The Photographers Gallery
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2022
The winner of this years Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize will be announced at a special awards ceremony on May 12th 2022 with the winner recieving the £30,000 top prize. In the meantime you can visit the Photographers Gallery to view the work of the four nominees.
Each contender showcases very different projects, Floodzone is inspired by the environmental changes in America’s coastal cities. Photographs 1980s - Now focuses on black & imagery and depictions of landscape. Centropy is described as a ‘ever-expanding mythological family’ through a series of radiant, large-scale portraits that reframe and reassert a Black experience” and Whatever you Say, Say Nothing is structured in the form of ‘semi-fictional days’ – repetitive, spiralling days that define life in a conflict zone.
https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/deutsche-borse-photography-foundation-prize-2022
Unit London
Jake Wood - Edge of Reality
Inspired by works from classical artists such as Joshua Reynolds, John Singer Sargent, George Stubbs and J.W. Waterhouse, Jake Wood-Evans: Edge of Reality is currently on display at Unit London located on Hanover Square, Mayfair.
Graduating from Falmouth Art College in 2001, Wood-Evans settled around the British seaside towns, living in Brighton, Hastings and Lewes where he learnt the painting techniques of the old masters and create ethereal and and largely portrait based paintings.
Describing his work as, "a process of conflict with the ambiguous space between representation and abstraction”, Wood-Evans’ ‘Edge of Reality’ is a “fantastical compilation of moments, figures and landscapes that occupy a shimmering world both peculiar and eerily familiar.”
https://unitlondon.com/whats-on/102-jake-wood-evans-the-edge-of-reality
V&A
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear
A celebration of the “power, artistry and diversity of masculine attire and appearance”, Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear traces how menswear has been fashioned and refashioned over the centuries, and how designers, tailors and artists – and their clients and sitters – have constructed and performed masculinity, and unpicked it at the seams.
Presenting around 100 looks and 100 artworks, displayed across three galleries. Contemporary looks by legendary designers and rising stars are displayed alongside historical treasures from the V&A’s collections and landmark loans: classical sculptures, Renaissance paintings, iconic photographs, and powerful film and performance. Outfits worn by familiar faces are interspersed throughout, from Harry Styles, Billy Porter and Sam Smith, to David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/fashioning-masculinities-the-art-of-menswear#events
The Royal Academy
Kyōsai: The Israel Goldman Collection
Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) was the most exciting and popular Japanese painter of the late 19th century. A child prodigy and draughtsman of the highest ability, his art is humorous, provocative, energetic, and outrageous. This exhibition at the Royal Academy focuses largely on the art of sekiga, ‘spontaneous paintings’, produced at ‘calligraphy and painting parties’ (shogakai) which were often fuelled by prodigious amounts of saké.
Overlooked for decades, many of these works reveal a comical twist which plays on conventions or reflects the artist’s take on society. Alongside these spontaneous works, highly detailed studio paintings reveal the wide subject range Kyōsai referenced as well as his revolutionary style which challenged the rigid artistic conventions of the day. The historical context of his work is explored, revealing the great political, social, and cultural changes taking place across Japan which he captured in his art. The exhibition includes around 80 works, many of which have never been exhibited or published, and these are drawn from the collection of Israel Goldman.
This is the first monographic exhibition of Kyōsai’s work in the UK since 1993.
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kyosai
Kew Gardens
Zadok Ben-David: Natural Reserve
Extended due to public demand, ‘Natural Reserve’ contains over 17,000 steel etched flowers, each painstakingly hand-assembled by a team of volunteers and assistants.
Other works on display include Ben-David’s Conversation Peace, a video work incorporating depictions of trees, butterflies, insects, flowers and human shapes and The Other Side of Midnight, a three-metre circle comprised of over 2,000 miniature hand-painted butterflies and insects. Natural Reserve also includes a selection of new wall-mounted works derived from 19th century botanical illustrations contained within Kew’s archive, reimagined for today using vibrant colours and allowing visitors to explore new perspectives on the world around them.
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/zadok-ben-david-natural-reserve
