Kaleidoscopic Realms – Reviewed

“Doing better is the overarching motif of Kaleidoscopic Realms.” Mike Pinnington on a group exhibition putting learning disabled and neurodivergent artists front and centre… Kaleidoscopic: having complex patterns of colours; multicoloured; made up of...

The Vegetal Turn? Contemporary Art, Nature and The TreeStory Approach

Laura Robertson looks to an ambitious Liverpool-based digital art project that is using photography to document important trees – and as a result, charts the lives and cohabitation of humans and non-human species… ...

The 86 Book: Nicki McCubbing

“There can be intrigue, beauty and humour in the everyday, even on the bus.” Artist Nicki McCubbing invites us to join her on journeys on the number 86 bus, undertaken as part of a...

Brickworks @ Tate Liverpool – Reviewed

Current Tate Liverpool exhibition takes inspiration from the most humble of materials. Could Brickworks exceed similarly modest expectations?  The press release for Tate Liverpool’s current exhibition, Brickworks, I admit, did not fill me...

“An Intriguing Proposition”
Art Plays Games

“Gaming has earned its place at the table.” With a new exhibition collapsing disciplinary boundaries between contemporary art and gaming, Mike Pinnington considers the medium’s growing confidence and ambition… For years, the predominant...

In Profile: Yo La Tengo

From the jangle-pop of their early years, via indie-rock, folk and noise-pop, over four decades, Yo La Tengo have staked out and defined their own territory…   Where to start with Yo La Tengo?...

Beyond Liverpool...
Blazing a trail through
the big wide world
12/01/2024
Mike Pinnington on Vallisaari island, Helsinki. Photograph by Laura Robertson

Field Trip: Helsinki, Finland – Happiness and Cultural Guardians

Taking in climate change at Helsinki Biennial, diversity at the Ateneum, and visiting contrasting new galleries in an art school and bar toilets (!), Mike Pinnington’s return to Finland’s capital city is a timely reminder...

Must hear...
The sounds of
The Double Negative
04/10/2024
Sex Swing - Golden Triangle LP Cover

God Unknown Records at 10

“I wanted to release music that I love, that really meant something. Something real.” This weekend sees God Unkinown Records mark a decade of releasing diverse, cutting-edge music from artists based all over...

Fill your boots...
unique, limited edition gifts
05/09/2019
Present Tense. Publish by The Double Negative, 2019.

Present Tense (2019) // Paperback // £14.99

Present Tense A decade since Liverpool EU Capital of Culture… What now?  Edited by Laura Robertson and Mike Pinnington ISBN 978-1-5272-4281-4 Published August 2019. Very limited edition run of 250 copies. Paperback, 96...