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Viewing Gommie: My Favourite Bedtime Story is Hindsight at The Art Office

The Wick Culture - Gommie at The Art Office.

Above Gommie at The Art Office.

The Wick Culture - The Dentist Knows All of My Secrets by Gommie. Photo by Steven O’Gorman.

Above The Dentist Knows All of My Secrets by Gommie. Photo by Steven O’Gorman.

The Wick Culture - The Canal Maps by Gommie.

Above The Canal Maps by Gommie.

The Wick Culture - The Heyford Maps by Gommie.

Above The Heyford Maps by Gommie.

Above Gommie at The Art Office.

Above The Dentist Knows All of My Secrets by Gommie. Photo by Steven O’Gorman.

Above The Canal Maps by Gommie.

Above The Heyford Maps by Gommie.

Gommie: My Favourite Bedtime Story is Hindsight
The Art Office

12 – 27 October, 2024

Gommie describes himself as a Poetartist – his works fuse the written word with performance, visual art and social commentary, ruminations and reflections on life, travels and experiences, often touching on universal themes, such as mental health, relationships, and the constraints of society’s norms. A trained actor, Gommie took up art in 2016 as a direct response to Brexit – and has since worked with Bonham’s, Hauser & Wirth, as well as the mental health charity CALM.

This new exhibition at The Art Office is a showcase of the British Poetartist’s most recent work including the new series Overshare, inspired by a trip to London, and including more than 50 pieces, which can be viewed as a single work. With self-deprecating and observational humour, Gommie paints texts in acrylic onto canvas and lacquered maps, or sketches in ink in delicate, intensely detailed works on moleskine paper. “I am the Liz Truss of Lasting Relationships” reads one recent painting, fluid painted handwriting on a lilac canvas. “Keep searching/ you won’t find it” reads another poem, above a drawing depicting a washing line, trousers and sheets hanging in a field.

Other pieces in the show include The Dentist Knows All of My Secrets, a poem about the cost of living crisis, and artwork maps, inspired by walks around the UK and the people and places he encounters – a method that emphasizes the Poetartist’s connection to the land and community, and the everyday experiences that shape his creativity. Prices for these new and recent works start from £198.

Viewing Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle at Claridge’s ArtSpace

The Wick Culture - Daria Blum, film still from

Above Daria Blum, film still from “Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot,” at Claridge’s ArtSpace. Courtesy of the artist.

The Wick Culture - Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot, Claridge's ArtSpace
Photo by Julian Blum

Above Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot, Claridge’s ArtSpace Photo by Julian Blum

Above Daria Blum, film still from “Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot,” at Claridge’s ArtSpace. Courtesy of the artist.

Above Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle Rot, Claridge’s ArtSpace Photo by Julian Blum

Daria Blum: Drip Drip Point Warp Spin Buckle
Claridge’s ArtSpace

24 September – 25 October 2024

Her work is “absurd, messy, serious and funny in terms” (according to the Eliza Bonham Carter, director of the Royal Academy Schools). The Swiss Canadian artist and musician Daria Blum is the inaugural recipient of the Claridges Royal Academy Schools Art Prize, awarded to the 2023 RA Graduate last by judges Yinka Shonibare and Eva Rothschild last year. Blum’s enthralling and encompassing practice interrogates architectural structures and environments and their effect on how bodies move through space, drawing on her background as a ballet dancer, as well as her matrilineal history in dance, tracing shifting political and social values through dominant theories and ideas.

Blum’s richly researched practice expands across several mediums, and for this solo show at Claridge’s ArtSpace, visitors will find the gallery utterly transformed with a multisensory, experiential installation of new works, including a raised metre-wide walkway around the perimeter of the space, where the artist will perform periodically throughout the show’s month-long run; theatre lights, sculptures, photographs and a three-channel video work.

The narrative premise of the exhibition follows a fictional character through an abandoned office building who discovers a cachet of materials; here the real and the invented blur as portraits of Blum’s late grandmother, the Ukrainian ballerina and choreographer Daria Nyzankiwska, appear, interwoven with archival recordings of dance rehearsals, and footage of a 2022 performance by Blum herself. An unmissable debut from a daring young artist who is undoubtedly on the rise.

Viewing Turner Prize 2024 at Tate Britain

Above

Turner Prize 2024
Tate Britain

25 September, 2024 – 16 February, 2025

The Turner Prize celebrates its 40th year in 2024 – the prize was first awarded in 1984, to artist Malcom Morley, for two oil paintings inspired by a trip to Greece. That win sparked controversy as Morley had been living in New York for more than 20 years – and the Turner Prize hasn’t really stopped provoking the public since.

The Turner Prize represents the changing landscape of British contemporary art in many ways. This year, the exhibition returns to Tate Britain, and the shortlist – announced earlier this year – features four fascinating artists: Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas. It’s a scintillating and diverse mix this year, from Le Bas’s savagely beautiful, throbbing immersive installation to the quiet, classical beauty of Johnson’s large-scale paintings and drawings. “All four of them make work that is full of life. They show how contemporary art can fascinate, surprise and move us, and how it can speak powerfully of complex identities and memories, often through the subtlest of details. In the Turner Prize’s 40th year, this shortlist proves that British artistic talent is as rich and vibrant as ever”, Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain and Chair of the Turner Prize jury says.

The Turner Prize 2024 jury is comprised of Rosie Cooper, Director of Wysing Arts Centre, Ekow Eshun, Sam Thorne, Director General and CEO at Japan House London and Lydia Yee, curator and art historian. The winner will be announced on December 3rd.