NYLON - February 2008 - (Page 106) ART BREAKERS London’s art scene is flourishing like never before. So when you finally tire of downing pints and shopping for shoes, here’s how to get a culture fix. By Diane Vadino TATE MODERN Not just one of Europe’s most important art museums, the Tate Modern is also an architectural masterpiece. Its Turbine Hall is a reliable source for large-scale art experiments—witness last year’s amusement park-type slides by Carsten Höller and this year’s Shibboleth, derided by some as nothing more than (literal) cracks in the floor. Bankside SE1; 207.887.8888 tate.org.uk/modern ARTISTS TO WATCH Robert Ryan Ryan makes gorgeous, narrative paper-cut-outs for gallery exhibitions as well as for publications like Amelia’s Magazine and British Vogue, for which he created a paper-cut dress. His brilliant new book, This Is For You, is out in June, and if there is any justice, it’ll be a Seuss-like classic. misterrob.co.uk Rachel Ortas Ortas’s Ai Ai—brightly colored, rather amorphous creatures apparently from outer space— are trippy without being overly psychedelic, and childlike without being cloying. rachelortas.co.uk Julie Hill Hill, a recent graduate of the Royal College of Art, is as much a writer as an artist, as demonstrated by Sorry —a print tabulating the money owed for a variety of sins: including “for interrupting” (£2), and “for being far too drunk and trying to set you on fire” (£10). juliehill.co.uk LAZARIDES GALLERY Lazarides reps some of the country’s coolest artists, including Banksy, Gorillaz collaborator and Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett, and not one but two taxidermists. 8 Greek Street W1D; 203.214.0055 lazinc.com Sinta Tantra Tantra’s graphic silhouettes, often rendered in paint or vinyl, look especially good on a grand scale—like a mural she recently installed on Regents Park Bridge in Primrose Hill. sintatantra.co.uk PEER GALLERY Peer artists often go beyond the gallery walls in interesting ways: last year’s Bob and Roberta Smith exhibition included four distinct billboards, painted around the gallery’s East London neighborhood, advertising actual local businesses. This year’s archaeologicallyminded show from Tania Kovats involved excavating the earth beneath the gallery's floor and exhibiting the artifacts. 99 Hoxton Street N1; 207.739.8080 James Howard Howard was the Cinderella of this year’s graduation galleries: Charles Saatchi bought all the digital prints on view in his show at the Royal Academy. The winner of the Saatchi Gallery’s “4 New Sensations” competition, much of Maple’s works explore the contradictions of her religion, Islam, life as a woman in a thoroughly Western nation, and the tyranny of beauty. sarahmaple.com clockwise from top: Tate Modern, Sarah Maple's White Girl, White Cube gallery exterior. Natasha Law Nevermind that she’s Jude Law’s sister: Natasha is the family star. Law’s paintings and drawings brilliantly tread the line between sweet and sexy, knowing and innocent. voltzclarke.com TATE BRITAIN The comparatively staid Tate Britain provides a surfeit of paintings depicting horses and wind-whipped seas—plus, incongruously but fortunately, the Turner Prize competition. (In 2007 the competition decamped to Tate Liverpool, with Tate Britain hosting a Turner Prize retrospective.) Millbank SW1; 207.887.8888 tate.org.uk/britain Sarah Maple Cathy Lomax Cathy Lomax is a magazine publisher and the co-gallerist behind Transition Gallery, where Charles Saatchi first discovered Stella Vine, but she’s also an accomplished painter of wild, often disturbedlooking women (see her brilliant Fetish Girl, based on Thora Birch’s character in Ghost World). cathylomax.blogspot.com WHITE CUBE The spiritual and commercial home of the YBA movement, White Cube sits at the heart of the East London art scene, overlooking Hoxton Square, and still hosts plenty of important contemporary artists, like Gilbert & George, and Christian Marclay. 48 Hoxton Square N1; 207.930.5373 whitecube.com VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM The V&A, dedicated not only to art but to craft and design, reliably holds some of the city’s splashiest shows, like this fall’s couture extravaganza—and a deserved retrospective of photographer and artist Lee Miller’s work. Cromwell Road SW7; 207.942.2000 tate.org.uk/britain THE SUMMER SHOWS The graduating students’ exhibitions—at the Royal College of Art, the Royal Academy of Art, and elsewhere—are arguably the best places to view new art. rca.ac.uk; royalacademy.org.uk SERPENTINE GALLERY It’s impossible not to love the Serpentine, set in the middle of Hyde Park and home to shows of artists like Thomas Demand, Matthew Barney, and, this spring, filmmaker Derek Jarman. Kensington Gardens W2; 207.402.6075 serpentinegallery.org Polly Morgan As unlikely as it sounds, Morgan makes fascinating taxidermy art, depicting such things as birds careening through glass panes and dead mice nestled into wine glasses. Kate Moss owns one, and Banksy was an early supporter. pollymorgan.co.uk SAATCHI GALLERY This spring, Charles Saatchi—the collector with an unparalleled ability to make careers overnight and the singular strength to turn cow-dung paintings into press-and-moneygenerating phenomena—moves his collection into a new, 50,000-square-foot space on King’s Road in Chelsea. saatchi-gallery.co.uk http://rachelortas.co.uk http://misterrob.co.uk http://lazinc.com http://juliehill.co.uk http://sintatantra.co.uk http://tate.org.uk/modern http://voltzclarke.com http://tate.org.uk/britain http://sarahmaple.com http://whitecube.com http://cathylomax.blogspot.com http://tate.org.uk/britain http://rca.ac.uk http://royalacademy.org.uk http://serpentinegallery.org http://pollymorgan.co.uk http://saatchi-gallery.co.uk
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