The Shock of the Now - Issue #92
Discover more from The Shock of the Now
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well and welcome to Issue 92 of The Shock of the Now.
This week there are eight weekly Recommended Exhibitions, as well as four fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 92, 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:
Jonah Pontzer - ‘Fresh Hell’ Solo Exhibition - Rose Easton, Bethnal Green (29th June - 16th September, opening Wednesday 28th June, 6-8pm)
Rose Easton presents Jonah Pontzer’s solo exhibition ‘Fresh Hell’, with an accompanying text written by Joseph Yaeger.
Romain Sarrot - ‘9:00AM’ Solo Exhibition - Vitrine, Bermondsey (29th June - 10th September, opening Wednesday 28th June, 6-8pm)
Vitrine presents Romain Sarrot’s solo exhibition ‘9:00AM’, in collaboration with HATCH (Paris) and curated by Anissa Touati.
“In response to the exhibition space, a window display covering sixteen meters in length, the artist proposes the theatrical installation, '9:00 AM'. It brings together a dozen quasi-fictional works that question the forms of transcendence. By its staging, the artist emphasizes that of the elevation. The windows are covered with a veil. Behind the opaque windows, we can see fragments of roofs and masks. A porthole underlines the presence of ladders. An "exit" symbol materializes a gateway on which is engraved 9:00 AM. Everything seems to signal an imminent departure... A sensation of lightness invades the visitor.” - Vitrine
Billy Fraser & Simone Mudde - ‘Opticks’ Two-Person Exhibition - Sherbet Green, Bethnal Green (29th June - 29th July, opening Wednesday 28th June, 6-8:30pm)
Sherbet Green presents ‘Opticks’, a two-person exhibition of Billy Fraser & Simone Mudde.
“Fraser and Mudde, like many before them, have a distinct interest in interrogating colour and form, combining tones in novel formations to affect new languages and reactions. The graduated and shifting colour patterns resulting from this processual experimentation are laid out across cast tablets and analogue photograms. While Fraser’s geometrical slabs seek to evoke notions of the sublime traditionally pursued in painting, to shift the specific beauty of one medium across to another, Mudde’s images consist of visualisations of the information embedded in the colours themselves, highlighting the ways in which perception is formed. It is this base relationship to process from which their wider practices unfurl.” - Sherbet Green
‘EXTREME’ Group Exhibition - Roman Road, Notting Hill (28th June - 23rd July, opening Wednesday 28th June, 6-8pm)
Roman Road presents ‘EXTREME’, an evolving group exhibition presented through four individually curated solo presentations of Joe Bloom (‘Revolving Door’) Channatip Chanvipava (‘2 Chairs 1 Life’), fuchsia (‘post-paradise’) & Rose Raine (‘Breakthrough’).
“EXTREME has been conceptualised as an evolving group show, responding to the gallery’s long-standing intention to bolster the significant and distinctive talents of ultra-contemporary artists, while providing them with a creative outlet for visibility and growth. Week by week, each artist will respond to the gallery space, using its architecture to enhance the interpretation and reception of their works.” - Roman Road
Kate Dunn - ‘mid-morning in the scriptorium’ Solo Exhibition - TJ Boulting, Fitzrovia (30th June - 5th August, opening Thursday 29th June, 6-8pm)
TJ Boulting presents Kate Dunn’s solo exhibition ‘mid-morning in the scriptorium’.
“The exhibition’s title is taken from a poem written by the artist in the summer of 2022. In the poem, a monk becomes enveloped by a swarm of flies and eaten alive while working on an illuminated manuscript - an analogy for the isolation and slow, detailed study required to make such documents. Over the course of a year, Dunn’s practice shifted from large paintings to small, detailed pieces. During this period Dunn chose the theory of ‘horror vacui’ - the notion that each page should be entirely filled, with no white space left visible - as the starting point for the new material. What resulted was a series of six dense compositions in which multiple artistic identities co-exist on a single surface.” - TJ Boulting
Shinuk Suh - ‘Veiled Memories’ Solo Exhibition - Daniel Benjamin, Clerkenwell (30th June - 5th August, opening Thursday 29th June, 6-8pm)
Daniel Benjamin presents Shinuk Suh’s solo exhibition ‘Veiled Memories’, curated by Byunghun Jun Chae.
‘Unruly Bodies’ Group Exhibition - Goldsmiths CCA, Deptford (30th June - 27th August, opening Thursday 29th June, 7-9pm)
Goldsmiths CCA presents ‘Unruly Bodies’, a group exhibition featuring Shadi Al-Atallah, Giulia Cenci, Miriam Cahn, Camille Henrot, Galli, Ebecho Muslimova, Frida Orupabo, Anna Perach, Paloma Proudfoot, and collectively Clémentine Bedos, Verity Coward, Assia Ghendir & Holly Hunter.
“Featuring thirteen women and non-binary artists, Unruly Bodies presents artworks that explore the experience of embodiment today. The exhibition includes work that presents the body as monstrous, abject, grotesque, and liminal. It asks why this kind of figuration has become ubiquitous in contemporary art, where rather than being a negative attribute, the unruly body is a site of resistance in which monstrosity is reclaimed as a subjectivity that disrupts normativity and contests power. All are welcome!” - Goldsmiths CCA
‘Hemispheres’ Group Exhibition - Alice Black, Fitzrovia (30th June - 27th July, opening Thursday 29th June, 6-8pm)
Alice Black presents ‘Hemispheres’, a group exhibition curated by Daniel Valentine, featuring Valentine, Hugo Hagger, Evelina Hägglund, Rafaella Lazarou, Ioanna Mavromichali, Nezliya Muhara, Emma Papworth, Salvatore Pione, Jenkin Van Zyl, Grace Woodcock & Rafał Zajko.
“The brainchild of London-based guest curator and contributing artist Daniel Valentine, the ‘Hemispheres’ lab brings together the work of a cross-section of artists at varying stages of their careers for whom drawing is a central creative axis.” - Alice Black
Artist Opportunities:
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.
Open Call, Artists in Residence at Arts and Media School Islington, Cubitt. Deadline - Tuesday 11th July.
Cubitt are seeking three artists to participate in a year-long residency at local secondary, Arts and Media School Islington (AMSI), starting in September 2023. Selected artists will have access to a free studio space (equivalent of £1,800) for one academic year and receive a fee (£3,000) for devising and delivering work with the AMSI community, supported by Cubitt. The residencies are part of Reclaim Islington: Cubitt’s two-year programme which aims to transform the way they work with the communities of Islington by supporting groups with lived experience of exclusion to collectively explore their narratives, stories, and shared histories. As part of this programme, Cubitt want to support artists to actively participate in producing and sharing practice which can be shared more widely.
As part of an artist-led research programme, Cultural Reforesting, The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames are looking for an artist or artist collective to explore the theme of darkness in urban spaces. Open to artists or artist collectives from any discipline, who will explore this theme and work with local communities to understand darkness in urban environments. Artist/s should have socially engaged participatory practices at the core of their work. The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames will provide the selected artist or artist collective with a budget of £12,000 which is inclusive of all artist fees, production support, materials and expenses for the delivery of the project. Three artists will be selected to further discuss their project ideas. There will be a fee of £250 per artist or artist collective/group invited to interview to share their ideas.
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.
The Adobe Creative Residency programme is a new, approach to bring making into the museum. It gives artists, designers, performers and creators unprecedented access to world-class arts resources and mentorship, studio space, creative programming, and a display to showcase. A cohort of three residents across different practices are selected annually to work full-time for 12 months, each working with a designated audience (schools, families, and young people) to expand access to creativity, design and making. Embedded within the Learning Team at the V&A, residents will commit half their time to developing engaging learning programming around their craft. This could include working directly with audiences, acting as a creative advisor to wider museum learning programming, and collaborating across the museum to bring contemporary practice into galleries. The residency programme culminates in a 6-month display of their work at the V&A South Kensington. There are three open calls available for the Adobe Creative Residency Programme, illustration, Global ceramics and Costume design. Each residency offers a Fixed Term Contract (FTC) salary of £42,000.
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.)
The Dover Prize is an award open to any UK-based artist. It supports excellence and experimentation in the arts and creative industries. Applications are welcome from artists and creative practitioners working in the visual arts e.g. painting, sculpture, ceramics, print-making, photography, digital art, filmmaking, performance and installations. The Dover Prize is a bursary of £10,000 paid across two years, to an individual or collective to provide time to think, research, reflect and/or experiment with new ideas. The aim of the Dover Prize is to raise within Darlington the profile of contemporary arts, and to make a positive impact on the town. As such, the Dover Award biennial winner must agree to a final show that will premiere in Darlington on completion of their 2-year bursary.
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.