Lisa Lavery, Nicky Fordyce, Lucy Gresley and Denise Cain - The Gardens Gallery, Cheltenham

Lucy Gresley, Self Portrait III, 2012

Fourthoughts, an exhibition of work by four Gloucestershire based artists - Lisa Lavery, Nicky Fordyce, Lucy Gresley and Denise Cain - is at The Gardens Gallery, Cheltenham from 22-28 May 2013.

Lisa Lavery,  Lunaria

Lisa Lavery is a photographer who makes camera-less images, using methods that reach back to the invention of the medium. The work on show includes photograms – images made by placing objects directly onto light sensitive material – made from leaves and seeds, objects related to Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and a bicycle!

Nicky Fordyce, Untitled

Nicky Fordyce is a photographer who uses long exposures and creative lighting to make ‘bodyscapes’ – images of the body and face which explore personal and family relationships.

Lucy Gresley, Fall, 2012

Lucy Gresley’s art practice is rooted in drawing, but she experiments with a range of media and techniques to explore the psychology and philosophy of human relations and feelings.

Denise Cain,  Untitled

Denise Cain,  from Water and Air series

Denise Cain works in photography, printmaking and sculpture, exploring materials and textures to make works which evoke and preserve memories, and express tranquillity and beauty.

Art & Photography Playlist #4 Luke Haines: Death of Sarah Lucas

Songs about Art and Photography: a playlist.  #4 Luke Haines: Death of Sarah Lucas (click to play live version)

Sarah Lucas, Fighting Fire with Fire, 1996

This is the death of Sarah Lucas
As painted by the mouth of Verona
Sarah Lucas and the Turin Shroud
Jesus Christ on a tea-towel
Take the cigarette Sarah
Put it in your mouth, smoke the fucker
Light it, suck it, don't blow it
Don't make a big deal about it

I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas

She's playing with morality
She's using ambiguity
She's using humour to question our preconceptions
Wish I could be like her but
I am not a girl
"The Car's The Star" to glue the cigarettes on

I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas

There are things that I don't understand
Maybe I'm an average man
But Sarah, I'm sorry
But I have to kill you
I traced her to a member's bar
She's holding court, she's talking art
Doesn't fruit look funny in a gallery?
It could be death by cigarette
Or one true blow to the head
Just plug Aunt Sally in the belly

I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas
I shot Sarah Lucas 

"Death of Sarah Lucas", by Luke Haines

John M. Armleder - Dairy Art Centre

John M. Armleder, Convallaria Majalis (triptych), 2003

John M. Armleder: Quicksand is at Dairy Art Centre through Spring and Summer 2013.
The Dairy Art Centre is a brand new exhibition space showcasing the art collections of Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm; the gallery is a former dairy in Bloomsbury. 
For the first exhibition John Armleder has been given a free hand to occupy the spaces with an installation of paintings, sculptures, mirror balls and projections.
Armleder, a Swiss artist whose career reaches back to an association with Fluxus in the 1960s, is relatively little known in the UK. John Cage is  a particular influence on his diverse and playful work - for his 2009 exhibition at Galerie Andrea Caratsch in Zurich Armleder simply kept the previously exhibiting artist, Olivier Mosset's exhibition, as his own show!

John M. Armleder, installation view of Quicksand at Dairy Art Centre

John M. Armleder, installation view of Quicksand at Dairy Art Centre

John M. Armleder, Untitled, Light Pile III (Furniture Sculpture),1995

John M. Armleder, installation view of Quicksand at Dairy Art Centre

John M. Armleder, installation view of Quicksand at Dairy Art Centre

Art & Photography Playlist #3 Lou Reed & John Cale: Trouble With Classicists

Songs about Art and Photography: a playlist. 
#3 Lou Reed & John Cale: Trouble With Classicists (click to play live version - with French subtitles!)

Cover of Lou Reed  & John Cale's Songs for Drella, 1990

The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree
That's all he sees, he paints a tree
The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky
He doesn't ask why, he just paints a sky

The trouble with an impressionist, he looks at a log
And he doesn't know who he is, standing, staring, at this log
And surrealist memories are too amorphous and proud
While those downtown macho painters are just alcoholic

That’s the trouble with impressionists
That’s the trouble with impressionists
That’s the trouble with impressionists
That’s the trouble with impressionists

The trouble with personalities, they're too wrapped up in style
It's too personal, they're in love with their own guile
They're like illegal aliens trying to make a buck
They're driving gypsy cabs but they're thinking like a truck

That’s the trouble with personalities
That’s the trouble with personalities
That’s the trouble with personalities
That’s the trouble with personalities

I like the druggy downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains
I like their lack of training, their primitive technique
I think sometimes it hurts you when you stay too long in school
I think sometimes it hurts you when you're afraid to be called a fool

That’s the trouble with classicists
That’s the trouble with classicists
That’s the trouble with classicists
That’s the trouble with classicists

Pauline Boty - Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Pauline Boty, The Only Blonde In The World, 1963

Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman is at Wolverhampton Art Gallery until 16 November 2013.
Boty was one of the stars of British Pop Art - alongside Peter Blake, David Hockney, Derek Boshier, Peter Phillips and others. Her premature death, at 28 in 1966, and the chauvinism of art history mean that she is less well known than she should be. Hopefully this exhibition along with a concurrent display of photographs and memorabilia at Mach Schau will help to remedy this.

Pauline Boty, 5-4-3-2-1, 1963

Pauline Boty, Colour Her Gone, 1962

Pauline Boty, Bum, 1966

Pauline Boty, Nude Woman ina Coastal Landscape (nd)

Pauline Boty, It's A Man's World II, 1965

Pauline Boty, Countdown to Violence, 1964

Pauline Boty in her studio in 1964 with her now lost painting Scandal '63

Art & Photography Playlist #2 Bob Dylan: She Belongs To Me

Songs about Art and Photography: a playlist.
#2 Bob Dylan: She Belongs To Me (click to play live 1966 performance)

Barry Feinstein, Bob Dylan, Aust Ferry, 1966

She’s got everything she needs

She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the night-time
And paint the daytime black

You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees

She never stumbles
She’s got no place to fall
She never stumbles
She’s got no place to fall
She’s nobody’s child
The Law can’t touch her at all

She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She’s a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique

Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
For Halloween give her a trumpet
And for Christmas, buy her a drum

Bob Dylan, 1965 - on Bringing It All Back Home

Art & Photography Playlist #1 Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers: Pablo Picasso

Songs about Art and Photography: a playlist. 
#1 Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers: Pablo Picasso (click to play)

James Lord, Picasso avec une colombe, Paris, 1945

Well some people try to pick up girls
And get called assholes
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and
So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole

Well the girls would turn the color
Of the avacado when he would drive
Down their street in his El Dorado
He could walk down you street
And girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not like you
Alright

Well he was only 5'3"
But girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not in New York

[...]

Some people try to pick up girls
And they get called an asshole
This never happened to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down your street
And girls could not resist his stare and so
Pablo Picasso was never called... 

Jonathan Richman, 1972 - released 1976 on The Modern Lovers