America’s Cool Modernism: O’Keeffe to Hopper, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
This exhibition brings together a number of works by American artists made during the interwar period of the 1920s and ’30s. There’s a wide variety of Modernist work on show, ranging from early experiments in abstraction by artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove and Paul Strand to the strict precisionist paintings of Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth, plus photography by Imogen Cunningham and the first American avant-garde film, Manhatta. The results highlight how these artists used cool, controlled detachment to express suspicion at the rapid modernisation and urbanisation of their country.
Until 22 July www.ashmolean.org
Unintended Consequences, Jerwood Space, London
This show features work by Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta, the recipients of the fifth edition of the Jerwood/FVU Awards. Their moving-image installations reflect on various aspects of human experience, with Perretta’s film 15 days inspired by the artist’s time spent in Calais and Dunkirk with former inhabitants of the refugee camp that became known as ‘the Jungle’, many of whom are now living rough in the surrounding woodland. Meanwhile, Brennan’s Listening in the Dark takes an intriguing look at human impact on the natural environment, and in particular those things that we are perhaps unaware of, such as the nocturnal rhythms of bats being interrupted by the presence of wind turbines.
Until 3 June www.jerwoodvisualarts.org
Ken’s Show: Exploring the Unseen, Tate, Liverpool
Before his retirement last year, Ken Simons was art handling manager at Tate Liverpool for 30 years, ever since the gallery first opened. As a way of marking the anniversary, the gallery has asked him to curate an exhibition of the favourite works he has handled over the years. There is a particular focus on sculptural and landscape art, with highlights including works Joseph Mallord William Turner, Dame Barbara Hepworth and Mark Rothko.
Until 17 June www.tate.org.uk
Chip Night, Firstsite, Colchester
Curated by Firstsite’s Young Art Kommunity, this exhibition includes artwork, writing and music from people in prisons, secure hospitals and on community sentences in the east of England. It explores how sense of selfhood and ‘Britishness’ can be impacted by social circumstances, through painting, needlecraft, sculpture, woodcraft, mixed media, drawing, textiles, and digital art. The show is a partnership with the Koestler Trust, which was set up in 1962 to help offenders, secure patients and detainees lead more positive lives by participating and achieving in the arts.
Until 3 June www.firstsite.uk
States of Play: Roleplay Reality, FACT, Liverpool
This interactive exhibition explores how roleplay in video games can expose our true realities, suggesting that the physical and virtual are now inseparable. The show takes a look at the blurred lines between our physical identities and the roles we adopt online, and how the impact can be a conflicting mix of ‘joyous and disturbing, freeing or subjugating’.
Until 17 June www.fact.co.uk
Images:
1. Imogen Cunningham, Two Calla Lilies,, gelatin silver print, 30×22.6cm, c1925. George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. © The Imogen Cunningham Trust, all rights reserved
3. Ken Simons observes Graham Sutherland’s Entrance to a Lane, 1939. © Tate Liverpool, Roger Sinek
2. Visitors Kiss, HM Prison Peterborough, Commended Award for Mixed Media. Courtesy: Firstsite
More on a-n.co.uk:
The National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers closes
East Street Arts’ GUILD programme aims to transform the landscape of artists’ spaces
a-n Artist Bursaries 2018: 70 artists receive a share of over £65,000
