Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy until 13 December

"Ai became widely known in Britain after his sunflower seeds installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2010 but this is the first major institutional survey of his work ever held in the UK and it bridges over two decades of his extraordinary career.

Curated in collaboration with Ai Weiwei from his studio in Beijing, we present some of his most important works from the time he returned to China from the US in 1993 right up to present day. Among new works created specifically for our galleries and courtyard are a number of large-scale installations, as well as works showcasing everything from marble and steel to tea and glass. 

With typical boldness, the chosen works explore a multitude of challenging themes, drawing on his own experience to comment on creative freedom, censorship and human rights, as well as examining contemporary Chinese art and society."

It's recommended that you book ahead of time.

Royal Academy

Burlington House

Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD

more here and here.

'Transforming Data' Symposium at University of Westminster

TRANSFORMING DATA: CREATIVE AND CRITICAL DIRECTIONS IN THE ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Westminster School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster

Saturday, 24 October 2015 from 11:00 to 17:30 (BST)

London, United Kingdom

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transforming-data-creative-and-critical-directions-in-the-arts-and-humanities-tickets-18860406985

In recent years cultural, social and political landscapes have been redrawn as unprecedented amounts of data has entered the public domain. This in turn has posed significant questions cutting across issues of privacy, security, culture and politics, giving birth to new aesthetic, political and social practices. This free one-day symposium brings together an interdisciplinary mix of artists, designers, academics and developers to reflect upon this phenomena, show work, exchange experiences and signpost important trends.

Questions the symposium will explore include:

How are artists and designers using data? What approaches are they taking? What issues are they tackling?

What can and can’t data tell us about the world? What are its limits in terms of representation and application?

What cultural institutional structures are emerging in response to data, what opportunities does this provide for creative practitioners?

How can we understand a political economy of data, and what alternatives to its use might this approach enable?

Speakers include:

Mark Graham: Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford.

twitter.com/geoplace

Christian Fuchs: Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster 

twitter.com/fuchschristian

Julie Freeman: Artist, Open Data Institute, Queen Mary University of London

translatingnature.org

twitter.com/misslake

Hannah Redler: Independent Curator

twitter.com/hannah_redler

Joanna Boehnert: Designer and design theorist, Centre for Research in Education, Art and Media, University of Westminster (CREAM).

(eco-labs.org)

twitter.com/Ecocene

Tom Corby and Gavin Baily: Artists, Centre for Research in Education, Art and Media, University of Westminster (CREAM). 

twitter.com/tom_corby1

Doug Specht: Doctoral Researcher and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster

twitter.com/DougSpecht

Giles Lane: Director Proboscis

proboscis.org.uk

gileslane.net

Anastasia Kavada: Symposium chair, is Senior Lecturer in the Westminster Faculty of Media, Arts & Design at the University of Westminster.

twitter.com/AnastasiaKavada

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The project is the result of collaboration between: the Centre for Research in Education Art and Media (CREAM), the University of Westminster; and the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford and is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of its Digital Transformations theme.

www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/fundedthemesandprogrammes/themes/digitaltransformations/

La Monte Young 'Dream House' Installation

'Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the Dream Festival ... Dia presents a newly acquired, site-specific iteration of Dream House by La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi at 545 West 22nd Street in New York City.

Dream House has been described as “a time installation measured by a continuous frequency environment in sound and light, in which a work would be played continuously and ultimately exist in time as a living organism with a life and tradition of its own.” 

“Dream House is a landmark contribution to the history of sound and light, a truly immersive experience, and one of the most important manifestations of Young and Zazeela’s collaborations,” said Jessica Morgan, Director, Dia Art Foundation.'

read more about the installation here.

Chisenhale Art Place Open Weekend 2-4 October

"Join Chisenhale Art Place (Chisenhale Studios, Chisenhale Gallery and Chisenhale Dance Space) for three days of exciting free events as we open the doors of our iconic building to the public. Come and explore!

Chisenhale Studios will have 40 artist studios open over the Friday evening and weekend, plus the inaugural Into the Wild group exhibition. There will also be free workshops, talks and more on Saturday and Sunday.

Chisenhale Gallery presents the first UK solo exhibition by Jumana Manna which features the newly commissioned film A magical substance flows into me (2015) and a number of sculptures. A tour of the exhibition takes place on Saturday at 2pm. 

Chisenhale Dance Space events include a Friday evening performance by Into the Wild artists, and open rehearsals on Saturday and Sunday with groups such as PanicLab, Feet Off the Ground and the Sugar Dandies."

The full programme and times can be found at www.chisenhale.co.uk

Carston Höller: Decision at the Hayward Gallery 10 June – 6 September 2015

"Over the past 20 years Holler has created devices, vehicles and situations that alter visitors’ physical and psychological states."

"Carsten Höller: Decision is the artist’s largest survey show in the UK to date. Immersing visitors in a series of experimental environments, Höller’s interactive exhibition explores perception and decision making."

Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre
Wednesday 10 June – Sunday 6 September 2015

more here.

Summer Exhibition 2015 at the Royal Academy until 16 August

"For 247 years, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has offered a snapshot of contemporary art – and this year’s exhibition is a riot of colour, variety and discovery with over 1,100 works spilling out from our galleries."

8 June — 16 August

Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm

Friday 10am – 10pm

Royal Academy of Arts

Burlington House, Piccadilly,

London, W1J 0BD

More here.

While you are there check out the Joseph Cornell exhibition as well.

Joseph Cornell Exhibition at the Royal Academy 4 July — 27 Sept 2015

"Wanderlust brings together 80 of Cornell’s most remarkable boxes, assemblages, collages and films, some never before seen outside the USA. Entirely self-taught, the independence of Cornell’s creative voice won the admiration of artists from Marcel Duchamp and the Surrealists, to Robert Motherwell and the Abstract Expressionists, with echoes of his work felt in Pop and Minimalist art."

at the Royal Academy of Arts
4 July — 27 September
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm

more here.

'Corporeality, objects, and other stuff' at Fold Gallery 5th June-11th July

"FOLD is pleased to present Corporeality, Objects and Other Stuff a group show consisting of painting and sculpture. Each artist in this show approaches the material and physical matter of their work using a combination of sophisticated visual playfulness, and a range of carefully considered responses to modernism and abstraction."

FOLD is within walking distance of the studio:

158 New Cavendish St

London W1W 6YW

Click here for a map

more here.

Damien Hirst Gallery by Caruso St John set to open this spring in London

Long section modelthrough the five buildings

"A new London gallery housing the collection of British artist Damien Hirst is set to open (spring 2015) in a row of converted and extended theatre warehouses by Caruso St John Architects."

"The converted warehouses, formerly used for theatre carpentry and scenery production, will have their first floors moved upwards to create a more logical relationship with the existing windows, creating a series of lofty rooms that can be used as offices."

Model of Interior

more here and here.

'Potential Architecture' Exhibition at Ambika P3, 11 March- 19 April

Potential Architecture fuses art and architecture in four site-specific commissions for Ambika P3 by international artists/architects Alexander Brodsky, Sean Griffiths, Joar Nango and Apolonija Šušterŝič. Utilising recycling, craft, and low-tech processes as well as performance, video, sculpture and installation, the works explore the social and material aspects of living environments during the unprecedented large-scale transformation of cities and towns globally.

Private View
Tuesday 10 March 18:30 – 20:30

Visitor information:
Ambika P3, University of Westminster,
35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Baker Street Station
Daily except Mondays
Tue – Fri, 11am – 7pm
Sat – Sun, 12pm – 6pm
Admission: Free

'3 Standard Stoppages' by Marcel Duchamp, 1913

"In 1964 Duchamp explained: 'This experiment was made in 1913 to imprison and preserve forms obtained through chance, through my chance. At the same time, the unit of length, one meter, was changed from a straight line to a curved line without actually losing its identity [as] the meter, and yet casting a pataphysical doubt on the concept of a straight edge as being the shortest route from one point to another.' (Anne d'Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine, eds., Marcel Duchamp, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1973, pp.273-4.) 

Duchamp used each wooden template three times in mapping the diagrammatic painting Network of Stoppages, 1914 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)."

more at the tate modern.

Lucy McRae Lecture- 26 Nov 2014

"In this lecture, body architect Lucy McRae tiptoes on the edge between imagination and innovation.

Lucy McRae is a body architect exploring the relationship between the body, technology and the grey areas of synthetic and organic materials. She invents playful, imaginary worlds underpinned by the tools of science fiction and technology, to create portals of possibility that provoke the way people embody the future.

Trained in classical ballet and interior design, Lucy staked her claim as the world’s premier body architect during her formative years at Philips Design. Working in the far future design research lab she developed stretchable electronics, an electronic tattoo and a range of emotional sensing dresses awarded Time Magazine's Best Fashion Invention in 2007."

Wednesday 26 Nov 2014
6.30pm – 8pm
No booking required / first come, first seated
Darwin Lecture Theatre, UCL

Richard Serra show at Gagosian Gallery, 11 Oct to 28 Feb 2015

"An ensemble of four very different works, with a room devoted to each, fills Gagosian in London, in Richard Serra’s first show of sculpture here since 2008. The sum is bigger than the parts, though each work is satisfying in its own way, and each is worth the trip alone. 'I wanted to make a show with different aspects of compression and circulation, intervals and elevation, different ways to approach a field or a space or a context,' the 74-year-old artist tells me, speaking from New York." (from the gaurdian)

Richard Serra is at Gagosian Gallery, London WC1, from 11 October to 28 February 2015.

James Turrell: Recent Works at Pace Gallery

James Turrell: Recent Works
Feb 07, 2014 – Apr 05, 2014


The exhibition will consist of two Tall Glass works and two Wide Glass works in the ground floor and upstairs galleries.

6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3ET
Tel: +44 (0)20 3206 7600
Tue - Sat 10 to 6
Monday by appointment

The work of artist Clay Ketter

"The former carpenter Clay Ketter constructs walls in the space between house-like interiors and modern abstract painting.

Ketter constructs flat sculptures, installations and three-dimensional paintings – or a compound of all three categories. His striking painting-cum-sculpture-cum-installations principally recall interior design. They capture moments in condemnation or rebuilding usually of limited duration but here freeze-framed in art. The walls exist in a permanent limbo between the presence of demolition and the eternity of art." from ARKEN

His earlier works included the Gulf Coast Slabs, a series of overhead photographs taken of structures after the passage of hurricane Katrina in 2006, one of which is shown above.

Thanks to Clay Thompson who spotted Ketter's work via SOCKS.

Paul Klee - Making Visible at Tate Modern 16 October 2013 – 9 March 2014

Paul Klee is a giant of twentieth-century art and one of the great creative innovators of the time. The heart of the exhibition will focus on the decade Klee spent teaching and working at the Bauhaus, the hotbed of modernist design.

Making Visible

Tate Modern: Exhibition

16 October 2013 – 9 March 2014

Adult £16.50 (without donation £15.00)

Concession £14.50 (without donation £13.10)

'Paper' at the Saatchi Gallery, 18 June - 3 November

"The role of paper is in decline: paperless offices are encouraged, emails reign supreme, and monetary transactions are conducted via credit cards and transfers. In Paper at the Saatchi Gallery, thoughtful, technically impressive and engaging examples of work in which paper features heavily or exclusively, attempt 

to redress this imbalance."-John Patrick Egan

Opening hours:
10am-6pm, 7 days a week, last entry 5:30pm

Address:
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London
SW3 4RY

Admission is free.

Nick Van Woert

Nick van Woert is an artist based in New York. The material used in the pieces above for the 'drips' is polyurethane plastic.  The colorful components in the piece below are cast urethane rubber applied to a fiberglass statue.

.

James Turrell at the Guggenheim in NYC

For those of you planning to visit New York over the summer break (I know a few of you will be)...

James Turrell
21.06.2013 – 25.09.2013
Guggenheim Museum, New York

James Turrell’s first exhibition in a New York museum since 1980 focuses on the artist’s groundbreaking explorations of perception, light, color, and space, with a special focus on the role of site-specificity in his practice. At its core is Aten Reign (2013), a major new project that recasts the Guggenheim rotunda as an enormous volume filled with shifting artificial and natural light.

from here.

more here.

and video of installation fabrication here.

Friday at Tate Britain: Performing Architecture

Alex Schweder and Ward Shelly, Stability, Seattle, 2009 Photos 
© Scott Lawrimore, edited by Ward Shelly & author.

What does performance have to do with architecture? 
How can a building perform, and how can we perform a building?

Come on a playful journey through the gallery in its current phase of spatial and structural transformation, taking a look at architectural and art practices that explore how our physical bodies interact with built form.

With talks, performance, a workshop, and sound and film from Alex Schwederand Lamis Bayar, Kreider + O’Leary, Effie Coe, Emptyset and The Architecture Foundation. 

*Late at Tate Britain: February 2013
Performing Architecture*
Friday 1 February, 18:00 - 22:00
Tate Britain

more details here.