Contemporary Art Blog

This blog is used to showcase all things contemporary in relation to the arts

[historyartsgeek]

Graham Crowley: I paint shadows at The Walker Art Gallery

Graham Crowley is the 2023 winner of the John Moores Painting Prize, which is presented at The Walker Art Gallery. Winning the John Moores Painting Prize is a massive deal as it is recognised as the most prestigious and most respected prize for painting within the United Kingdom. For painters this is the prize of all prizes to win as it allows for recognition, acknowledgment and amazing opportunities. This includes having a solo show in the Walker itself and for the artist’s work to be a part of the galleries permanent collection. One of the other many reasons the John Moores Painting Prize is so highly regarded is because artists can anonymously submit their work to be judged by an informed and professional peer group review so painters feel their work will be judged fairly because of these reasons. With his work, Crowley reminds me a lot of the likes of J. M. W. Turner is where he uses light to create his work as to me, he is the master of light. Turner is one of my favourite painters so seeing Graham Crowley use shadow to create his paintings gives me the same feel I experience when I view Turner’s work. The winning piece of the John Moores Painting Prize was Light Industry, and it is in Crowley’s opinion his best work he has ever created.

The Walker Art Gallery

Crowley has said himself that “I paint shadows. Light fascinates me, and that involves not just shadows but reflections. Whilst they’re essentially intangible and illusory. It’s their indeterminate nature that appeals and makes them an appropriate subject for painting.” This is what Crowley focuses on when he creates his work. He focuses on creating shadows and shapes and reflections rather than on major detail and colour. His work in tonal. By doing this he uses just two colours: Payne’s grey and cadmium yellow. On one of the walls of the exhibition is displayed a poem about the colour cadmium yellow by Tamar Yoseloff entitled Cadmium Lemon:

Not hot / like fickle summer, / more like sun smudged / under a thumb, belch / of smoke, endless / driving rain.

It’s a sour kiss / on sallow skin, a stench / of sulphur in the air, / jaundiced slide to distance / you didn’t notice until / you were on the other side.

It’s the yell- / ow of hazard, / of hornet, a fake gold locket, / a bottle blonde, it warms you / with false promise even as / you try to catch its / failing light.

The poem itself indicates how the colour it is describing is almost tacky and very much in your face with the descriptions of the fake gold and how the colour links to hazard. So, it seems unusual how calming these paintings are to me, but it works rather well.

The winning piece, Light Industry, created in 2022 is such a fantastic scene. The area that is depicted reminds the viewer of a distant childhood memory of a grandfather’s workshop or garage. Specifically in Crowley’s piece the scene is cluttered and illustrates an immense amount of detail without Crowley using small brushes or anything as such to create this detail. It looks as though he has used a regular paint brush size to swiftly create movement of these three-dimensional objects. This is seen in the likes of the tools hung on the walls, the handles on the boiler like object on the left of the piece, the ladder on the wall. The stool on the floor, the wires strewn throughout the painting, the small clock on the wall and so on. Everything is so clear in the piece that you can tell what the scene in portraying straight away, even without his using traditional painting techniques. His work reminds me heavily of impressionism, which makes sense with the link I made earlier with Turner as he was a romantic painter, which did influence the likes of impressionism.

Light Industry, Graham Crowley, 2022

One of my favourite works in this exhibition was Dark Arc 11 which was created in 2024. The lighting in this piece is so stark and the brush strokes are so satisfying to view. The ladder in this piece is almost completely untouched by shadow and the shadow underneath it is so well done in theme with the rest of the lighting in the piece. Everything just works well together. It feels as though I could step into the painting and be a part of the scene myself. This would seem unusual as the painting itself is rather domestic and nowhere near traditional historical or landscape paintings you see elsewhere in the Walker. I feel that this is part of what makes his works so special. With this piece in particular the usual domestic piece appears ethereal and other worldly rather than just something you would experience in the everyday, which you more than likely would as the scene is set in what seems to be a garage again.

Dark Arc 11, Graham Crowley, 2024

Overall, this exhibition is a must see as Graham Crowley’s work is well deserved in winning the John Moores Painting Prize and it is such an experience to view as well as it being free.

More notable works:

Kate Murdoch's Studio 2, Graham Crowley, 2022

The Spare Room 2, Graham Crowley, 2024

Room 601, Graham Crowley, 2024

Display Case 1

Display Case 2

Graham Crowley: I Paint Shadows | National Museums Liverpool - more information on the exhibition here

865 words.

[historyartsgeek]

The Plant That Stowed Away at Tate Liverpool (RIBA North)

This exhibition at the temporary location for Tate Liverpool is based around how Liverpool is a port city and how this links to colonialism, as well as looking at botanical life and natures development through time around not just Liverpool but other areas as well. This links to the likes of pollution and industrialism. This exhibition was, for the most part, enjoyable to go to and easy to get your head wrapped around to really appreciate the message that is being translated to the viewer, especially the target viewer. With the location of Tate Liverpool being on the Albert Dock, it links amazingly well with the exhibition itself and the message it is trying to translate and how some of the artworks themselves are based around the area they are displayed in.

RIBA North

This is especially seen in Liverpool Guay by Moonlight by Atkinson Grimshaw which was created in 1887. The piece itself is set right outside where RIBA North is located so it is very fitting to have the piece displayed in this exhibition. It also showcases how much time has changed the area in when the piece was created, Liverpool was being shaped by maritime trade and industrialism so there was a rapid growth in wealth and power for the city. In the original information that was displayed next to this piece when it was first displayed was “in the pride of its industry and enterprise, under the most striking signs of its wealth, consequence and power”, today this is seen as rather controversial because of what was being imported into the city. This was notably transatlantic slavery; this came to an end at the end of the century, although it shouldn’t be a forgotten history as it makes those who praise Liverpool’s trade history appear foolish in not being knowledgeable in how the city got most of its wealth at the peak of its trade days. And it also should not be forgotten as so many people’s lives were ruined or ended due to slave trade.

Liverpool Guay by Moonlight, Atkinson Grimshaw, 1887

This links well with the piece that is displayed next to Grimshaw’s. This is Underwater Plant Life by Lubaina Himid and was created in 1995 to 2008. This curatorially is very well thought out. At first glace it may not appear this way as the two pieces displayed next to one another seem out of place, but with context this is very well done. The piece by Himid is showcasing the belief in the Mythic World of Drexciya. This was believed to be the realm in where slaves, who were on the ships taking them to places such as Liverpool, would go when or if they were able to jump overboard or if they had been thrown overboard. There was thought to be a race of underwater dwellers, descending specifically from pregnant slave women thrown overboard during their unwanted deportation. The reason the two pieces being in such proximity is well thought out by the curators is because it showcases the two sides of trade from completely differing perspectives. The Grimshaw piece illustrates how there was a pride from white middle to upper class people of the Liverpool trade community who were proud of the wealth they had “earned” through trade and romanticise it through their art to show prosperity of the Liverpool docks. Whereas Himid is illustrating how trade and specifically slave trade would have led her ancestors to rather want to kill themselves or to be killed than carry on with the long and excruciating journey on the ships just to end up in a life where they would be dehumanised and discriminated and among many other things for the rest of their life.

Underwater Plant Life, Lubaina Himid, 1995-2008

In the exhibition there is also Oil and Sugar #2 by Kader Attia created in 2007 which is a four minutes and thirty seconds video showing oil melting a large stack of sugar cubes. This is interesting to have in this exhibition as it is highlighting two imported goods into the country that are very high value and in high demand.

Oil and Sugar #2, Kader Attia, 2007

One of my favourite pieces within the exhibition was You Were Always On My Mind by Wangechi Mutu which was created in 2007. This is a mixed media collage piece including medical journals, ethnographic photo-essays, fashion, wildlife and pornographic magazines. Further detail is added with ink, acrylic paint, crystalline particles, plastic pearls and paper on melinex. These sources and materials come together to create the illustration of two heads looking to the right of the sheet, one on top of the other. One is much more neutral in tone whereas the other is lush and bright green. This piece reminds me of nature and such due to the different types of journals that were used to collage such as the wildlife magazines, this is well paired with the greenery in the piece in relation to plant life. I feel there is even more of a connection with the viewer by the piece being so three dimensional with the crystalline particles and plastic pearls. With its elements of plant life and nature in general it links well with what the exhibition is representing.

You Were Always On My Mind, Wangechi Mutu, 2007

In relation to the likes of botanical research and records taken over time, Weeds of Wallasey by Chris Shaw created over time from 2007 to 2012 is a good example of this. This series of photographs using gelatine silver prints on paper taken on the other side of the Mersey indicates the perseverance of wildlife in industrial area. This series of images in particular looks almost dystopian in where some of the images shows overgrown masses in areas with much more modern architecture. The theme incudes both maritime history and plant life as one of the images holds the annotation, I See No Ships but The Plant that Stowed Away. This could symbolise how nowadays you are less likely to see the docks full of trade ships and it feels derelict now and lost in history. However, you are still likely to see wildlife springing up all over the docks, even if that may be through the cracks of the pavement.

Weeds of Wallasey, Chris Shaw, 2007-2012, perspective 1

Weeds of Wallasey, Chris Shaw, 2007-2012, perspective 2

Overall, this exhibition was very well thought out and I do highly recommend going to visit this before it is gone as it is free as well. Considering Tate Liverpool is only at its temporary location for this exhibition, it has utilised the location well by incorporating it into the exhibition itself and adhering to the audience that are around the area as it shows off the cities history in more than just a positive light and looks at it through different lenses so the city can even learn from these altering perspectives and grow together.

Other notable works:

The Dancer, Henri Matisse, 1949

Talay O Puv, O Zeisko Tan Part 1, Delaine Le Bas, 2021

Channel, Simryn Gill, 2014

The Afronauts, Cristina de Middel, 2012

1114 words.

The Plant That Stowed Away – Display at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North | Tate - more information on the exhibition if needed

[historyartsgeek]

Art Plays Games at FACT

This exhibition is in FACT on 88 Wood Street, Liverpool L1 4DQ. I decided to take some friends to this exhibition who don’t usually take themselves into the art scene, especially the contemporary art scene. FACT is well known to host some of the most peculiar exhibitions in the Liverpool art scene with its digital means of media. This includes film showings and gaming. As stated in the title, Art Plays Games displays games made by artists and independent developers and is based around the idea of interactivity in a gallery space. This is exhibited from September 5th 2024 to April 27th 2025 and I have visited it before in October, but the games rotate within the exhibition every so often. This I feel is done for good reason as it allows for other artists to showcase their work and allows for an audience to experience different artists who work in the same media as this kind of production in art isn’t seen very often at a wide scale.

FACT

Art Plays Games

When first coming into the exhibition space it’s obvious to see and feel the atmosphere in the room. It’s dimly lit and feels quite futuristic. This is fitting as the subject matter of the exhibition is forward thinking in comparison to a lot of other gallery spaces with its digital use of media. On the right as you walk into the room there is a sitting area with clouds above it. I’m not sure of the significance of this as there was no information displayed near it to explain its reason of being there, but this was here the previous time I came to visit FACT. On top of the seat there is an iPad, and a Nintendo Switch plugged in to use. I feel that this area is just for the use of relaxation as the games on the devices were rather easy to navigate, such as the unboxing game on the iPad.

Clouded seating area

Close up of devices in clouded seating area

Next to this there was another seating area with a TV in front of it and a table with some kind of controls on it. This showcased the game Mountain by David Oreilly and is a single player video game from 2014. By the description of the game was an information box on how to play the game and stated that the mountain’s lifespan is approximately 50 hours. When playing this nature simulation game my friend found that he was unable to play the game and couldn’t do anything more than move around the mountain for alternative viewing. The mountain itself did look like it had been tinkered with already so perhaps this could have been due to it already being played within the 50 hours’ time span. All the mountain is supposed to do is exist after you give the prompts to create it, so this is possibly why it wasn’t very interactive at the time we came to the exhibition. Otherwise, I do like the concept of it being quite meditative in seeing the cycles the mountain must experience.

Mountain

Moving along the room, there was then Nocturnal Fugue and EchoVision both from 2024 by Jiabao Li, Matt McCorkle and Botao Wu. Both the video and AR experience were meant to showcase how non-human species experience life and the world around us. This piece mainly looks at the communication of bats. Nocturnal Fugue covered the space of one wall in the room and was paired with soundscapes and recreations of bats’ natural habitats projected into the gallery space to simulate a bat’s world. This was just interesting to watch and immerse in as the colours were so easy to get drawn into. EchoVision was a headset in the shape of a bat’s head and simulates echolocation. It would react to sound by lighting up the vision of the user. When I was wearing it, and my friends would talk to me it would light up everything I saw. This was fun to interact with and put into perspective some things you don’t think of as a human in the way that animal’s intake their senses in comparison to us.

Nocturnal Fugue

Nocturnal Fugue in size perspective

EchoVision

We then tired I Can’t Follow You Anymore from 2024 by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. The style is in an early 2000s glitchy aesthetic you’d see in the likes of PS1 or PS2 graphics. It contains vampire mythology and interrogation of authority. This game gives the impression of a dystopian world in where you as the player must lead a revolution and gain followers to join you through each level. The creator of the game centre’s Black Trans identity to investigate our complicated relationship with the consequences of following those in power and ideologies blindly. This game was interesting and high stress, but it also made us think about how we should critically think about who we follow and what they are leading us into. I also feel it is very fitting into the time we are living in now within politics, not just in the UK but in the US as well and how frightening it is to think about what our World Leaders are leading us into and what comes for the future.

I Can’t Follow You Anymore

My friends playing I Can’t Follow You Anymore

The last game in the room was 1001 Nights from 2024 by Ada Eden. The game is based on Persian folklore, specifically the tale of One Thousand and One Nights in where a ruthless king would marry a new bride every night and then would execute her in the morning. This was until Scheherazade marries him and tells him a story that delays him from killing her. The game encourages the player to tell an interesting story to the king to prompt him to mention weapons which the player can then use to fight the king. This was wonderful to play, and I enjoyed this game a lot as it allows the player to be creative in their choices in where their greatest weapon is their own speech. There are also headphones attached to the console that play atmospheric music and helped me to really immerse into the gameplay. The game also allows the player to take any receipts of the interaction you have with the king. Unfortunately, this feature did not work for me. Otherwise, I enjoyed this game.

Me playing 1001 Nights

The player and king's interaction

The printer for the chat receipts

Overall, Art Plays Games was a great exhibit done by FACT with different kinds of subjects talked about within it and is a gallery space that reaches out to audiences who don’t really interact with art very often or at all. My friends that I brought with me enjoyed it more than they thought they would and would recommend it to others to have a look just as I did to them.

1108 words.

FACT | Art Plays Games - more information on the exhibition

[historyartsgeek]

Indian Perspectives at The Victoria Gallery and Museum

This exhibition in The Victoria Gallery (from October 26th 2024 to April 26th 2025) was interesting to go to as it aimed to look at life in Britain for those with Indian backgrounds. The individuals involved in creating the work within this exhibition are Tony Phillips and Jasmir Creed. Both of which look at the effect Indian society had and has due to Britain in general.

The Victoria Gallery and Museum

Phillips surrounds his work in this exhibition on the impact British colonial rule had and has on India and its people. His work in general surrounds itself around colonialism and its aftermath. It looks at the fusion of cultures which mainly juxtapose from one another, resulting from the clash of the respective civilisations of India and Britain with their own norms and morals. Phillips illustrates this using pen-and-ink and watercolour pieces which I feel are very appealing to the eye. There was a large selection of pieces of his across the exhibition space. Some of which were very notable in their subject matter.

One of the pieces that caught my attention was one that seemed to be a recreation of the Sir David Ochterlony in Indian Dress and Smoking a Hookah and Watching a Nautch in his House in Delhi piece from around 1820. This piece recreated by Phillips didn’t have a name to it, but it was clear to see the linear inspiration of his piece from that of the c.1820 piece created by an anonymous traditional Indian artist. It was interesting to see this link as the anonymous piece from c.1800 indicates the meshing of British and Indian culture and how it can clash or how it can be done through a respectful way. Sir David Ochterlony himself would live the traditional Indian lifestyle of the time over that of a colonialist British lifestyle which the British deemed as unusual rather than respectful.

Phillips' piece inspired by Sir David Ochterlony in Indian Dress and Smoking a Hookah and Watching a Nautch in his House in Delhi

Anonymous, Sir David Ochterlony in Indian Dress and Smoking a Hookah and Watching a Nautch in his House in Delhi, c.1820

Another piece by Phillips which I thought was notable was an untitled piece which illustrated an Indian woman in a stall selling British memorabilia in London. It’s obviously London due to Big Ben being in the background. I feel it represents how colonialism effects the Indian culture even today as to have an Indian woman selling objects that are not of her own culture in a country where her ancestors were not originally from is indicative of this idea that Phillips is translating to the viewer, and I feel is done well.

Untitled, Tony Phillips

Creed’s work explores that of alienation and belonging in a transcultural way. Her work looks at her own personal identity as a woman whose grandparents are first generation migrants into Britain from India. She focuses on her own identity and how she feels in connection to her British South Asian heritage. She does this using impasto paint. A lot of her work in this exhibition are large scale and full of detail to engulf the viewer into the pieces themselves.

Time of the Crowd was one of my favourite pieces of hers in the exhibition as it shows the conflict between the two cultures in a combined way. The figure at the centre of the piece is a woman wearing traditional dress with her eyes closed and facing the left of the canvas. I feel that this could symbolise the figure turning hesitantly away from her South Asian heritage. I say this because as I mentioned previously her eyes are closed as she faces the left side of the canvas which symbolises her British heritage. I feel the right side of the canvas is her South Asian heritage because the structures in it look very similar to a piece by Phillips just across from this piece by Creed called Kolkata. His piece illustrates an abandoned British built building in India which looks like the structures in Creed’s piece across the way. This I felt was done well culturally due to the similar subject matter in the two works by to stylistically different artists.

Time of the Crowd, Jasmir Creed, 2023

Kolkata, Tony Phillips, 2020

Part of the exhibition was also a specially commissioned film for the exhibition itself featuring Indian students: Andrea Neeta Ando, Harshada Karande, Anakha Dileep Rekha and Akhil Scaria from University of Liverpool. This really knit the exhibition together to hear young peoples’ voices in the matter of their own heritage living in a culture different from their own. I also felt it was interesting to see such a different use in media from the traditional use of paint or drawings seen by the two artists at the centre of the exhibition.

Indian Perspectives film

I enjoyed the Indian Perspectives exhibition. Despite not having connection to the culture, it was interesting to see how much the likes of colonialisation still affects the Indian culture even today, which as a white woman I sadly don’t give a thought in my everyday life. So, this was eye opening and gave me a better understanding to me. I would definitely recommend this exhibition if someone hadn’t seen it before and I hope it would bring the same insight to them as it did to me.

Other notable art works:

Conflict, Jasmir Creed, 2023

Couple, Jasmir Creed, 2023

Gaze, Jasmir Creed, 2023

Unhome, Jasmir Creed, 2023

Journey from Calcutta to Shimla, Tony Phillips, long length piece

Untitled, Tony Phillips

Untitled, Tony Phillips

834 words.

Indian Perspectives with Tony Phillips and Jasmir Creed - Victoria Gallery & Museum - University of Liverpool - more information on the exhibition

[historyartsgeek]

Studios and The Royal Standard

Studios have been used benevolently throughout the art world and across time. The use of the studio is notably seen even from the times of the high renaissance in the likes of Rome as seen in Pierfrancesco Alberti: a painter’s academy in Rome or Rembrandts studiolo in Amsterdam. A studiolo was more for the use of an artist’s contemplation or to entertain their patrons at this time in history. In the 19th century, there came a wave of stereotypes around studios in where the artist would isolate themselves from the rest of society to produce their work as some kind of tortured genius.

Pierfrancesco Alberti: a painter’s academy in Rome

Rembrandt's Studiolo

During this time the studio was a space to work practically in and so patrons or collectors could come to view the art they commissioned. It’s also a status symbol in the art world as it can be used to show how successful the artist is. The studio would have been funded by patrons as they would want the artist to continue to concentrate on producing their work. Thus, the bigger the studio and more apprentices the artist could take on meant there would be much more art created on high demand. Larger spaces were useful for manufacturing materials such as frames or paints. The artist would also either live in the studio space or nearby it to ensure their dedication to their work. They would usually be located near ports and/or large cities because of the money that would come in thanks to rich patrons that would live in the area. It also allows to distribute art easier.

In the 60s, Andy Warhol was notorious as one of the most prominent studio-based artists of that time. It was a place of production, and a social space based in New York known as The Factory. In the 70s, there was a rise of DIY studios in America which later influenced UK artists. For example, these DIY studios would be made using post industrial spaces at affordable prices for more than just one artist.

Party at The Factory

Today, studios are needed to test new techniques or ideas among other artists in the space for them to develop. They are also used to host socials, run classes, run workshops, exhibitions, etc. Instead of being able to just focus on their work and having the space paid for them by patrons, artists nowadays must work more or other jobs to be able to pay for the space as it is rented, and more likely to be temporary due to the likes of gentrification because of these art spaces where the area would become more expensive to pay for. These studios can be anywhere like former industrial buildings because it is less money to re-use a space rather than creating a new one. A lot of artists use their own home as a studio now as it is much more affordable than having to rent a space as well as paying for their own living on top of that. Even digital spaces are used now to produce and sell art.

To discover studios artists use today, we went to visit The Royal Standard as a class. The Royal Standard is located on 5 Mann Street, Liverpool, L8 5AF. It is home to Liverpool’s largest community of artists and holds affordable studios, public events, residencies, and exhibitions according to its website. This space did used to be an industrial building for Cains Brewery and has now been utilised for artistic purposes. We looked around one of the many studios used in the space and it did show to be spacious in the studio space we viewed. It was interesting to see the different styles and medias used by the artists that occupied the same space and how much it varied. I really enjoyed seeing this side of the art world that isn’t much seen by the general public and found it was a privilege to experience.

651 words.

The Royal Standard - more information on The Royal Standard on their website.