Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Nottingham Contemporary
The first major UK solo show by Rio-based Catalan artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, featuring new and existing works in the form of immersive installation, architectural intervention, a 16mm film and a virtual reality work. The exhibition offers a study on how diverse mediums and technologies can represent the Mata Atlântica, a rainforest stretching along the Atlantic coast of Brazil with only 7% of its original surface left. Steegmann Mangrané looks at how the complex environment has been subjected to conflicting economic, ecological, geographic, scientific, historical and territorial pressures.
Until 6 May 2019. nottinghamcontemporary.org
Diane Arbus: In the beginning, Hayward Gallery, London
An exhibition of up to 100 photographs which looks to redefine the achievements of prominent 20th century artist Diane Arbus (1923–1971). By taking an in-depth look at the first half of Arbus’s career, a formative period of production between 1956 to 1962, this exhibition considers viewpoints on how the American artist developed her influentially direct and psychologically acute style. Presented across Hayward Gallery’s upper floor, ‘In the beginning’ also includes vintage prints from the Diane Arbus Archive – acquired by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007 – never before shown in Europe.
Until 6 May 2019. www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Peter Hayes, Black Swan Arts, Frome
An exhibition by Bath-based ceramicist Peter Hayes. Working in ceramics, bronze and glass, Hayes is at the forefront of contemporary ceramics, influencing artists working in similar materials. His pots and sculptures are concerned with ‘opposites’ revealed within rough and smooth layers of ceramic texture, which are then burnished into a polished surface. Recently his practice has seen larger works placed within the landscape – experiments in how ‘elements of time and erosion’ can change and develop surface structure.
Until 23 March 2019. www.blackswanarts.org.uk
James St Findlay: Dependency, 16 Nicholson Street, Glasgow
A solo exhibition by James St Findlay, focusing on themes of romantic despair connected to endless ‘true love’, as well as ideas associated with infinity in relation a body’s encounter with exterior and interior places. Featuring new small-scale varnished ceramics scribbled with text and frantic mark-making – one of which is dedicated to the artist’s lover – the show also includes a single-channel projected video in which the artist embodies a boasting character playfully cartwheeling through an unpeopled office in Croydon. Eventually the persona exhaustively drops into despair, accepting its need to depend on others.
Until 10 March 2019. 16nicholsonstreet.org
Gustav Metzger: Thirty Queens, Lower.Green, Norwich
An exhibition that takes its title from the address of 30 Queen Street in King’s Lynn, where political artist Gustav Metzger (1926–2017) opened a junk shop in the early 1950s. Metzger used Thirty Queens as a ‘laboratory-garret’ to develop his auto-destructive style, and to show work by fellow artists, before the building was demolished in the 1970s. Situated in a redevelopment site, Lower.Green gallery now faces a similar form of expiration. For what is the final show at the space, they use research into Metzger’s activities as a lens to question the role of artist-led activity within a mixed economy. The show features catalogues and artworks by the artist, and includes a programme of talks on subjects such as historical architectures and Metzger’s legacy.
Until 21 February 2019. lower.green
Images:
1. Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, A Transparent Leaf Instead of the Mouth, 2016-17. Photo: Andrea Rossetti; Courtesy: artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin
2. Diane Arbus, In the beginning, 2019, installation view, © the artist. Photo: Mark Blower; Courtesy: Hayward Gallery
3. Peter Hayes, Raku Bow with Blue Wave, 2018, ceramic. Photo: Peter Stone; Courtesy: the artist
4. James St Findlay, 0.25%, 2019, bisque-fired earthenware with coloured pencil, watercolour, wood glue, varnish. Photo: Malcolm Cochrane
5. Lower.Green, ‘Thirty Queens’, 2019, exhibition poster
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