Sarah Jane Lynagh

Dear darkness, won't you cover me again? 2008

Sarah Jane Lynagh makes images that are seductive and repellent, using offal and meat products on the human body to evoke feelings that something is habitual yet out of place and threatening. I was disturbed when I saw one of her photographs in an interesting new gallery called Dare to Joust, 64 White Hart Lane, Barnes SW13. I was also attracted to these strangely compelling images. You can see more on her website.

ATLAS gallery

I set off to see the second polaroid show in London this month at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, London W1, on the corner of Chiltern Street where I also discovered the Andy Warhol show and the Charles Le Dray installation. I love that even after 47 years of London life I am still discovering new streets and places to visit.

When Andy Warhol Had A Boss

A wonderful exhibition of Andy Warhol's commercial work produced for clients at the delightful A&D Gallery, 51 Chiltern Street, London W1. The exhibition continues until 31 October.

The Birthday Party

Hylton Nel

David Clarke

Flow Gallery, 1-5 Needham Road, London W11 celebrate their 10th Birthday with an exhibition of work by 12 artists nominated by 12 women collectors. The exhibition continues until 21 November. Happy Birthday Flow!

Riflemaker

Opened in 2004 by collectors Virginia Damtsa and Tot Taylor, Riflemaker is housed in London's oldest public building, a Georgian riflemaker's workshop dating from 1712. Their aim is to exhibit the most ambitious and extraordinary work by the very best young and emerging artists of this era in this unique architectural space. Riflemaker has presented debuts by Jamie Shovlin, Francesca Lowe, Jaime Gili and Chosil Kil as well as themed exhibitions on William S. Burroughs, the Indica gallery - 'Riflemaker becomes Indica' - the Liliane Lijn/NASA collaboration 'Stardust', John Maeda's virtual exploration, 'Maeda/Myspace', Alasdair Gray and Francesca Lowe's 'Terminus' and an investigation of 'Voodoo: Hoochie-Coochie and the Creative Spirit'. 79, Beak Street, Soho, London W1.

Maurizio Anzeri

Magdalen 2009 21.5x16.5, embroidery on found photo

Round Midnight 2008/09 45x60cm, embroidery on paper


Ghost of a chance 2009, 220cm high, synthetic hair,threads




3 sculptures, 2009 synthetic hair, threads

Showing at one of the best galleries in London (in my humble opinion) Riflemaker gallery in Soho, Italian artist Maurizio Anzeri's life-size hair sculptures portray the human form as hollow sarcophagi. Anzeri (b. 1969 Loano, Italy) teases and spins hair into tightly-wove plaits and rolls, creating a body-bag of coiffured assumption.

The artist creates an additional classification system through needlework and embroidery, a second Anzerian semiology. In addition to the sculptures, found family photographs are reinvented with embroidered threads of colour pulled tight to create new facial contours. New expressions radiate from the eyes of strangers, needlework veils mask what was. The show continues until 26th May.

The Photographic Object

damage (glass) by Catherine Yass 2005

The Photographers' Gallery has moved from Covent Garden to 16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1. Their current show is The Photographic Object. The artists in this exhibition use stitching, cutting, piercing and punching to explore the ambiguous space between two and three dimensions. I particularly liked the work of Maurizio Anzeri who is also showing work down the road at Riflemaker gallery.

Ray Johnson

Ray Johnson

Raven Row’s inaugural exhibition is the first large UK show of the collages and mailings of New York artist Ray Johnson (1927–1995). Johnson used radical means to construct and distribute images, inadvertently inventing the ‘mail art movement’. He made art out of social life – both real and imagined – gathering celebrities, the art world, and friends into his work.

Raven Row

Raven Row is a new non-profit contemporary art exhibition centre in Spitalfields that is open free to the public, Wednesdays to Sundays. It has been constructed within eighteenth century domestic rooms, onto which 6a Architects have added two contemporary galleries, and it stands on the part of Artillery Lane that was known as Raven Row until 1895. I visited the gallery last week, their opening show is a retrospective of work by American artist Ray Johnson. It is a truly wonderful show in a very beautiful setting.

Mythologies

Christian Boltanski

Haunch of Venison has launched its new London exhibition programme at 6 Burlington Gardens with a group exhibition acknowledging the building's previous role as the Museum of Mankind. Turning the 21,500 square feet gallery into a giant cabinet of curiosities, 'Mythologies' will feature work by over 40 international artists, including Christian Boltanski. The exhibition continues until 25 April and admission is free.

Fiona's Shoe

Juliet and Romeo, a play without words by John Latham, will be performed as part of an event Fiona's Shoe curated by Stewart Home at the South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Road, London SE5. Saturday 7th March at 7.30 pm. Tickets £5.

Persistent Obsessions

Neon Couch by Tina Keane

STUART BRISLEY WILLIAM GREEN TINA KEANE CHRIS KENNY

GEORGIA RUSSELL HARALD SMYKLA JASON WALLIS-JOHNSON

Persistent Obsessions at England & Co, 216 Westbourne Grove, London continues until 8 November. The works in this exhibition explore patterns of practice that reflect obsession and persistence—repetitive methods, recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses and images, and obsessive making. All display compulsions, fixations and determination. Obsessions are recurring, persistent thoughts, ideas and feelings that completely occupy the mind; while persistence itself is the insistently repetitive, continuous and obstinate perseverance on a course of action.

Cut and Paste

Enrico Prampolini, Broom, vol.3 no.3, 1922,

Merrill C. Berman Collection

Cut and Paste - European photomontage 1920-1945 at the Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1 is on until 21 December. Admission £3.50. If you have not visited this gallery - it is a very beautiful space with a good cafe too!

Juan Fontanive

Juan Fontanive is also exhibiting new work, Tin Tan at Riflemaker until 8 November.

"My influences include clocks, drums, repetition, things that hang from the ceiling. Physical quarrels, relationships (of objects), tigers, and the persistence of vision. Literary influences are Borges, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and the theorists Derrida and Althusser. Also, memory is a good source for ideas - I've been thinking recently a lot about the house I grew up in and dreams I've had about that house."Juan Fontanive.

Chosil Kil

Chosil Kil has an exhibition of recent work, drawerings at Riflemaker, 79 Beak Street, London W1. A beautiful exhibition space, housed in a Georgian riflemaker's workshop in Soho, dating from 1712. The exhibition continues until 8 November.

Luna & CURIOUS

Luna & CURIOUS 198 Brick Lane, London E1

Be very curious...

Tea's Up!

Contemporary Applied Arts , 2 Percy Street, London W1 is celebrating it's 60th birthday with this extravagant exhibition of English eccentricity, the cup of tea. It is a fun exhibition and there were fairy cakes galore on the opening night.

"never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, doesn't try it on!"
Billy Connolly

was the great quote on the invitation although unless I am mistaken, there was a distinct lack of tea-cosies in the show.

Domestic Appliance

After the quiet contemplation in the Geffrye museum with all those rooms steeped in history, I came across this exhibition of wild and crazy kinetic sculptures made from domestic objects at the new Flowers East gallery at 82 Kingsland Road, London E2. Well worth a visit - be prepared to be shocked and suprised!!

Tate Modern

egg

Something exciting is happening at egg. The gallery space is opposite the shop at 36 Kinnerton Street, London SW1.