The Shock of the Now - Issue #98
Discover more from The Shock of the Now
Afternoon All,
I hope you’re all well, and welcome to Issue 98 of The Shock of the Now.
As the autumn art season really kicks into gear, I present an expanded selection of fifteen recommended exhibitions opening across the week ahead. Alongside, there are also four fresh Artist Opportunities.
I hope you enjoy Issue 98, as always any questions or comments are welcome, so feel free to get in touch!
All the best, and speak soon, H x
Recommended Exhibitions Opening This Week:
Pam Evelyn - ‘A Handful of Dust’ Solo Exhibition - Pace, Mayfair (6th - 30th September, opening Wednesday 6th September, 6-8pm)
Pace presents Pam Evelyn’s solo exhibition ‘A Handful of Dust’.
“The exhibition will span two floors of Pace’s London gallery, with a suite of new paintings made over several months. Made over long periods of time, Evelyn’s paintings move through countless iterations as she builds up and pares back her gestures in a dynamic tension between destruction and resolution, freedom and control, collapse and resurrection. The works appear like living, breathing canvases as the complexity of texture and temporality encased in the oil paint drips and sweats, obscures and reveals in turn.” - Pace
Emma Stern - ‘Penny & The Dimes: Dimes 4Evr World Tour’ Solo Exhibition - Almine Rech, Mayfair (6th - 30th September, opening Wednesday 6th September, 6-8pm)
Almine Rech presents Emma Stern’s solo exhibition ‘Penny & The Dimes: Dimes 4Evr World Tour’.
“Penny and the Dimes is a fictional all-girl rock band I invented. This exhibition is dedicated to them. The idea began when I travelled to Stockholm a few years ago with my mom. Her one request was to visit the ABBA Museum. I have no strong feelings toward ABBA one way or another, but I indulged her. My cynical hunch that the ABBA Museum was simply a tourist trap, or a glorified gift shop, was mostly vindicated. But the good little consumer in me actually loves being marketed to, because it allows for a kind of soothing submission, a diet opioid. I was utterly captivated.” - Emma Stern
Bill Daggs - ‘Allegorhythms’ Solo Exhibition - Metroland Studios, Kilburn (8th - 24th September, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-9pm)
Metroland Studios presents Bill Daggs’ solo exhibition ‘Allegorhythms’, as part of their summer-long music and art programme 'Collective Rhythms'.
“Bill Daggs will take over Metroland Studios’ Gallery and create a space for listening, rest, and meditation. The old clinic building will house trance-like, infinite textural compositions in the form of sound sculptures, rhythmic paintings, sonic composition, and a collection of moving image work. The installation aims to create a space focused on supporting healing and relaxation through listening.” - Metroland Studios
Sooim Jeong - ‘Summer Remains’ Solo Exhibition + Victor Lim Seaward & Meredith Sellers - ‘The Future Leaks Out’ Two-Person Exhibition - Workplace, Fitzrovia (8th - 30th September, opening Thursday 7th September, 6:30-9pm)
Workplace presents Sooim Jeong’s solo exhibition ‘Summer Remains’, and the two-person exhibition ‘The Future Leaks Out’, featuring Victor Lim Seaward & Meredith Sellers.
“Sooim Jeong’s practice draws upon a wide spectrum of experiences, from the profound weight of tragic loss to mundane and seemingly trivial interactions with strangers. With a restrained and sensitive colour palette and minimal calligraphic brushstrokes, she constructs playful compositions.” - Workplace
“The Future Leaks Out’s title is drawn from William S. Burroughs’ aphoristic quote about his developments of the Dadaist Cut-up technique: ‘When you cut into the present the future leaks out’. The works in the exhibition utilise isolation, mediation and combinations of images and objects to offer a metaphorical incision into the present moment and evince underlying anxieties of the future.” - Workplace
Tom Bull & Lewis Davidson - ‘Shallow Haunts’ Two-Person Exhibition - Kupfer, Shoreditch (8th - 30th September, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-9pm)
Kupfer presents the two-person exhibition ‘Shallow Haunts’, featuring Tom Bull & Lewis Davidson.
“Shallow Haunts is a coming together of the two artists, both of whose works deploy elements of both the unbelievable and fictitious. Together, they render new narratives that explore notions of value, purpose and transience through the playful engagement of the gallery space.” - Kupfer
Jack Warne - ‘Blind at The Age of Four’ Solo Exhibition - D/ARTS, London Fields (7th September - 5th October, opening Thursday 7th September, 6:30-10pm)
D/ARTS presents Jack Warne’s solo exhibition ‘Blind at The Age of Four’.
“An exhibition that seeks to disrupt the norms of how to perceive and interact with a visual arts show, incorporating co-created Audio Description, physical wayfinding features and AR experiences devised with blind and sighted collaborators. It is this glitchy uncomfort/comfort of recognition or lack of, the flit between the abstract and familiar that is omnipresent in both Jack Warne’s music (as GAUNT) and art making, aduality that is the focus of his debut UK solo exhibition” - D/ARTS
Tenant of Culture - ‘Ladder’ Solo Exhibition - Soft Opening, Bethnal Green (8th September - 21st October, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-8pm)
Soft Opening presents Tenant of Culture’s solo exhibition ‘Ladder’.
“In Ladder, Tenant of Culture presents a new body of work that examines the perceived dichotomy between destruction and decoration, interrogating how the aesthetic of waste has, for centuries, been appropriated within the fashion industry. These new wall-based and suspended works highlight the dissonance between the creation of physical waste and the aestheticization of damage.” - Soft Opening
Hannah Tilson - ‘Soft Cut’ Solo Exhibition - Cedric Bardawill, Soho (8th September - 21st October, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-8pm)
Cedric Bardawill presents Hannah Tilson’s solo exhibition ‘Soft Cut’.
“For the exhibition, Tilson has produced a new body of work that is at once vibrant and subtle, ambiguous and self-referential. Layering translucent and opaque colours, she encompasses the human form in a patternscape of rhythmic shapes. Creating an atmopshere in which we are invited to a private world on the threshold of exposure, that questions who we are to ourselves and to others. These kinetic paintings are compositions that test how far the experience of spectatorship can stand as a measure of ethics: what do we owe, or wish to give, the stranger that we encounter before us? Should we look closer, or look away?” - Cedric Bardawill
Titaness (aka Maria Joranko and Tiffany Wellington) - ‘Love is a state of mind’ Solo Exhibition - San Mei, Brixton (8th September - 4th November, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-8:30pm)
Malcolm Bradley - ‘A garden the camera can't see’ Solo Exhibition - San Mei, Brixton (8th September - 11th November, opening Thursday 7th September, 6-8:30pm)
San Mei presents ‘Love is a state of mind’, the debut exhibition by London-based artist duo Titaness (aka Maria Joranko and Tiffany Wellington), as well as Malcolm Bradley’s ‘A garden the camera can't see’, the third exhibition in their public-facing Window Gallery presenting a series of emerging contemporary artists’ micro-exhibitions.
“Titaness is formed by Maria Joranko and Tiffany Wellington. Their collective interdisciplinary practice is shaped by their dual interests in memory, opacity, and love, explored through storytelling, sculpture, sound, and performance. Infusing their personal experiences and lineages with localised and diasporic viewpoints, they explore the potentialities of storytelling to weave alternate worlds.” - San Mei
“Malcolm Bradley’s practice, which spans photography, video, text and installation, uses collage as a form of visual note-taking, to blend research and autobiographical material. At San Mei, Bradley presents A garden the camera can’t see, a new collage made through hydrographic printing; a technique commonly used to print on car or motorbike parts. Bradley considers an alternate use for this process by using it to warp low resolution photos of foliage reflected in urban windows.” - San Mei
Aaron Ford & Robin Megannity - ‘Perfect Passive’ Two-Person Exhibition - Xxijra Hii, Deptford (8th September - 14th October, opening Friday 8th September, 6-9pm)
Xxijra Hii presents the two-person exhibition ‘Perfect Passive, featuring Aaron Ford & Robin Megannity.
“In his work, Ford suggests that painting can be utilised as a reference point along a historical timeline, locating recurrent iconographical symbols and detecting their presence within contemporary visual discourse. By this logic what is projected onto the past reveals attitudes towards the present. Megannity takes in the depth of painting’s tradition, it’s back and forth between intimacy and detachment; introspection and performance. These histories of painting collide in both concept and technique in this beautiful exhibiton of paintings and animated work.” - Xxijra Hii
Shadi Al-Atallah - ‘Fistfight’ Solo Exhibition - Guts Gallery, Hackney (8th September - 25th October, opening Friday 8th September, 6-9pm)
Guts presents Shadi Al-Atallah’s solo exhibition ‘Fistfight’.
“Inspired by the spectacular and monumental fights in ancient texts like The Epic of Gilgamesh, the figures in Fistfight are locked into intimate but seismic violent struggles. Within these paintings, arms and legs twist and tangle around each other, fists strike out and pummel against expanses of skin, mouths are contorted into toothy, exhausted grimaces and pairs of feet adjust and readjust on floors and walls in an intricate dance to keep balance. In the chaos of violence and destruction, the physical distinctions between each of Al-Atallah’s figures starts to disintegrate.” - Guts Gallery
Sara MacKillop - ‘Separate Volumes’ Solo Exhibition - Ginny On Frederick, Farringdon (9th - 16th September, opening Saturday 9th September, 6-8pm)
Ginny On Frederick presents Sara MacKillop’s solo exhibition ‘Separate Volumes’.
“This is the last presentation at our current space, in advance of our move to 99 Charterhouse St. Will forever be amazed at the ongoing support and ambition of artists in this little space.” - Ginny On Frederick
Filippo Cegani - ‘Grazie’ Solo Exhibition - Grove, Battersea (9th September - 25th October, opening Saturday 9th September, 4-8pm)
Grove presents Filippo Cegani’s solo exhibition ‘Grazie’.
“The story of Grazie begins with a double meaning. The word Grazie, understood to even most non-Italian speakers, means “thank you.” But it also means “grace,” and by extension, the Graces, otherwise known as the Charites – three goddesses in Greek Mythology thought to embody beauty – are known as “le Grazie.” Consequently, this simple word springs a matrix that encapsulates Cegani’s new body of work.” - Grove
Artist Opportunities:
Artist Residency, Yorkshire Sculpture Park x Working Class Creatives Database. Deadline - Sunday 10th September.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Working Class Creatives Database (WCCD) are offering an on-site residency at YSP in October 2023. Joining WCCD is free and by self-definition. The chosen artist will receive: A residency at YSP from 10–22 October 2023; Potential access to our facilities including metal and wood workshops; Fee of £750; Up to £250 for materials; On-site accommodation at YSP; Return travel in the UK up to £150; Support from YSP’s Curatorial team; Half-day support for YSP’s Technical team; & The possibility of a public facing element, by mutual agreement
Spike Island and Creative Youth Network are pleased to invite applications from UK-based artists for the third edition of the WEVAA Engagement Fellowship for Artists. This is an exciting opportunity for you to mentor and work in collaboration with a group of three to four early-career artists to create a new digital commission for Spike Island’s digital channels. If selected, you will guide the early career artists through the practical aspects of creating a new digital commission. The successful applicant will receive: A £4,000 fee to mentor and develop a new Engagement commission in collaboration with three to four alumni from Creative Youth Network’s Creative Futures programme.; A £4,000 production budget for the Engagement commission, including travel to and accommodation in Bristol where necessary; A free studio space at Spike Island for 10 months, from November 2023 to August 2024.
Call for Curatorial Proposals, The European Pavilion 2024. Deadline - Thursday 14th September.
European Cultural Foundation launch a brand new commissioning grant of up to 500.000 EUR as part of their European Pavilion programme. With this call, they invite legal entities from all cultural and creative fields in Europe and neighbouring countries to submit an ambitious curatorial proposal that will ensure the visibility, accessibility and positioning of the European Pavilion as a major European cultural event in 2024. They are looking for proposals that explore, discuss, interpret and visualise Europe in fresh and imaginative ways: cutting-edge concepts and programming that encourage transnational collaborations between creators, thinkers, doers and communities, leading to a large-scale public event in 2024.
Open Call Solo Residency 2024, Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop. Deadline - Sunday 17th September.
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: 8th January – 25th March. Residency Exhibition: 29th March – 6th April)
Artist Woodwork Fellowship, City & Guilds of London Art School. Deadline - Sunday 17th September.
City & Guilds of London Art School is seeking applications for a 1 to 2 year Artist Woodwork Fellowship. The successful applicant will have a recent undergraduate or postgraduate qualification in Fine Art or Sculpture, or equivalent experience, and demonstrate a commitment to 3D contemporary art practice that utilises wood or woodworking-based practices. The Wood Workshop is a dynamic learning space where students from across the Art School’s courses are introduced to and taught processes involved in making and constructing with wood. The post offers a unique opportunity for an artist to develop their own practice in the context of the Art School’s Wood Workshop, working alongside artists and technicians David MacDiarmid and Ana Kazaroff.
The Ingram Prize 2023. Deadline - Monday 18th September.
The Ingram Prize is an annual purchase prize open to visual artists who are within five years of graduation from a UK-based art school. Now in its eighth year, this leading prize for contemporary artists was established by The Ingram Collection to celebrate and support artists at the beginning of their professional careers. They recognise the vital importance of practical support in these early years, and through their prize we offer opportunities to exhibit and sell work, a programme of continuing professional development, and the chance to develop both industry and peer-to-peer networks. Eligible artists can submit up to two works in any media, with no restrictions on size. The Prize is free to enter. All shortlisted artists (Ingram Prize finalists) will be invited to showcase their entries in a group selling exhibition at Cromwell Place in London, 22 – 26 November 2023.
The 9th International Awards for Art Criticism. Deadline - Wednesday 20th September.
The Ninth Edition of the International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC 9) 2023, is open to candidates from anywhere in the world writing in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held anywhere in world or on-line between 1st September 2022 and 31st August 2023. Candidates are invited to write a review of 1,500 words or 2,500 Chinese characters on any exhibition of contemporary art. The First Prize will consist of a cash award of 10,000 Euros(pre-tax) or the RMB equivalent of this amount (currently, around 80,000 RMB). Each of the three Second Prizes will be awarded a cash prize of 3,500 Euros(pre-tax) or the RMB equivalent of this amount (currently, around 30,000 RMB). The Organising Committee of the International Awards for Art Criticism aims to support independent critical coverage of contemporary art, away from the immediate pressures of the market, media and private patronage. The Awards are to stimulate good writing, critical thinking and dialogue and research in China, the UK and wider afield.
Open Call: Identity and Self-Representation, Autograph. Deadline - Monday 25th September.
Are you a creative practitioner or collective looking to take up space, share and inspire conversation, or build creativity and connection? Autograph are inviting artists, producers, performers, musicians, curators to suggest, shape and host a public programme event to take place either in their gallery in Hackney or via our online platforms. This year is Autograph's 35th anniversary. As part of their celebrations they will be sharing three Open Call opportunities over the course of the next 12 months, each focusing on a different theme. The theme of this first open call is identity and self-representation, in honour of Autoportraits, the first major exhibition that Autograph organised and curated. Autograph will consider submissions for events on all manner of creative issues so long as it speaks to the theme. This might include – but certainly isn’t limited to - launch events, spoken word or performance, in-conversation and Q&A events, creative workshops, or film screenings. The successful applicant will receive a £600 budget as well as a £400 curatorial fee. The selected event proposal will take place in either December 2023 or January 2024.
Open Call, Foundwork Artist Prize. Deadline - Tuesday 26th September.
The Foundwork Artist Prize is an annual juried grant that we award to recognize outstanding emerging and mid-career artists working in any media. Honorees receive unrestricted $10,000 grants and studio visits with our jurors who include distinguished curators, gallerists, and artists. Honorees and shortlisted artists are also invited for interviews as part of our Dialogues program to further public engagement with their practices. The Prize is open to artists residing anywhere in the world with limited exceptions. To be considered for the 2023 Foundwork Artist Prize, you will need to maintain a published artist profile on Foundwork, with at least 6 artworks and an artist statement published on your profile page, throughout this year's selection period: 5:00 pm PT, September 26–5:00 pm PT December 31, 2023.
Studio 1.10 Residency, Art in Perpetuity Trust. Deadline - Wednesday 27th September.
Since 2010 A.P.T has provided temporary project studios to artists. These fully funded studios offer artists the opportunity to develop new work, by taking risks without the financial concerns of studio costs. The Studio 1.10 Residency provides free studio space for 12 months. At the end of those 12 months, the resident artist will be offered their Gallery for a 2 week period, for an exhibition of their own work, or with chosen artists for a group exhibition or events programme. A.P.T invite applications from artists who live or work in the London Borough of Lewisham, and who are under-represented in the visual arts or have faced barriers to access due to their protected characteristics. The opportunity is aimed at applicants who have at least 3 years of experience practicing as an artist in any media. A.P.T understand visual arts in the broadest possible sense and encourage applications from those who have not necessarily had a formal art education.
Open Call FN006, FIELDNOTES. Deadline - Sunday 1st October.
FIELDNOTES is inviting submissions for its sixth issue. They are seeking non-conforming submissions of text and visual material, including but not limited to: fiction, theory, poetry, interview pitches, conversations, translations, lens-based work, drawing, collage, works-in-progress and ideas in transition. They are interested in new forms between genres and media, experimental modes and poetic innovation. Contributors selected from the Open Call will be paid a fee (between £100-£200) for original content not published elsewhere (online or in print – this does not include self-publishing). They are actively seeking contributions from underrepresented groups. Artists and writers who face cultural, social, physical or economic barriers to applying for opportunities in the arts are particularly encouraged to submit.
NOW Introducing Open Call 2023, Studio West. Deadline - Saturday 7th October.
‘NOW Introducing’ is an annual open-call exhibition and art prize. It was founded in 2022, as part of STUDIO WEST's commitment to platforming the most exciting emerging and newly established London-based artists. It seeks to champion the practices of art school students and recent graduates, while helping to bridge the gap between arts education and the art industry. STUDIO WEST invites applications from unrepresented London-based artists who are currently studying on, or recently graduated from, a Bachelors or Masters programme at a UK art school (including alternative post-graduate studies and non-degree awarding programmes). The shortlisted artists are featured in our 'NOW Introducing' Exhibition at the gallery in November. The ‘NOW Introducing' 2023 award-winning artist are selected from the shortlist by a panel of industry experts and the gallery team. The winner recieves a £1000 cash prize, and the two runners-up each receive £500. All award-winners also receive a year of one-on-one mentoring with the STUDIO WEST gallery team.
Open Call 2023, Staffordshire St. Deadline - Wednesday 11th October.
Staffordshire St are looking for proposals from curators, artists, makers and performers to exhibit in their project space as part of a supported programme of events. Staffordshire St want to support artists at all stages of their career and will select proposals from this Open Call to deliver a 3-4 week project in their gallery space alongside the rest of our programme in 2023. They are looking for exhibitions that will engage with their audiences both in the artistic and local community. They highly encourage a cross-disciplinary approach through collaboration with partners to run events alongside or as part of the project to encourage engagement. Staffordshire St’s programme encompasses workshops, film nights, panel discussions, supper clubs, scratch nights, music and more.
Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Award 2024. Deadline - Monday 6th November.
The Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Award is an exciting opportunity providing recent graduates (between 2020-2023) with free studio space and production support. It is a studio and mentorship award for recent graduates from university and alternative art education programs, please see eligibility at the end for further details. It is free to apply and the award lasts one year, it provides a first floor 200ft studio based within the artist-led cooperative and community of Lewisham Arthouse and a mentorship program with local professional networks and mentors selected by the awardee. At the end of the year, the awardee is invited to share the outcomes of their time in Lewisham Arthouse through a public event; such as an exhibition, a workshop, performance, symposium or gig.