Our pick of this week’s art events: 5 – 11 December
Our pick of this week’s art events: 5 – 11 December
RA Recommends
By Sam Phillips
Published 5 December 2014
From William Blake in Oxford to ‘the next big thing’ in Manchester.
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Maciej Urbanek
St Michael’s Church, Camden, London, now open
Transformation is a theme in art as much as religion, as Maciej Urbanek’s semi-permanent installation in a Camden church reminds us. Rather than water into wine, the former RA Schools student turns black rubbish bags into a 60-square-metre, two-dimensional, abstract photograph that surges upwards across a wall. Now a tutor at the Schools, Urbanek first photographed the bags, then manipulated the results onscreen so that the black plastic became a mellifluous image that is both Baroque and futuristic.
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Phillip King PPRA
Tate Britain, London, until 1 February 2015
In her recent visit to the studio of Phillip King PPRA for RA Magazine, Fiona Maddocks saw the “signs of the innumerable materials King now works with: fibreglass, plastics, resin, steel, foam PVC, wood, bamboo, phosphorescent acrylic, concrete, slate, asphalt, tar, polystyrene and an array of other industrial products”. A huge range of natural and man-made substances become magically charged in sculptures by the octogenarian Academician, who Maddocks describes as an “abstract lyricist”, and whose works from the 1960s are now on show in Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries.
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Academicians III
Glasgow Print Studio, until 25 January 2015
Glasgow Print Studio has formed long-standing working relationships with artists from both the RA in London and the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh. Four eminent artists come together from both institutions in the studio’s latest show of graphic art – Marian Leven RSA, Hughie O‘Donoghue RA, Barbara Rae RSA RA and Emma Stibbon RA: a quadrumvirate whose work demonstrates the many possibilities of printmaking today.
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30 Years of the Future
Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, until 1 February 2015
The art world can sometimes seem like a talent show, with critics, curators, collectors and other interested parties celebrating rising stars – and trying to predict who might sustain an influential career as an artist. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Castlefield Gallery cuts to the chase by asking various figures to choose artists for display who they think will define the next 30 years. Selectors include writer JJ Charlesworth, Serpentine Gallery co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist and artists Corin Sworn and Bob and Roberta Smith RA.
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Oxford exhibitions
Love is Enough: William Morris & Andy Warhol, Modern Art Oxford, 6 December – 8 March 2015
William Blake: Apprentice and Master Ashmolean, until 1 March 2015
If there was ever a time to visit Oxford it is now, with two exceptional exhibitions opening this week: an examination of William Blake’s mastery of print, and a comparison – orchestrated by the British artist Jeremy Deller – of the Arts and Crafts pioneer William Morris and the American pop artist Andy Warhol. Both exhibitions are explored in the latest issue of RA Magazine; Jeremy Deller explores the intriguing links between Morris and Warhol, and the writer Alan Moore, a cult figure for comic books that include V for Vendetta, reveals how Blake found his ultimate enemy in the form of Isaac Newton.
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Sam Phillips (@SamP_London) is Editor of RA Magazine.