Alicja Rogaska: Decamouflaging. By Vivian Checchia
An essay accompanying Alicja Rogalska’s exhibition ‘Other Voices’ by Viviana Checchia.
Remember Me: A review of Open Your Eyes
Remember Me Art Exchange’s exhibition ‘Open Your Eyes’ is a protest against forgetting. It showcases artists who are revisiting marginalised histories from Europe’s colonial past, thus fulfilling Steve McQueen’s neon artwork’s quiet but determined request, ‘Remember Me’. The show was organised as part of the University of Essex’s decolonising the curriculum programme, with the selected […]
Thierry Oussou: Impossible is Nothng.
Thierry Oussou describes his current practice as “social archaeology,” exploring the relationship between contemporary art and the ethnographic object. Through his artwork, he questions authenticity and visibility in relation to cultural heritage, and proposes a decolonised way of thinking in a postcolonial world. Impossible Is Nothing is a multi-media installation that documents a 2016 archaeological […]
Gone to Ground exhibition review
Gone to Ground To commemorate 25 years of the University of Essex’s collection of art from Latin American (ESCALA), Art Exchange hosts an exciting new exhibition, Gone to Ground. ESCALA launched in 1993 with a donation of a painting by Art History student, Charles Cosac. He claimed a need for more personal, object-based learning and […]
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018 Review
Bloomberg New Contemporaries South London Gallery 5 December 2018 – 24 February 2019 Established in 1949, the annual ‘ Bloomberg New Contemporaries’ exhibition continues to be an influential platform for emerging voices in the contemporary art world. Including 57 artists—all recent graduates from British art programmes— participants are chosen by a panel of influential […]
Interview with Deniz Üster
‘Citadel’ at Art Exchange An interview with artist Deniz Üster, who is exhibiting ‘Citadel’ in Art Exchange’s main gallery space. She talks to Jo Morton about the ideas behind this imaginative and insightful show. Üster transforms Art Exchange into a sci-fi inflected landscape. Reinventing Ron Herron’s idea of ‘walking cities’, ‘Citadel’ is a model of […]
Interview with New Geographies artist Maria Anastassiou
New Geographies at Art Exchange This is an interview with Maria Anastassiou, Art Exchange’s artist for the New Geographies project. Maria talks about the migrant communities in Tilbury that she is working with, and her thoughts on the role of the artist in post-Brexit Britain. The New Geographies project is a three year partnership between […]
Sharing Roots: On Plumb Poltergeist by Aaron Angell and Ian Law
Sharing Roots: On Plumb Poltergeist By Matthew Bowman Some exhibitions can feel perfectly spaced and capable of conjoining sparseness with plenitude. In entering Art Exchange to see Plumb Poltergeist, the viewer observes a number of works belonging to discrete groups. On the low rectangular plinth close to the door, are three inflatable stools dating from […]
Review of Chris Dobrowolski’s Remnants of Utopia
Chris Dobrowolski Remnants of Utopia 16 November – 16 December 2017 To coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Art Exchange explored the influence on the Soviet Union on artists working today, by offering a show to Chris Dobrowolski. In his response entitled ‘Remnants of Utopia’, conversations about political issues are inevitably raised, […]
Chris Dobrowolski: Offer Must End Soon
Jess Twyman I recently dug up a text I wrote on Chris’s previous exhibition ‘Offer Must End Soon’. Elements of his work have since developed – inevitably – but there are also some strands that continue to fascinate Chris and have found their way into our current show, ‘Remnants of Utopia’. Offer Must End Soon I first came across Chris Dobrowolski’s […]
Nur Aniqah Binte Sumadi
“El No Me Mires” by Carlos Amorales Carlos Amorales is an artist from Mexico City who experiments a variety of media for his artworks which includes video, animation, painting, drawing, sculpture and performance. He uses his artworks to explore the limitations of language and translation systems to analyse cultural experiments. As part of a trilogy, […]
Nur Aniqah Binte Sumadi on William Kentridge’s Monument
Monument (1990) by William Kentridge William Kentridge (born 28 April 1955) is a South African artist who employs techniques in printing, drawing and animated films as part of his work. The composition and media selection for his works play a significant role in the narrative that he aims to share to the audience. Most of […]
Lenin: The Man Behind the Finger
Colin Rideout, University of Essex Philosophy student and Art Exchange Frontrunner, responds to our exhibition, FALLEN, with his essay, Lenin: The Man Behind the Finger. Lenin: The Man Behind the Finger Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, was one of the most (in)famous and important figures of the 20th Century. His leadership […]
Review of 2 ‘political’ artists exhibitions – Mona Hatoum and Peter Kennard
Addressing issues of conflict in art is often contested territory. Do you say it loud and with absolute conviction, or do you create a space for reflection – to think and start a conversation? With this issue in mind I visited two ‘political’ artist’s exhibitions: Peter Kennard at the Imperial War Museum and Mona Hatoum at […]
Review of Safe European Home?
With the current political climate, social movements have triggered concerns regarding forms of living. Art has not been the exception, and in fact artists have extended the limits of art itself to zones by replacing traditional art materials with social relationships. The realm of art has become a neutral space to think about and discuss […]