The Shock of the Now
By Hector Campbell - Art Historian, Writer & Curator
issues
The Shock of the Now - Issue #65
Aman Aheer - 'body double' - indigo+madder, Fitzrovia (2nd December - 14th January, opening Thursday 1st December, 6-9pm)indigo+madder presents Aman Aheer's solo exhibition 'body double', featuring a series of new paintings.
The Shock of the Now - Issue #64
Presenting an austere landscape filled with mischief and menace, Fantasy Lands brings together two artists that challenge the relationship between image, perception and the politics of fear in contemporary culture. Featuring a new body of monochromatic painti…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #63
For the past seven years, Gori Mora has been perfecting his unique process of painting on perspex. Eschewing the conventional canvas during his undergraduate studies at Barcelona University, the Majorcan artist searched for a medium that could better represen…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #62
Grounded by Gillian Anderson's ever-present Special Agent Scully, and employing The X-Files as an overarching extra-terrestrial allegory for the everyday 'otherness' experienced by members of the LGBTQ+ community, Bex Massey's series of collaged canvases are …
The Shock of the Now - Issue #61
Initiated by artists Holly Stevenson and Ingrid Bertham-Moine in response to the deprivation of human connection and the absence of physical art viewing induced by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, Hand-Held is, in its essence, an entire exhibition in a box. I…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #60
'Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art' Group Exhibition - Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre (26th October - 8th January)Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery presents 'Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art', curated by Dr Cliff Lauson, the first large…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #59
After a frantic and frenetic Frieze week, when it's easy to become emotionally and mentally overcome by art and its accoutrements, it seems fitting to finally be physically overpowered and overwhelmed by sculpture, as is the case with Jack Killick's latest so…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #58
The remarkable life and work of Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) hardly needs an introduction. She has been dubbed a ‘lost surrealist,’ with curators and academics pushing to rectify the imbalance within the narratives of Surrealism, which centre on its male ex…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #57
This past Sunday, the cream of the fashion crop crowded into Paris’ Parc des Expositions de Villepinte for Balenciaga's Summer 23 Collection catwalk, entitled The Mud Show. The presentation consisted of post-apocalyptic posturing from a host of models - among…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #56
A harsh reality of our fast-paced 21st-century society, our contemporary culture that increasingly exists online and glamorises or even fetishises youth, is that the elderly are often either easily forgotten about, or actively cast aside. Relegated to retirem…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #55
On Monday I returned from an intense yet invigorating week in Palma, Mallorca, where I curated the group exhibition 'Pounding The Pavement' at Galería Pelaires. My aim for the exhibition, over and above presenting a small survey of some of the most exciting p…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #54
In December of 2021, just prior to the effective cancellation of Christmas due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic-plagued times we now live in, long-time friends and fellow artists Danny Fox and Kingsley Ifill set off on an eight-day road trip across the l…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #53
Last Thursday evening, the first evening of September and with a first day back at school spirit in the art world air, a chatting crowd gathered in Fitzrovia to celebrate the opening of the area's newest art gallery residents, Castor and indigo+madder. The fo…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #52
'Introducing: Nuno Gil, Dene Leigh, Lydia Makin and Ioana Maria Sisea' Group Exhibition - rosenfeld, Fitzrovia (3rd August - 8th October, opening Wednesday 3rd August, 6:30-8:30)Gallery rosenfeld presents four emerging artists: Nuno Gil (above), Dene Leigh, L…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #51
Following hot on the heels of 'First Light', our recent two-person outing at Collective Ending HQ of Lewis Brander and Sonya Derviz, Lewis' eponymous debut solo exhibition takes as its point of departure the two smallest works from that previous show, Heatwav…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #50
Last weekend I made a slightly mistimed pilgrimage back to my hometown of Bristol, and had to avoid the annual influx of nautical nuts and weekend revellers at the city's Harbour Festival in order to catch the fleeting final moments of Tanoa Sasraku's solo ex…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #49
Upon enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 2017, Harminder Judge's aim was to initiate an art-making practice more akin to a dutiful daily spiritual practice, one economically sustainable and without any unnecessary engagement with the wider art world at …
The Shock of the Now - Issue #48
Georgia Dickie allows her art practice to be led by the availability and variety of found objects or discarded debris that she saves from the streets of her hometime Toronto, Canada. It is unsurprising, therefore, that with the scope of such scavenging restri…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #47
Mirror, mirror on the wall, Matilda, with her oversized aureate ears and fierce fringe, welcomes viewers to complete the composition with the addition of their own visage. Emblematic of an interdisciplinary practice that encompasses monumental murals, immersi…
The Shock of the Now - Issue #46
Kira Freije's maudlin metal mannequins make ready for an imminent meteor strike, awaiting that world-ending event, an approaching apocalypse. Barefoot figures cower, slump in surrender or sport pious poses, praying to an omnipotent higher power for salvation,…