November 2012
INTERVIEW
Picturing: James Welling interviewed by Kathy Battista
James Welling was part of the Pictures Generation group of artists who emerged in New York in the 1980s. Here, he discusses the liberating effects of his move to Los Angeles, the expansive effect teaching can have on a tightly focused practice and how to infuse abstract photography with the sense of a distant time period.
FEATURE
The Documentary Effect: Mark Prince explores tensions between reality and fiction in photography
If the photographic image still retains a sense of the authentic, how have artists, such as John Divola, Laura Horelli and Michael Schmidt, revealed the artifice at the heart of the documentary photograph?
FEATURE
Conceptual Writing: Is writing still playing catch-up with art? asks John Douglas Millar
The term ‘Conceptual Writing’ was coined in 2003 to define literary works that may function as Conceptual Art, where the ideas behind the rule-based texts cannot be separated from the act of writing itself. But does this reliance on the act of authoring undermine the movement’s distanciating intentions?
EDITORIAL
The World is Not Enough
Where once it was a proliferation of biennales that got the art world onto EasyJet, now a proliferation of art fairs sends elite collectors to their Learjets. With biennales shifting dates to avoid art-fair conflicts and a major gallery opening in a private airport, where will it all end?
ARTNOTES
The National Gallery loses sponsorship from an arms manufacturer following protests; Tate asks protest group Liberate Tate to collect the artwork it donated to the nation; feminist protest group ELF conducts a survey of galleries at the Frieze Art Fair; Mute magazine launches a crowd-funding campaign; galleries open, close and move; all the latest news on appointments, events, commissions and more.
EXHIBITION REVIEWS
7th Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art: The Unexpected Guest various venues – Francis Frascina
Cage’s Satie: Composition for Museum MAC, Lyons – Virginia Whiles
Daniel Spoerri: Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri HICA, Loch Ruthven – Peter Suchin
The Future’s Not What It Used To Be Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff – Stephen Lee
Futures 12 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; Young London V22, London – Curt Riegelnegg
#COMETOGETHER The Old Truman Brewery, London – Omar Kholeif
Matthew Darbyshire Zabludowicz Collection, London; The Associates Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge;
Theaster Gates White Cube Bermondsey, London – Colin Perry
Rashid Johnson: Shelter South London Gallery, London – Morgan Quaintance
Sarah Dobai: Twenty Second Hold Works/Projects, Bristol – Colin Glen
Fernando Garcia-Dory: A Dairy Museum Mostyn, Llandudno – Chris Fite-Wassilak
Paul Sietsema The Drawing Room, London – Cherry Smyth
London Round-up Camden Arts Centre • Studio Voltaire • Maureen Paley • Dilston Grove • David Roberts Foundation – Martin Herbert
BOOKS
A Guidebook to Alternative Nows
Larne Abse Gogarty looks for alternatives in socially engaged practices.
DESIGN
Arefin & Arefin: The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin
David Trigg on a posthumous show by the UK art world’s key designer.
LONDON
Safety First
Colin Gleadell sees the Frieze week buyers playing it safe.
CONTRACTS
Art Commissioning
Henry Lydiate is impressed by a new guide to commissioning.
EXHIBITION LISTINGS
Art Monthly‘s exhibition listings and London gallery map can also be viewed online.
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