Art in Liverpool and Manchester: March-April 2016
What's on in Northwest art this month, you might wonder? Well, since you asked, here's our guide to some of the best exhibitions in Liverpool and Manchester over the coming weeks – from top bantz to skoob towers...
Have you noticed it’s been a little bit warmer recently? I actually left the house this week wearing just a cardigan, no coat – no joke.
According to NASA and the Guardian and some guy from Germany, February was the warmest month in the history of Februarys and now we are in a ‘climate emergency’. Fun when you get some end-of-the-world stuff in the morning; makes a change from Brexit, which should be a brand of biscuit but seems to be more serious.
You might think this is unrelated to the occupation of art but it does mean the climate allows for escaping questionable performances (girls making drawings about the Japanese tsunami in squid ink-soaked noodles?) by chatting/smoking outside. Just saying.
Anyway. Spring is a busy time in Northwest art and a good time to get around some pre-festival-crazed exhibitions. So let’s have a look at what’s happening across the region shall we? Good.
New exhibitions in Manchester
A highlight coming up at the end of April will be Katie Paterson’s new solo exhibition at The Lowry (29 Apr-17 Jul). Entitled Syzygy, an astronomic term which apparently 'describes an alignment of celestial bodies, specifically a straight-line configuration of the sun, earth and moon which is believed to cause moonquakes and more powerful ocean tides,' the show will include all manner of nature, ecology, geology and cosmology, and an overuse of the world 'major'.
Getting a bit more domestic, Joe Fletcher Orr’s new solo exhibition opens at The International 3 on 23 March (with a preview the previous week, 18 Mar, 6-8pm). Entitled Mummy’s Boy, the show is kind of about Orr’s relationship with his parents and includes some plant pots he has been making at a pottery class with his mum.
Joe Fletcher Orr – Welcome Fruit, 2016
Pizza place/gallery PLY are raising money and awareness for young person’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent with an interactive photography exhibition and a series of fashion-led events throughout March. Punters will find cameras placed around the venue which they can play with and the results will form an exhibition, opening on 31 March. Grab a pig’s cheek and artichoke pizza (really, really good), take some snaps and show support.
Over in Levenshulme, Bankley Gallery open their newly refurbished gallery space with an immersive installation by Holly Rowan Hesson. She has just completed a residency with &Model gallery in Leeds which resulted in a solo exhibition of new work, and this new installation is an extension of that – abstract colour, light nodding to architecture and photographic processes – as well as a good opportunity to explore the new Bankley space. The exhibition is only open Saturdays (19, 26 Mar and 2 Apr, 12-4pm; preview 18 Mar, 6-8pm).
New exhibitions in Liverpool
The Royal Standard invites you to laugh with, at and in their group exhibition TOP BANTZ, which includes Kim Laughton, Susannah Hewlett, Lewk Wilmshurst, Milly Peck, Jack Fisher and Jack Strange. The artists will be exploring the relationships between the artist, the comedian, the stand-up and the game show host. Shows focusing on humour rarely result in many LOLs but the artist selection is super so this should be a good one to check out. TOP BANTZ will be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 April to 1 May (12pm-5pm). The private view is on 1 April (6-9pm), April Fools’ Day, of course.
More humour can be found at the Bluecoat’s new exhibition Double Act: Art and Comedy, which is held jointly at the Bluecoat and at The MAC, Belfast and opens on 9 April. The show has invited 16 international artists and explores their approaches to comedy 'ranging from the bodily humour of slapstick to more conceptual articulations of wit.' One of the artists is called Gemma Marmalade, which is funny in itself (sorry Gemma).
At Tate Liverpool, visitors have until 31 March to experience Art Gym, a project organised between Tate Collective and recent Turner Prize winners Assemble. Some of the workshops still on offer include building mobile apps, woodblock printing and a 'wellmaking clinic' (30 Mar, 1pm-4pm), where artist Sarah Corbett will give you a creative diagnosis and prescribe activities, films, books and magazines to get you up and running again.
There are also a few talks left on the schedule: Bedwyr Williams on 26 March and Assemble themselves on 31 March. All activities and events are free but you have to book.
New exhibitions in Leeds
A series of events inspired by and riffing off conceptual artist John Latham’s work will be taking place at the Henry Moore Institute in April. The first 'event sculpture', Skoob Tower (20 April, 5.30pm), will see artist Neil White recreate Latham’s skoob towers – reference books set alight in a tower/chimney formation – and lead a gallery discussion. These events run alongside an exhibition of Latham’s work in the Henry Moore galleries and come at a timely moment as Flat Time House, Latham’s house/museum/archive (what Latham called a “living sculpture”) in London, is due to close its doors for good this year.
The Henry Moore exhibition will be an opportunity to reflect on Latham’s legacy and influence. I’m sure we will be seeing the impact of this exhibition in the degree shows coming up around the region soon.