Jerwood Drawing Prize
The Jerwood Prize is a good way to look at some new talent, see what trends there are in this area if practise as much as the wider scene. This year there were a few looser 'drawing' interpretations - slides, films etc - but the majority followed a traditional ink on paper route. Many of the selected works employed pseudo-scientific or mathematical means: maps (Louise Norman's Map Circle, drawing over all the lines; Margaret Proudfoot Caught, skeletal white map of Baghdad reversed and with all but the roads cut out; Tone Holmen Coastlines, overlaid drawings), graphs or charts (John Holden Grid 2; Sophie Horton Studio Environment and Library Environment, studying sound and drawing with embroidery; Mary Rouncefield Mathematics Problem I; Susie Parfitt Reasons for Non-Achievement), or experiments (Brighid Lowe's 2nd prize winning Rain Drawing, a large paper sheet with ink lines which had just a few beautiful marks from rain drops; Tim Knowles Tree Drawing - Scots Pine on Easel, Buttermere Shore #2, a personal favourite, allowing the gently blowing bows of a tree with a pen attached to inscribe lines on a page, displayed with accompanying photo).
Other works we liked: Graham Brown Princess Illumination, found objects; Jaconb Cartwright I Told You So; Mark Fairnington The Congregation; Shareena Hill The Secret; Sarah Hope Yri Debyg Iawn Ti A Fi; Donna Nicholson-Arnott Trio.
Nice to see Melanie Jackson's A Global Positioning System again, last seen at the Arnolfini in Bristol.
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Also two untitled drawings by Nicole Mollett, and Paul Westcombe's elaborately decorated paper coffee cups: Sex is Boring with Me, Westie's Wet Weekend, and You're Hardly Ever Here and When You're Here You're Bored - fantastic! and nicely placed close to the café. Until 28 October
Bernhard Martin at Union Gallery
This is the first UK solo show for Martin, housed in the Union's Ewer Street railway arch - a fantastic space in my opinion, the thunder of the services crawling round to Waterloo all part of the experience. Martin's paintings and sculptures/installations/contructions walk the line of figurative and abstraction like a sarcastic drunk: stumbling into both, deliberately taunting us with its oscillating swagger. I have some nice images of his paintings, but personally I prefered the sculptures which used some kitsch domestic objects, cuckoo clocks, plaster fantasy castles etc. There was kitsch and naff in some Germanic fantasy clash with Paul McCarthy, but with something of Martin Kippenberger also. Seemingly chaotic and violent, yet delicate; easily dismissed as flippant, and certainly humorous, yet strangely alluring and enriching. Very nice. Until 17 November
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Images courtesy the artist and Union, London
www.union-gallery.com
Halloween gigs:
The Semi Detached play Punk Soho (14 Soho Street) on 31 Oct, £6. They are also playing at The Pleasure Unit (359 Bethnal Green Road E1) on 25 Oct, 28 Nov and 19 Dec, £5 a go.
Dogbonfire play a Halloween Kabaret night called SEX at the Half Moon in Herne Hill (10 Half Moon Lane SE24) on 27 Oct, as part of Artful Festival, £5 with flyer/£6. www.kaparte.info
Lucky 7s @ the Gowlett (62 Gowlett Rd SE15) is a night in a very nice Peckham pub where you can bring 7 of your favourite 7" singles and play them; first come, first served, and they reserve the right to kick you off if no one likes it, which is a bit of a shame; but looks like fun! www.thegowlett.com
The Courtauld Gallery will be displaying Walter Sickert's Camden Nudes from 25 Oct until 20 Jan. There has been quite a lot of excitement about this. www.courtauld.ac.uk
Collective Response is a London Group show at the Guildhall Art Gallery until 11 Nov featuring works by John Piper, Duncan Grant and others. £2.50 to gallery collections and exhibitions, free on Fridays. www.guildhall-art-gallery.org.uk
Traces is 'an exhibition exploring the marks we leaves in time and place' (sounds intriguing), at RK Burt & Co Ltd (57 Union Street SE1) until 1 Nov M-F 10-5. www.kess.me.uk/traces
