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Black on White exposes casual racism in Germany
8th February | 3 comments | 2 people like this
Black on White (Schwarz auf Weiss) exposes casual racism in Germany by showing the difficulties faced by Kwami, a Somali, when he tries to rent an apartment, buy a gold watch or stay at a campsite.
The twist: Kwami is actually Günter Wallraff, Germany’s best-known investigative journalist, who blacked up and wore an Afro wig for this film.When I went to the screening at the Centre for Investigative Journalism at City... -
Museums at Night weekend in May
8th February | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
If you've always fancied a bit of a Night at the Museum, you can soon re-enact it as museums and galleries across Britain unlock their doors for nocturnal adventures the weekend of 14-16 May.
Events range from spending the night in a World War II shelter to watching Victorian surgery by gas light in the oldest surviving operating theatre in Europe. Museums at Night ties in with the European event of... -
The top London art shows of 2010
4th January | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
2010 kicks off with a Royal Academy blockbuster: The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters (23 Jan - 18 April). It will put the letters the artist wrote to his brother Theo, which often included sketches of what he was working on, next to his paintings. In these letters Van Gogh comes across not as the wild-eyed archetypal mad artist he is often portrayed as, but as a...
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The Best Art Shows of 2009
14th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
In no particular order, these were my favourite art exhibitions this year. And some are still on!
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Anish Kapoor, Royal Academy
Most memorable for a cannon that fired crimson wax pellets at a wall, spattering wax everywhere, and a 40-ton block of red wax that moved very slowly on a track through five galleries oozing wax on the walls and floor. A riot of the senses. Just how the RA is going... -
The City Arts & Music Project makes its debut on the London art scene
7th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Clutching my invitation to the Botanists of the Asphalt private view, I almost walked past the crowded bar near the Old Street roundabout before I realised that this was the place. By day, the City Arts & Music Project (CAMP) is a chilled-out café cum gallery, by night a throbbing bar. It opened two months ago and provides an alternative space to exhibit artists’ work.
The private view was packed with... -
Who will win the Turner Prize on Monday?
3rd December 2009 | 3 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Only five days to go until the winner of this year's Turner Prize is announced!
After all the furore surrounding Britain’s best-known contemporary art prize in recent years (controversial for unmade beds and lights being turned on and off), a degree of calm has returned this year. The tabloids struggled to spot anything controversial… apart from a naked bum in Enrico David’s display.David, who is described as a surrealist, is the... -
Miroslaw Balka’s How It Is explores the heart of darkness at Tate Modern
30th November 2009 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
Miroslaw Balka's How It Is at Tate Modern (the tenth Turbine Hall commission) is a wonderfully evocative piece of art - but don’t go there at the weekend when it’s teeming with families.
I was immediately impressed by the Polish artist's giant steel container, which fills about half the Turbine Hall (behind the bridge) and is raised from the floor on steel legs. I never imagined it would be so big.... -
Review: Robert Guediguian’s Army of Crime
16th November 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
With the images from Robert Guediguian’s Army of Crime recurring in my dreams several weeks after I first saw it, it is time to write a review.
Guediguian, son of a German mother and an Armenian father, is best known for his gritty films depicting working class and immigrant life in Marseille, where he was born in 1953.
He grew up hearing the story of Manouchian the Armenian, one of the... -
Grayson Perry, the chronicler of modern life
9th November 2009 | 0 comments | 2 people like this
He must have had so much fun when he made this! I said to my friend when I saw Grayson Perry’s purple Print for a Politician at his latest show at the Victoria Miro Gallery.
The star of the show is undoubtedly the Walthamstow Tapestry, not least because it is big (15m long and 3m high) and new (it was made for this exhibition). It has been snapped up by... -
Frieze shines with showcase for younger galleries
19th October 2009 | 1 comments | 3 people like this
I went to Frieze on Thursday when it opened and again yesterday. The sun was shining on the last day of London’s biggest art fair and an art-hungry crowd descended upon the huge marquee in Regents Park (undeterred by the £25 entrance fee!).
The collectors (and celebrity artists Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry) had already been and gone – most work is sold on the first day, before the fair...
CONTRIBUTOR
Julia Kollewe
I've been a journalist for well over a decade. Three years ago I plunged into the unknown when I decided to quit my job at the Independent and do a fine arts degree (drawing at Camberwell). I never regretted it. I've just finished the course and now do lots of different things. Freelance journalism - I regularly write for the Guardian - web design, animation, art exhibitions...
