Johnson Tsang is an established sculptor based in Hong Kong. His ‘Security Summit’ is composed of eight porcelain sculptures. One ‘putto’ or naked cherub sits in the centre, crying; seven others surround him carrying baby-sized machine guns. The putto is armed with only a bow and arrow. He’s no match for their modern weaponry. He’s surrounded and unable to react to the bullying of those around him...
Read MoreCarl Grauer’s still lifes suggest an imaginary museum commemorating our everyday objects: old jars; perfume bottles; salt and pepper shakers; pliers; clips; even laptop chargers. In fact, the laptop charger is my favourite. Computers. It’s difficult to think of a more perfect example of the present becoming the past so quickly. There’s something especially collectible about these paintings. Perhaps, because the objects already seem to have been collected, curated, and arranged by the artist himself.
Read MoreThe faceless businessman stands before the rising wave. There’s something uncanny about the shadows and lighting; as if the wave were merely a ‘green-screen’ and the businessman an actor. It’s no doubt purposeful. Perhaps it’s a commentary on our uncertainties regarding representation and the real?
Read MoreTrudy Good professes that her ‘works are never narratives, merely moments.’ I’m going to suggest that there’s a paradox at work in this statement. But it’s an intentional and productive one; precisely the sort of contradiction that good art often reveals and explores. Her style and subject matter accordingly make for an interesting artistic proposition vis culture, technology, and aesthetics.
Read MoreIn Quiet Between Us, the scene is downcast. The staircase fragments into nothing, there is no definite figurative form. There is only white, blue, and grey…each scrapped across the canvas so as to obliterate the steps. But before these are lost to the canvas’s abstract spaces: a young girl rests with her back against the wall. She is a ballet dancer...
Read MoreIt’s easy to forget—amid the ‘blockbuster’ shows of 2016: ‘Abstract Expressionism’ at the RA; ‘Anselm Kiefer’ at the White Cube; ‘Conceptual Art in Britain' at the Tate Britain; and ‘Jeff Koons Now’ at the trendy Newport Street Gallery—that some of the city’s other institutions and spaces are witnessing a veritable revival in the worlds of figurative and representational art.
Read More
