Private View Review – Uta Barth @ Alison Jacques Gallery – London

Slotted on the end of Cork Street in London, Alison Jacques Gallery has a constant flow of quietly impressive artists on show. Following last month’s awesome show from Jon Pylychuck, this current exhibition from LA’s Uta Barth focuses predominantly on mounted colour photographs of flowers. The floral body of work, dubbed ‘Untitled’, has been scrupulously planned from A to Z and is spotless in a way that only photography or digital work can be. Lining the walls in perfect precision, this is an exhibition that is nothing if not clean cut. That’s not to say the images are still and stagnant. The colours offered up ensure any feelings of subdued submission are avoided by viewers. Continually bright and startling, alike much of Barth’s previous works the pieces are often hazy but somehow remain defined. They’re pleasing to the eye, a welcomed ease in the world of art without boundaries. But then again, Barth is a talent with well thought out boundaries. She is meticulous; and that’s exactly what makes this show worthwhile.

Uta barth is showing at Alison Jacques Gallery, 14 Clifford Street, London, W1 from 28th April - 27th May.

News – Arty Bomb Scare – London

All those people caught up in Monday’s tube traffic, bus delays and police blocks, must have been overjoyed to experience Monica Saiveva’s installations littered around the streets of west London. Decorated by nails and dedication notes, what these pieces must have looked like at a rushed, crowded, open to all, 8 am slot, who knows? Whatever the case, to those who experienced them, the works didn’t appear exactly friendly. Still, they didn't look like your usual inconspicuous bomb package either. Nonetheless, Saiveva inevitably managed to cause chaos, disrupting the journeys of thousands of commuters, shooting herself in the foot several times over.

News – China Crack Down on Art - China

The Chinese government has shut down several galleries in the Dashanzi district in Beijing. Allegedly, around three galleries have been asked to remove ‘politically sensitive’ works, including Gao Qiang's painting of a yellow toned Mao taking a dip in the Yangtze. Certainly change for the area has been more than apparent, however, things are still pretty sensitive. A work will go up and inevitably come down. Needless to say, rules surrounding arts are constantly shady. Mind you, one is fairly obvious; if the work is political, it’s going to come under some serious governmental scrutiny.

News – Egon Schiele’s 'Wilted Sunflowers' Returned – World

Egon Schiele's 'Wilted Sunflowers', which was seized by the Nazis during WWII, has been returned to the Grunwald family. The piece was handed into Christie’s for evaluation, coming into public view for the first time in some sixty years. In turn, it has been returned to its rightful owners.

News – Frank Gehry’s Grand Avenue Project – LA

Frank Gehry has unveiled plans for LA’s Grand Avenue. The project, which is rumoured to cost around $750 million, sees the area turn pedestrian and features two L-shaped towers as well as a hotel, condominium and a couple of flats thrown in for good measure.

Showing - Paul Freud @ Andrew Mummery - London

Focusing on the image of a crying human head, Paul Freud’s series of works showing at Andrew Mummery provide something a little poignant and impassioned. The images are representations of a silent 'cry' given by Pope John-Paul II during the final days of his life, when he found himself unable to speak whilst addressing his congregation. It’s a heart wrenching moment that few will forget. Meanwhile, Freud presents these images in various mediums, endeavoring to find clarity within the individual self-expression of both the artist and subject.

Paul Freud is on show at the Andrew Mummery Gallery, Studio 1.04, The Tea Building, 56 Shoreditch High Street, E1 from 26th April - 26th May.

News – Missing Munch’s – World

So. Munch’s 'Madonna' is lost to the world and his iconic 'Scream' is nowhere to be found. No doubt they’re hidden in a warehouse, somewhere in the back of beyond, awaiting their sale or, indeed, pick up. Whatever the case, things can’t get any worst, can they? Well, it seems as though they can, as researchers from the Munch Museum in Oslo, studying his catalogue raisonné, have discovered that a phenomenal 70 works are missing. Yes, they have gone, are lost, and have likely disappeared into that great artistic abyss know as ‘private collections’.

Munch is said to have produced around 1,700 works in his lifetime. However, many of the missing paintings, which include versions of the 'Old Aker Church' (1882), 'The Kiss' (1892), 'The Girls on the Bridge' (1902) and 'Felix Auerbach' (1906), were painted during the early stages of his career in the 1800s. No doubt, it goes without saying, it would be a travesty to lose them. Still, it’s not all bad. Last year, savvy staff for the Kunsthalle Bremen discovered an unknown Munch, hidden beneath a primary canvas, The Dead Mother (1899) (above).

Events - ArtBrussels 2006 – Europe

This April sees the annual ArtBrussels contemporary art fair kick off in Belgium. The event, which first began as ‘Art Actual’ in 1968, has a superb list of over 100 exhibitors with participants from 20 countries, alongside an attendee list that includes some 600 collectors and almost 800 journalists. Broken into five sections, ’First Call’, ‘Young Galleries’, ‘Art Galleries’, ‘One Man Shows’ and 'New! Design', the offerings here are fairly extensive. Galleries exhibiting are far reaching with many international enterprises such as Spencer Brownstone (New York), Springer & Winkler (Berlin), B & D Studio (Milan) and Anhava (Helsinki). The later, alone, has nine artists showing, including Santeri Tuori, Pertti Kekarainen and Jorma Puranen (above, Icy Prospects #18, 2005), which gives a good idea of how many works will be showing throughout. Meanwhile, the 'One Man Shows' section is presented in collaboration with ING Belgium and bestows a prize of €10,000 to the 'top' artist involved.

ArtBrussels takes place at Brussels Expo, Halls 11 & 12, Place de Belgique, 1020 Brussels, from April 21st – 24th.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha Wins Pritzker Architecture Prize – World

Brazil’s Paulo Mendes da Rocha has been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. A big fan of concrete and steel, Mendes is famed for his work on the Brazilian Sculpture Museum and Forma Furniture showroom in São Paulo. Back in 2000, Mendes da Rocha was honoured with the Latin American Architecture. This current prize, however, is the big kahuna of architecture awards and bestows a $100,000 grant to winners. Meanwhile, the ceremony for the honour takes place in Istanbul this May.

Showing - 'Metamorphoses' by Frank Webster @ Bespoke Gallery – New York

This April, Frank Webster presents ’Metamorphoses’ at the Bespoke Gallery. As his first exhibition with the New York space, it's an exhibition that promises to be interesting. Webster recently made a move into digital medium, creating collages that, unlike his precise, simple, deign-like paintings, are busy as can be. Boasting a trippy seventies movie-poster lick, the works on show are a sub-series from his Political Science Fiction collection, and explore modernisation, globalization and the steady disappearance of the world’s natural resources. While this sounds like fairly heavy subject matter, it’s certainly an extensive area worthy of exposure. That’s not to say it hasn’t already been covered. It’s mentioned in the media pretty much daily. Nonetheless, such matters often remains forgotten within the world of modern-day arts.

Frank Webster’s 'Metamorphoses' takes place at the Bespoke Gallery, 547 West 27th Street
Sixth Floor, New York until 26th April.

News - Turner Sets Record at Christie's – New York

A Venetian landscape, ‘Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio’, painted by Turner in 1841, has sold for a record-breaking price at Christie’s, New York. During those weeks prior to auction, there was much speculation concerning the likely cost of the piece. The estimate for the painting stood at around $20 million; that’s over $10 million more than Turner’s original record set in 1984 for ‘Seascape, Folkestone’. Needless to say, ‘Giudecca…’, sold at considerably more, going for an outstanding $35.85 million. Having been snapped up by an illusive, un-named phone bidder, the painting is now, unsurprisingly, being touted as the 'most expensive British work ever sold at auction'.

Private View Review – Brunel’s Legacy @ Getty Images – London

This month sees the bicentenary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineering wunderkind behind such wonders as the Thames Tunnel, which he helped to build with his father Sir Marc Brunel, and the Great Eastern Railway. In light of his anniversary, Getty Images presents their aptly named ‘Brunel’s Legacy’. And what a legacy it is. During his career, Brunel spread his magic far and wide with ships, suspension bridges, tunnels, viaducts and more. All pretty prolific stuff to say the least.

Back to Getty and their London gallery is always an indulgence for anyone who harbors a passion for photography or, indeed, the past. This show is no different, documenting Brunel’s many feats in slick black and white prints and more vintage sepias. While the photographers of each piece vary, the images offered up are something of a history lesson, a slice of the past that’s all too often forgotten. Workers hang precariously on the rafting of the Forth Bridge, steam trains sail over the River Tamar and Brunel, himself, stands, cigar in mouth, top hat high on head, in front of the massive chains of the steamship, the Great Eastern. While these images are many things from poignant to inspiring, it’s the sheer variety and scope that’s really awesome. Most people hardly get past the meccano set. But not Brunel. The man who apparently smoked 40 cigarettes a day and slept four hours a night, must have had energy in mega volts; and that, is probably why he’s known as the ‘Second Greatest Briton of All Time’.

Brunel's Legacy is currently showing at Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle Street, London W1.

News – Austria’s Oldest Vandals Prosecuted – Europe

A duo of art vandals were recently prosecuted in Salzburg for their super-strength reaction to nudity. The pair had taken it upon themselves to cover up Markus Lüpertz's sculpture of a naked, one-armed Mozart, painting the piece for so-called reasons of anti-porn. One of the men, an eighty-year-old ex-photographer (his partner in crime is seventy-nine), apparently calls himself a ‘porn hunter’, which is just bizarre beyond belief. After all, we all know you need look no further than the local corner shop for a little porno - porno that is far more suited to a cover up than say, a work of art. Of course, given the age group of the vandals, their story sounds almost endearing. However, these guys managed to do a remarkable amount of damage, with costs running over eight thousand dollars.

Showing – Alberto Giacometti @ MOMA – New York

Alberto Giacometti can do no wrong. Almost fifty years since his death and his work is still pretty much omnipresent; especially with MOMA offering up an unmissable show, ‘Giacometti and the Avant-Garde’, this July. The exhibition, which focuses on works that Giacometti created during 1926-1934, takes place in the Painting and Sculpture Galleries and includes a plaster edition of the oh-so superb, ‘Head-Skull’ (left) as well as a bronze cast of ‘The Couple’.

’Giacometti and the Avant-Garde’ takes place at MOMA, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, throughout July.

News – Eija-Liisa Ahtila Awarded Artes Mundi - UK

Filmmaker Eija-Liisa Ahtila has been awarded with the Artes Mundi, a prize providing a superb £40,000 to the winner. The funding for this prize is supplied by over thirty different sources, while the award is donated in Cardiff, Wales.