Time & Space: On Being a Gallery Invigilator
“You are both a font and a target.” Stephen Curtis reflects on his time as a gallery assistant, which affords philosophical freedom while also making you a magnet for the pedantic, and those...
The Reliquary of the (Late) 20th century: Mark Leckey’s O’ Magic Power of Bleakness
What happens when a totem of working class life and culture is recreated in an elite palace for art? Kenn Taylor reflects on Mark Leckey’s journey from Wirral underpass to the pinnacle of...
The Devil is in the Detail: Anj Smith @ MOSTYN Gallery – Reviewed
Feral landscapes and Anthropocene detritus combine to deliver a fearsome dose of future shock in an exhibition of Anj Smith’s paintings at MOSTYN gallery, finds Mike Pinnington… The devil is in the detail, they...
A Waking Dream – Rebecca Allen’s The Observer
What’s a video-game without its heroes and villains, guns or explosions? Mike Pinnington investigates The Observer, Rebecca Allen’s ‘moving painting’, currently part of an exhibition at FACT Liverpool… In both scale and depth,...
Cui Jie: From Pavilion to Space Station – Reviewed
An exhibition addressing how shifts in architectural style reflect national identity, Cui Jie’s From Pavilion to Space Station’s small scale belies its big ideas, finds Mike Pinnington… What can architecture tell us about a...
Who is the city for? – Sara Jaspan Meets The Neighbours
With asylum seekers moved out of increasingly exclusive city centres and affordable housing targets going unmet, Sara Jaspan reports on an artists’ project engaging with the changing face of developing neighbourhoods… “I felt...
Making the Mundane Enigmatic – Niall McDiarmid’s Southwestern
The American Road Trip localised to a small corner of England: Stephen Clarke reflects on photographer Niall McDiarmid’s latest photo book, Southwestern… In the opening picture (below) of Niall McDiarmid’s book Southwestern, a...
“There is no one ‘Spirit of the North’” – The Return of the Portico Prize
What, if such a thing exists, is the ‘spirit of the North’? Joe Fenn on the vexed question, and return of the Portico Prize, which asks its entrants to capture exactly that… A...
You’re Invited! Present Tense Book Launch: 30 October 2019 (Book Now)
We’re having a book party and you’re invited! * WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2019 AT 18.30–19.30, TATE LIVERPOOL, ALBERT DOCK, L3 4BB * WELCOME AND THANK YOU TO ALL KICKSTARTER PATRONS WHO BOUGHT EARLY...