‘I only paint what I see’, says Vladimír Kokolia, one of the Czech Republic’s most established contemporary artists. For most, seeing the ordinary and the everyday’s an act of involuntary dismissal. For Kokolia, seeing the everyday’s wonderment. His first UK exhibition, Epiphany, hosted by the Ikon gallery in Birmingham, is a precious lesson in looking and seeing.…
| 18/07/2018
I entered the small exhibition space of the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London and was immediately drawn in by a close-up portrait of a young Jewish boy. His eyes were alive and rejoicing, bringing a sense of peace and harmony. The brief description of the photograph, in both Bulgarian and English, reads: Purim at the…
| 27/06/2018
In her welcome to the event, Eszter Pataki, Director of the Hungarian Culture Centre and a former journalist, pronounced that ‘the Roma community is part of the shared culture in Hungary’, yet ‘many stereotypical images exist in the media even in the UK.’ The phrase ‘of Eastern European appearance’ always appears in a negative context.…
| 21/06/2018
With distractions pulling us in all directions, Alex Mirutziu wants to stop us in our tracks. He’s done this on many occasions, not least with his video Tears are precious, which received the Best Independent Artist Award at the Optica International Video Art festival in 2008. Between too soon and too late, Mirutziu’s first solo show in…
| 05/05/2018
Postponed Futures is really quite something. In a year when London’s saturated with exhibitions about the Russian Revolution in its centenary year, the show’s curator, Nikita Kadan, has forged a different response. He shows a Ukrainian exhibition, political and thought-provoking, which reminds us not to forget what’s going on amid the celebrations: a war in…
| 18/05/2017
‘The Studio: A Tireless, Ongoing Space’, Geta Brătescu’s solo exhibition at Camden Arts Centre, pays long overdue homage to an artist whose work is strikingly fragile yet powerful at the same time. Not least, it also spans over almost half a century, even though the show largely focuses on works produced in the 70s and…
| 02/05/2017
Any attempt to tell the story of the October Revolution is inevitably going to be controversial, showing the author’s own political views and laying them to open to accusations of personal bias. For this reason, the revolution is rarely engaged with in everyday culture outside the realm of post-Marxist academic debate or historical fiction. The…
| 04/04/2017
The Concept Space is a brand new venue in Bermondsey debuting with Márta Kucsora on their first solo show together: Viscosity. The mission of the new project space is to become a cutting edge hub for arts professionals, and to present both UK and international artists. The current show was curated by KB Stowe with…
| 05/03/2017
Another Russia: Post-Soviet Printmaking is one of V&A’s newest temporary displays, comprising around 40-50 graphic works and offering both a fascinating insight into the post-Soviet printmaking practice and a glimpse into V&A’s contemporary art collecting activity. All works on view are the museum’s recent acquisitions, some made possible through the help of grant funds, and…
| 25/02/2017
Black Hole Generation (BHG) is a Prague-based collective of young artists, whose core members, David Krňanský, Martin Lukáč and Julius Reichel, are now showing eighteen works at London’s small Dot Project Gallery. Having studied together at UMPRUM, Prague’s Academy for Arts and Design, one of the most innovative institutions in the country, BHG undoubtedly aims…
| 24/02/2017