Happy 70th Birthday, Bob Dylan

Barry Feinstein, Bob Dylan, Aust Ferry, 1966

Jerwood Painting Fellowships

Clare Mitten, Cara Nahaul and Corinna Till have been announced as recipients of the 2010/11 Jerwood Painting Fellowships. An exhibition of their work can be seen at Jerwood Space until 26thJune 2011.

Clare Mitten (top) is a graduate of the University of Gloucestershire (BA Fine Art: Painting, 1998-2001) and the Royal College of Art (2004-2006)

Cara Nahaul (left) studied at Goldsmiths (BA Fine Art and Art History, 2006-09) 

 Corinna Till (left) studied at the Slade (BA 1994-8, MFA, 2002-04)

Clare Mitten, installation view, Jerwood Space

Cara Nahaul, Pre-union, 2011

Corinna Till, No.5, 2011

Download the exhibition catalogue from Jerwood Painting Fellowships.

Exhibition Roundup - May 2011

An occasional, and highly selective, pick of current and forthcoming exhibitions.

Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want

The first major survey of Tracey Emin's work, Love is What You Want, will be at the Hayward Gallery from 18th May until the 19th August. Read Monica Ali's article: Tracey Emin: 'What you see is what I am'.

Mark Leckey, GreenScreenRefrigerator 2010

Mark Leckey, Turner Prize winner 2008, presents See, We Assemble, at the Serpentine Gallery from 19th May until 26th June. Leckey's approach is described on the Serpentine website as a multi-disciplinary practice that encompasses sculpture, sound, film and performance. For example, the work illustrated is described as follows: In the recent performance piece 'GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction' (2010), Leckey sought to communicate the inner life of a ‘smart’ fridge – one that keeps an electronic tally of its contents – and to render audible its ‘voice’. In his bid to become one with the appliance, the artist inhaled refrigerator coolant and draped himself in a green cloak that, at a certain point in the performance, allowed him to morph into the green-screen backdrop against which the fridge was set. Advancing the notion that we can be in constant communication with every aspect of our environment, that everything feels alive, Leckey’s universe is mediated on multiple levels.

Mitch Epstein, Biloxi, Mississippi  2005

Two new photography displays have been opened at Tate Modern: Photography: New Documentary Forms will be on show until 31st March 2012 and Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan, until 10th July 2011. The first comprises the Tate's acquisition of the work of 5 photographers: Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Guy Tillim, Akram Zaatari,and Boris Mikhailov.Mitch Epstein (illustrated) was recently awarded the Prix Pictet (see below).

Simon Norfolk, Kabul, 2010

Burke + Norfolk: Photographs From The War In Afghanistan presents the fruit of a project following Norfolk's discovery of an album of photographs by John Burke, seen in the National Media Museum in Bradford and thought to be the first photographs taken inside Afghanistan: In October 2010, Simon Norfolk began a series of new photographs in Afghanistan, which takes its cue from the work of nineteenth-century British photographer John Burke. Norfolk’s photographs re-imagine or respond to Burke’s Afghan war scenes in the context of the contemporary conflict. Conceived as a collaborative project with Burke across time, this new body of work is presented alongside Burke’s original portfolios. (From Tate Modern website). Read article by Ian Jack and In Conversation: Paul Lowe and Simon Norfolk. 

John Burke, Landholders and labourers, Afghanistan, c1880

Simon Norfolk, A team from the mine ­detection centre, Kabul, 2010?

Michael Craig-Martin, Hearing Things, 2003

Michael Craig-Martin: Drawings 1967 - 2002 is at Alan Christea until 4th June and is the first exhibition of drawings by the artist. Read interview with Stuart Jeffries.

Callum Innes, Untitled No.21, 2011

 Callum Innes: New Paintings and Watercolours is at the Frith Street Gallery, 13th May - 31st July.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Zimmerit, 1992

Ian Hamilton Finlay: Definitions is at Victoria Miro until 1st June.

Ai Weiwei, Moon Chest, 2008

Ai Weiwei's work will be shown at the Lisson Gallery, 13th May - 16th July. As noted on the gallery's website, the whereabouts and situation of the artist remain unknown following his arrest in China: Ai Weiwei was detained by authorities in Beijing while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong on 3 April, and has not been seen or heard from since. Lisson Gallery, along with all his supporters in the UK and around the world, is alarmed by the detention of Ai Weiwei and greatly concerned for his safety. Read the gallery director, Nicholas Logsdail, writing in the Guardian: It feels rotten putting the show on in Ai Weiwei's absence. Read Where is Ai Weiwei? by Adrian Searle, and more articles about the artist here.

John Salt, Pontiac with Tree Trunk, 1973

An exhibition of paintings by the photorealist John Salt is at the Ikon Gallery until 17th July. Though I have long been aware of Salt's work it was something of a surprise to learn that he is not, in fact, American, but was brought up in Birmingham and was actually the first artist to be exhibited at the Ikon back in 1965.

Tadasu Takamine, God Bless America (video), 2002

 Also showing at the Ikon until 17th July is Tadasu Takamine: Too Far to See. God Bless America is a video in which ‘the artist and his wife wrestle with two tons of clay over a period of 17 days'. Read Laura Cumming's review of this Japanese artist's first European show. 

Atkinson Grimshaw, Boar Lane, Leeds

Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight is at the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate until 4th September.

Finally, 3 recent graduates of University of Gloucestershire, Martin Abrams, Hannah Stoney and Richard Taylor, and a current lecturer, Paul Rosenbloom are featured in Curatorial Contrast 2 at BayArt Gallery in Cardiff, until 27th May. Four established artists, Cherry Pickles, Andreas Rüthi, Sue Williams and Paul Rosenbloom have each been invited to nominate emerging artist whom they have taught. The installation shot, below, shows work by Richard Taylor.

Turner Prize 2011 - shortlist

The artists shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize are: Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Hilary Lloyd and George Shaw.

Karla Black, What to Ask for Others, 2011

Karla Black uses a wide range of, sometimes unconventional and often fragile, materials  (medicines, packaging, clothing, carpets, foodstuffs, toiletries, make-up) to make sculptures which evoke feelings about the body and psychological fragility.

Martin Boyce, A Library of Leaves

Martin Boyce's installations have the character of Modernist design and create what he describes as 'a peculiar landscape: a collapse of the interior and the exterior world'.

Hilary Lloyd, Man, 2010

Hilary Lloyd works in film and video and makes the hardware of projection an integral part of her installations. Images which, at first, appear to be still prove to be in perpetual motion.

George Shaw, The Resurface, 2010

George Shaw paints mundane urban landscapes using Humbrol enamel paints. I enthused about his atmospheric, photo-realist scenes from the Tile Hill estate in Coventry when listing his (still current) show at the Baltic (see below). See a short video of Shaw at his Baltic show. I vote Shaw to win!

The 2011 Turner Prize exhibition will be held at the Baltic in Gateshead. 

Read Adrian Searle's response to the shortlist.

Photography Awards - Sony, Deutsche-Börse

Bruce Davidson,  Kathy and Arty at the Ocean Time Bar, Coney Island, 1959

Bruce Davidson has received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award at this year’s Sony World Photography Awards. A retrospective exhibition is showing at Somerset House until 22nd May and selected work will be on show at Chris Beetles from 4th to 28th May. Read feature by Sean O'Hagan and an interview from 2006 at American Suburb X.

The Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year Award (L’Iris D’Or) went to Alejandro Chaskielberg for his portfolio of pictures taken while living with islanders in the Paraná river delta, Argentina.

Alejandro Chaskielberg, The Hunter

For full details of all category award winners see The Sony World Photography Awards website. Below is a selection of images from some of the portfolios:

 

Javier Arcenillas, from Citizens of Despair - winner: Photojournalism & Documentary: Current Affairs

Tomg Meng, Wella Professionals for Marie Claire  - 3rd place: Commercial: Campaign 

Liz Loh-Taylor, Coexistence #1- winner: Commercial: Travel

Frank Bayh & Steff Rosenberger-Ochs, Don't Touch My Universe #6 - 2nd place: Commercial: Lifestyle

Alnis Stakle, from Lost: Paris - winner: Fine Art: Architecture

Florence Iff, Post Arcadia 5 - winner: Fine Art: Landscape

 

Charles Emerson, A Rose from Auschwitz - 3rd place: Fine Art: Still Life

The Deutsche-Börse prize for photography, 2011, has been awarded to Jim Goldberg for his project Open See,  documenting the experiences of refugees, immigrants and displaced people. (See also entries below)

Jim Goldberg, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2008: "His radio is the sole possession he took with him while escaping a rebel attack in his village. He now lives in a refugee camp with 60,000 other people where poverty, disease and crime run rampant." 

Spomenik - by Jan Kempenaers

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.1: Podgarić, 2006

I have only just stumbled upon Jan Kempenaers' photographs of the extraordinary and rather wonderful 'spomeniks' - or monuments - in the former Yugoslavia. Apparently these structures were built in the 1960s and 1970s in Tito's Yugoslavia to commemorate the Second World War. Between 2006 and 2009, Jan Kempenaers explored the region using a 1975 map of the memorials. The resulting pictures have been published as a book: Jan Kempenaers (2010) "Spomenik", Roma Publications.

Above and below is a selection of the images - see more here; read a review of the book by Guy Lane and an article by John Bailey. 

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.2: Petrova Gora, 2006

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.5: Kruševo, 2007

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.9: Jasenovac, 2007

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.11: Niš, 2007

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.16: Tjentište, 2007

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.18: Kadinjača, 2009

Jan Kempenaers, Spomenik No.19: Mitrovica, 2009

Tim Hetherington, 1970 - 2011; Chris Hondros, 1970 - 2011

Two outstanding photojournalists, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed on 20th April, 2011, by an explosion in Misrata while covering the conflict in Libya. Read an obituary for Tim Hetherington, and Roger Tooth and Sean Smith on the challenges of war photojournalism. 

 

Tim Hetherington, militants, Nigeria, 2006

Tim Hetherington, a man carries a child wounded during an American helicopter attack, Afghanistan, 2007

Chris Hondros, A child felled by a mortar, carrying a bag of cassava leaves back to his family.

Chris Hondros, A child soldier  in Monrovia, Liberia