Spooky Films, D/R/U/G/S and External Pressure: This Month in Northwest Art
With many big-name shows closing at the end of May and so many opening at the beginning of June, it's all change on the Northwest art scene. Plan your month in art with our pick of the best exhibitions and events
The last few weeks brought us late party nights in museums and galleries across the Northwest, a general election and the whisperings of summertime. The late nights were fun, we ended up with a depressing Tory government and it’s started raining again. Woo-bloody-hoo. Let’s get on to what’s happening in Northwest art this month, with our round-up of the best art exhibitions in Liverpool, Manchester and beyond.
There are plenty of shows to catch at the end of May, entering their final weeks. Some key ones include Leonora Carrington and Cathy Wilkes at Tate Liverpool, Eastern Exchanges at Manchester Art Gallery and Cornelia Parker at the Whitworth, which all close on 31 May. A good opportunity to catch Parker's show would be the gallery's next Thursday Late on 28 May. The lineup includes a screening of DJ Spooky’s film Rebirth of a Nation, based on and remixed from DW Griffith's infamous 1915 film. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Spooky himself. The whole event starts at 7pm and although it’s free, you need to book. Head to the Whitworth website to reserve your seat.
Moving into June, Waterside Arts Centre in Sale opens its new exhibition, One Year On, on 5 June (preview 6-8pm). The show brings together the prizewinners from 2014’s Open exhibition and continues to 19 September. Also opening the same weekend is PAPER gallery’s new show (6 Jun-18 Jul), which showcases new work from the nine artists who have been part of the recent Tracing PAPER mentoring scheme.
Back again to the Whitworth later on in June for all you young 'uns out there (well, 15-25 year olds anyway). The Whitworth Young Contemporaries will be staging their first event in the gallery on 11 June from 6pm to 9pm. They've already announced their initial lineup, which includes D/R/U/G/S, BPM, Lady Ice, Project Jam Sandwich and Inna Voice alongside screenprinting workshops from One69a, graffiti from OutHouse and spoken word from Young Identity; and, it seems, tons more is still to be announced.
One of Manchester’s newest spaces, TAG (The Adaptable Gallery), located at 235 Deansgate, opens its second exhibition this month – new painting, prints and light-boxes from James Moss. The show is open every day until 21 June, 8am-6pm (Sundays 9am-5pm).
In Liverpool, The Royal Standard launch their summer series of LIVE! events on 12 June. Each evening will feature new experimental performance work; first up is recent UCLan MA graduate Rachel Pursglove, who will carry out a live performance of her video work The Struggle, which deals with objects as the manifestation or embodiment of external pressure (7-9pm). The second performance (26 Jun, 7-9pm) is apparently about restricting the time people go to the toilet in museums and galleries. Yikes.
From 6 to 14 June, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival hits the city once again, and the full programme has just been released. Some highlights of the nine-day festival will be its film strand, with shorts from The Yemen Peace Project and a selection of films from the BBC Arabic Festival 2014 shown at FACT and the Bluecoat; it also includes intros, panel discussions and Q&As. (Check the LAAF website for the most up-to-date info.) From 6 Jun, Unity Theatre will be hosting the festival's main exhibition, Silent Voices, from Liverpool-based photographer Elaine Stapleton, who captures everyday life in Bil’in, a village in occupied Palestine, by giving children aged between eight and 18 cameras to explore their own lives and surroundings. This work will be displayed alongside Stapleton's own.
Just to finish us off this month – did you know that Jason Donovan tickets went on sale last Friday? His solo tour of his 1989 album, Ten Good Reasons, and his Greatest Hits is coming to Leeds Town Hall on 4 Mar and Glasgow on 12 Mar 2016. A lot of us [or perhaps just our Northwest Art Editor? - Ed] used to have a Donovan poster torn out of Smash Hits on our bedroom wall (you know, before we got cool and thought we were gothy emo skater ‘alternative’ or whatever). So you can sing along to Too Many Broken Hearts, and Especially for You, that sappy one with Kylie Minogue before she got cool and thought she was Madonna.