Matthew Krishanu: A Murder of Crows, Ikon, Birmingham
Bradford-born artist Matthew Krishanu’s latest exhibition features a series of painted crows displayed throughout Ikon’s neo-gothic premises. The work is partly inspired by crows in art and literature, such as the ‘Crow’ collection of poems by Ted Hughes and Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’, plus bird watching in England. However, they are also signifiers of Krishanu’s childhood in Bangladesh where ‘crows were always close by, cawing in trees or pecking at rubbish dumps’. The exhibition coincides with Krishanu’s ‘The Sun Never Sets‘ at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, until 10 March 2019. Read our August 2018 Q&A with Matthew Krishanu here.
Until 10 March 2019. www.ikon-gallery.org
All I Know Is What’s On The Internet, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
This group exhibition explores the changing status of photography, with the artists involved highlighting how the boundaries between truth and fiction are being increasingly called into question. They look at how the way we understand an individual photograph is being overwhelmed in the age of social media by the challenge of processing millions of images. Artists include: Mari Bastashevski, Constant Dullaart, IOCOSE, Stephanie Kneissl and Max Lackner, Eva and Franco Mattes, Silvio Lorusso and Sebastian Schmieg, Winnie Soon, Emilio Vavarella, Stéphane Degoutin & Gwenola Wagon, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Miao Ying.
Until 24 February 2019. www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk
Close: Drawn Portraits, Drawing Room, London
This bumper show explores drawn portraiture over the last 200 years. Featuring a wide variety of work from a raft of well-known artists, it includes a number of works rarely seen in public. Artists range from historic figures such as Pablo Picasso and Barbara Hepworth, to more recent and contemporary artists including Maria Lassnig, David Hockney and Michael Landy.
Until 3 February 2019. www.drawingroom.org.uk
William Kentridge: Thick Time, The Whitworth, Manchester
This touring exhibition by South African artist William Kentridge premiered at Whitechapel Gallery, London back in 2016 and was a highlight of that year. It combines drawing, tapestry, music and film projection as well as sculpture. Highlights include the large-scale film installations O Sentimental Machine and The Refusal of Time, the latter an immersive work exploring the technology of time-keeping and string theory, created with physicist Peter Galison. Elsewhere, a display of recent tapestries, works on paper and artist books are presented within an environment designed by Kentridge’s long-term collaborator Sabine Theunissen.
Until 3 March 2019. www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk
Amie Siegel, Tate, St Ives
New York-based artist Amie Siegel’s multi-element film Provenance (2013) traces in reverse the global trade in furniture from the Indian city of Chandigarh. Exploring the journey taken by modernist chairs from their original location in the city of Chandigarh, India, to auction houses and collectors’ homes in Europe and America, it highlights how the use and value of such objects varies within these different contexts.
Until 6 May 2019. www.tate.org.uk
Images:
1. Matthew Krishanu, Crow (pink and green), 2016, oil on board, 20 x 15cm. Courtesy: the artist
2. Close: Drawn Portraits, Drawing Room, London. Installation. Photo: Andy Keate
3. Amie Siegel, Provenance, 2013, Installation view, Tramway, Glasgow International 2016. Photo: © Ruth Clark
More on a-n.co.uk:
Arts calendar 2019: exhibitions, conferences and other art events
Members’ Events: sculptural ceramics, everyday picturesque, endless colour
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