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Writer's pictureZoha Khan
Nov 6

Leaves are falling, new exhibitions are dropping!: What lies beneath the facade of reason?- Novembers' London Art Guide.


So the season of cosy sweaters, pumpkin spice and hastily grabbed coats as you rush out the door has rolled around once more. While some Earth-dwellers use this time to rest and recuperate, the vivacious artists among us remain as active as ever. In this art guide, Insistrum presents to you a collection of exhibitions that peel back the charade of persona and pretension to reveal the raw, natural spirits beneath.


Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirt

Quick deets:

Taken from American artist Mike Kelley's works spanning the late 1970s to 2012, the exhibition displays a menagerie of collage, drawing, performance, found objects and video to explore how we interact with the media we consume.


Mike Kelley Ahh...Youth! 1991/2008 from the Tate website: © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved / VAGA at ARS, NY & DACS, London

Mike Kelley was known to scour flea markets for, according to Hauser and Wirth "America's cast offs and leftovers." He used these to challenge the West's pre-conceived notion of contemporary art and culture, taking the crumbs of our lives to fashion new indulgence for our souls. His work is unrelenting in its exposure of what hides behind the curtain of "aesthetics", making sure we hear the voices of all those items we neglect and tidy away. In a sense, by doing so, we are reminiscing on those parts of our identity we have been taught to tidy away so as to appear more appeasable to society.


For those of us who are one with the solitude (myself definitely included), the Tate Modern offers relaxed hours bookings as well, all accessible through the above link.


Mike Kelley Eviscerated Corpse 1989 from the Tate website:  The Art Institute of (Chicago, USA) © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/ VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London.

Calling things that don't have names: multiple artists

Quick deets:

Location

Copperfield Gallery, 6 Copperfield St, London SE1 0EP

Open until

23rd November 2024

Price details

Free


© Andreea Anghel, Catherine-The-Not-So-Great, 2023. Found objects (antique agrarian tool, wig) ©Suprainfinit

The gorgeously suave femme fatale, the adorably eccentric manic pixie dream girl, the comfortingly convenient devoted wife, and so much more. Womanhood has been boxed up and labelled into these titles that we feel we must flick through and linger on like items in a catalogue. But what happens when the catalogue is ripped to shreds by hands that seek the truth? “​From ‘wise women’ to ‘witches’, humanity has always held a powerful thread of female knowledge and intuition no matter how much it was hidden, beaten back or ostracised”. This exhibition hosted by Copperfield, London, features various upcoming artists like Hannah Perry, Edith Karlson, and others listed here:  https://www.copperfieldgallery.com/exhibitions.html.


Each piece strives to challenge society's notion of what a woman should be, instead inviting the audience to a blaring conviction: what a woman is. Whether it is autonomy over their own bodies or their power in the world, men have often taken the reigns. When the marionette breaks free of the strings, we see what lies beyond the script.


Hora Lupi III - terracotta series, 2024. © Temnikova & Kasela © Edith Karlson

I Am the Last Woman Object by Nicola L

Quick deets:

Location

Camden Art Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3 6DG

Open until

29th December 2024

Price details

Free

If you're feeling empowered and want to keep the vibes going from the last exhibition, fret no more. "I am the Last Woman Object" navigates feminism, equality and counter culture through a series of offbeat sculptures by Nicola L. Born in Morocco to French parents, Nicola L joined the vibrant Pop art movement of the 60s. She was particularly fascinated by the French New Realists group, who advocated that art should make social commentary through existing objects and materials. Driven by the sentiment of singularity- a belief that we are a collective in spite of our differences- the Nouveau Realism movement viewed the world as an image from which they could take parts to apply to their own work.


 We Want to Breathe  from the Camden Arts Centre ©‌ Nicola L

Nicola L was inspired to create her sculptures from the decade’s production of synthetic materials, such as the one the exhibition is named after “I am the Last Woman Object”- a sofa cushion depiction of a woman with a Tv monitor in place of a stomach. There is an audio that plays “I am the last woman object/ You can take my lips/ Caress my stomach… But I repeat it/ it is the last time”

A major series explored in the exhibition is “Femme Fatale” (1995)  which uses paintings and collages on bed sheets to pay homage to women whose lives ended in violence and tragedy, including key figures like Marilyn Monroe and Eva Hesse.

A few pieces from her series, the “Penetrables” -inspired by skin- will also be featured at the exhibition, embodying the spirit of interaction through fabric artwork with various holes for the audience to explore. Video footage of people taking part in “Penetrables” performances such as the Blue Cape and Red Coat will be shown.


Red Coat, Same Skin for Everybody with Fernando Arrabal, New York, 1992. © Nicola L. Collection and Archive

Michael Craig-Martin exhibition

Quick deets:


Location

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD

Open until

10th December 2024

Price details

Royal Academy Michael Craig- Martin

Irish artist Michael Craig- Martin kickstarted his art career with a Yale degree on the heels of key movements like Minimalism and Pop Art. Rising to fame in the 60s, he can be seen as Warhol's Irish counterpart, using bold colours in their simplest form. Craig-Martin's art employs everyday bric-a-brac such as screws, umbrellas, laptops and smartphones and presents them as larger than life, technicolour versions of themselves. In an interview with the Guardian, he describes himself as "essentially a constructor, a putter- togetherer of things... I think of my paintings as flat sculptures."


180 Michael Craig-Martin Common History: Vanitas ©Michael Craig-Martin

The depiction of objects appear alienated and yet powerful, devoid of any external influence like light or shadow. We often think about significant influences on our lives as dramatic events or inspirational role models. While those are undoubtedly crucial, we can forget the simple things like a lightbulb that we rely on so heavily yet forget so readily. The Michael-Craig Martin exhibition can serve as a reminder that we are never alone, because even when human contact is absent, our handy tools and tokens are seldom out of reach.


Michael Craig-Martin Folkestone Lightbulb, 2017, ©Michael Craig-Martin

Francis Bacon: Human Presence

Quick deets:




‘Three Studies of Isabel Rawsthorne’ (1967) © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS

Irish born British figure painter Francis Bacon actually started off as an interior designer from 1928-1930. It wasn't until 1933, with the release of his first original artwork Crucifixion, that he focused on the human form in abstraction, featuring distorted versions of self and subject portraits. The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery displays his works from 1949 onwards, taken from both public and private collections. His figures are typically isolated in cage-like spaces, a potential reflection of his existentialist tendencies. The lack of identifiable backgrounds in his portraits could be further demonstrable of the existentialism movement of individuality and the belief that we are responsible for the outcomes of our lives. The distorted faces suggest a twist (literally) in bringing the invisible spiral of our thought process and motives to a tangible outward reality. Bacon's works are for those who don't just take the mirror for face value, or simply anyone who holds themselves accountable for their own self realisation.



‘Portrait of a Man Walking Down Steps’ (1972) © The Estate of Francis Bacon/DACS

References





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