Yesterday’s announcement of the 2017 Turner Prize shortlist saw two artists over 50 nominated – Hurvin Anderson and Lubaina Himid – reflecting the recent decision to drop its longstanding under-50 rule. Fisun Güner welcomes the change, arguing that it better reflects the reality of many artists’ careers while also ensuring a particularly strong line-up for this year’s prize.
Vancouver-based artist and musician Rodney Graham is best known for his large-scale photographic lightbox works, in which he features in a variety of guises. A new show at Baltic, Rodney Graham: That’s Not Me, presents work from 1994 to 2017 and includes a whole gallery dedicated to his varied and experimental film pieces. Fisun Güner asks the questions.
Tate Britain’s biggest-ever David Hockney retrospective features bite-sized chunks of each phase of the Yorkshire painter’s expansive output. Fisun Güner finds the fastest-selling show in Tate’s history topped and tailed by brilliant, keenly observed work, but short on surprises.
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.
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.
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.
One of six artists shortlisted for this year’s Artes Mundi prize, John Akomfrah is known for his beautifully-shot film installations that tackle big themes such as race, cultural identity, migration and post-colonialism. Fisun Güner talks to him.
The 2016 Artes Mundi prize exhibition at National Museum Cardiff and Chapter features the work of six shortlisted international artists including John Akomfrah and Bedwyr Williams, all vying for the £40,000 award. Fisun Güner reports.
The influential Belgian artist Luc Tuymans currently has a small show of his own work, ‘Glasses’, at the National Portrait Gallery, while a major James Ensor exhibition he’s curated opens at the Royal Academy later this month. He talks about both with Fisun Güner.
For over 30 years, New York’s Guerrilla Girls have been the feminist conscience of the art world, exposing sexism through protests and original research on posters, stickers, billboards and artwork. Fisun Güner spoke to two of the founding members about their new Whitechapel Gallery show, ‘Guerrilla Girls: Is it even worse in Europe?’
The Turner Prize may have grown lacklustre in recent years and its upper age limit of 50 looks increasingly problematic, but this year’s show at Tate Britain showcases the prize’s strongest shortlist for some time. Fisun Güner reports.
The just-opened ‘Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition at the Royal Academy chronicles a key moment in 20th century art, presenting some of the period’s most iconic works. Fisun Güner reflects on the significance of this last great age of the artist as hero and tortured genius.