Nicholas James
REVIEWS
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The Surreal House
by Nicholas James
Louise Bourgeois, Joseph Cornell, Salvador Dali, Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Rebecca Horn, Edward Kienholz, Rem Koolhaas, René Magritte, Man Ray at Barbican Art Gallery
June 10th - September 12th
Posted
7/11/10
'A means toward the total liberation of the mind and everything that resembles it.' Declaration of The Bureau of Surrealist Research, 27th January 1925.
The way we live, the curious blurring of real circumstances with the flux of an internal world: of longings, dreams, and secret chambers. These fascinating lines of enquiry form the exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery, 'The Surrealist House' , curated by Jane Alison, Alona Pardo, Eleanor Nairne and Léa-Catherine Szacke.
The Barb... [more]
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Picasso: The Mediterranean Years
by Nicholas James
Pablo Picasso at Gagosian Gallery - Britannia Street
June 4th - August 28th
Posted
7/11/10
Gagosian Gallery is the flagship of modern art. With a chain of international spaces, it has the power and expertise to frame areas of significance with focus and impact that museums such as Tate Modern are unable to match. At Britannia Street, the gallery has mounted an exceptional survey of Picasso's post war works: The Mediterranean Years, stunning in its range and provocative invention. The exhibition presents many works, previously unseen, drawn from the family of the artist.... [more]
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Interview with Yinka Shonibare
by Nicholas James
2010-05-24
Posted
5/24/10
London/ May 2010 – ArtSlant writer Nicholas James had the great opportunity to have a brief chat with Yinka Shonibare about his commission for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. The work was officially unveiled on 24 May 2010. Shonibare has exhibited internationally through platforms such as the Venice Biennial, Documenta 10, as well as being a Turner Prize nominee in 2004. Shonibare's Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle will be the first time that a commission for the Fourth Plinth responds... [more]
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Late at the Tate
by Nicholas James
Posted
5/16/10
LATE AT TATE
First Friday of each month, 18.00-22.00Last entry to exhibitions 21.00
I once went to an evening view at Tate Britain of Francis Bacon and found a party going on: the Duveen Hall was absolutely packed with crowds enjoying Dalí films. Following the sound of live jazz bands, I then discovered professional croupiers dealing poker and blackjack at card tables arranged in the 18th century rooms! This was ‘Late at Tate Britain’, which happens on the first Friday of each m... [more]
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Luke Rudolf at Kate MacGarry
by Nicholas James
Luke Rudolf at Kate MacGarry
May 7th - June 13th
Posted
5/16/10
For his first solo exhibition at Kate MacGarry Luke Rudolf pitches some truly ’in your face’ statements. Called portraits, they are in fact a long way removed from any comfort zone of easy recognition. The paintings appear spontaneous, chaotic, but take a closer look at the cool grey triangles that intersect swept gestural brushstrokes. The hard edged segments lie before and behind the freehand marks. Each painting is really a calculated composite of different elements: an... [more]
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A Curious Taste for Mutation
by Nicholas James
Marc Quinn at White Cube, Hoxton Square
May 7th - June 26th
Posted
5/16/10
Beautiful efflorescent tints of large hand-painted canvases depict strange blooms that swirl and invade with sensual mood frames. ‘Photo Evaporation’, ‘Venus After Magellan’ and ‘Lavinia Plantia’ provide an exotic backdrop for Marc Quinn’s new sculptures at White Cube. There is a no-holds barred aspect to the show that persuaded the gallery to place a warning against unaccompanied minors. Not surprising given the raunchy feel of the performers, albeit frozen in po... [more]
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Interview with Steve McQueen
by Nicholas James
2010-03-21
Posted
3/21/10
March 2010, London-- Steve McQueen, a Turner Prize winner and recipient of the Camera d'Or at Cannes for his film Hunger, continues to campaign for official recognition of the project Queen and Country, a cabinet of commemorative sheets of stamps portraying army personnel lost in the Iraq conflict. ArtSlant's Nicholas James met the artist at the National Portrait Gallery, where Queen and Country has arrived after a nationwide tour of seven years.
Queen and Country commemorates British service... [more]
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Falkiner Fine Paper
by Nicholas James
Posted
3/14/10
Falkiner Fine Paper at Shepherds Bookbinders Ltd
76 Southampton Row,
London, WC1B 4AR
www.falkiners.com
020 7831 1151
Years ago I used to browse through Falkiner’s papers when studying printmaking, and I am so pleased to find the source continues as part of Shepherds Bookbinders in Southampton Row. Go here to find all you need for bookbinding and interior design, but be amazed by the fabulous range of special papers in all colours, weights and texture. Beautiful in themsel... [more]
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Crash: Homage to J.G.Ballard
by Nicholas James
Richard Artschwager, Francis Bacon, JG Ballard, Hans Bellmer, Glenn Brown, Chris Burden, Jake & Dinos Chapman, JOHN CURRIN, Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Tacita Dean, Jeremy Deller, Paul Delvaux, Cerith Wyn Evans, Cyprien Gaillard, Douglas Gordon, Loris Gréaud, Richard Hamilton, Carsten Höller, Roger Hiorns, Damien Hirst, Dan Holdsworth, Edward Hopper, Allen Jones, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Vera Lutter, Florian Maier-Aichen, Paul McCarthy, Adam McEwen, Dan Mitchell, Malcolm Morley, Mike Nelson, Helmut Newton, Cady Noland, Claes Oldenburg, Eduardo Paolozzi, Steven Parrino, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Saville, George Shaw, Cindy Sherman, John Hilliard and Jemima Stehli, Piotr Uklański, Andy Warhol, Rachel Whiteread, Christopher Williams, Jane and Louise Wilson, Christopher Wool at Gagosian Gallery - Britannia Street
February 11th - April 1st
Posted
3/14/10
‘The choreography of mediatised reality’
--Will Self, ‘The Bounds of Inner Space’ Gagosian Gallery Catalogue 2010
We are not living in the real world, but merely exist in a virtual dimension, held like flies in aspic by shifting screens and filters which drip feed sensations of experience: violence, pleasure, the monstrous, the curious. These filters are precisely created episodes of a world theatre, a continuous and totally involving soap opera. ‘CRASH:... [more]
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Kenneth Anger: Hollywood Babylon
by Nicholas James
Kenneth Anger at Sprüth Magers London
February 19th - March 27th
Posted
3/14/10
Sprüth Magers London presents an exhibition of the iconic pioneer of postmodern film Kenneth Anger; best known for his scathing chronicle of the plunge to destruction of glittering stars and also-rans in his notorious book Hollywood Babylon.
Painted a calming mid-gray, the front gallery makes a projection room for Invocation of My Demon Brother 1969, with a great stop-start abstract soundtrack by Mick Jagger.
A knife passes over the bare chest of a peroxide-blond boy, Bobby Beausoleil... [more]
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Koenig Books
by Nicholas James
Posted
2/14/10
Koenig Books
80 Charing Cross Road, Leicester Square, London, WC2H 0BF
Telephone 020 7240 8190 info@koenigbooks.co.uk
www.koenigbooks.co.uk
Nearest station: Leicester Square, London Underground
One of my favourite haunts for browsing, Koenig Books in Charing Cross Road, has the widest range of new art titles, mixed with individual literary editions. On a recent visit I found a beautiful volume of Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem,'Une Saison en Enfer' introduced by Patti Smith, an... [more]
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Ancient Evenings, Ancient Rituals
by Nicholas James
MATTHEW BARNEY at Sadie Coles HQ - South Audley St
January 27th - March 6th
Posted
2/14/10
San Francisco-born artist Matthew Barney follows his 2007 Serpentine Gallery exhibition Drawing Restraint with a really intriguing anthology of new works at Sadie Coles HQ, South Audley Street. A number of vitrines contain what are described as storyboards: collections of images and ephemera. Each of the cases relates to scenarios developed from ancient Egyptian mythology. This is loosely based on the novel Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer, a re-imagining of ancient Egyptian ri... [more]
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Surface Ciphers
by Nicholas James
Therese Oulton at Marlborough Fine Art
February 10th - March 13th
Posted
2/14/10
‘..Ancient watercourses again snaking their ghostly way through long since dried-up river valleys – all manner of histories again part of the surface ciphers. Palimpsests.’ T.O., from Brief Notes on a Change of Identity.
Small scale, ethereal, the beautiful new landscapes by Thérèse Oulton, at Marlborough Fine Art, are at once descriptive and abstract. The aerial views range from locations in Japan to the Trellick Tower in West London. The treatment is minute... [more]
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Interview with littlewhitehead
by Nicholas James
2010-01-25
Posted
1/25/10
London/ January 2010 -- I first encountered artist duo littlewhitehead's intriguing work entitled 'littlewhitehead playing dog' at Gimpel Fils in June 2009, where a surrealistic installation drew one into some haunting story telling,. I caught up with the artists as they installed their latest exhibition for Arcan Mellor, 'The Gilt Hole Complex', installed in a top floor space at J&A Project Space in Clerkenwell. While the work was not yet assembled at the time of the interview we pieced i... [more]
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Blacks Private Members Club
by Nicholas James
Posted
12/23/09
Blacks
67 Dean StreetSoho, London, W1D 4QH020 7287 3381
At the invitation of an acquaintance, I visited the private members club Blacks in Dean Street. The atmosphere was definitely fizzing with a sophisticated vitality. Guests ranged from Soho media professionals to actors and bon viveurs.
A basement entrance leads to a beautifully restored three floor Georgian town house. You can The food is excellent, modern European cuisine and reasonably priced with an extensive wine list (beer fr... [more]
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Weegee: ’ It’s a crime to take photographs this good..’
by Nicholas James
Weegee at Michael Hoppen Contemporary
November 25th, 2009 - January 9th
Posted
12/23/09
'When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.' Weegee, "Camera Tips"
Currently on show in the first floor of the Michael Hoppen Gallery you can explore the work of the premier New York chronicler of the 1940s, Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968). Here is the life of the city laid bare: the parties, mishaps, crimes and crashes and the ever p... [more]
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Eva Hesse at Camden Arts Centre
by Nicholas James
Eva Hesse at Camden Arts Centre
December 11th, 2009 - March 7th
Posted
12/23/09
‘My interest is in finding my own way’ - Eva Hesse
‘She wanted to make her work.. not pure, predetermined, but in some way that it felt good to her’ - Sol Le Witt*
Eva Hesse: Studiowork, curated by Briony Fer and Barry Rosen, comes to the Camden Art Centre from the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh. It brings together fifty works, previously seen as test pieces for larger sculptures, which are now acknowledged as works in their own right.
The exhibition contains sculptures and m... [more]
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The Big Chill
by Nicholas James
Posted
10/30/09
Big Chill Bar
Dray Walk off Brick Lane Shoreditch, London E1 6QL Tel: 020 7392 9180
www.bigchill.net
Dray Walk runs beside the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, with an open area of trestle tables with curries of all varieties served from stands. But go through to the Big Chill bar and you find a bar/café arena with a comfortable lounge upstairs. The food is really good, generous vegetable ciabattas, fresh fruit, and an indulgent range of pastries to enjoy as you sink into deep lea... [more]
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Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street
by Nicholas James
Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery - Britannia Street
October 15th, 2009 - November 26th, 2009
Posted
10/30/09
The new show of Glenn Brown at Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, presents work made in the past two and a half years. It marks a transition from the mid-career survey at Tate Liverpool earlier in 2009, with an intensification of his highly individual vision . Brown came to prominence in the second wave of the YBAs in the 1990s, with intricately plotted mutations of artworks; from the wild panoramas of 19th century seer John Martin to expressionist port... [more]
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John Baldessari: Pure Beauty
by Nicholas James
John Baldessari at Sprüth Magers London
October 12th, 2009 - November 14th, 2009
Posted
10/30/09
‘She’s wax, she’s not real.’ A couple of girls in the street peer curiously through the gallery window at the model who reclines on a large white sofa. Then she moves and the illusion is dispelled. This is a tableau vivant by veteran conceptual artist John Baldessari whose retrospective is now on at Tate Modern.
The project was conceived with renowned set designer Naomi Shohan (credits include American Beauty 1999, I am Legend 2007, and the forthcoming Sorcerer’s App... [more]
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The Breakfast Club
by Nicholas James
Posted
9/20/09
The Breakfast Club 33 D'arblay Street,
London, W1F 8EU 020 7434 2571
An important early morning meeting in Soho, with wi-fi access, or just a good place for a casual gossip? The Breakfast Club provides just the right ambience and some great orders to match. The décor is on the retro-side, unpretentious and comfortable, and with friendly quick service. I enjoyed scrambled eggs, made here with cream, great coffee and for indulgence there is a lush range of smoothies. If you're... [more]
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The Victory
by Nicholas James
Posted
8/7/09
The Victory
27 Vyner Street,Bethnal Green
London, E2 9DQ Tel: 08721 077 077
During the week this is a quiet venue in an semi-industrial street by the Regents Canal in Hackney. But wait – the barred and bolted warehouses hide a nest of buzzing creative industry; and when the shutters are up for openings at Nettie Horn or Fred Gallery, or the bi-annual Vyner Street festival, the international scene swarms this bar. The Victory doesn’t try to improve its dusty mock-tudor image, it doesn... [more]
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Collage Abounds
by Nicholas James
John Ashbery, Nora Aslan, Wilhemina Barns-Graham, Ion Birladeanu, Nayland Blake, Ansuya Blom, Bob, Brice Brown, Jay Cloth, Dan Coombs, Michael Cooper, Joseph Cornell, Robert Courtright, Matthew Cusick, Kate Davis, Ian Dawson, Jan Dibbets, John Digby, Godfried Donkor, Samantha Donnelly, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Dzama, India Evans, John Evans, Ginnie Gardiner, Gilbert & George, James Gobel, Al Hansen, David Harrison, Marcus Harvey, Addie Herder, Susan Hiller, Paul Hosking, David Huffman, Derek Jarman, John Jodzio, Jerry Jofen, Chantel Joffe, Cletus Johnson, Ray Johnson, Don Joint, Chris Kenny, Jiri Kolar, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Andrew Logan, Andrew Mania, Margaret Mellis, Salvatore Meo, Robert Motherwell, Avis Newman, Ben Nicholson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Betty Parsons, Grayson Perry, David Poppie, Mac Premo, Penny Rockwell, Jakob Roepke, Barbara Sandler, Roberta Smith, Jeff Sonhouse, Dorothea Tanning, Maritta Tapanainen, Joe Tilson, Jacques Villegle, Mark Wagner, Andy Warhol, Dodi Wexler, C.K. Wilde, May Wilson, Trevor Winkfield at Fred [London] LTD
August 6th, 2009 - September 27th, 2009
Posted
8/7/09
I checked the new group show at Fred [London], Collage, London/New York, as it was being installed. There were some wonderful things spread about the gallery waiting to be hung. The opportunity to stage a major exhibition of collages arose from contact with Pavel Zubok Gallery, New York; a specialist collector with pieces ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Joseph Cornell (magician of mysterious and intricate cabinets). The survey includes over seventy artists drawn across generations from the... [more]
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Paintings By
by Nicholas James
John M Armleder, Merlin Carpenter, Matias Faldbakken, On Kawara, Martin Kippenberger, Sherrie Levine and Christopher Wool at Simon Lee
August 4th, 2009 - August 26th, 2009
Posted
8/7/09
When is a painting not a painting? An exhibition at Simon Lee poses this conundrum with a selection of enigmatic works by gallery artists. The premise of the show is found in the word accrochage, the principle of hanging or coupling works in the tradition of a summer exhibition. However this carries a further twist; on closer examination none of the paintings is a proper painting, in conventional terms of expressive handwork and composition. The show starts with the veteran... [more]
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Cafe Boheme
by Nicholas James
Posted
7/10/09
Café Boheme13-17 Old Compton Street,Soho, London, W1D 5GQ0871 971 7329
Café Boheme was recommended by a friend in PR as a good place to meet for a relaxed drink and light meal. Recently refurbished, the bar and brasserie in Old Compton Street has a loyal following; it's wise to book a table as the bar is usually crowded with Soho's media community. The 'plats' are reasonable and unpretentious; a croque monsieur (£5) and more exotic - a half dozen snails for £7, washed down with a glass of Sa... [more]
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Natural Signs
by Nicholas James
Richard Long at Tate Britain
July 3rd, 2009 - September 6th, 2009
Posted
7/9/09
The idea of the walk as a sculpture is first recorded in a photograph of 1967, of a line made by walking. The artist spied a likely field from a train and broke his journey to make the first impression. The radical invention was confirmed by another; a broad cross cut through a field of daisies in 1968. The idea is complete and self-fulfilling; Long carefully plans and carries through his itinerary, the physical effort of which becomes a measure of his personal capacity. ‘To walk across a... [more]
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Jeff Koons: The Popeye Series
by Nicholas James
Jeff Koons at Serpentine Gallery
July 2nd, 2009 - September 13th, 2009
Posted
7/9/09
‘I wanted to show that people don’t have to lose force or lose direction or be traumatised by life experience, but that they can maintain their integrity and get through things and not lose their way.’ Jeff Koons*I wanted to hate it, as meretricious post-pop trivia, but I couldn’t help being caught by the striking illusions with their chilling subtexts in Jeff Koons’ powerful new Popeye suite at the Serpentine Gallery. Koons is the postmodern operator par excellence; I doubt that he touc... [more]
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VISITING DOMOBAAL with NICHOLAS JAMES
by Nicholas James
2009-06-22
Posted
6/22/09
Felicity Powell to 25th July DOMOBAAL 3 JOHN STREET LONDON WC1N 2ES T +44 20 7242 9604 Open: Thursday to Saturday 12 to 6 pm and by appointment. Free
Strange fruit at Domobaal, a private gallery in a 17th century mansion in John Street WC1, with an exhibition of beautiful wax bas-reliefs by Felicity Powell. In 2000 the artist was the Winner of the Millennium Medal competition organised by The Royal Mint and The British Art Medal Society. She recently curated 'Medals of Dishonour' with Philip... [more]
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The Wolseley Café and Restaurant
by Nicholas James
Posted
6/19/09
The Wolesley 160 Piccadilly, London W1J 9EB020 7499 6996http://www.thewolseley.com Monday to Friday 7.00am to midnight,Saturday 8.00am to midnight and Sunday 8.00am to 11.00pm
I recently dropped into the Wolesley Restaurant in Piccadilly for tea and stayed over two hours (my chatty acquaintance!). We enjoyed afternoon tea at £19.75, presented on an ornate stand, with several levels of pastries and finger sandwiches. Originally built in 1921 as a prestigious showroom for Wolesley cars, the renovated... [more]
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Littlewhitehead plays Dog at Gimpel Fils
by Nicholas James
littlewhitehead at Gimpel Fils Gallery
May 28th, 2009 - July 4th, 2009
Posted
6/19/09
What is it with emerging artists? They love to take a walk on the dark side, and an atmosphere of lurking danger and death is tangible in a crop of current installations. Not that I dislike them, the morbid sets are often more like a scary movie, and there’s a tongue in cheek quality that retains a lighter touch. Downstairs at Gimpel Fils I found an installation by the duo littlewhitehead (Craig Little and Blake Whitehead b.1965); littlewhitehead have recently exhibited in Bloomberg... [more]
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