As the contemporary art world goes dark, and as galleries – official spaces and commercial ones – slam shut their doors, one inevitably starts to wonder what the art world will be like once all this is over—the British art world, and also the global one.
A New Year, a new decade – I’ve been thinking about all the things I currently don’t like about the contemporary art scene here in Britain. Most of all, I don’t like its pervasive self-righteousness, the ever-increasing assumption that ‘official art’ has all the answers.
11 December 2019
The second Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) has been announced. This major new biennial in Latvia lists participants for the event entitled ‘and suddenly it all blossoms’.
2 December 2019
London Art Fair is the UK’s oldest established Contemporary art fair. It returns from 22-26 January 2020, bringing museum-quality modern and contemporary art to the capital.
4 November 2019
The Art Space is an art gallery, creative hub and cafe rooted in the Bahrain Bay Wharf, a new location for art and luxury overlooking landmarks such as the Four Seasons Hotel, Bahrain Financial Harbour and the World Trade Center.
16 October 2019
As everyone must know by now, FIAC one of Europe’s most important fairs opened for the VIP preview today at the Grand Palais in Paris.
3 October 2019
Frieze London is in full throttle with day two of the previews underway at the time of writing. I spent the first day walking around with curator Lee Cavaliere and artist-writer Michael Petry. Each year there is an outstanding trend which clearly manifests and this year it is weaving. Here are my top ten picks from the Fair, in no order.
A brand new fair focusing on Contemporary and Modern art has been announced for London during the Masterpiece/Olympia corridor.
9 June 2019
Churches hosting exhibitions and artists is a fantastic development says Almuth Tebbenhoff, co-curator of The London Group’s outdoor exhibition ‘Coming Good: Come Hell or High Water’ for The Waterloo Festival.
20 May 2019
The Whitney Biennial 2019 is America’s oldest survey of contemporary art. Now in its 79th edition, this year’s event opened as the stock market began to sink.
25 April 2019
Gallery Weekend Berlin is a one-stop city-break for contemporary art in Germany.
10 April 2019
There is no doubt Hong Kong is becoming one of the leading destinations for art lovers, collectors, curators and art professionals in general.
16 February 2019
Day One Frieze LA: Rain! Some things are just out of our control. This was torrential rain sheets of water like you see in the tropics.
4 October 2018
I’m what you could call a seasoned Frieze regular. I may have missed the first London fair but I was soon sucked into the great black hole of mega-international art fairs and beamed myself out beyond London to Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, not to mention the first Frieze in New York. Galleries […]
11 June 2018
Art Basel 2018 which launches 14-17 June offers a Premier line-up of galleries at Art Basel’s 2018 edition in Basel Switzerland.
4 May 2018
Frieze New York is always one of the highlights of the international art calendar.
4 January 2018
One name immediately sprang to mind – that of the born Irish, once British, now American painter Sean Scully.
8 December 2017
It’s hard to complain about the big institutional shows on display just now
23 August 2017
Sotheby’s has taken the bold move to scrap buyer’s premium on all of its online-only auctions. The auction house has at the same time announced that it will raise its regular buyer’s premium
18 June 2017
Curator and Gallerist Virginie Puertolas-Syn chooses twelve of the best stands at Art Basel 2017. Art Basel is a curated selection of 291 first-rate galleries exhibiting at the fair’s 48th edition in Basel.
2 April 2017
I’ve always liked the Other Art Fair, on in London from now till April 2nd. But I’ve never quite known what to say about it.
16 February 2017
Art Basel, which is now in its 48th edition has released an impressive gallery list for the fair in Basel, Switzerland, which takes place from June 15 to June 18, 2017. This year, 291 leading international galleries will present works ranging from the early 20th century to contemporary artists. The Basel show, whose Lead Partner is UBS, will present galleries from 34 countries and six continents.
12 January 2017
Frieze New York has announced the sixth edition of this international art fair held at Randall’s Island Park from May 5–7, 2017. The event brings together more than 190 galleries from 30 countries, showcasing an unparalleled program of ambitious presentations by today’s most significant international artists
Deep in August, gazing at the rather forlorn contemporary art landscape that is standard for this time of year, when major exhibition openings are lacking, I’m left wondering why in fact it seems a good deal more forlorn than I expect. This, despite the fact that the new extension at Tate Modern continues to attract thousands upon thousands of visitors. Also […]
28 June 2016
Phillips first Post-Brexit sale of Contemporary art in London was topped by Anselm Kiefer’s late painting For Velimir Khlebnikov; The doctrine of War; Battles, (2004-2010), which sold for £2.4 million ($3.28 million) to a phone bidder. Most other lots realised their lower estimate and 10 lots remained unsold. Including buyers’s premium, the sale realised £10.2 million ($13.93 million),11 sold below […]
12 May 2016
Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary Art in New York has achieved a staggering $242,194,000 £167,689,576.22 The result included several record prices for artists. “Tonight we achieved exactly what we set out to do: tailor a sale to the market’s current taste. You only had to count the number of hands in the air for works as diverse […]
17 October 2015
An international jury will select 120 finalist artists for: 6 cash prizes of € 7.000 each major collective exhibition in the Arsenale of Venice 4 exhibitions in international Art Galleries 2 collaborations with Companies 7 Art Residencies 3 International Festivals the publication of the catalogue ALL THE INFORMATION IN OUR VIDEO >> www.artelagunaprize.com >> WHAT […]
14 July 2015
Picture credit: Jack Brindley, ‘Original Copy’ installation view, Cactus Gallery, 2015; Photographer Harry Meadley An exhibition examining the usefulness of art and twenty-first century arts centres is to open at Bluecoat, Liverpool’s centre for the contemporary arts. Featuring work from a wide range of UK-based artists RESOURCE is inspired by the 1927 founding manifesto of […]
Show One of the Central Saint Martins Degree Shows has opened at their Kings Cross campus. This consists of Art: BA Fine Art, MA Fine Art, MA Photography, MA Art & Science, MRes: Art – Exhibtion Studies, Mres Art – Moving Image, MRes Art – Theory and Philosophy. Here is a selection of my 10 favourite offerings from […]
14 May 2015
Christie’s Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary art has achieved US $658,532,000 (£419,714,468/ €584,662,254) with sell-through rates of 88% by lot and 94% by value. Bidders from 40 different countries gathered for the sale to compete for top-quality works by the pioneering artists of the era, including Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Franz Kline, and Robert […]
6 July 2014
Reviewer at large Paul Carey- Kent has been out and about in London choosing a selection of exhibitions which defy the obvious and turn up some interesting insight into what actually is happening in the better known galleries as well as some of the nooks and crannies in our great metropolis. Candida Höfer: Villa Borghese […]