Exhibitions: London February - May 2010

Exhibitions I will be trying to make over the next few weeks and months.

Decode: Digital Design Sensations at the V&A until 11 April 2010

Van Doesburg at Tate Modern until 16 May 2010

Crash at the Gagosian until 1 April 2010

Van Gogh (again) at the RA until 18 April 2010

Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin, Paula Rego at the Foundling Museum until 9 May 2010

Art & Language at the Lisson Gallery until 27 February 2010

Mat Collishaw at BFI Gallery until 9 May 2010

Charles Avery at Pilar Corrias until 31 March 2010

Richard Wilson at Saatchi Gallery until 7 May 2010

Ori Gersht at Mummery+Schnelle until 27 February 2010

John Stezaker at The Approach until 7 March 2010

Identity (again) at the Wellcome Collection until 6 April 2010

Ron Arad: Restless at The Barbican until 16 May 2010

Frank Ackermann at White Cube Masons Yard until 1 April 2010

Making informed connections with the work of others (a.k.a. name dropping)

At school I am asked to make quite a few suggestions to the students as to what artists might inspire them or add depth to their work and research. I have decided to list them with links on my blog. I won't categorise them so as to keep them 'open' but I may link to a specific piece of the artists work.

Here are the ones I've suggested so far this week and its only Tuesday morning!

John Baldessari, Miroslaw Balka, Barton Hargreaves, Richard Galpin, Bryan Evans, John Stezaker, Ellsworth Kelly, Jennifer Bartlett, Patrick Hughes, Mark Wallinger, Peter McDonald, Simon Patterson, Dryden Goodwin, Tracey Emin, Jeff Wall

This has thrown up a few issues ....how to handle contemporary and established artists with more adult content and differentiating those artists with technique which the students want to emulate versus those with content in terms of having a contemporary voice. Given the nature of the wider catchment my readers and my position in a school I have to be a bit more closed minded in some areas and more open in others than I would otherwise in a blog. It has also made me acutely aware of the impact others work has had on my personal semiotic coding. For example, if someone wants to use a horse in their work my brain retrieves the images of Half-Brother by Mark Wallinger or Maurizio Cattelan. I'm sure there must be a good book to read out there on the wider impact of art on semiotics....