As The Crow Flies, Bo-Lee Gallery, London
This group exhibition explores mark making as a tool to deal with the current socio-political turmoil in the world. It includes work in bronze, paint, plaster and print by artists including Sarah Ball, Beth Carter, Dave Farnham, Bea Haines, Marcelle Hanselaar, Sam Hodge, David Kowalski and Chantal Powell, with the work highlighting the fragility of human life. Included are Haines’ reappropriated objects that are inspired by forensic science and the domestic environment, and Ball’s intricate portraits based on found source material, from newspaper cuttings, archival photographs and historical documentation, including criminal ‘mug shot’ archives.
Until 2 February 2019. www.bo-lee.co.uk
Siobhán Hapaska, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton
Irish sculptor Siobhán Hapaska’s first major UK solo exhibition in almost ten years features new and recent work made from a variety of materials, including fibreglass, concrete cloth, artificial snakeskin, aluminium, oak, charcoal powder, wax and brass. She creates a sense of duality, with shapes and forms in various states of conflict, with the aim being a reflection on the ‘combustibility of the human condition, with all its flaws and contradictions’.
Until 9 February 2019. www.jhg.art
Exposed: The Naked Portrait, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
This exhibition of naked portraits from the National Portrait Gallery Collection invites viewers to question identity and gender. The show is split into two parts, with ‘Bodies of Desire’ focusing on the role of gender and sexuality in portraiture, while ‘Reclaiming the Body’ addresses postmodern and feminist theory and the ways in which it has brought about a reappraisal of the naked body in art. The exhibition features work by, amongst others, Sam Taylor-Johnson, David Hockney, Annie Leibovitz, and Tracey Emin, with high-profile sitters including Naomi Campbell, Gilbert and George, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Until 3 March 2019. www.laingartgallery.org.uk
Lucy Orta: Procession Banners, Medicine Bakery and Gallery, Birmingham
In 2016, a number of women prisoners were transferred to HMP Downview prison in Sutton following the closure of HMP Holloway, which was notorious for being the site where over 1,000 suffragettes were imprisoned. Earlier this year artist Lucy Orta collaborated with female prisoners to design 30 banners to mark 100 years since some British women won the vote. Seven of these banners were carried by London College of Fashion students as part of the centenary Processions march, produced by Artichoke, in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast earlier this year, and these are now being shown by Ikon at Medicine Bakery and Gallery, based in the former gallery of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists.
Until 20 January 2019. www.ikon-gallery.org
A Weakness for Raisins: Films and Archive of Ester Krumbachová, CCA, Glasgow
This busy and engaging exhibition draws on the films and archive of Ester Krumbachová, a key figure in Czech New Wave cinema in the 1960s whose work was severely curtailed following the 1968 invasion of the country by Warsaw Pact forces. ‘A Weakness for Raisins’ combines film, sculpture, painting, ceramics and installation and includes responses to Krumbachová’s work by contemporary artists ACID PRAWN (Sian Dorrer), Marek Meduna, Sally Hackett and France-Lise McGurn. The exhibition is also accompanied by a series of screenings throughout its run.
Until 27 January 2019. www.cca-glasgow.com/programme
Images:
1. Bea Haines, Sanatorium, 2011. CourtesyL Bo-Lee Gallery
2. Siobhán Hapaska, Love, 2016, concrete cloth, fibreglass, two pack acrylic paint and lacquer, oak, 141 x 233 x 102 cm / 55.5 x 91.7 x 40.2 in. Courtesy: John Hansard Gallery
3. Lucy Orta, Procession Banners. Courtesy: Ikon
4. ‘A Weakness for Raisins: Films and Archive of Ester Krumbachová’, Exhibition view, CCA Glasgow. Photo: Alan Dimmick
More on a-n.co.uk:
A Q&A with… Berlinde De Bruyckere, artist addressing mortality and human suffering
Artists’ Books 2018: 10 of the best, from irreverent fun to brutal heartbreak
Buy art for Christmas: 10 gift ideas, including prints, scarfs, mugs, t-shirts and more
