Our top picks of exhibitions together with cultural spaces and places, both online and in the real world.
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Viewing In Heat: Plum Cloutman and Nettle Grellier at Blue Shop Cottage
Above Topiary 26, Plum Cloutman, 2021
Above do your bit or get out, Nettle Grellier, 2021
Above Tree Bust, Plum Cloutman, 2021
Above g’wan then, Nettle Grellier, 2021
Above Topiary 26, Plum Cloutman, 2021
Above do your bit or get out, Nettle Grellier, 2021
Above Tree Bust, Plum Cloutman, 2021
Above g’wan then, Nettle Grellier, 2021
In Heat: Plum Cloutman and Nettle Grellier
Blue Shop Cottage, London
Until 12 May 2021
Women celebrating women. This joint exhibition of paintings and drawings is described by Ocki Magill (Director at BSC) as a celebration of the ‘raw femme that consumer culture would rather us not see.’ Together, contemporary artists Plum Cloutman and Nettle Grellier have directed the shift away from the male-gaze picture-perfect imagery of women in the media and achieve an unabashed expression of female sexuality in all its forms.
And these works don’t hide away: there is vulgarity, beauty, grotesqueness, delight. Addressing themes of trauma and survival, they’re a reminder of what Cloutman describes as ‘the antidotal properties of funny art’. Like the nude figure riding the slug in ‘I’ve lost my fear of being left’ (Grellier, 2021), the artists tread an often-fantastical line between the humorous and the absurd – one where filters and airbrushes suddenly appear no more real.
Viewing Frank Walter at David Zwirner, Grafton Street
Above Untitled (Self-portrait on water with red hurricane moving in), n.d.
Above Untitled (Watermelon), n.d.
Above Untitled (McAlister Coat-of-Arms), n.d.
Above Untitled (Self-portrait on water with red hurricane moving in), n.d.
Above Untitled (Watermelon), n.d.
Above Untitled (McAlister Coat-of-Arms), n.d.
Frank Walter
David Zwirner, Grafton Street
Until 22 May 2021
‘Art is a festival in which a narrative is told’ wrote Frank Walter – and his first UK solo show at David Zwirner deserves all the song and dance. The Antiguan artist, writer and polymath produced a prolific body of work across his lifetime, ranging from Romantic landscapes to portraits exploring racial identity.
What’s just as extensive is the variety of materials Walter was working with – from wood, linoleum and the backs of photographs, to oil paint, shellac and glitter. Passionate that art should be universally accessible, his works may be small in scale (they really invite you to look close-up) but they’re big in scope.
Four years after the artist was posthumously honoured at the Venice Biennale, this exhibition comes hot on the heels of the artist’s retrospective at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. As interest around his work gains momentum, this David Zwirner show brings the colours of his work further to life.
Above Ocean Park, Puerto Rico, 2019
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 inches
Above Ocean Park, Puerto Rico, 2019
Oil on canvas
80 x 60 inches
Enoc Perez: Paradise
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Until 31 May 2021
A key figure in New York’s thriving contemporary art scene, Puerto Rican-born Enoc Perez is best known for his paintings of iconic American and utopian architecture. What strikes in his works is the absence of people.
For this exhibition at the Guild Hall in East Hampton, Perez has created a new body of work centred on natural disasters — notably the devastating impact of the 2017 Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. Instead of focusing on the physical destruction of the hurricane, however, Perez has painted a symbol of hope: bent rather than broken palm trees which allude to the possibility of recovery. Alongside these large-scale paintings will be sculpture, drawings and other works yet to be exhibited elsewhere.
‘One of the beauties of being an artist is that you have a voice,’ says Perez in a short video on the museum’s website. ‘[This exhibition] is a great chance to bring awareness to this natural disaster.’