News feature - Page 9 of 20 - a-n The Artists Information Company

For her Art on the Underground commission, you don’t know what nights are like?, Mitra Tabrizian has produced two large-scale billboard photographs outside Southwark station that explore the isolation and marginality of London’s night workers. Chris Sharratt finds out more.

Formed in Hull in the late 1960s, COUM Transmissions – members of which would later become Throbbing Gristle – pushed performance art to the limit, culminating in the 1976 ‘Prostitution’ show at the ICA which saw them vilified in the press. With a Hull City of Culture exhibition exploring the group’s legacy, Bob Dickinson speaks to founding member Cosey Fanni Tutti.

As a-n launches its dedicated coaching accreditation programme for the visual arts, Pippa Koszerek speaks to the four artists who tested the waters in 2016.

The seventh edition of Fermynwoods’ annual online exhibition features two UK-based American artists whose work has resonances with the current political situation in the US. Jack Hutchinson speaks to Anna Brownsted and Jessica Harby about the anger, despair and anxiety fuelling their approach.

With solo exhibitions at Spike Island and Modern Art Oxford, and archival work in a new group show at Nottingham Contemporary focusing on Black British art from the 1980s, Lubaina Himid’s paintings and installations are attracting both critical and popular acclaim. Fisun Güner talks to her about politics, migration, and taking on the art establishment.

Working in a wide-range of media from film to sculpture to performance, London-based artist Larry Achiampong draws on colonial history, his own Ghanian heritage, and the experience of growing up in Britain to create works that explore ideas around class, race and cultural identity. Wayne Burrows talks to him.

John McDowall and Chris Taylor are celebrating 20 years of their Pages artists’ book project with a series of events and exhibitions, including the 20th Leeds International Contemporary Artists’ Book Fair in March. Sarah Bodman looks forward to this significant milestone.

Jenni Lomax announced late last year that she is stepping down from her role at Camden Arts Centre, a position she has held for 26 years. Fisun Güner talks to the much admired director about working with artists, the importance of education in the gallery’s programme, and what she will do next.

Built in 1971 and all but abandoned by the cash-strapped local council in 2013, Turnpike Gallery in the former mining town of Leigh near Wigan, is entering a new stage in its history with the creation of a community interest company to run its programme. Natalie Bradbury speaks to arts manager Helen Stalker as the gallery relaunches with the Jerwood Drawing Prize touring exhibition.

With scrutiny of the government’s Brexit plans intensifying as Theresa May’s end of March deadline for triggering Article 50 to leave the EU gets nearer, artists are responding to the uncertain climate in a variety of ways. Pippa Koszerek, who as an artist is herself involved in Brexit-related events, takes a look at some forthcoming projects.

Best known for Seizure, his 2008 Artangel commission for which he covered the interior of a South London flat with copper sulphate, Roger Hiorns’ current show at Ikon Gallery sees him back in his home city, where he also hopes to soon bury a decommissioned Boeing 737. Fisun Güner talks to the artist.

Bryony Bond started 2016 with a move across the Pennines from The Whitworth in Manchester to The Tetley, Leeds. She looks back on a year of “new starts”.

For Cardiff-based, Iraqi-born artist Rabab Ghazoul it’s been a busy year of campaigning against local arts funding cuts and exhibiting internationally. She looks back on a “heartening” and “confusing” year.

2016 started well for The New Art Gallery Walsall, but as it draws to a close the venue is fighting for survival in the face of proposed local council funding cuts. The Black Country gallery’s director reflects on “a funny old year”.

In November, the London-based artist Heather Phillipson won the £10,000 Jarman Award, which recognises cutting edge, experimental artists’ film. She reflects on the highs and lows of a “mountain range kind of year”.

This year saw Sam Thorne take up his new role at Nottingham Contemporary gallery, having previously been artistic director of Tate St Ives. He looks back on a challenging and “often disappointing” 2016.

The Glasgow-based artist, who first came to prominence in the 1990s, this year became the recipient of the newly created Freelands Award for women artists. She shares her thoughts on 12 months that also saw her first substantial show in Scotland for 10 years.

Salford-based artist Maurice Carlin is the recipient of the inaugural Clore Visual Artist Fellowship 2016/17, supported by a-n. He recalls a year in which personal successes have been overshadowed by global events.

In February 2016, London-based artist Emma Hart won the biennial Max Mara Art Prize for Women, the prize for which includes a six-month residency in Italy and a solo show at Whitechapel Gallery in 2017. She looks back on a year in which she “almost cheered up”.

This year saw Frances Morris become director of Tate Modern and in June the gallery’s £260m extension, The Switch House, opened to positive reviews. She reflects on what has personally been an “amazing year” while lamenting a period in which “respect for difference and individuality” has been vigorously attacked.

Five a-n News writers – based in London, Birmingham and Glasgow – pick, in no particular order, their top five exhibitions of the year.

The interactive map of artist-led organisations across the UK aims to capture the diversity of the arts ecology, while also aiding development of self-inititiatives. Jack Hutchinson reports.

The Shropshire-born artist grew up on a farm, with his childhood experiences influencing everything from the content to the materials of his paintings. Here he discusses the continuing importance of painting and his latest body of work, currently on show at the Saatchi Gallery’s ‘Painters’ Painters’ exhibition.

What makes a city an art market centre? Hosted by The Manchester Contemporary in September 2016, the Fair Cities symposium brought together a number of speakers to discuss the ecologies and infrastructure of developed art markets in the key cities of Basel, Brussels and London. As a partner in the event, a-n captured the insights of these international art world professionals to produce a new set of video resources.

Prior to its relocation to a new space, Peckham Platform gallery is celebrating its work since launching in 2010 with a retrospective show featuring its 20 artist commissions to date, all co-created with local people in the south-east London neighbourhood. Lydia Ashman reports.