Author Archives: Vici MacDonald
West End whammy: Tom Wolseley’s “House”
• One object of an art trawl is to discover talented artists I’ve never come across before, and on a West End jaunt I’ve just found two whose installations struck me as outstanding: the first being Tom Wolseley [more]
West End whammy: Tom Wolseley’s “House”
• One object of an art trawl is to discover talented artists I’ve never come across before, and on a West End jaunt I’ve just found two whose installations struck me as outstanding: the first being Tom Wolseley [more]
Wind and strings: five of Documenta 13′s best
• I’ve given a venue-by venue guide to Documenta 13 next door, but here in more depth are five exhibits I especially enjoyed, from moving musical memories to a breezy empty room [more]
Wind and strings: five of Documenta 13′s best
• I’ve given a venue-by venue guide to Documenta 13 next door, but here in more depth are five exhibits I especially enjoyed, from moving musical memories to a breezy empty room [more]
An illustrated guide to Documenta 13
• With themes including books and bunkers, moons and mountains, apples and atoms, five-yearly art-fest Documenta is overwhelming – so here’s a guide to seeing the best of it [more]
An illustrated guide to Documenta 13
• With themes including books and bunkers, moons and mountains, apples and atoms, five-yearly art-fest Documenta is overwhelming – so here’s a guide to seeing the best of it [more]
Rosalie Gascoigne: a haunting afterglow
• A look back at some striking late works from an artist who gave dignified new life to outmoded detritus and turned abandoned retro-reflective roadsigns into stuttering poetry [more]
Rosalie Gascoigne: a haunting afterglow
• A look back at some striking late works from an artist who gave dignified new life to outmoded detritus and turned abandoned retro-reflective roadsigns into stuttering poetry [more]
Hirst v. Spalding: of blow-flies and blow-hards
• Or, the pointlessness of arguing about Damien Hirst’s posterity in the time of someone currently living – why Julian Spalding is just a wily suckerfish feeding off the droppings of a juicy shark [more]
Hirst v. Spalding: of blow-flies and blow-hards
• Or, the pointlessness of arguing about Damien Hirst’s posterity in the time of someone currently living – why Julian Spalding is just a wily suckerfish feeding off the droppings of a juicy shark [more]
David Shrigley: brain food and mind loops
• Why an obsessive taxonomy would better suit Shrigley’s catalogue of absurdity than the Hayward’s polite “Brain Activity”, and an odd echo with a top Antipodean artist [more]
David Shrigley: brain food and mind loops
• Why an obsessive taxonomy would better suit Shrigley’s catalogue of absurdity than the Hayward’s polite “Brain Activity”, and an odd echo with a top Antipodean artist [more]
Fitzrovia gallery guide and walking map
• There are now over 20 contemporary galleries in London’s charmingly rackety Fitzrovia, so here’s a map and walking guide to this emerging art district just south of the Frieze site [more]
Fitzrovia gallery guide and walking map
• There are now over 20 contemporary galleries in London’s charmingly rackety Fitzrovia, so here’s a map and walking guide to this emerging art district just south of the Frieze site [more]
How info-lite museum labels deprive us all
• The quality of the Herbert’s holdings made me want to know more about several pieces, but the labels failed to deliver. To use some dumbed-down labelling myself, #epicfail [more]
How info-lite museum labels deprive us all
• The quality of the Herbert’s holdings made me want to know more about several pieces, but the labels failed to deliver. To use some dumbed-down labelling myself, #epicfail [more]
George Shaw: scenes of mortality and wonder
• Suburban unease in Coventry’s Herbert Gallery: the Humbrol devotionals of George Shaw, plus three small-town masterworks by Carel Weight, Stanley Spencer and LS Lowry [more]
George Shaw: scenes of mortality and wonder
• Suburban unease in Coventry’s Herbert Gallery: the Humbrol devotionals of George Shaw, plus three small-town masterworks by Carel Weight, Stanley Spencer and LS Lowry [more]
Yayoi Kusama: beyond the infinity room
• Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling “Infinity Room” at Tate Modern recalls Japan’s Gutai group and three glittering installations by Tatsuo Miyajima, Chu Yun and Cildo Meireles [more]
Yayoi Kusama: beyond the infinity room
• Yayoi Kusama’s dazzling “Infinity Room” at Tate Modern recalls Japan’s Gutai group and three glittering installations by Tatsuo Miyajima, Chu Yun and Cildo Meireles [more]
From Kusama to Shrigley by artist’s tube map
• London’s tube maps are currently decorated by Yayoi Kusama, with the 15th artist’s cover since 2004. But can you remember the other 14 – and was David Shrigley’s scribble the best? [more]
From Kusama to Shrigley by artist’s tube map
• London’s tube maps are currently decorated by Yayoi Kusama, with the 15th artist’s cover since 2004. But can you remember the other 14 – and was David Shrigley’s scribble the best? [more]
Four abstract artists in painterly conversation
• From wrestling metal to pouring paint, from modernism to microscopy – an engrossing talk on abstraction with DJ Simpson, Daniel Sturgis, Mark Francis and Ian Davenport [more]
Four abstract artists in painterly conversation
• From wrestling metal to pouring paint, from modernism to microscopy – an engrossing talk on abstraction with DJ Simpson, Daniel Sturgis, Mark Francis and Ian Davenport [more]
A “Fifth Plinth” at the arse end of Elephant
• New art in gritty south London: a life size breeze block replica of Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth, some blokey Mesolithic primitives, and an enjoyable show of non-painted painting [more]
A “Fifth Plinth” at the arse end of Elephant
• New art in gritty south London: a life size breeze block replica of Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth, some blokey Mesolithic primitives, and an enjoyable show of non-painted painting [more]
David Hockney: bigger pictures, smaller splash
• Hockney can be brilliant, but the overblown “A Bigger Picture” shows him below par – if only he would start reporting honestly again rather than relying on bravura technique like an old rock star [more]
David Hockney: bigger pictures, smaller splash
• Hockney can be brilliant, but the overblown “A Bigger Picture” shows him below par – if only he would start reporting honestly again rather than relying on bravura technique like an old rock star [more]
When Rodin met Buren at Turner-on-Sea
• Brian Sewell calls it Slough-on-Sea, but I enjoyed a clash of old and new at Margate’s Turner Contemporary – and I don’t mean JMW Turner’s watercolours and Hamish Fulton’s walks [more]
When Rodin met Buren at Turner-on-Sea
• Brian Sewell calls it Slough-on-Sea, but I enjoyed a clash of old and new at Margate’s Turner Contemporary – and I don’t mean JMW Turner’s watercolours and Hamish Fulton’s walks [more]
Stalking Bernd Becher in Düsseldorf
• How I accidentally stalked the great photographer Bernd Becher, plus five things to see in arty Düsseldorf, including Gursky’s slime-green Rhine and a road named after Joseph Beuys [more]
Stalking Bernd Becher in Düsseldorf
• How I accidentally stalked the great photographer Bernd Becher, plus five things to see in arty Düsseldorf, including Gursky’s slime-green Rhine and a road named after Joseph Beuys [more]
Gimme shelter (of the sad-busting kind)
• Two equally idealistic, but visually very different artists’ shelters sharing a weedy London canal basin: a DIY geodesic dome on a wonky jetty, and this icily-lit SAD-busting pavilion [more]
Gimme shelter (of the sad-busting kind)
• Two equally idealistic, but visually very different artists’ shelters sharing a weedy London canal basin: a DIY geodesic dome on a wonky jetty, and this icily-lit SAD-busting pavilion [more]
Hello Art Orbit, bye bye Art Anorak
• I used to keep a sporadic Tumblr blog called Art Anorak. I’ve now moved to this Wordpress blog, which will be art-specific, and updated regularly. I still tweet as @ArtAnorak though.
Hello Art Orbit, bye bye Art Anorak
• I used to keep a sporadic Tumblr blog called Art Anorak. I’ve now moved to this Wordpress blog, which will be art-specific, and updated regularly. I still tweet as @ArtAnorak though.
Pipilotti Rist: overrated underpants?
• Is Pipilotti Rist’s work popular because you get to chillax in front of rave films starring naked women – or was there more to her recent Hayward show than just installations of pants? [more]
Pipilotti Rist: overrated underpants?
• Is Pipilotti Rist’s work popular because you get to chillax in front of rave films starring naked women – or was there more to her recent Hayward show than just installations of pants? [more]
Unputdownable architecture rant
• Just finished reading this book, Owen Hatherley’s The New Ruins of Great Britain – who’d have thought an extended architecture rant could be so unputdownable? Over the last decade I’ve visited most [more]
Unputdownable architecture rant
• Just finished reading this book, Owen Hatherley’s The New Ruins of Great Britain – who’d have thought an extended architecture rant could be so unputdownable? Over the last decade I’ve visited most [more]
Mark Wallinger’s mysterious mark
• I couldn’t decide if “Mark” was a moniker or a conceptual statement when I first spotted this mysterious piece of graffiti politely chalked in the middle of acres of brick wall, but it struck me as a clever, so [more]
Mark Wallinger’s mysterious mark
• I couldn’t decide if “Mark” was a moniker or a conceptual statement when I first spotted this mysterious piece of graffiti politely chalked in the middle of acres of brick wall, but it struck me as a clever, so [more]
On Kawara, Cumberland and Winehouse
• On Kawara daily states that he’s alive; Stuart Cumberland names works after dead people; and on the day Amy Winehouse died, I had a thought-provoking encounter with all three of them [more]
On Kawara, Cumberland and Winehouse
• On Kawara daily states that he’s alive; Stuart Cumberland names works after dead people; and on the day Amy Winehouse died, I had a thought-provoking encounter with all three of them [more]
A found Phyllida Barlow sculpture (not)
• Languishing outside some artists’ studios in Bethnal Green I found this abandoned table, which looked to me like a sculpture by Phyllida Barlow. It’s not in insult – she’s influenced a large [more]
A found Phyllida Barlow sculpture (not)
• Languishing outside some artists’ studios in Bethnal Green I found this abandoned table, which looked to me like a sculpture by Phyllida Barlow. It’s not in insult – she’s influenced a large [more]
Banksy’s subterranean grot spot revisited
• In a grotty tunnel under Waterloo Station, Banksy once launched a weekend of street art called The Cans Festival (Cannes Festival, geddit?) – and this guy’s photographing some of the remains [more]
Banksy’s subterranean grot spot revisited
• In a grotty tunnel under Waterloo Station, Banksy once launched a weekend of street art called The Cans Festival (Cannes Festival, geddit?) – and this guy’s photographing some of the remains [more]
Gavin Turk graffiti work lost beneath dross
• Pictured here are two stencilled Gavin Turk signatures found two years ago on London’s South Bank. Today I discovered Turk’s works have disappeared, as the before and after images show [more]
Gavin Turk graffiti work lost beneath dross
• Pictured here are two stencilled Gavin Turk signatures found two years ago on London’s South Bank. Today I discovered Turk’s works have disappeared, as the before and after images show [more]
Watching The Clock in the wee hours
• After a night of immersion in Christian Marclay’s masterwork The Clock, sneaking past a lone toiling cleaner into the next-door hotel’s empty, over-lit washrooms was like being in a film of my own [more]
Watching The Clock in the wee hours
• After a night of immersion in Christian Marclay’s masterwork The Clock, sneaking past a lone toiling cleaner into the next-door hotel’s empty, over-lit washrooms was like being in a film of my own [more]
London West End fashion, art and ceramics walk
• I tailored this short West End walk for a friend visiting from Australia, who’s into art, ceramics and fashion. The shows were on in Nov 2010 but it’s a good route any time, and passes many [more]
London West End fashion, art and ceramics walk
• I tailored this short West End walk for a friend visiting from Australia, who’s into art, ceramics and fashion. The shows were on in Nov 2010 but it’s a good route any time, and passes many [more]
Nottingham art guide and map
• Nottingham has a crappy castle but some good galleries. I’ve updated this venue guide I made in 2010 when I visited British Art Show 7, so it’s still useful today. The best place to start is [more]
Nottingham art guide and map
• Nottingham has a crappy castle but some good galleries. I’ve updated this venue guide I made in 2010 when I visited British Art Show 7, so it’s still useful today. The best place to start is [more]
Derby art, craft beer and urban decay map
• Derby makes a good stopover for a Nottingham art trip, and has merits of its own. Here are nine of them: three exhibition venues, three pubs, and three decaying buildings. An idiosyncratic [more]
Derby art, craft beer and urban decay map
• Derby makes a good stopover for a Nottingham art trip, and has merits of its own. Here are nine of them: three exhibition venues, three pubs, and three decaying buildings. An idiosyncratic [more]
A mini-miscellany of Google art maps
• I love travelling to see art, and usually do a lot of research before making a trip, which I often compile on a Google map. It seems a pity to waste all this work, so I’m sharing my efforts [more]
A mini-miscellany of Google art maps
• I love travelling to see art, and usually do a lot of research before making a trip, which I often compile on a Google map. It seems a pity to waste all this work, so I’m sharing my efforts [more]
