New Suns: A Feminist Literary Festival – Reviewed
What can the writings of Octavia E. Butler tell us about today and, as it happens, tomorrow? Mike Pinnington reviews New Suns, the literary festival exploring the work and message of the visionary...
Utopia, Depravity and Trauma: German Revolution Expressionist Prints – Reviewed
Art, to be relevant, must say something about the times in which it was created. In between lockdowns, Flora Zajicek made for an exhibition of prints at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, to find...
The Ghost Caller – Reviewed
Given the opportunity, would you dare speak to a ghost? This was the hook for theatre company Headlong’s The Ghost Caller. With some trepidation, Thomas Florence answered the call… Late last year, a...
The Painter Who Changed My Mind: Helene Schjerfbeck
“My routine and by now automatic dismissal of portraiture was over.” Mike Pinnington on Helene Schjerfbeck, the painter that changed his mind… In my late-ish teens, I bought a postcard reproduction of Francis...
Piet Mondrian: High Prophet of Modernism
A new exhibition at Madrid’s Reina Sofia puts Piet Mondrian’s contribution to a new art front and centre. Mike Pinnington explores his evolution from Dutch landscape painter to Modernist fulcrum, who perfected composition...
“I am in love with colour”: In Physical Reality With Liz West
Currently enjoying her first solo exhibition in Finland, artist Liz West talks to Laura Robertson about being deeply in love with colour: on creating vivid sensations through hue and saturation, and the technical...
Ghost Town: A Liverpool Shadowplay – A Conversation with Jeff Young
“I think the city is a book and we can read it and re-read it.” Mike Pinnington spoke with author Jeff Young about his memoir, Ghost Town: A Liverpool Shadowplay, our philosophical attachment...
Undo Things Done: Sean Edwards
“I was thinking about what a working-class voice looks like in visual art.” As his Wales in Venice show arrives at Liverpool’s Bluecoat, artist Sean Edwards speaks with Mike Pinnington… “The estate stayed...
Kicking Down The Barriers – On Invigorating and Diversifying Museum Displays
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery’s South Asian collection was trailblazing in its day, but opening the conversation up to new generations and stories has long been required, finds Emma Sumner… Tucked into the...