Coastal Gallery Blog

2017 Art World Exhibitions

As 2017 draws to a close and the Art World gets ready for the next year of Art Fairs, Exhibitions and Gallery Openings, it seems fitting to reflect on some of the successes the Art World has experienced over 2017. Louvre Abu Dhabi The opening of the Abu Dhabi’s Louvre in November 2017 provided a new cultural space within the Middle Eastern Art Market. The Museum’s Galleries showcase twelve chapters based on ‘shared humanity,’ spanning from ancient artworks to more contemporary pieces, paired with items borrowed from the French Museums.[1] This culmination of ancient Eastern works and contemporary European pieces presents a cohesive and unifying structure for the Museum’s new UAE location. Should you wish to visit, the current exhibition runs from December 21st 2017 to April 2018 and explores the origins of the Louvre in 17th and 18th Century. Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi It would be difficult to miss out arguably the biggest success of the Art World this year; Christie’s hosted the sale of the record breaking piece at over $450 million (£342 million) in New York in November of this year.[2] The price tag attached to the painting made it the most expensive sold at auction, but also echoes the scarcity of da Vinci paintings on the market[3] (ironic considering almost sixty years earlier the piece sold for just £45 at Sotheby’s)! The Louvre Abu Dhabi is set to become the home of the masterpiece – another reason to visit! The Michelangelo Exhibition Heralded “the show of the year” by the Observer, and said to contain, “more masterpieces-per-foot that we might ever see in New York,” the exhibition continues the success of the Old Masters this year.[4] The Exhibition contains over one hundred of Michelangelo’ drawings, a selection of sculptures and a collection of other pieces. The exhibition can be viewed in The Metropolitan Museum of New York and continues until February 2018, so tickets are still available if you find yourself in New York over Christmas. Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires November proved to be a popular month for Art successes in 2017. The renowned Art Basel launched ‘Art Basel Cities’ in March of 2016 and announced its first partner to be Buenos Aires this year. It’s due to run in September of 2018 and is directed by High Line Art Chief Curator Cecilia Alemani.[5] The initiative is backed by Art Basel Cities Exchange, also launched in November, which aims to “create a stronger, more connected Art World” through art collaborations across the globe.[6] Frieze Young People’s Programme 2017 Frieze partnered with The Showroom, Whitechapel Gallery and educators in art to inform London Sixth Form Students about the variety of employment options in the Art World. [7] Frieze Education offers workshops for students from varying socio-economic backgrounds to inspire young people to join the Art Industry and visit the Art Fair itself. Frieze’s Education Programme isn’t new, however the inclusion of young aspiring art professionals in the industry is something that more focus has been placed on in recent years and ultimately keeps the industry fresh – a worthy on-going success of 2017. Museum of Contemporary Art Launch Toby’s Prize The Museum in Cleveland launched a new artist award named after the collector Toby Devan Lewis in December 2017. The prize comes with a $50,000 reward, half dedicated as prize money and half towards funding artistic production.[8] The artist prize coincides with the Museum’s 50th anniversary, establishing a fitting event to mark the occasion.[9] Alongside the monetary prize, the winner also receives a dedicated exhibition comprising of the artist’s own works.[10] MOCA’s support of emerging artists and arts experimentation is certainly noted. Masterpiece 2017 Earlier in the year Masterpiece’s annual Art Fair saw a record number of visitors; 44,000 art enthusiasts, Art World Professionals and educators visited the Fair in West London, not to mention the 8,500 that were present for the preview.[11] Not only did the fair achieve record visitors and sales, it also successfully launched the ‘Masterpiece Presents’ initiative. The new exhibition space greets guests at the entrance and provides an “immersive installation”, this year adopted by Iván Navarro.[12] Masterpiece 2018 looks to be just as glamourous as 2017! The Art World has provided some surprising and notable events and successes over the past year which will hopefully continue to inspire more budding artists into the scene throughout 2018. To all the art enthusiasts, Art Professionals, Art Educators, Artists and indeed the whole Art World, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Alchemy!

CHRISTMAS

Christmas Are you looking for unique Christmas gifts? We have lots of stunning art inspired gifts, sculpture, ceramics and artwork at Coastal Gallery Lymington that make perfect gifts for your loved ones. Whether you are looking for a stocking filler or a statement gift , we have something to suit every budget. We have a wide range of work available and we are receiving new deliveries at the gallery every day, so make sure to pop in regularly! You can browse our website to get a better idea of what we have to offer across different media, or check on our latest Facebook posts or twitter. Thank you to all our customers in 2017 and looking forward to presenting all our new work and exhibitions programme for 2018.

TATE MODERN – THE KABAKOVS

The Kabakovs are amongst the most celebrated artists of their generation, widely known for their large-scale installations and use of fictional personas. Critiquing the conventions of art history and drawing upon the visual culture of the former Soviet Union – from dreary communal apartments to propaganda art and its highly optimistic depictions of Soviet life – their work addresses universal ideas of utopia and fantasy; hope and fear. The exhibition charts the Kabakovs’ incredible artistic journey, from the early paintings, drawings, albums and sculptural works made by Ilya working as an ‘unofficial’ artist in his Moscow studio from the 1960s, through to his move to New York in the late 1980s – a turning point which marked the beginning of his collaboration with Emilia on immersive and often large-scale installations. Including architectural models of realised and unrealised utopian projects and public sculptures, the exhibition demonstrates the breadth of the Kabakovs’ practice. Three major and rarely exhibited ‘total’ installations will be presented together for the first time: The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment 1985, Labyrinth (My Mother’s Album)1990 and Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future 2001. Appearing as if they have been recently vacated, these uncanny environments draw spectators into the absurd and moving stories of these often fictional characters. Coinciding with the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the exhibition Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future explores the role of the artist in society in uncertain times. … To sum up: The way ahead is with Malevich alone. But only a few will be taken – the best. Those whom the headmaster chooses – HE KNOWS WHOM. Ilya Kabakov, ‘Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future’, A-YA, issue 5, 1983. Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future and Red Star Over Russia present the unique visual culture that arose from this momentous period in world history, and the artistic responses of a generation that followed. The exhibition is organised by Tate Modern in collaboration with the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg and the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Right [Ilya Kabakov The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment] Ilya Kabakov The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment 1985 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne/Centre de Création industrielle. Purchase, 1990 © Ilya & Emilia Kabakov [Ilya and Emilia Kabakov The Collage of Spaces # 6] Ilya and Emilia Kabakov The Collage of Spaces # 6 2010 Private Collection © Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Photo Courtesy of the Artists [Ilya Kabakov Holiday #1] Ilya Kabakov Holiday #1 1987 Tsukanov Family Foundation © Ilya Kabakov Photo Courtesy of the Artists [Ilya and Emilia Kabakov How to Meet an Angel] Ilya and Emilia Kabakov How to Meet an Angel 1998 Private Collection © Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Photo Courtesy of the Artists

December Exhibitions – London

Rose Wylie: Quack Quack Serpentine Sackler, London This major exhibition represents a new career high for Rose Wylie RA, presenting both her colourful, large-scale paintings and works on paper. Her exuberant art, often inspired by popular culture and childhood memories, has been winning over critics ever since the artist was “discovered” in her late seventies – in the past seven years, she’s had shows at Tate Britain and Turner Contemporary, won prestigious awards and been elected a Senior Royal Academician. As Wylie puts it, “I married early and had children, and so I didn’t paint for a long time, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’d been through a lot, and thought a lot, and I came back to my work afresh.”

PAINTING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Painting in the Digital Age London based gallery Sophia Contemporary launched a new show exploring how the rise of the Internet and the constant consumption of online images is influencing contemporary painting and painters. “Im/material: Painting in the Digital Age” showcases the work of eight young artists whose practices focus on this theme. With ArtRabbit being an online platform, and all things digital being close to our hearts, we were particularly curious to learn more – direct from the artists’ mouth. In our first studio interview we talked to Ry David Bradley about his explorations into the nature of painting as it collides with network cultures. Ry discusses his ‘uncapturable’ paintings and what he believes to be the role of the artist in an age of continual visual documentation and instantaneous reportage. Ry’s work is on display at Sophia Contemporary through 17 November 2017.

Exhibition in London – Starts Today November 1st

A Farewell to Art: Chagall, Shakespeare and Prospero Ben Uri: Art. Identity. Migration 1 November – 26 February 2017 A rare opportunity to see Marc Chagall’s illustrations for The Tempest in an exhibition exploring the play’s significance for the artist. [https://www.artfund.org/thumbnail/686/assets/what-to-see/exhibitions/2017/11/farewell-to-art/chagall-tempest.jpg] Marc Chagall, Illustration from The Tempest, 1975 © ADAGP, Paris and DACS London In Shakespeare’s last complete play, the exiled king, Prospero, gives up his magical powers and drowns his book. Many have taken this as symbolic of the end of Shakespeare’s own writing career, and when Marc Chagall, at the age of 88, produced the illustrations for the 1975 André Sauret edition, this in turn was interpreted as a personal farewell to art. For the first time in the UK, 50 works from this limited edition portfolio are on display, exploring the interplay between the text and the artworks. In particular the exhibition focuses on the parallels between Chagall’s own experience as a refugee and the themes of exile and creativity in the story. Leaving his home town in Russia to settle in Paris, Chagall was later forced out during the Nazi occupation and fled to the US in 1941. The ‘tempest’ of 20th century European Jewish history was a personal reality, and he might well have found its reflection in Shakespeare’s last work. How his poetic figurative style relates to Shakespeare’s aristocratic characters is also examined.

Tate Britain – Until Sunday February 4th

It’s what’s on the inside that counts, at least that’s what my mum says. Rachel Whiteread must have been told the same thing growing up, because the influential British sculptor (and first female winner of the Turner Prize back in 1993) is singularly obsessed with the inside of objects. Over a 25-year career, she has managed to create a powerful, defined, unique aesthetic by disregarding the outside of things and instead examining the emptiness within, often to devastatingly emotional effect. You walk into this show to be confronted by a city turned to ash. The early works are casts of the negative space of a fireplace, a bath, a closet, a hot-water bottle; it looks like the fossilised remains of the entire contents of a lost home. All the walls in the gallery have been pulled out to create an open space, so you can’t really walk through this show chronologically. Instead you stumble from monumental sculpture to monumental sculpture, dwarfed by concrete, plaster and resin. Mattresses lie across one wall, doors and windows across another, a staircase leads to nothing in the middle of the room, a row of bookshelves holds no books, only the impression of them. Tate Britain hasn’t bothered with wall texts here, and the info handout’s pretty flimsy, so it’s left out some important emotional context as a result. The newer works aren’t that exciting either, nor are the works on paper. And you can’t help feeling that most of the bigger works would be happier outside, heaving their heft about in the real world. It all feels a bit mausoleum-ish, like a builders’ merchant in a funeral parlour. But that doesn’t eclipse how great and important most of Whiteread’s art is. There are roots to it – the minimalism of Carl Andre, the resinous structures of Eva Hesse – but she aims for the gut. She uses the ideas of abstraction and minimalism to document very real things. These are tombstones, concrete effigies of moments that are gone for good. There’s death here, lost love and youth. The house that staircase was in is gone, the years she spent sleeping on that mattress are too. This is work about time passing. It screams with thousands of lived moments that are gone for ever, and this is all that remains.

FRIEZE SCULPTURE 2017

Frieze Sculpture 2017 A free outdoor display in London’s Regent’s Park, 5 July to 8 October Frieze Sculpture is open from 5 July to 8 October, presenting a free outdoor display throughout the summer months. Selected by Clare Lilley (Director of Programme, Yorkshire Sculpture Park) and featuring leading international galleries, Frieze’s first-ever summer display in theEnglish Gardens of The Regent’s Park brings together 25 new and significant works by leading 20th-century and contemporary artists from around the world, including: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Rasheed Araeen, Urs Fischer, KAWS, Alicja Kwade, Michael Craig-Martin, Ugo Rondinone and Sarah Sze.

Basquiat at the Barbican

The first large-scale exhibition in the UK of the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960—1988). Discover the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene. This unprecedented exhibition brings together an outstanding selection of more than 100 works from international museums and private collections. Engage in the explosive creativity of Basquiat who worked with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Blondie, among others. Featuring rare film, photography and archive material, the show captures the spirit of this self-taught artist, poet, DJ and musician whose influence, since his death at 27 in 1988, has been enormous.

Coastal Gallery and ArtSway in Hampshire Style Magazine