Angela Tait speaks to two graduates in Salford who – sick of waiting for opportunities to come to them – are launching their own exhibition, prizes and membership for artists…

As educators, we spend much of our time preparing our students for the precarious nature of the real world. What potential paths are open to the next graduating class? How can they navigate the arts straight from university – affordable studios, exhibitions and residencies – when life gets in the way? With the current state of the depleted job market, national funding cuts and general doom and gloom, it sometimes feels like you’re fighting a losing battle.

So, when I see graduates kickstart and grow their own ambitious projects, it’s a real boon. Take Short Supply: a new support system for emerging artists in the North West, set-up by my former University of Salford students Mollie Balshaw and Rebekah Beasley, with the goal of “putting on some damn good exhibitions”. It’s brilliant.

Graduating just last year from BA (Hons) Fine Art, they have, in a relatively short space of time, established Short Supply as a graduate showcase, prize and professional development experience all rolled into one. The first open-call group exhibition, MADE IT 2019, will launch this week at Paradise Works in Salford; it has been judged by established curators Bren O’Callaghan, Curator at HOME Manchester, and artist Precious Innes, co-curator of show.me.up. One artist will receive the Curator’s Choice award of £100 while another will be offered an exhibition in the Cass Art gallery in Manchester city centre.

It’s everything Mollie and Rebekah desired themselves, post-graduation. “We wanted to pre-empt the situations we were going to be experiencing after leaving uni”, Mollie tells me, as we meet in the Salford Museum and Gallery café – a stone’s throw from the art school where we used to sit down for tutorials together. I’m curious about the motivation behind Short Supply; juggling this alongside their own practice, volunteering at galleries and working part-time jobs to pay the bills. “We knew we would lose our systems of support, and we wanted to put what we’d learned into practice”, continues Mollie. “There are other artist-led initiatives in Manchester and beyond, but we felt we could offer something different. Instead of working with those, we decided to tackle what we’d been worried about ourselves.”

It’s true – the North West is brimming with a broad range of museums, galleries and studios, MA and PhD courses, public programming, collectives and groups, charities and funded projects – Arts Council England has even got an office in Manchester. But finding your way from a standing start can be a challenge fraught with unpaid opportunities, unsuccessful applications and false starts. There are specific platforms which support recent graduates; Mollie herself is a recipient of the Graduate Scholarship Programme 2019, a joint endeavour from the University of Salford Art Collection and the School of Arts & Media, which pays for 12 month’s-worth of studio space at Islington Mill and regular mentoring from a Manchester-based industry professional. Readers will be aware of high profile, national exhibitions like Bloomberg New Contemporaries: a fabulous springboard for the chosen few which tours British galleries and is, likewise, selected by industry experts.

In that context, I ask Mollie and Rebekah why Short Supply is needed at all? We discuss the application fee for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, which this year charges £25 for proposals to be considered amongst “huge numbers” of others, for one of 45 prestigious places. MADE IT, on the other hand, was free to apply to. It is also – crucially – run by new graduates, for new graduates.

“We’re in the same boat”, says Mollie. “We share some of the same experiences and anxieties. We’re expanding Short Supply into a larger support network which will go some way to replacing the critical environment of the university.” The Short Supply website will act as a membership-driven community, an online portal listing any emerging artist who wishes to be represented. Their first group crit is being planned, inviting all the applicants of the open call, Short Supply supporters and, apparently, even me. They would like ‘coffee, cake and crit’ to become a monthly occurrence, in some ways creating a supportive place which might replace the university studio environment they have lost.

I’m pleased to hear it was an undergraduate exhibition that gave Mollie and Rebekah some of the impetus for MADE IT. Exhibiting in and co-curating their student show Reality: Tap to See More at Paradise Works – as part of a second-year module on professional practice – helped them to muster the confidence to start planning their own. They approached several Manchester galleries, before eventually getting the encouragement they needed from the Paradise Works co-founders, Hilary Jack and Lucy Harvey. Rebekah recalls the knock-backs they faced from venues because of their lack of reputation. “You can’t just say: ‘Here I am straight from university, trust me, I’m going to put on a show’.” And yet, that’s what they have done, in finding a venue that understood the need for an alternative graduate springboard drawing from the local talent pool.

And MADE IT is clearly and simply a good idea. Promoted through social media, purse-sized cards and posters in art shops and galleries, and on stickers on lampposts and bus stops, graduates from any North West university could apply to exhibit. “The flood of applications and interest truly took us by surprise”, says Rebekah. “Lots of people have reached out to us and said, ‘we like what you’re doing and we want to help or be involved’.”

Within a day of the campaign going live, Manchester-based independent publication Penny Thoughts had suggested a collaboration, along with Shy Bairns, a pop-up artist-run organisation also  started by graduates looking to find their own path. HOME, Cass Art and Paradise Works are behind them. They now have an inaugural exhibition of 14 graduates, from Manchester School of Art, the University of Salford, UCLan, the University of Chester, University Centre St Helens and Bolton University. The pair plan to make this an annual event and have already committed to MADE IT 2020, whilst also securing a gallery for a separate curated show next July. The connections being made by Short Supply have expanded their own professional network, a notoriously difficult process for new graduates whose sphere of influence is usually limited to their own university cohort.

From their experience so far, I ask Mollie and Rebekah if they have any tips for other, fresh-out-of-uni artists responding to open-calls. Rebekah advises making every application outstanding: “Imagine Charles Saatchi might read what you’ve written and don’t send off anything you’re not completely proud of. Never send anything but your best proposal whether this is to a graduate show run by your contemporaries or an application to the Tate.”

“Don’t write too much” Mollie adds; “be clear and concise and always use great images which show scale.”

The duo understand that they’ve emerged into a crowded and complicated world. Short Supply is one way in which they’re attempting to shape their own destiny, whilst holding out a hand to other artists in the same situation. They’ve preempted a challenging time in their early careers with professionalism, thought and commitment. “Our art-life never stops”, laughs Rebekah… And I’d like to think they learned a little bit of that from me.

Angela Tait

Short Supply’s inaugural exhibition MADE IT 2019 opens at Paradise Works, Salford, on Thursday 15 August 2019, 6-8pm – FREE

Exhibition continues Saturdays 17 and 24 August 2019, 12-5pm, or by appointment until 30 August

More info here

Images, from top: Oliver East for MADE IT 2019, Short Supply, courtesy the artist. Mollie and Rebekah, founders of Short Supply. Megan Needham for MADE IT 2019, Short Supply, courtesy the artist. Emily Wills for MADE IT 2019, Short Supply, courtesy the artist

It’s a festival frenzy this week, with all eyes on Liverpool. In short, if you’ve never visited the city before, then this is the week to do so…

Thursday — Launch Night: Independents Biennial 6pm @ George Henry Lee’s Building, Liverpool – FREE

Under new management via ArtinLiverpool’s Patrick Kirk-Smith, with a new identify and full of beans, the city’s fringe festival is back – thankfully – with a bang. It’s a huge umbrella strand for all sorts of artist-led events, from the traditional to the downright eccentric, running co-currently alongside the official Liverpool Biennial from July-October 2018 (see Friday’s launch). Have a look at the website for the exhaustive programme; if painting’s your bag, for example, see CBS Gallery’s Please Slow Down, Luke George in the Baltic Triangle; or skip past the Aldi in St Johns Market to experience the Reading Room, Kids That Fly or the Royal College of Art. As with the Biennial, it’s a fantastic way to explore the city.

However, it’s George Henry Lee’s that we’re most looking forward to visiting: the former department store will be hosting the Empty Spaces Cinema, two strong exhibitions from Redeye’s Photography Network (Disparity Collective, Positions of Power, and Unio Collective: Hidden Worlds); a painting show inspired by Finnegans Wake (A Long The Riverrun), and graduate award exhibitions from Hope and Liverpool John Moores universities. Great stuff.

Exhibition Opening: This Is Shanghai/China Dream 6pm @ Cunard Building, Tate Liverpool Mann Island, Museum of Liverpool — FREE

Twinned with Shanghai since 1999, and with the oldest Chinese population in Europe, it’s no surprise that China is one focus of Liverpool’s cultural programming this year – 10 years on from our European Capital of Culture win. What you may not know is that Liverpool benefits from expertise in contemporary Chinese art, as the University of Liverpool and Open Eye Gallery have been collaborating with Manchester’s Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) and the University of Salford Art Collection. So far in the China Dream programme, the city’s had the Terracotta Warriors, the Chinese New Year festival and PRESENCE: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Art.

The latest exhibition, This is Shanghai, seems to be focussed on the everyday encounters that contemporary artists have observed about Liverpool and Shanghai; comparing and contrasting how we live now. We particularly love the sensitive and melancholy photography of Liang Yue; known for depicting familiar, empty streets and landscapes (On the Bridge), sometimes turned a very unfamiliar yellow/grey by sand storms blown in from the desert (Several Dusks). Also, Xu Zhen’s finess video is a must-see: entitled Physique of Consciousness, and produced by MadeIn Company, it promises to be “the first cultural fitness exercise ever made”, reflecting “the diversity of human ideologies”. See the main exhibition until 7 September.

Friday – Launch Night: Liverpool Biennial 6pm @ Venues Across Liverpool — FREE

“Beautiful world, where are you?” seems an apt title for this 10th edition Liverpool Biennial, considering the utter shit show of global (and national) politics right now. 40 artists from 22 countries attempt to respond, from despair to hope and defiance, with a healthy does of humour thrown in for good measure. See an Agnès Varda retrospective at FACT (in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, too, on Friday), Mohamed Bourouissa’s ‘resilience’ garden in Toxteth, Taus Makhacheva’s pop-up spa at Blackburn House, Ryan Gander’s collaboration with school children at Liverpool Cathedral, the tradition-defying drawings of Canadian Inuk Annie Pootoogook at Tate… You’ll find huge names from the art world attempting to tell their own stories within the context of a city well versed in resistance tales.

Alongside the official programming, you’ll also be able to check out the Independents Biennial (see Thursday), the John Moores Painting Prize at the Walker Gallery (whose winner will also be announced on Thursday), and fresh blood from the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018 at Liverpool School of Art & Design (with work selected by Benedict Drew, Katy Moran and Keith Piper). Festival continues until 28 October.

Saturday — Brazilica Festival 12pm-4am @ Venues Across Liverpool — FREE

Launching on Thursday with Brasilia band Muntchako at Constellations, and then a Carnival Queen competition at Circo on Friday, the main event that everyone will be talking about is really today: the 11^thanniversary festival on the Pier Head (12–8pm). Expect live performances of Brazilian/Afro Latin music from Sueli G, Agathe Iracema, electronic quartet Penya, The Fontanas, and Aleh Ferreira, plus DJs all day.

In the evening (from 8pm), head back into the city centre for a Carnival Parade; with sensational costumes, feathers, more music and – of course – dancing from Abercromby Square to Williamson Square.

For those of you fuelled up on Pineapple cocktails, the samba party bangs on through Camp and Furnace (until 4am). Everyone else can sit back and enjoy Brazilica Film Festival from Monday (until 26 July) at various venues across the city; screening eight films including 2016 biopic Elis, about the rise and fall of the greatest Brazilian singers of all time, Elis Regina.

Laura Robertson

Images, from top: Annie Pootoogook, Cherie Grist, Xu Zhen and MadeIn Company, Mohamed Bourouissa, Brasilica 

Demonstrating excellent artistic potential in the face of a bunch of UK-wide cuts and eye-watering tuition fees… For our outstanding Class of 2018, Jack Welsh asks tutors across Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside to each nominate one, stand-out student…

It is a difficult time for arts education in the UK. Arts subjects have been systematically excluded from the English Baccalaureate curriculum. This has already had a damaging impact. Last year the number of 15 and 16 year-olds studying arts subjects dipped to its lowest level for a decade.

University application numbers for creative arts and design courses, which includes Fine Art, have also dropped. A cocktail of several different reasons is likely. Higher tuition fees force many potential students to consider different paths. It is notable that Bloomberg New Contemporaries have, for the first time, opened up submissions to alternative self-organised art education initiatives, recognising a wider pedagogical shift explored in Sam Thorne’s book School.

If Conservative plans to force universities to charge less for courses based on costs and potential graduate earnings are pushed through, expensive-to-run Fine Art courses will be in the firing line. Some courses could close. Barriers for young people wishing to study arts subjects continue to mount. The marginalisation and continuing attack on wider arts education suggests to young people that studying a creative subject isn’t worth it. How spectacularly wrong this is.

The creative industries contribute a whopping £92 billion to the UK economy each year. Within this ecology, art schools are vital institutions that develop new generations of artists and creatives every year. They encourage original and critical thinking; risk-taking; new ways of feeling; of growing. Creating work in a studio alongside your peers is a defining educational experience – one that engrains students with a unique range of skills and attributes. In the face of a climate that seemingly values worth in purely economic terms, the art school is a bastion of independence.

And in that spirit, this feature celebrates the art school and its students; hundreds of graduates across the region at the beginning of something exciting. I have asked tutors from 10 North-West Fine Art and Visual Art courses to each nominate one student who has demonstrated excellent artistic potential. You can see their work, alongside their peers, at degree shows across the region over the next four weeks.

Each institution/student is presented in chronological order, from degree show exhibitions that have already opened to forthcoming previews. So enjoy! And to all soon-to-be-graduates out there, the best of luck and congratulations on your achievements.

Wirral Metropolitan College: Siobhan Cardus (above)

Nominated by Vincent Lavell, Programme Leader, BA Fine Art

Siobhan Cardus’ work explores the ambiguity of representational painting. Using the visual language of Vanitas and genre painting, she creates images that seem fairly straightforward. However, as we look into the paintings we begin to see unsettling incongruities. The paintings themselves seem very reminiscent of 16^th and 17^th century still life, however, odd objects with uncertain associations disrupt any firm or certain meanings. Cardus says the paintings allow the viewer to “be in a world but not native to it”.

See Wirral Met College BA Fine Art Degree Show at Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead

Open now until Sunday 10 June 2018, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am–5pm

@WirralMet

St Helens College: Sarah Gilman (above)

Nominated by Wayne Robinson (Programme Leader for BA Hons Fine Art Painting) and James Quin (Lecturer in Painting)

Sarah Gilman’s practice examines the relation of trompe l’oeil within one of the principal gestures within art: still life painting. Directly influenced by still life painters such as Cornelius Gijsbrechts and Samuel van Hoogstraten, Gilman situates her work within contemporary discourse by focusing on the representation of overlooked objects encountered in her daily routine. Although Gilman’s paintings contain figurative elements, they aim to draw attention to the painting as object, to the physicality of the paint itself, and to the tension between figuration and abstraction.

See Vortex, the Creative Arts Degree Show at University Centre St Helens, SmithKline Beecham Building

Open now until Thursday 21 June 2018, Monday to Friday, 10am–4pm

Liverpool Hope University: Stephanie Carr (above)

Nominated by Lin Holland (Senior Professional Tutor) and Tony Smith (Professional Tutor, Fine Art)

Stephanie Carr has been nominated for an affecting body of work concerned with repetition, order and disorder associated with alcoholism. Carr draws on her difficult experience of living with a parent as an adolescent who was depressed and addicted, where she witnessed the negative mental, physical and social impact of alcoholism. Often using glasses, alcohol and other evocative materials, Carr seeks to elicit a response or memory in the viewer.

See the Liverpool Hope University Fine and Applied Arts Graduate Showcase at the Liverpool Hope University, Creative Campus, 17 Shaw Street, Liverpool

Preview Friday 25 May 2018, 5.30–8.30pm

Open Saturday 26 May to Monday 4 June 2018, 10am–4pm (closed Bank Holiday Monday) 

@stephaniecarrart @LivHopeCreative

Liverpool John Moores University: Jon Edgley (above)

Nominated by Rory Macbeth, Head of Fine Art

Explaining his nomination, Rory Macbeth writes: “Jon Edgley runs Gwendolyn Gallery as a curator and an artist; the gallery is a plastic Wendy House on wheels. Gwendolyn has hosted 12 exhibitions this year – including on the street, in university, and in galleries – and found herself featured in the 2016 Liverpool Biennial. She is now hosting two residencies, one a research residency and the other an artist residency. Gwendolyn has been a hub of activity across the years of the BA, and is typical of Jon’s wider practice that has included the collaborative Zuhause space run for a year in Gostins Arcade, and other curated and collaborative shows. He has recently exhibited in group exhibition There’s No Such Thing As Boredom at Paradise Works. In line with his inclusivity, this nomination is also for the other students who have involved themselves in making all of Jon’s innovations so rich and exciting.”

See the Liverpool School of Art and Design Degree Show 2018 at the John Lennon Art and Design Building, Duckinfield Street, Liverpool

Preview Friday 25 May 2018, 5.30–10pm

Open until Friday 8 June 2018, 10am—6pm (closed Sundays and Bank Holidays)

@LJMUarts

University of Cumbria: Leanne Wind-Cowie (above)

Nominated by Jane Topping, Programme Leader Fine Art

Leanne Wind-Cowie analyses human behaviour, underpinned by an interest in the absurd, to explore the contradictions of contemporary society. By experimenting with ‘making strange’ and the de-familiarisation of the domestic, Wind-Cowie’s work destabilises received wisdoms. She observes how phenomena relate to the spectator while also challenging reality and estrangement within the white cube gallery space. The screen is used as a window into a realm where human/object relationships and perspectives meet with an anti-social simulated reality, bringing into question the authenticity of truth.

See the University of Cumbria Art & Design Degree Show at the Institute of the Arts, Brampton Road Campus, Carlisle

Preview Friday 1 June 2018, Business Opening 4–6pm, Main Preview 6–8pm

Open Saturday 2 to Friday 8 June 2018, 10am–4pm (except Sunday)

University of Salford: Sade Mica (top/feature image)

Nominated by Brendan Fletcher, Programme Leader Visual Arts

Sade Mica’s work explores race, gender and sexuality. Their work (Mica rejects gendered pronouns) straddles a range of media – printmaking, fibre/textiles, sculpture, text, film/video and performance – and they excel in all areas. Mica’s recent work explores dance and performance and explores the body through gesture, posture and movement, and includes an elaborate and sophisticated examination of the poses adopted in the life class.

Mica has exhibited as part of the Women’s Equality Party Inaugural Congress exhibition, Manchester, Hot Bed Press 20:20 Print Exchange (a national and international touring show at various venues in the UK and Hong Kong), the Hepworth Print Fair, Wakefield, and an exhibition of new work in the New Adelphi Building at the University of Salford.

See the University of Salford’s Visual Art Degree Show at the New Adelphi Building, University of Salford, Salford

Preview Thursday 7 June 2018, 5.30–9pm

Open from Friday 8 June to Friday 15 June 2018, 10am–3pm everyday (except Sunday)

Blackpool and The Fylde College: Zoey Devaney

Nominated by Nick Kowalski (Programme Leader) & Ann Carragher (Fine Art Lecturer)

Zoey Devaney’s work considers our relationship with nature and the urban environment. Using traditional sculptural materials, Devaney addresses a range of socio-economic and environmental concerns resulting from industrial urban development and pollution. Her interdisciplinary practice engages with site and place. It evokes a dialogue regarding our relationship with landscape through the repurposing of building detritus and plastic, presenting an archive of waste that becomes a paradox of existence.

See Five: A Creative Collection – including Blackpool & The Fylde’s Fine Art Professional Practise exhibition at MediaCity, The Studios, Broadway, Salford

Preview 6–9pm, Thursday 7 June 2018

Open Friday 8 to Sunday 10 June 2018, 10am–6pm

@b_and_fc

Manchester Metropolitan University: Annabel Holland (above)

Nominated by Ian Hartshorne, Subject Leader Painting and Print Media

By producing paintings that manifest from a societal obsession with objects and materials, Annabel Holland plays with the idea of reflecting on issues of warped perception and disillusionment. Holland uses a haptic approach to material and colour application, in the hope of imitating a childish attitude towards the commodification and fetishisation of our material possessions. This candid process produces work that attempts to emphasise the sensation of being out of touch with the world, whilst blurring the lines between the mundane and the absurd.

See the Manchester School of Art Degree Show at the Manchester School of Art, All Saints Park, Manchester

Preview Friday 8 June 2018, 6–9pm

Open everyday until Wednesday 20 June 2018, 8am–6pm

@McrSchArt 

University of Lancaster: Nuala Moore (above)

Nominated by Nathan Jones (Lecturer in Fine Art) and Jen Southern (Senior Lecturer in Fine Art)

Nuala Moore’s most recent work retells the life stories of her own father and the Hollywood starlet Drew Barrymore by re-writing, combining and performing found texts. Through this hybrid practice, she finds a moving energy in the parallels and divergences of her protagonist’s lives. Moore’s intention is to draw attention to the unfinished and unresolved, leaving her audience in an uncanny zone between intrigue and insight.

Tutor at Lancaster University Nathan Jones says: ”Using well thought-out methods, including song, reading and book design, Nuala has developed a nuanced and astute approach to her materials. The work is currently very intimate, demanding we pay attention to its autobiographical components, but there is an emotional sensitivity and intelligence at its core which suggests there is a wider potential. This is a distinctive research-based practice which finds fascinating possibilities in narrative and language.”

See Lancaster Fine Art Degree Show: Under Construction at Lancaster University across three venues on campus: The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) and Bowland Studios.

Preview Tuesday 19 June 2018, 6–8.30pm, Great Hall Foyer beside Peter Scott Gallery

Open Wednesday 20 to Saturday 30 June 2018: weekdays 11am–5pm, and Saturdays 11am–4pm. Closed Sundays

University of Chester: Lydia Jennings (above)

Nominated by Dr Maxine Bristow, Associate Professor/Programme Leader MA Fine Art

Through the application of tinted plaster, Lydia Jennings employs a playful and painterly sculptural technique that juxtaposes a feeling of softness and comfort with a rigid solidity. The relationship between materiality and form lies at the heart of the work.

Jennings’ saccharine, tactile sculptures sit between the recognisable and the vaguely peculiar; they make no attempt to reference reality, but instead, seek to trick our visual and tactile senses – and even our taste buds. Not arranged in any preconfigured order, these obdurate abstract forms suggest multiple readings; they appear chaotic, but are also materially harmonious.

See the University of Chester Fine Art Degree Show at the Kingsway Campus, Chester

Preview Wednesday 13 June 2018, 6–9pm

Open Thursday 14 and Friday 15 June 10am–4pm

@uochester

University of Central Lancashire: Iona McKinnell (above)

Nominated by Victoria Lucas, Lecturer in Fine Art

Time, as we know, it is the standardised system through which we all experience the truth of existence. Time by nature is irreparably transitory and fleeting – and yet as a species we spend much of our personal and professional lives trying to capture and manipulate time as we live it; through diaries, books, archives, film and television. Iona McKinnell’s work began as she started to investigate this very impulse in myself, and then further, in others.

Any script written is inherently reflective of the time of its creation, and when performed, is experienced by audiences who live its past reality while continuing to reside in the present. Taking classic plays as a starting point, McKinnell analyses the representation of “now-ness” present in the writing, and seeks to thread strands of her immediate reactive experience into the piece – through annotation, editing, re-writing, and ultimately, devised performance. The works become capsules of investigation, contributing another layer to the duration of each play’s existence.

See the UCLan Fine Art Degree Show at University of Central Lancashire, Hanover Building, Bhailok Street, Preston

Preview Thursday 14 June 2018, 6.30pm

Open Friday 15 to Friday 22 June 2018, 10am–5pm

@UCLan

Jack Welsh

@JackWelsh10

With thanks to all the artists and tutors across the North-West featured in this article

Images courtesy artists indicated

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the North of England and the rest of the UK – and most of it’s free!

Monday – Exhibition Opening: KCCUK 2017 Artist Of The Year: Kim Yong-Ik 6—9pm @  Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), London, & Spike Island, Bristol — FREE

A key Korean artist, atctivist and teacher, expect two major UK exhibitions tonight showcasing Kim Yong-Ik’s 40 year career for the very first time in Europe. At Spike Island (see it until 17 Dec), expect formative works including his pivotal Plane Object series from the late 1970s, which he used to protest against the South Korean military dictatorship; and at KCCUK (until 4 Nov), expect brand new site-specific paintings. Part of the Korea/UK Season of cultural events across the UK celebrating Korean creatives.

Tuesday – Exhibition Opening: Turner Prize 2017 10am—5pm @ Ferens Art Gallery, Hull – FREE

Experience some quality firsts today: the first time that the infamous Turner Prize will be hosted in Hull, during its City of Culture Award year; and the first time that artists over 50 have been considered. Shortlisting four British artists who has exhibited outstanding work in the previous year, expect a heady mix of political themes executed through painting, printmaking and film, from Hurvin Anderson, Andrea Büttner, Lubaina Himid, and Rosalind Nashashibi. See the show until 7 Jan 2018; winner will be announced in early December.

Exhibition Opening: Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! 6—9pm @ Arnolfini, Bristol — FREE

How can contemporary art best address a diverse cross section of society? If you’ve seen any of Grayson Perry’s public talks or TV programmes recently (including Channel 4 documentary, Grayson Perry: Divided Britain), you’ll be familiar with his societal analysis – of the failings of old-skool masculinity, the complexity of political tribes, of British taste across the classes. Expect over 25 of Perry’s latest works, including his Matching Pair pots for Remainers and for Brexiteers. Until 24 Dec.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Wednesday – Premiere: Different Trains 1947 7pm @ Metal Liverpool — £22

A live open-air concert at the lovely Edge Hill station, expect a gaggle of talent — Ninja Tune’s Actress, Jack Barnett (These New Puritans), Indian music producer Sandunes, percussionist Jivraj Singh, vocalist Priya Purushothaman, filmmakers/artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and BFI’s National Archive – to explore India’s partition in 1947, through the lens of Steve Reich’s 1988 three-movement piece, Different Trains. Support comes in the form of a new composition from electronic music duo Darkstar (Warp Records) in collaboration with Harthill Youth Centre in Wavertree, and film material from Cieron Magat.

Thursday – Live: Baa Baa Baric @ St Helens Centre — FREE

Artist Mark Storor’s Baa Baa Baric: Have You Any Pull? is a live art project 12 years in the making: working with the people of St Helens to challenge the town’s negative statistics. Expect a series of weird and stimulating acts, including an army of young people giving out 2,500 posies of flowers in the town centre, plus Merseyside Police Officers and Cadets setting up in a chip shop to discuss child poverty.

Misty Clouds Scattered Colours 6—9pm @ Crown Buildings, Liverpool – FREE (RSVP Essential: mail@edouardmalingue.com)

We’re very happy to support this special three-day event from Edouard Malingue Gallery: screening work from some of Asia’s most exciting upcoming and contemporary artists, including surreal animation from Wong Ping’s surreal and award-winning animation Who’s the Daddy (2017), and Shen Xin’s sensitive exploration of power, Provocation of the Nightingale (2017) – currently shortlisted for the Baltic Artists’ Award. Our co-founder Mike will join a bunch of other critics, researchers and artists in panels discussing themes of self, space and nation. Until Saturday.

Friday – Exhibition Opening: Bloomberg New Contemporaries 10am—6pm @ BALTIC & BALTIC 39, Gateshead & Newcastle — FREE

Did you know that Damien Hirst and Gillian Wearing were discovered by the New Contemporaries art prize? A touring group show of some of the UK’s top and recent art graduates, this year’s show launches at two BALTIC sites tonight. Expect a really wide range of practices and ideas coming from art schools across the land, chosen by judges and artists Caroline Achaintre, Elizabeth Price and George Shaw. Until 26 Nov.

Creative Time Summit: Of Homelands And Revolution Live Stream Screening 3–9.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – FREE (Drop In)

As this year’s Creative Time Summit is entitled Of Homelands and Revolution, it’s fair to expect a bevy of international experts to be discussing the (very timely) geopolitical and intimate connotations of home. Expect a live stream from Toronto of some really thought-provoking speakers – including Cuban-American artist and feminist theorist Coco Fusco.

Saturday – Premiere: HOUSE Biennial 10am—5pm @ Brighton & Hove — FREE

You may have known it as a contemporary visual arts festival happening every May in Brighton and Hove, but things are a-changing: HOUSE Biennial has had a bit of a makeover. Now bigger, better, and every two years, its programme boasts support from arts partners including Photoworks, Fabrica, and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, plus exhibitions, talks and screenings. Expect new fabric sculptures from Laura Ford, entitled A King’s Appetite, plus a walk, talk and cake with textile artist Anthony Stevens (below) and HOUSE Biennial Curator, Celia Davies, around his exhibition Common Threads (29 Oct). See the whole festival until 5 Nov.

GROUNDWERK 1.5 // Alternative Artist Economies 2.30—4pm @ Turf Projects, London — FREE

We love this free programme from Turf: focused on helping artists improve their skills and wider network. This afternoon, learn about alternative artist economies from Spanish artist and co-director of arts collective MilesKm, Nora Silva: expect discussion of day jobs, creative thinking and resourceful organisations that work with different structures.

Sunday – Allen Road Sculpture Park: Artist Talk And BBQ! 4—6pm @ 89 Allen Road, London, E3 5JZ — FREE

A sculpture park in the back garden of an East London semi-detached, you say? Art Licks Weekend 2017 presents Allen Road Sculpture Park: featuring site-specific work by Michaela Cullen, Karanjit Panesar and Dominique White. GRAFT’s launch project manages to be subversive and friendly at the same time: expect a chance to peruse the sculptures whilst chatting to the sculptors over a BBQ.

Holiday Ghosts / SPILT / Samurai Kip / Mandoll 8—11.30pm @ Sound Food And Drink, Liverpool — £4 OTD

The latest gig from Hail Hail Records, in Duke Street’s ace Sound, expect jangly jive/pop from Falmouth three-piece Holiday Ghosts; shoegazy-grunge from Runcorn’s SPILT, and more.

Laura Robertson, Editor

Images from top: Grayson Perry, Kenilworth AM1, 2010, courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London. Misty Clouds Scattered Colours, courtesy Edouard Malingue Gallery. Creative Time Summit. Detail, Shelf Life, mixed recycled textiles, house paint and hand embroidery 2017, by artist Anthony Stevens. Holiday Ghosts / SPILT / Samurai Kip / Mandoll poster, courtesy Hail Hail Records and James Robert Birtwhistle. Main image: Lubaina Himid: Warp and Weft, courtesy the artist and firstsite

Liverpool Biennial – a free festival of newly commissioned contemporary art from around the world – returns this summer, with big names including Marvin Gaye Chetwynd and Mark Leckey referencing the past, present and future. As the team reveal their full programme this morning, let The Double Negative be the first to give you the scoop…

The specifics of the ninth Liverpool Biennial have officially been announced this morning. This Biennial will be based on the theme of Time Travel and be split into six episodes: Ancient Greece, Chinatown, Children, Monuments of the Future, Flashback, and Software. Each episode, said festival director Sally Tallant at press conferences in Liverpool and London, is a like a fictional genre: confined within itself, but still overlapping with other works to create a mesh of cross-disciplinary art in locations throughout the city. Visitors to the 14-week festival can look forward to a wide-ranging and sometimes bizarre mix of ancient and futuristic sculpture, performance art inspired by medical marvels, a look into the art of smuggling, and an abundance of fantastic fringe events.

Some of our favourite announcements, out of an imaginative programme led by 40 artists, included the news that the Edwardian Adelphi Hotel will be giving full use of their swimming pool to Danielle Freakley for an exclusive set of swimming-costume-clad performances; Coco Fusco will be delivering a TED-style lecture on human psychology whilst impersonating Dr Zira from Planet of the Apes (1967); and the ancestor of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral architect Edwin Lutyens, artist Marcos Lutyens, will be performing — where else? – in the cathedral’s Lutyens Crypt.

Time travel continues via a reference to Liverpool’s neoclassical buildings from the 1800s — which heavily incorporate the distinguished style of architecture produced by the Greeks before the first century AD. The Ancient Greece episode will be exhibited primarily at Tate Liverpool and National Heritage building The Oratory (located in the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral). National Museums Liverpool will be loaning pieces from its Ince Blundell collection to the festival, focusing on how flawed restorations can transform art to give it an entirely new meaning. Described as a “spacetime collapse in the context of Ancient Greece”, pieces include Celine Condorelli‘s time portals, and a permanent wall installation by Betty Woodman (below) which will be unveiled outside the magnificently art deco George’s Dock Ventilation Tower.

The Chinatown episode will be held — you guessed it — throughout Chinatown’s pubs, restaurants and supermarkets, which should make for some interesting eating and drinking experiences. This celebration of Chinese culture, interestingly, draws attention to the speculative future economics that the New Chinatown development will bring to the area — which is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Iranian exiles and artistic trio Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian (main picture) focus on the themes of smuggling and the trade of illicit objects through the Liverpool docks in their political project The Eighth Of A Kind (2014), which includes shipping all of their possessions over to the city. Meanwhile, Samson Kambalu’s photography of the Welsh Streets will tackle Toxteth’s ongoing abandoned housing struggle with the Council.

The Children’s episode, held at the Victorian Cains Brewery and dockside Open Eye Gallery, will incorporate Turner Prize nominated artist Marvin Gaye Chetwynd (below), whose bonkers new production, Dogsy Ma Bone, takes inspiration from one of her favourite cartoons: Betty Boop’s A Song For A Day (1936), where she nurses giraffes, hippos and billy goats back to health, and Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 socialist critique, The Threepenny Opera. Wanting to star a cast of youngsters, Chetwynd is holding auditions (apply here) for under 14s this Sunday.

In an echo of the ever-popular Dazzle Ferry, produced by Peter Blake for the 2014 Biennial, creative studio Hato have been commissioned to redesign Arriva buses, alongside Ana Jotta and Biennial Associate Artist Frances Disley, which will run through Liverpool and the Wirral for three years. The first bus will be designed in June 2016 with help from the children of Liverpool, so keep an eye on Biennial updates if you have any budding Picassos willing to join in. In sharp contrast, Koki Tanaka will be reflecting upon a photography book he found in radical Liverpool bookstore News From Nowhere, depicting the city’s youth student strike in 1985.

Monuments from the Future, meanwhile, is an episode focusing on anachronisms through sculpture, with the Granby Four Streets, Liverpool ONE, Clarence Dock and Cains Brewery all listed as venues. Expect a planet-inspired piece by Arseny Zhilyaev, and a collection of neoclassical sculptures being flooded atop of a new monument in Clarence dock by Lara Favaretto, which is said to signify the persistence of memories. 

Fittingly, Flashback will also look back into the past, just not in a way you might expect. Fabien Giraud & Raphaël Siboni present The Unmanned 2045 — the year predicted that machines will overtake humans, and how that affects our past and present — at the soon to be redeveloped ABC Cinema (located opposite Lime Street Station) and Open Eye Gallery. Krzysztof Wodiczko will be giving voice to the marginalised through photography at FACT, and the Ellesmere Port-born, Turner Prize winning Mark Leckey will present found amateur footage of a Joy Division gig he went to as a teenager, entitled Dream English Kid.

The final episode, Software, wants you to download the Biennial with the help of Oliver Laric. The artist wants to 3D-scan the Walker collections to create a free, 3D online gallery. Expect artworks created inside the open-world video game Minecraft; an app processing the interactions between humans and non-human species developed by Ian Cheng; and Lucy Beech‘s (above) look at rare medical condition Morgellons syndrome: the delusional belief of having a bodily infestation of fibres. Venues for this edition include FACT, The Oratory, the Bluecoat and, of course, the World Wide Web.

Extra Biennial partner events include a Frieze weekend (8-9 October); 46 Bloomberg New Contemporaries at the Bluecoat; and the 29th John Moores Painting Prize, starring the work of 54 artists (until 27 November), with the grand winner being announced 7 July. Suzanne Treister (above) will be showing her futuristic new work HFT The Gardener at the ERC gallery (LJMU School of Art), starring a fictional character in a high frequency bunker and 174 other scientific and botanical pieces.

In addition to the official programme, The Double Negative will be widely distributing a special Biennial Fringe Edition of Culture Diary to keep you up-to-date on all the alternative Fringe highlights — including a Domino Records’ Portrait of British Songwriting exhibition at Bold Street Coffee; Mexican street art at Corke Gallery; conferences from Goldsmiths University of London and LJMU; a DJ party hosted by the aforementioned Mark Leckey; and an extensive film programme at FACT every Thursday throughout the Biennial, co-curated by Steven Cairns of the ICA and Picturehouse Cinema. Are you hosting a fringe event? We want to hear about it! Please follow this guide and get in contact before 6 May.

Vanessa Wheeler

Read more about Liverpool Biennial 2016 programme here or tweet about it using the official hashtag #Biennial2016

Can’t wait until July? The next scheduled Biennial warm-up event is their Secret Visit @ The Brewery Tap on 13 May 2016 at 6pm as a part of Liverpool LightNight 

Want to add your event to the Biennial Fringe Culture Diary? Please follow this guide and get in contact before 6 May 2016

Biennial will be recruting volunteers and mediators soon; if you would like to get involved, check the website for updates

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Monday – Hross I Oss (2013) 7:45pm @ Gustaf Adolf Nordic Church, Liverpool – donation entry

Literally translated as Horse in Us, this film is no Black Beauty and is all the better for it. Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson takes us on a comical and somewhat spiritual journey exploring the humanity in horses — or perhaps the equine nature of humanity. Set against the breath-taking, wild Icelandic landscape, this film, as The Guardian puts it, ‘deserves its cult status.’

Tuesday – HIDE by Deborah Light 7:30pm @ The Capstone Theatre, Liverpool — £11.50/ £9.50

Award-winning choreographer Deborah Light brings her latest intriguingly titled creation to Liverpool tonight with an all-female trio of acclaimed dancers: Jo Fong, Eddie Ladd and Rosalind Hâf Brooks. Setting the bar high for contemporary dance, they explore the multi-layered and complex meaning of this single word, ‘hide’, through autobiography, identity and re-invention. Review here.

Wednesday – Future Everything 2015: 20^th Anniversary @ Various Venues, Manchester – ADV £110/Concs £40

After exploring 20 innovative years of digital culture, Future Everything is not about to bask in festivals past, but is instead living up to its forward-thinking name by asking: ‘What Now?’ Presenting newly commissioned participation activities, interactive design and a co-curated arts and film programme with the Royal Northern College of Music, not to mention a plethora of talent such as Olafur Arnalds, Warren Ellis and Gazelle Twin. Future Everything has tackled issues of technology and society to much acclaim since its foundation, long may it continue! Read our highlights here.

Thursday – Exhibition Private View: Marie Jacotey: Move on! Get over it! 6-8pm @ Heike Moras Art, London – FREE

Human relationships, love, death: just some of the themes Jacotey fearlessly tackles in her comic book-style narrative drawings. Recently exhibited in this year’s Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition (see here for our reviews), Jacotey’s new solo exhibition features drawings, dust sheet paintings and tile works that aim to question the way in which images are perceived in a post-digital age.

Gogo Penguin: Liverpool Jazz Festival 8pm@ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £11.50 (+ booking fee)

Think of Manchester’s music scene and what springs to mind? Oasis? The Stone Roses? How about Gogo Penguin? Hailed as ‘one of the most exciting young bands on the contemporary scene’ (The Guardian), this Mercury Award-nominated trio kick off this year’s Liverpool International Jazz Festival at The Kazimier with a unique fusion of electronica, jazz and classical music. The festival is here until next Sunday (1 March) — be sure to check out all the performances, masterclasses and workshops.

Friday – Last Day: Bam Bam Bam #3 @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE

The Royal Standard’s studio artists takeover exhibition has come to an end almost as quickly as it takes to say the three-syllable title. Their largest exhibition to date, this final stretch of the  show includes brand new work from Mike Aitken, Theo Vass, Joseph Hulme and Rachel Marcroft plus a healthy mix of collaborations to boot. See our a-n news feature on the show here.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Saturday – Last Day: Grace Schwindt: Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society  11am-5.30pm @ Site Gallery, Sheffield – FREE

Co-commissioned by Site Gallery, this inspiring and visually stunning feature-length film takes a theatrical angle to the radical left-wing politics of 1960/70′s Germany. Making use of props, costumes and settings, the performance is shaped into a narrative as seen from the perspective of an activist German taxi driver. London-based, German-born artist Schwindt explores the notion of freedom and explores its historical and contemporary understanding.

Sunday – Hookworms 8-11pm @ Sound Control, Manchester — £10

With echoes of The Velvet Underground, Primal Scream and even Brian Jonestown Massacre, it’s no wonder this Leeds-based five piece is garnering much hype. With only a smattering of UK tour dates in March — including London, Nottingham and Leeds — Hookworms are bringing their hypnotic sound to Manchester tonight in support of their latest acclaimed album The Hum. Expect ‘gonzo garage-rock, scuzzy psych, and free-form hypno-drone’(Pitchfork).

Last Day: Vulnerable @ Bridewell  Studios and Gallery, Liverpool – by appointment only (email kitty.mckay@hotmail.co.uk)

Presenting  a body of new works by Kayt Willacy and Kitty McKay, we are invited to take a look beneath the surface of intimacy to reveal  the vulnerability that lies in these moments. Great opportunity to visit this historic building and vibrant studio group if you haven’t before.

Heather Garner

Keen to hear what’s happening in Liverpool January-March 2015? Download the PDF version of our NEW, printed Culture Diary here!

Closing this Sunday, and in a final #BeACritic review of the exhibition, Maisie Ridgway finds a strong and rebellious selection of New Contemporaries reclaiming authority over the viewer…

Into the World Museum foyer, up two flights of stairs and through the bug display: this is where you’ll find 2014’s Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition, selected this year by revered judges and former BNC participants Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Enrico David and Goshka Maguga.

The space does not beg you to enter, but challenges you to find it amongst the spiders, if you please. It may, therefore, initially seem an unusual choice of location, obscure even, but its sense of displacement in the World Museum pre-empts the theme of displacement that threads this year’s selections together. Other prevalent themes include gender, body image, inverted gaze and, more indirectly, money.

Upon entering the gallery, Alice Hartley’s almost 14-foot high screen print confronts the viewer with the words: “We’re All Very Disappointed” (2013). As a phrase most commonly associated with parental reprimand, Hartley provides the first and most prolific example of the inverted gaze. The piece establishes the artist’s authority over the viewer, repossessing her power through language and setting a precedence for the rest of the show.

MKLK’s performance piece, Man Eater (2013), demonstrates a curious manipulation of the female body through use of filmstrips of hard pornography, “specifically aimed at reflecting the male gaze within society”, in order to echo “the role of women as a visual spectacle for a masculine culture”. Man Eater is strong. Although the female remains the object of fixation, MKLK’s mesmerising performance commands our gaze so that she — and not us — possesses the power of sight.

This years BNC director Kirsty Ogg commented that: “creativity has become a marketable commodity in contemporary culture”. As an output that is experiencing a financial squeeze yet is increasingly viewed as marketable, artists inhabit an awkward space. A contradiction that is embodied in Matt Copson’s confused alter ego, Reynard The Fox (2013).

Reynard is a foul-mouthed fox, seeking vengeance for the mistreatment of his species in years gone by. Unfortunately, Reynard’s bloodlust is met with acceptance, as he is welcomed into the fold of contemporary art. Reynard, therefore, becomes impotent in his rage and so swings between sad resignations — “It’s just a gimmick, I can only apologise” — and inflammatory profanities directed towards babies, hipsters, homosexuals and anybody that comes to mind. Reynard is the tragicomedy of the exhibition. Read his thoughts via his blog post here.

These artists occupy a space disused by the World Museum because of budget cuts, which rather appropriately mirrors the financial constraints currently stifling the arts. Out of the 55 pieces selected, an uncommonly massive 24 are film based, one of the cheapest mediums available, whilst few more expensive materials are utilised.

The film pieces are displayed via televisions set on plinths that line the walls. The plinths, coupled with the Victorian style of the building, evoke a certain historical elegance that seems to jar with the contemporary nature of the work. I’d be inclined to suggest that this space, purposefully or not, comes to mimic the general sentiment of the selections. Namely, the young manoeuvring an environment tailored to the old.

In a time where the government no longer appeals to Generation Y for their votes — a generation that has been written off in terms of their ability to succeed, a generation that participated in one of the biggest student protests in history and were ignored — the dissatisfaction is clear. Through this 65th anniversary New Contemporaries exhibition, artists like Alice Hartley, Matt Copson and MKLK are reclaiming their autonomy, inviting you in as their guests under a scrutinous eye. They do not seek your criticism, but seek to criticise you.

Maisie Ridgway

This review was the result of a public #BeACritic afternoon for aspiring critics, hosted by The Double Negative, at the press view of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014 — more here

Read more on the #BeACritic campaign here

Bloomberg New Contemporaries continues at the World Museum, Liverpool until Sunday 26 October 2014. It then travels to the ICA, London from 26 November 2014 until 25 January 2015

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Monday – Jerusalem In My Heart 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool — £6.50 ADV

With support from tape experimentalist Atom, Jerusalem In My Heart comes to The Kazimier tonight with live contemporary Arabic and electronic music, interwoven with a psychedelic and light-based show of 16mm film projections. Only performing once or twice a year — and with no one show the same –prepare for a ‘deep-rooted and fruitful… act brimming with promise’ (Tiny Mix Tapes review).

Tuesday –Tracey Emin: The Last Great Adventure Is You – 10-6pm @ White Cube Bermondsey, London – FREE

Not shy of laying bare her life for public display and scrutiny, Young British Artist Tracy Emin has brought her candid oeuvre of artworks to White Cube. Neon writing, large scale embroideries, scratchy ink drawings, painting: Emin’s creations have always provoked strong opinion from lovers and haters of her work, and we’re sure this exhibition will do just the same.

Last Day — Ida 4.30pm @ Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London — £3/£11

Funny, bleak, moving, sympathetic, tender, and haunting: just some of the words used to describe this jewel of a film by Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski. After winning Best Film at last year’s London Film Festival and gaining endless critical acclaim, it’s easy to see why it has been described as ‘an immaculate, miraculous masterwork’ (The Telegraph).

Wednesday – PICK OF THE WEEK: Liverpool Music Week @Venues Across Liverpool — Ticket Prices Vary, Inc Some FREE Shows

Kicking off tonight with Vessel X Immix Ensemble, The Aleph & The Hive Collective at The Leggate Theatre (University of Liverpool), expect a bumper programme rolling into next month, including the likes of Mogwai, Wild Beasts, Caribou, CHVRCHES, The War on Drugs, Liars, The Black Lips, Evian Christ, Hookworms and many, many more. Welcome back LMW!

Site Gallery Residency 6-7pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool — FREE

Attention all artists! Sheffield’s foremost contemporary art space is hauling its bags of knowledge to Liverpool’s very own Royal Standard tonight to talk to local artists about their unique and exciting residency programme. Site Gallery’s curator, Sara Cluggish, will provide all the information (and motivation) you need to apply.

Thursday – Exhibition Opens – Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude 10am-6pm@ The Courtauld Gallery, London – £5/6

In what the RA Magazine is promising to be a ‘groundbreaking exhibition of Egon Schiele’s electrifyingly frank nudes”, the all too brief career of one of the 20^th century’s most prolific artists is brought together through a series of technically brilliant and daringly bold drawings.

Lost Minutes 7pm @ Unity Theatre, Liverpool — £5

Bills to pay, meetings to attend, emails to respond to, the school run, shopping – there’s not a lot of spare time these days, is there? But, in this participatory performance, mind-wandering is actively encouraged as we are invited ‘to lie down, turn off the lights and momentarily slip from reality for an immersive exploration of daydreaming’. A combination of electronic and acoustic instruments produces soundscapes that respond to entrancing visual projections.

Friday – Design Manchester 14 Core Festival Day 9.30am-5.30pm @ Manchester Town Hall — £35 + booking fees

Featuring internationally recognised and influential speakers on the theme of ‘The Science of Imagination’ — including design critic Adrian Shaughnessy, consultant creative director to Manchester City Council Peter Saville, and Associate Design Director of Daziel & Pow Ross Phillips — followed by an after party at the brilliant TwentyTwentyTwo, you can expect this year’s main festival event to be a very social affair. Don’t miss the rest of the programme across Manchester — including Adidas’ SPEZIAL exhibition of 650 pairs of rare and vintage trainers from personal collections; artist Helen Storey’s Dress of Glass and Flame at Manchester Art Gallery; and analogue-music powered silent nature films from 1903-27, Secrets of Nature (Sounds Unseen).

Exhibition opens: Art From Elsewhere 11am-5pm @ Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art — FREE

Showcasing the results of The Art Fund International scheme — which allocated six UK institutions up to £1m to invest in acquisitions from international artists over a period of five years — Art From Elsewhere unsurprisingly, perhaps, reflects issues of global change, post-colonial experiences, and failed utopias, from outstanding artists including Ai Weiwei, Shilpa Gupta, Barbara Kruger, Ana Mendieta , Aleksandra Mir, Robert Smithson, Kara Walker, Yang Zhenzhong, and Horacio Zabala. It will also tour those lucky institutions — a different exhibition each time — so look out for the show at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery with The New Art Gallery Walsall, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and Towner, Eastbourne over the next 12 months.

Private View: Coven 5-9pm @ 24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool – FREE

With Halloween fast approaching, themes of the occult, the supernatural and the esoteric abound. Determined to get you in the mood, TDN Artist of the Month Katie Craven and our film critic, filmmaker Adam Scovell, unveil a special collaborative exhibition around their short ghost story, A Screaming Breeze: telling the tale of a haunted wind-farm off the north Norfolk coastal town of Cley-Next-The-Sea. Expect references from filmmakers, writers and infamous occultists like M.R James, Aleister Crowley and the films of Kenneth Anger, this is a wonderful event by two very talented people that we love and couldn’t recommend highly enough. (Exhibition open Saturday 25-Tuesday 28 October, 4-6pm daily)

Saturday — Exhibition Opens: Jake And Dinos Chapman: In The Realm Of The Unmentionable 11am-6pm @ Jerwood Gallery, London — FREE

In The Realm of the Unmentionable is definitely worth mentioning in this week’s Culture Diary. Consumer culture, horror, religion, mortality and morality: topics not easily swallowed by some, are tackled head-on to thrilling effect in the creations of the nation’s favourite art scamps. The newly commissioned sit amongst old and unseen works, and ponder, dare we say, the eternal question of what it is to be human.

The Lowry Lounge 11am-6pm @ the Bluecoat, Liverpool – Walk £5/Talk £5/Combined £8/Book Launch FREE

An annual celebration of Merseyside-born, cult writer Malcolm Lowry (Under the Volcano), you’re invited to the UK book launch of his ‘lost’ novel, In Ballast to the White Sea (University of Ottawa Press), plus talks by its editor Patrick McCarthy (Professor of English at the University of Miami) and Iain Sinclair, who follows Lowry’s footsteps in his new book American Smoke. We also recommend the special city centre, ‘psychogeography’ walk led by local historian Colin Dilnot.

Last Day: Markus Soukup – Artificial Memories 1-5pm @ Arena, Liverpool – FREE

As Liverpool Biennial exhibitions come to an end, its fringe events do too. Arena hosts this final exhibition of the work of media artist Markus Soukup: expect animations, digital prints and, enigmatically titled, ‘other objects’, creating intriguing images and endless narratives.

Sunday – Last Day: Bloomberg New Contemporaries 10am-5pm @ World Museum, Liverpool — FREE

Say farewell to the 2014 Bloomberg New Contemporaries before it moves on to its final stop at the ICA in London. This is your final chance to see the next big things in contemporary art. As one of our reviewers put it, it: “Echoing with sophistication and mature themes of disappointment, false sexuality, relationships and politics, this year’s selection of New Contemporaries have all too knowingly already come-of-age”. See here for all our reviews.

Last Day: Jef Cornelis 10-6pm @ St Andrews Gardens, Liverpool — FREE

A library of works by Belgian TV Director Jef Cornelis, this is an in-depth exhibition of 55 of his most recently translated works. Expect to see documentary features, unpolished and unedited footage, studio and location based films and interview segments in his trademark inventive and subversive style.

Heather Garner

Don’t be confused by the venue, says Abigail Stokes; the hidden Victorian gallery in Liverpool’s children’s museum is the perfect place for this year’s batch of New Contemporaries…

Friday. Not only my first press view, but my first experience of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries; an annual competition where selected (recent) fine art graduates get a chance to show their work.

Receiving details of the exhibition in a press pack, my first thought was that the World Museum is a rather odd venue for a contemporary art show. Meeting a group of critics on the way in, we question this choice whilst getting lost in the bug emporium — a space designed for children with its bright colours, projections and soft play area. Beginning to think we are in the wrong place entirely, we eventually pass through a door and stumble into the silence of a white gallery. The space is grand: revealing the intimidating long windows and high ceilings of neo-classical architecture.

With an exhibition of different emerging artists that has no planned theme, the space becomes an important factor: it is the one constant point for the New Contemporaries  to play with. Whilst other Liverpool Biennial spaces, like The Old Blind School and its musty, haunted corridors, give the work a sense of trepidation, this World Museum gallery gives a feeling of tradition and familiarity. This juxtaposition of traditional venue versus contemporary art poses an interesting question of how far current arts practice has become detached from historical methods.

So which dominates the show, the traditional or the contemporary?

For artist Henry Hussey, there is a risk of being over shadowed by Alice Hartley’s confrontational screenprint, We’re All Very Disappointed (2013); from floor to ceiling it demands your attention at the very start of the exhibition. However, Hussey’s The Guardian (2013) is looming at my shoulder, telling news stories with detailed tapestry work. “My grandmother is like a political pit bull”, it states, alongside Roman symbolism and photojournalism. I am hooked, not only by the text but also the combination of print on fabric. It is a clever use of traditional techniques, such as appliqué and embroidery, paired with contemporary digital printing.

Around the rest of the exhibition, an astonishing 24 video pieces account for almost half of the entries. So is this the medium of choice these days? Maybe, but as an art student I can vouch that video is a cheap way to produce and store work. So as studio spaces are increasingly tight and materials expensive, it seems to add up that there is such an influx of video. A traditional painting is best viewed in the flesh and doesn’t translate well to screen; however, in the age of social media, a video is easily shared in its correct format, thus another reason to encourage the use of this medium.

In this case, all but one of the videos come with a sculptural twist — each piece is viewed on a tv sitting on a plinth like a bust in a stately home, a traditional way to present the most contemporary medium in the show. However, this repeated 24 times causes me to lose focus; I start to treat all the videos the same, not wanting to stand and watch after the first three or four. This only draws more emphasis on the other works, curated and presented in a variety of ways, the — by default — ask for more consideration.

Hussey’s method of reversing traditional methodology by displaying it in a contemporary manner also works for Miroslav Pomichal’s Mismatched Couple (2013). Standing on the floor, oil-painted canvases lean on the wall like real people, a wooden rod sits between them and an arresting yellow background draws attention no frame could attract. Through this installation, the pieces take away the typical vantage point of the viewer, insisting they interact with the work in an unconventional way.

The venue that was originally a confusing choice becomes a point of comparison; we aren’t detached from the historical methods, in fact, the classic building simply helps remind us how far art has evolved. Elements of the traditional are shown in Hussey’s tapestry and Pomichal’s use of paint, alongside other works of sculpture, etchings and drawings. However, these pieces are transformed when they connect with contemporary digital prints and re-thought methods of hanging, showing that artists are readily considering a new combination of the traditional and contemporary.

Original and stimulating work dominates this year’s New Contemporaries, using tradition as a guideline. It is a show that anyone could appreciate and be excited about.

Abigail Stokes

This review was the result of a public #BeACritic afternoon for aspiring critics, hosted by The Double Negative, at the press view of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014 — more here

Read more on the #BeACritic campaign here

Bloomberg New Contemporaries continues at the World Museum, Liverpool until Sunday 26 October 2014. It then travels to the ICA, London from 26 November 2014 until 25 January 2015

Heather Garner observes a blending of new ideas and old techniques in the latest edition of New Contemporaries…

On the 65^th anniversary of Bloomberg New Contemporaries, the viewer is promised a snap-shot of the state of contemporary art, in the form of 55 undergraduates, postgraduates and recent graduates of art courses from around the UK. If this is indeed a glimpse into tomorrow’s contemporary artists and their practice, what can we gather about its wider cultural significance?

‘WE’RE ALL VERY DISAPPOINTED’ is a statement that literally greets the visitor on entering the exhibition space, in the form of Alice Hartley’s screen-printed wall display. A collective artist statement, perhaps? The thought of a generation, maybe? It may even be an anticipation of the criticisms that may eventually come to the art works or the exhibition itself. Whatever the intended or interpreted meaning, this statement seems to echo something of the general zeitgeist of youth culture today.

With recent austerity and government cuts to the arts across the country, it is easy to glean the disappointment of art students as a result of underfunding and financial pressure. There are no extravagant artworks that echo the wealth of a Damien Hirst or a Jeff Koons to be found in this exhibition. Most of the artworks on display perhaps reflect the austerity that is forced upon them through the use of materials such as builder’s sand, children’s playdoh, dust sheets, unfolded cardboard boxes, tights and traditional drawing techniques.

This is perhaps none more evident than in the significant amount of video art that has been selected for the 2014 exhibition, most of which are displayed on televisions on traditional white plinths. Such a medium requires little to no specialist equipment and can be filmed on a smartphone and uploaded on to any computer and is, perhaps, a medium born out of the Do It Yourself ethos when money is tight. It is an immediate and cost efficient form of expression.

Artist Matthew Humphreys’ video Goodbye (2014) seems to epitomise the stripped-back ethos that may be interpreted here. The poignancy of a farewell is captured to heart-breaking effect as he departs from his deaf and aging parents at the doorstep of their house over a period of three years. There are no staged camera set ups or pre-planned dialogue: it is simply communicating the universality and inevitability of saying goodbye.

Victoria Grenier, however, emphasises the lighter side of life through the importance of play: something that is all too easily forgotten. Whilst wearing handmade boots that resemble the gaping jaws of a menacing shark, Grenier improvises a self-conscious yet charming dance: the overall effect looks like a home video complete with 1980s style, special effect backdrops.

Viewing these pieces through the prism of austerity, it makes one wonder: is the artist’s medium and therefore aesthetic always altered in times of crisis? And what does this mean for the future of British art?

The less than optimistic title of art critic Donald Kuspit’s 2004 book The End of Art makes the case that art is no longer reliant on aesthetic significance. The ‘Post-art’ generation is characterised by the division of intellect and aesthetics. The notion that the banal can be elevated to the status of the mythical is claimed to have made art, as a visual and aesthetic medium, redundant.

Kuspit, instead, refers us to a new understanding of art and artists – ‘the New Old Masters’. When Kuspit uses this term he is not simply referring to the most recent artists who use the same techniques as the old masters, instead he is describing the future of art. In this sense, he suggests the future of art need not be limited to the conceptual but combines the intellect and innovation of the new with the humanism and spiritual qualities of the old.

To my mind, this is exactly what this exhibition represents: a move towards the blending of new ideas and old techniques, an understanding that is perhaps reflected in the decision to hold the new contemporaries in an old museum. A new generation of artists that has the political, social and innovative nous of Post-art, but the aesthetic and humanistic qualities of the old masters.

Henry Hussey’s politically-driven tapestry entitled The Guardian (2013) seems to be a perfect example of this union. Newspaper headlines and symbolic imagery of classical sculpture and disembodied hands reaching out to an unknown entity adorn this tapestry like the dada-esque collages of the 1920s.

Whilst Camille Summers-Valli’s Black Mesa (2014) touches upon the increasingly important issue of environmentalism and how the coal mining industry that threatens the Navajo peoples heritage and connection to the landscape. Set against the stunning back-drop of the desert, the film invokes the raw power of nature that may be drawn from the landscape paintings of the Romantic era.

If Bloomberg New Contemporaries has indeed provided the public with a snap-shot of contemporary art and culture, then from this year’s selection the art scene is as self-aware and politically astute as ever. But with arts courses and institutions feeling the effects of economic cuts, this exhibition seems to be an optimistic nod to the continued creativity of the arts scene today.

It is safe to say that art is in the capable hands of the New Old Masters.  Perhaps, we shouldn’t be so disappointed after all.

Heather Garner

This review was the result of a public #BeACritic afternoon for aspiring critics, hosted by The Double Negative, at the press view of Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2014 — more here

Read more on the #BeACritic campaign here

Bloomberg New Contemporaries continues at the World Museum, Liverpool until Sunday 26 October 2014. It then travels to the ICA, London from 26 November 2014 until 25 January 2015

Image: courtesy Camille Summers-Valli, Black Mesa, 2014. Still from video installation