OUGD402 - Brief 01 - Reflective Practice - Exhibition Visit: Adventures of the Black Square at the Whitechapel Gallery

Abstract Art and Society 1915 - 2015

Opening on 15 January, this epic show takes Kazimir Malevich’s radical painting of a black square – first shown in Russia 100 years ago – as the emblem of a new art and a new society. The exhibition features over 100 artists who took up its legacy, from Buenos Aires to Tehran, London to Berlin, New York to Tel Aviv. Their paintings, photographs and sculptures symbolise Modernism’s utopian aspirations and breakdowns.

Presented chronologically the show follows four themes:

‘Utopia’ is expressed through Malevich’s black square, the progenitor of new aesthetic and political horizons, seized by artists from Vladimir Tatlin to Hélio Oiticica.

‘Architectonics’ presents floating geometries that propose new social spaces as imagined by Lyubov Popova or Piet Mondrian and Liam Gillick.

‘Communication’ spreads the message to the masses in manifestos and avant-garde graphics.

The ‘Everyday’ embeds routines and objects in the aesthetics of progress as observed in a textile by Sophie Taeuber-Arp or the abstract motifs painted on Peruvian lorries captured by Armando Andrade Tudela. Middle Eastern artists such as Nazgol Ansarinia link Modernism with Arabic and Persian decorative arts; while Western artists such as Lewis Baltz, Peter Halley orJenny Holzer critique economic and political abstraction. Adventures of the Black Square explores how abstract art has travelled worldwide, permeating our life and times.

OUGD402 - Brief 01 - Reflective Practice - Exhibition Visit: Mapping the City at Somerset House

Somerset House, in association with collaborative arts organisation A(by)P, present 'Mapping the City', an innovative exhibition of works by established and emerging artists from the street and graffiti art scenes. To complement the exhibition, Somerset House and A(by)P are hosting a diverse series of events, including a series of film and music evenings, artists talks, performances and interactive workshops, all inspiring visitors to re-evaluate their own relationship to the cities in which they live.

The exhibition features works by over 50 internationally recognised artists such as Shepard Fairey, Swoon and Aryz, alongside rising stars from Australia to Argentina, Sweden to Spain and France to Finland.

Graffiti and street artists have an intimate relationship with the cities that they use as a canvas. They understand and engage with the urban landscape in unique ways – through subjective surveying rather than objective ordinance. Mapping the City will present a series of cartographic representations of the artists’ chosen cities. Ranging from literal to highly abstract, each map will be an individual response to the way these artists experience and interpret the places that they know so well. 

The artists selected by A(by)P to take part in the exhibition use a wide variety of media in their practice, from digital technology to illustration, paintings to sculpture, and video presentations to performances. Over 40 of the works were specially commissioned by A(by)P, with artists using their individual aesthetic to share their knowledge of each city’s secrets and challenge visitors to look at their own urban environments in a new light.

OUGD402 - Breif 01 - Reflective Practice - Leeds Print Festival 2015 - Opening Night

"Leeds Print Festival is proud 

to be independent and championing the exploration of traditional and contemporary printmaking process once a year in Yorkshire. This is year four"

I attended the opening night celebration at Munro House for the Leeds Print Festival 2015. There was a great atmosphere in the gallery space, with vibrant music and lots of smiling faces. There was some really interesting print work on display, it was a fantastic collection of contemporary print and certainly showed that print is not dead in 2015. Print is still relevant to graphic art, design and communication. There were some great examples of screen prints, lino prints, wood cut prints but a lack of mono prints which I was disappointed about. 

Idiots Pasture Prints:

Hungry Sandwich Club Prints:

Kate Gibb Prints: 

Nick Deaken - 'Don't Be...'

Sarah Harris Prints: