The Deutsche Börse Prize 2014 at The Photographers Gallery

As the most valuable and prestigious photography competition in the UK the Deutsche Borse Prize is always well worth a close look as a good assessment of the most important photographic work of the previous twelve months.

It is interesting to note that the previous two awards were noticeable in their brave selection of two winners who were actually not photographers. If this sounds rather strange I should explain that these two winners actually used photography within their practice, but as the basis for works of collage: John Stezaker (2012) and Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin (2013). Hopefully this acted as a little, lets say, encouragement to The Photographers Gallery to be a little more adventurous in the exhibition schedule – some feel that they have erred to the cautious side in recent years – and indeed this years finalists indeed proved to be a worthy choice.

The four contenders were Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jochen Lempert, Richard Mosse and Lorna Simpson. Garcia-Alix is a personal and social documentary photographer whose black and white images often are quite dark – in both subject and nature. His works reflect both intimacy and excess, where photography – and occasionally video – is used to mediate his own neuroses and inner battles. This is effectively an exhibition of his own life.

Lempert’s approach veers between poetic and scientific. His modest-looking works are pinned simply to the walls or displayed in glass cases. Understated it is easy to miss the subtle associations and multiple links that his works cleverly weave.

Irishman Richard Mosse takes finely crafted images of war-torn Congo, but in a simple twist shoots them on false-colour infra-red film. The resultant images here are predominantly pink-hued and provide an other-wordly beauty to scenes that would otherwise be relatively mundane. Mosse effectively points at the failure of documentary photography and its inability to adequately communicate this horrific cycle of violence.

Lorna Simpson’s work initially appears to be a series of found 1950’s images of women in varied poses. On a closer look Simpson has interred parallel images of herself taken in similar format and style. Emphasizing a conceptual and performative approach, she asks questions of the predominately male gaze as well as identity, and culture.

And the winner was…. Richard Mosse. Of course. Another worthy winner in a series of excellent Prize exhibitions. Oh yes, and don’t forget to visit the excellent cafe.

The Deutsche Börse Photography prize 2014 is at The Photographers Gallery, Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW until 13 July 2014.

 

Ruin Lust at Tate Britain

I’m not sure whether Phyllida Barlow’s Duveen commission dock (reviews by AKUTA here) was scheduled before Ruin Lust but on the surface this looks like an intelligent pairing of exhibitions. With Barlow’s wonderful, monumental constructions of industrial ‘debris’ filling the central parts of the building, an exhibition that looks at our fascination with the subject should be rich with possibilities. The words Ruin Lust, by the way, deriving from the German word Ruinenlust, an obsession with, or taking pleasure in, decay.

It all starts promisingly with John Martin’s magnificent Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum and  Jane and Louise Wilson’s imposing wartime bunker, Azeville. Not unexpectedly we then find plenty of 19th century romantic visions of classical ruins amongst idealised landscapes. We have John  Sell Cotman and JMW Turner’s wonderful Tintern Abbey for example.

Less expected are works from others like Eduardo Paolozzi, Patrick Caulfield and John Stezaker. Just how were these artists obsessed with decay? John Stezaker has exactly zero connection with the subject of this exhibition, his inclusion down to the fact that the featured works happened to collage a couple of old postcards of photogenic ruins on to his trademark film publicity photos, creating new meanings. And Paolozzi? Caulfield?

Next comes Tacita Dean and Kodak. Less about ruin and decay this is more a self-reverential elegy to the medium of film and is only marginally relevant to the exhibitions subject.

At this point I have to admit I switched off for the remaining, less than attention-grabbing, four rooms. It was crystal clear that the curators were starting with a catchy title to then shoe-horn artworks with superficial relevance to then claim they were part of a greater whole.

Furthermore the choice of artists haphazard, the selection of work poor, many selected pieces downright dreadful and the hanging almost random. To rub salt in to the wound the accompanying exhibition book was equally low quality.

To me this was a shallow and poorly conceived exhibition with many mediocre works amongst a handful of interesting ones. I beg you not to waste £10 – see Phyllida Barlow and spend your hard-earned tenner in the cafe instead.

Ruin Lust is at Tate Britain until 18 May 2014.

 

Exciting Contemporary Art Arrives in the Cotswolds

‘Exciting’ and ‘contemporary art‘ are not words that you would usually associate with the word ‘Cotswolds‘ – Land Rovers, Labradors and Leaders of the Conservative party perhaps come to mind more readily. Other than a mere handful of galleries in Oxford and Bristol the whole region has a desperate dearth of places where one can reasonably claim to be able to enjoy the type of contemporary art which one could genuinely define as being ‘innovative’ or ‘fresh’.

Jonny Briggs

Fortunately this has now changed. The new owners of an historic grade II listed Victorian gothic mansion (apologies for the mouthful, but that’s exactly what it is) have opened a new contemporary art space, High House Gallery. For the last 18 months they have been bringing all that is innovative and interesting from the London art scene out in to the (contemporary) artistic wilderness that is ‘Poshtershire’.

Adeline de Monseignat

Located in Clanfield, close to the border between Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire the indoor space has a rotating exhibition programme whilst the formal gardens have hosted garden displays of contemporary works – do not think stone and bronze, instead how about concrete, glass, steel and whalebone (!).

Rinko-Kawauchi

Exhibitions so far have mostly tented towards the pick of recent graduates from top London art colleges such as Chelsea, St Martins, Goldsmiths and RCA. Lindsey Bull, Gabriella Boyd, Tom Howse and  are excellent examples of HHG artists that should go far.

Gabriella Boyd

In addition there are a sprinkling of talented overseas artists like the Portuguese photographer Virgilio Ferreira and US artist Andrew Leventis.

Andrew Leventis

Furthermore the gallery not only consults on all aspects of contemporary art but holds a stock of top international artists. Quality pieces are currently available to buy from the likes of George Shaw, John Stezaker, Ryan McGinley and Mariah Robertson.

Mariah Robertson

The big news for the start of next year is that the opening exhibition of the 2014 season features a touring version of the highly regarded Griffin Art Prize. Fitting well with the gallery ethos it is limited to recent (5 year limit) graduates. The shortlist for the prize is currently on show at the Griffin Gallery in West London. For those who have not been able to see the show there its excursion out to the Cotswolds is well worth catching.

Griffin Art Prize

Visit the High House website to register for news of new exhibitions and events by email, Facebook or Twitter.

Griffin Art Prize 2013 touring show is at High House Gallery 16 January – 16 February 2014.

Related articles

• Elizabeth Price wins £60,000 Contemporary Art Society Annual Award (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Virgilio Ferreira – Uncanny Places at High House Gallery (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Griffin Art Prize 2013 Touring Venues Announced (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Contemporary art in London (paulsmith.co.uk)

john stezaker wins deutsche borse prize 2012

John Stezaker was announced as the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize winner at The Photographers Gallery last night. As I cleverly predicted in a recent blog Stezaker snaffled the £30,000 first price from the shortlist of four. Actually I can claim little credit for being particularly perceptive as there seemed to be a general consensus within those I haven spoken to about the award that he was the clear favourite for this years prize. 

I feel rather sorry for the runners up because the playing field was not that level. The prize is judged on a ‘specific body of work’ and in this case it was Stezaker’s Whitechapel show – ie: a review of his entire life’s work – whilst his competitors merely offered up specific collections such as Rinko Kawauchi‘s Illuminations book.

Still, his win was well deserved. He received his prize from past winner Juergen Teller. All speeches were gratifyingly brief, with a very modest Stezaker making a short Oscar-worthy speech thanking everyone down to his 11 year old son.

The exhibition comprising the shortlist of four – Stezaker, Rinko Kawauchi, Pieter Hugo and John Williams – is still on for another week. I would recommend that you catch it whilst you can.

The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2012 exhibition is at The Photographers Gallery until 9 September 2012

High House Gallery is currently featuring John Stezaker in The Momentarily Absurd exhibition, running until 16 September 2012. They currently have two works available for sale.

Related articles

• deutsche borse prize at the photographers gallery (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)
• Deutsche Börse photography prize 2012 – review (guardian.co.uk)
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• Deutsche Börse Prize, Photographers’ Gallery, review (telegraph.co.uk)

deutsche borse prize at the photographers gallery

The recently refurbished Photographers Gallery in Ramillies Street (tucked somewhere behind Liberty’s) is now an essential stop on any arty day in central London. Following on from the excellent, if safe, Edward Burtynsky exhibition is the show for the four finalists for the annual Deutsche Borse Prize.

This years finalists are John Stezaker, fresh from his successful show at the Whitechapel last year, Rinko Kawauchi,  Pieter Hugo and Christopher Williams.

Stezaker here presents some familiar works. Faces are overlaid with scenic postcards – caves or tunnels intriguingly merging with anthropomorphic features. Film stars’ promotional photos are sliced and merged – male & female becoming strange and schizophrenic wholes. Least immediate, but strangely compulsive are his ‘lost figures’ –  cut from larger images these tiny photographic fragments feature blurry or featureless lone figures snatched from obscurity and given their moment in the limelight.

Rinko Kawauchi is famed for his/her photobooks that feature delicate images that snatch moments of sublime beauty from the everyday. The work is quite masterful in creating such captivating images from almost nothing – a technique that many attempt but few get close to mastering. Yet, for me, on the gallery wall its poetic power and beauty is drained. Its delicacy is somehow lost. Better see these images in her photobooks like Illuminance (Heidelberg Press July 2011, appx £35).

Christopher Williams captures images of cameras, models, vehicles and other technical apparatus. Alluding to and borrowing from the world of advertising, his conceptual approach supposedly ‘questions our understanding of reality as reflected and communicated to us through photographs’. Passed me by I’m afraid.

Pieter Hugo’s work is based in Ghana and features large-scale portraits of the slum-dwellers whose lives revolve around a vast dump for technological waste. The works are poignant and beautifully executed, but nevertheless I had the feeling I had seen similar many times before, not least in endless Sunday magazine supplements.

The prize is theoretically based on particular bodies of work. Stezaker for example on his Whitechapel show, Kawauchi on the book Illuminance and so on. Stezaker wins hands-down on the walls of the gallery and is the likely and deserved winner, but Kawauchi’s book is so special that I have a feeling it might sneak off with the prize.

Make your own choice until 9 September 2012 at The Photographers Gallery.

Also at TPG until 9 September 2012 is a wonderful exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Photobooks. Pop on the fashionable white gloves supplied and browse through hundreds of amazing books. Allow loads of time and take a break in their pleasant caff.

Related articles

• Deutsche Börse photography prize 2012 – review (guardian.co.uk)
• Deutsche Börse Prize, Photographers’ Gallery, review (telegraph.co.uk)
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• Deutsche Börse Photography prize 2012: Lights, wastelands, the Cold War, and golden-era Hollywood (itsnicethat.com)
• edward burtynsky : oil – at the photographers gallery (akickupthearts.wordpress.com)