Korakrit Arunanondchai
Painting with History: ??????????????!?, 2018
Mixed Media inkjet print on canvas, gel medium, bleached denim, stretcher
218.4 × 162.6 × 3.8 cm
A show that spans forty years shouldn’t feel contemporary in every direction at once, yet What Remains of the Day does exactly that. In pairing Marilyn Hallam and Ellie MacGarry, the exhibition opens up a conversation about how painters organise attention, how interiors become states of mind, and why the language of modernism keeps resurfacing when we think we’ve left it behind. This is a quiet show, but it has a long reach.
This month at Blackbird Rook – Hallam & MacGarry in dialogue, Woolwich Print Fair, and a new essay on collecting with intent.
Jeff Dellow: Extended Fields marks not only a tribute to a lifetime of sustained enquiry, but also a beginning - a renewed recognition of a painter whose subtle mastery continues to shape the conversation around abstraction in Britain and beyond.
Two exhibitions are currently open with Blackbird Rook – one online and one in London – each offering a different way into the possibilities of contemporary painting.
Each month I have been sending the collectors I work with a selection of work from artists who I think are interesting, who are acclaimed by their contemporaries and who I believe are good long term investments.
There is such an enormous volume of mediocre and derivative art pushed at fairs and available from commercial galleries - art which is just as expensive as genuinely good art but which relies for its interest on a gimmick, or just the display of a little skill - that anybody who does not spend a lot of their time looking at art can be easily confused as to what will really reward years of looking and be a solid, and perhaps spectacular, investment. For those with the time to look then underneath the world of high street mediocrity and decoration lies a world of intelligent and progressive art which is affordable and delivers as an investment and as an enlightening cultural artefact.
Last month the selection of artists I recommended comprised mainly of relatively established artists whose prices have not yet sky-rocketed. This month I have focused on lower priced and less established artists - offering greater risk, but greater potential return. Most importantly all the artists suggested are making beautiful, intelligent, peer reviewed and engaging work.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss suggestions.