David Lamelas: Rock Star - Character Appropriation, 1974. Image courtesy Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers

Cosmin Gradinaru, photo series, 2000, 80x100 cm, edition of 5. Courtesy gandy gallery, Bratislava.

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

CUT

Laylah Ali, Edgar Arceneaux, Mark Bradford, Whitney Bedford, Bjorn Copeland, Sean Duffy, Les Leveque, Wangechi Mutu, Amy Sillman, and Mathilde ter Heijne.

The exhibition brings together a group of artists who explore concepts of fragmentation, separation, and interruption. Approaching this premise from widely divergent positions, they are united by an artistic approach that employs an interruption of an ongoing process or material, an abrupt repositioning of meaning from a familiar into a new context, thus producing a fractured and re-structured reality. Some artists in the exhibition achieve this by using physical techniques of cutting and splicing, such as collage, montage, and film cut, others operate within conceptual strata of dislocation and fracture. Their layered and complex work provides an opportunity to challenge established viewing patterns and to release perception from familiar routines.

Agency Contemporary, London

Shay Kun, David Hancock, Ross Sinclair : Children of the Grave - Masters of Reality

The exhibition takes its cue from the ongoing influence of music and related subculture in art. Whilst all artists follow their personal practice, they are brought together for this exhibition for the open exploitation/ referencing of Rock music, Electronica, underground fashion, album covers, film stills, joke articles etc, all to amalgamate to a darkly humorous show.

All three artists have worked out other agendas subsequently and taken their early empathy with youth culture as a valuable entry point into critically reworking mass consumer culture.

Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York

KISS ME LONG AND HARD - Mixed Media Group Show

Tim Doud, Jacqueline Fraser, Debra Hampton, Aaron Johnson, Airan Kang, Ryan Lemke, Chad Marshall, Sybille Rath, Riiko Sakkinen and Rachel Selekman

Ryan S. Lemke, "Dissonance Verse 2" from the Bal des Quat'z Arts. Unique Photo Collage, Card and Pastel. 13 3/8 x 13 3/8 in. 33.97 x 33.97 cm. 2005. Edition of 3. Copyright © PRISKA C. JUSCHKA FINE ART

Rachel Whiteread, Modern Chess Set, 2005, Mixed media, Board: 1 1/8 x 26 3/8 x 26 3/8 inches (3 x 67 x67cm) Box: 9.6 x 29.5 x 16.3 inches (24.5 x 75 x 41.5cm), Image courtesy Luhring Augustine Gallery

Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York

The Art of Chess

On view will be ten recently commissioned chess sets designed by the following: Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy, Yayoi Kusama, Maurizio Cattelan, Rachel Whiteread, Tunga, Matthew Ronay, Barbara Kruger and Tom Friedman. Each set, made in an edition of seven, is individually crafted in a variety of different materials such as wood, porcelain, glass and silver and packaged to the artist's specified wishes.

The exact origin of chess is unclear but is believed to have originated in the 7th century. No other game in history has been so widely reflected in art and literature. Due to its conceptual depth and deep roots in civilization, chess remains an intriguing and complex subject for the Artist. The infinite incantations of chess sets throughout history, which have closely followed artistic movements, is a testament to this. The Art of Chess exhibition demonstrates that the game has lost none of its inspirational power in the 21st century and that it continues to be an optimal means for artistic expression.

The Approach, London

CUT : Cris Brodahl, Bruce Conner, John Stezaker, Martin Westwood

Cut’ brings together four artists that use collage as an integral part of their practice. Rather than acting as a survey of the vast importance of collage over the 20th Century, ‘Cut’ sets out to evoke the spirit of surrealists’ collage, embracing Andre Bretons’ definition of Surrealism as a disruptive “juxtaposition of two more or less disparate realities”.

Since the 1950’s Bruce Conner has been an important figure in the American art world. Collage is only one part of his practice, which also includes sculpture, film, inkblot drawings, printmaking and ‘events’.

Cris Brodahl’s paintings start as an amalgamation of images derived from many different sources and then transcribed onto canvas in a photo realistic style.

John Stezaker’s contribution to the medium of collage in Britain since the 1970’s is unrivalled. Since turning his back on a conceptual practice and embracing the image, Stezaker has gone on to make subtle but extraordinary collages using 1950’s film stills, Hollywood film-star annuals, illustrated encyclopaedias and postcards.

The figures in Martin Westwood’s paper cut out works are derived from in-house business catalogues, insurance brochures, travel magazines, corporate prospectus and virtually any printed matter where a perfect world is illustrated and sold.

John Stezaker, Film Portrait ( Landscape ) VI, 2005, Collage, 23.5 x 19.5 cm

Tere Recarens, Water. Video still. 2005

Spacement Gallery, Melbourne

'I'm travellin' light'...'No, no you don't travel light'- curated by Deborah Ostrow

Hany Armanious, Thomas Bernstein, Natalie Davey, Domenico DeClario, Deej Fabyc, Nicola Loder, Tracy Nakayama, Jonathan Nichols, Rob McHaffie, Sanné Mestrom, Deborah Ostrow, Tere Recarens, Peter Robertson, Gareth Sansom, David M Thomas, Jeremy Yoder

‘I’m travellin’ light’… ‘No, no, you don’t travel light’ [Tindersticks, self titled 1995], a short-cut road-show, featuring an eclectic cast of international and Australian players culled from a decade of ‘objective chance’ meetings, brought together and curated by artist Deborah Ostrow.

"...Deborah Ostrow constructs a personalised historical account of art through the last decade and a half. Quite simply, she has brought together the artworks that she remembers most clearly over that time. She describes the various figurative and other works in the exhibition as being about ‘self-portraiture, using yourself because there’s no one else’. But she means this in a very particular way—she is co-opting the work of these artists for her own self-examination; the exhibition becomes like a self-portrait." - Bala Starr - 2005

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK

BRITISH ART - SHOW 6

Dynamic and engaging, British Art Show 6 comes at a time when the art scene in the UK is larger, more vibrant, more diverse and more internationally orientated than at any other time in the British Art Shows 26 year history.

In developing the shortlist for British Art Show 6, curators Andrea Schlieker and Alex Farquharson travelled extensively throughout the UK and considered work by over 500 artists. For the first time since the British Art Show was launched in 1979, 50% of the artists featured in the exhibition are women and 50% were born outside the UK. Artists featured in the 2005 selection include:

Tomma Abts, Haluk Akakçe, Phillip Allen, Tonico Lemos Auad, Claire Barclay, Anna Barriball, Breda Beban, Zarina Bhimji, Ergin Çavusoglu, Gordon Cheung, Adam Chodzko, Marcus Coates, Nathan Coley, Phil Collins, Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, Enrico David, Chris Evans, Doug Fishbone, Siobhán Hapaska, Roger Hiorns, Matthew Houlding, Richard Hughes, Marine Hugonnier, Gareth Jones, juneau/projects/, Kerstin Kartscher, Janice Kerbel, Mark Leckey, Hew Locke, Christina Mackie, Goska Macuga, Daria Martin, Andrew McDonald, Heather and Ivan Morison, Rosalind Nashashibi, Nils Norman, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Silke Otto Knapp, Toby Paterson, Paul Rooney, public works, Eva Rothschild, Zineb Sedira, Lucy Skaer, Alia Syed, David Thorpe, Mark Titchner, Rebecca Warren, Gary Webb and Carey Young

Gordon Cheung, Underworld, 2005. Financial Times, Ink, Acrylic Gel and Spray on canvas. 54.25 x 88.5”, 138 x 225cm © Gordon Cheung