across the CIRCA global platform of digital screens. The winning artist will receive £30,000 to support their future practice alongside a new trophy designed by Ai Weiwei, who first launched the CIRCA free public art programme in October 2020.
Open Call, Deptford X Festival Fringe. Deadline - Wednesday 26th July.
The Fringe is the core of the Deptford X Festival and an annual celebration of the area’s art scene. Over the course of the festival, the Fringe will take over Deptford, placing art in unexpected locations, rooted into the fabric of everyday lives. This year, to mark 25 years of Deptford X they are particularly keen to include projects that reference or recreate artworks from previous festival years. If you took part in the past and fancy dusting off an old intervention for a new outing in this year’s Fringe, they would love to hear from you. Equally, they can make elements of our archive available to artists who are interested in making new works or projects in response to the history of the festival. A limited number of bursaries will be available for artists who would benefit from financial support to enable them to participate in Deptford X Festival 2023.
Rolling Residency, The Bomb Factory Art Foundation Holborn. Deadline - Sunday 30th July.
The Bomb Factory Art Foundation are offering a rolling residency in their new Holborn location starting from 28th August to support dedicated artists who cannot afford studios, as well as a one week end-of-residency exhibition. First studio residency will run 28th August - 25th September, w. exhibition from 25th September - 1st October. To apply, please add 'HOLBORN RESIDENCY 2023' to the subject of an email to: studio@bombfactory.org.uk. Please state: Name, Contact Number & Email; Dates of interest; Website or Social Media of work + One-page application letter outlining your practice and why you are eligible for this opportunity. (Applicants must be able to prove that no other studio space can be afforded. Due to the nature of this free residency programme, we may require further interviews about how applicants meet the criteria for support.)
OPEN CELLS Artist Residency Programme, The Koppel Project Station. Deadline - Monday 31st July.
The Koppel Project are excited to announce the opening of applications for the OPEN CELLS Artist Residency Programme. OPEN CELLS is an emerging or mid-career artist residency programme at The Koppel Project Station with a focus on community involvement and engagement. Koppel Project’s goal is to provide artists with a dynamic, inclusive, and interactive experience that helps them develop their practice while contributing to the local community.
The residency lasts for two months – Beginning of September until end of October (2 residency slots – each with 3-4 weeks working in the space, ending in a final exhibition). Studio Space in multiple holding cells and Communal working areas: 5 Artists will be provided with a free studio space to work in for the duration of each residency slot. The space is located at TKP Station in (Hampstead) Camden, London.