New Museum and Gallery Roundup

The opening of The Hepworth Wakefield (21st May) is the latest in a remarkable sequence of ongoing museum and gallery developments in the UK. Below is a brief round-up of the most notable:

• The Hepworth Wakefield
• Turner Contemporary in Margate
• The Holburne Museum extension in Bath
• Nottingham Contemporary
• Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (mima)
• Firstsite in Colchester
• Museum of Liverpool
• V&A Dundee

The Hepworth Wakefield

Named in honour of Wakefield born sculptor Barbara Hepworth, the gallery, designed by David Chipperfield, is the largest purpose built gallery to open in the UK since Tate St Ives in 1993. The opening exhibitions feature Eva Rothschild: Hot Touch (21st May - 9th October) and a display of work by Hepworth.

Eva Rothschild - installation in Hepworth Wakefield

Barbara Hepworth - installation in Hepworth Wakefield

 Read review of the gallery by Alfred Hickling.

Turner Contemporary 

The Turner Contemporary (opened 16th April, 2011) in Margate is named for J.M.W. Turner who attended school in the town and  allegedly declared that the skies over Thanet were 'the loveliest in Europe'. Like the Hepworth Wakefield, the Turner Contemporary is designed by David Chipperfield. Read Jonathan Glancey on the gallery and Laura Cumming's review of the opening exhibition: Revealed, featuring Turner, Daniel Buren, Douglas Gordon and others.

Daniel Buren, Borrowing and Multiplying the Landscape,installation in Turner Contemporary

The Holburne Museum extension in Bath

The Holburne Museum was developed around the collection of Sir William Holburne a naval officer who, as an 11 year old, experienced the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). His collection was housed in the former Sydney Hotel: this classical late C18 building has now been extended with a design by Eric Parry, remarkable if only for being permitted by the notoriously heritage sensitive planners of Bath. Read Rowan Moore's review of the building. The Museum was 're-opened' on 14th May by Peter Blake whose own collection, A Museum for Myself is the opening exhibition (until 4th September).

Peter Blake, Elvis Shrine, Holburne Museum

Nottingham Contemporary

Nottingham Contemporary opened in November 2009 in a building designed by Caruso St John. Current exhibitions include Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping and Egyptian artist Wael Shawky (both until 26th June).

Huang Yong Ping, Bat Project IV, 2005

Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art (mima)

mima was opened in 2007 in a building designed by Erick van Egeraat. The museum provides a home for a collection of around 3,000 pieces including works by David Hockney, Bridget Riley and Stanley Spencer and hosts temporary exhibitions, currently including videos and photography by Carey Young: Memento Park (until 20th July).

Firstsite in Colchester

Firstsite is scheduled to open in September in a building designed by Rafael Viñoly. The gold-clad, crescent shaped building will, according to the organisation's website, reinvent the traditional art gallery as an innovative cultural and social space with contemporary art at its heart.

Museum of Liverpool

The new Museum of Liverpool will open in July in a dramatic waterfront building designed by 3XN.

Finally, what might be the most ambitious project of all, scheduled for 2014: 
V&A Dundee

The winning design is by Japanese firm Kengo Kuma. The proposal is for a low-slung angular building, constructed out of a stone compound and glass, on a site in former docks in Dundee, partly sunk into the river Tay. It will be the first permanent museum building for  the V&A outside London - all subject, of course, to raising some £45m...

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.