February 3, 2022 |
With lockdown out of sight and out of mind, there are plenty of missed gallery visits for us to be catching up on. With an array of exhibitions coming up, there is something for everyone to devour. From fashion’s evaluation of changing ideals around masculinity, to a Francis Bacon retrospective, here’s what you should be going to see.
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear in partnership with Gucci
Craig Green SS21, photography by Amy Gwatkin.
Harris Reed Fluid Romanticism 001. Courtesy Harris Reed. Photo: Giovanni Corabi.
Robert Longo, Men in the,Photo: Ulrich Ghezzicities, 1981.Set to open in March, this V&A showstopper will explore the complex evolution of menswear over the centuries, and how designers, tailors and wearers have established and presented their unique interpretations on masculinity: unpicking its shifting social construct at the seams. The exhibition will chart the seismic shift from the prescribed rigours of ‘men’s tailoring’, to today’s gender-fluid takes on a traditional “masculine” wardrobe.
The groundbreaking exhibition will feature around 100 looks alongside 100 artworks, extending thematically across three distinguished galleries, Undressed, Overdressed, and Redressed. Contemporary looks from designers like Craig Green, Raf Simons, Harris Reed and Grace Wales Bonner will be presented alongside historical elements of V&A’s dynamic archive.
The exhibition opens Saturday, March 19 at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Francis Bacon: Man and Beast
Francis Bacon, Head V,1949.
Francis Bacon, Second Version of Triptych 1944, 1988.
Francis Bacon, Study or Bullflight, No. 1,1969.
Francis Bacon, Head I, 1948.The legendary Irish artist Francis Bacon became a significant painter during the 20th century, with works that were inspired by a fascination for animals. As the son of a horse breeder, his experience with nature became a significant theme throughout his work spanning a 50 year period. The beautifully, yet almost grotesque catalogue of work explores Bacon’s fixation with living creatures and the distortion of the human body. There is no hierarchy when it comes to man and beast.
With that, the anatomy of two beings collides, becoming a widely disjointed figure on scarily dark canvases. Bacon believed he could get to the core of humanity by watching the inhibited behaviour of animals, taking trips to the “rainbow nation” in South Africa. The image of a distorted screaming man is both disturbing and brilliant. Join the queue this is the exhibition for us. The Royal Academy of Arts will showcase 45 pieces of his realised work.
The exhibition is open until April 17 2022 at the Royal Academy of Arts.
De Pury Presents … Anton Corbijn
Naomi Campbell, London, Anton Corbijn.
David Bowie, Chicago, Anton Corbijn.Renowned art dealer and auctioneer Simon de Pury is exhibiting the intimate, monochromatic works of Dutch photographer, Anton Corbijn. The appointment-only exhibition will revel in the magic of never-before-seen photographs by the multidisciplinary creative, whose practices have influenced contemporary mediums. Both Naomi Campbell and the late David Bowie feature in the exhibition.
Corbijn’s emotive imagery is mastered using slow shutter speeds enhancing the precise movement and gestures of his subjects, capturing imperfections effortlessly through his lens, most notably snapping The Rolling Stones, Joy Division and Damien Hirst. In de Pury’s words” “If the fashion world was the stepping-stone for Helmut Newton, it is the music world that was the stepping-stone for Anton Corbijn.”
The exhibition is open now until February 28, 2022 at The Hague.
Mary Ellen Mark: Alike, My Friends
Amanda and her cousin Amy. Valdese, North Carolina, 1990. Mary Ellen Mark.
Sue Gallo Baugher and Faye Gallo at the Twins Festival, Twinsburg, Ohio, 1998. Mary Ellen Mark.
Craig Scarmardo and Cheyloh Mather at the Boerne Rodeo, Texas 1991. Mary Ellen Mark.
The Damm Family in Their Car, Los Angeles, California 1987. Mary Ellen Mark.Gallery Huxley-Parlour is exhibiting 26 works by American photographer Mary Ellen Marks. The image-maker is widely known for articulating the experiences of people living on the margins of society, with compassionate and intimate tropes, capturing the reality of life wholeheartedly. Through documentary-style portraits, the exhibition reflects Marks’ close connection to her subjects; a new take on Americana.
Marks also recorded Mother Teresa feeding a dying man, sex workers on the streets of Mumbai and Seattle’s street youth, presenting intimate black and white stories in their purest form. Prepare to be moved.
The exhibition is open now until February 12, 2022 at Huxley-Parlour.
Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art
Photograph of Ladi Kwali taken by W.A. Ismay.
Bisila Noha, Two Legged Vessels, 2020.One of the world’s oldest art forms will be celebrated at London’s Two Temple Place’ annual show. Three generations of Black women working with clay are to be showcased. The creative space will shine a light on the experimental and disrupted reworkings of 80 existing pieces that represent ceramic history, over the last 70 years. 1950s Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali is the initial focus for the exhibition, with her modernist African art shaping the world of clay. Distinctively engraved, geometric motifs of birds, fishes and insects cover pots; her free hand modelling technique gives the objects a delicate quality.
Kwali is juxtaposed with emerging artists Phoebe Collings-James and Shawanda Corbett who are reshaping the creation of clay art in strikingly new ways, producing ceramic forms that engage with eroticism or ocean blue gradient sculptural shapes that explore the relationship between differently-abled bodies. The gallery tells us: “The artists in Body Vessel Clay share across geographies and temporalities a deep fascination with testing the medium’s properties to render personal, political collective and visionary new aesthetics.” The event will also feature a full programme of talks, events, and craft workshops, curated by independent curator, researcher and writer Dr Jareh Das.
The exhibition is open until April 24, 2022 at Two Temple Place.
Top image: Wales Bonner SS15, photography by Dexter Lander.
