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Happy New Year from all of us at Something Curated! If you ask us, January is the perfect month for whiling away in quiet contemplation in galleries and cosy cinemas, and with a new Hyundai Commission opening at Tate Modern, and a show by Grace Wales Bonner launching at the Serpentine, you’ll be in good company.

 

Exhibitions

Hyon Gyon, at Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art | Hyon Gyon (23 January – 31 March 2019)

Known for her intricate and highly expressive works, often like mid-burst manifestations of explosive raw energy, Hyon Gyon combines traditional Korean textiles, Japanese paper and paint together with various less conventional materials to create her paintings and sculptural installations. She explores themes of sociocultural identity, grief, anger and sexual politics. Her assemblages are powerful fusions of vivid colour and emotion that appear to collide yet somehow live in unity within each work.

 

Tania Bruguera: 10,148,322, at Tate Modern | Tania Bruguera & Tate Neighbours (Until 24 February 2019)

This year’s annual Hyundai Commission places a community-orientated response to the global migration crisis by activist and artist Tania Bruguera in and around Tate Modern. 10,148,322, the work’s title, is the ever-increasing number of people who migrated from one country to another last year, added to the number of migrant deaths recorded so far this year. In the Turbine Hall, a heat-sensitive floor invites visitors to work together to reveal a hidden portrait of Yousef, a young man who left Syria to come to London. In another room, an organic compound in the air induces tears and provokes what Bruguera describes as ‘forced empathy’.

 

Grace Wales Bonner, at the Serpentine | Grace Wales Bonner, Kapwani Kiwanga, Eric N. Mack, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Laraaji, Rashid Johnson & More (19 January – 16 February 2019)

Grace Wales Bonner draws on her research and fascination with the improvisation, intentionality and repurposing of shrines from the Black Atlantic, referencing the sound, atmosphere and image of rituals and ceremonies from across the world. There are collaborations with artists and fellow polymaths: the musician Laraaji will lead meditation workshops that will leave a sound echo throughout the month-long exhibition, while a series of site-specific shrines by Kapwani Kiwanga, Eric N. Mack, Paul Mpagi Sepuya and Grace Wales Bonner are also on view. The show culminates in the presentation of Wales Bonner’s forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2019 collection, Mumbo Jumbo.

 

The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2018, at National Portrait Gallery | Alice Mann, Enda Bowe, Max Barstow, Joey Lawrence & More (Until 27 January 2019)

The National Portrait Gallery’s acclaimed annual photographic portrait prize, which has been running since 2003, is only open until the end of the month – so catch it while you can. This year’s top prize-winning portrait is by Alice Mann, centring on South African all-female teams of drum majorettes, in brightly-coloured hats and sequined dresses. Portraits by Enda Bowe, Max Barstow and Joey Lawrence picked up the coveted runners-up prizes.

 

Weight of Insomnia, at Lisson Gallery | Liu Xiaodong (25 January – 2 March 2019)

Liu Xiaodong’s second exhibition with Lisson Gallery is the culmination of a number of years spent developing a technologically radical project to create 21st-century landscape paintings using robotic arms and surveillance cameras. Taking a live feed, streaming data and imagery from a specific London location, Liu has created a painting machine to process this rolling image feed and transcribe the ever-changing flow of people into a complex network of abstract marks on canvas.

 

Bill Brandt: Vintage Works, at Michael Hoppen Gallery | Bill Brandt (Until 19 January 2019)

Rarely-seen prints, taken from the family collection of the late, great photographer Bill Brandt are brought together in this exhibition at Michael Hoppen Gallery. Formerly an apprentice at Man Ray’s studio in Paris, Brandt, a German-born photographer who emigrated to the UK in 1933, was a regular contributor to titles like Harper’s Bazaar, Picture Post and Lilliput. He produced startlingly honest portraits from the home front during WWII and is known for this signature monochrome, highly textural close-ups of the eyes of artists, female nudes and scenes from Soho, Sussex and Normandy.

 

Through The Looking Glass, at Cob Gallery | Alexander Calder, Lynn Chadwick, Idris Khan, Pablo Picasso, Tristan Pigott, Akiko & Masako Takada, Craig Wylie & More (Until 19 January 2019)

Works by 44 artists, from Lynn Chadwick, Grayson Perry and Pablo Picasso to Becky Beasley, India Dewar and Akiko & Masako Takada, are brought together to explore miniaturism, once a much-revered and popular artform. “The skill of a miniature portraitist, “ Cob Gallery notes, “often determined the reputation and social status of the client, and the commissioning of these portraits remained popular until the emergence of photography.” For some reason, there’s a heightened charm to objects that are small enough to fit into the palm of one’s hand, or in the very least a keepsake box, and The Cob Gallery has knowingly tapped into this strangely alluring power.

 

Hanna Moon and Joyce NG: English as a Second Language, at Somerset House | Hannah Moon & Joyce NG (Until 28 April 2019)

Two of the most exciting new voices in fashion photography today – Hanna Moon and Joyce NG – are brought together in English as a Second Language, a specially-commissioned show at Somerset House, which responds to its historical setting. Alongside these two brand new series of works, are photographs from Moon and NG’s archive of work, including editorials shot for fashion titles like Dazed, i-D, Modern Weekly, Re-Edition, M Le Magazine du Monde, Modern Matter and 1 Granary.

 

Film & Performance

Floating Weeds, at Close-Up Cinema | Yasujirō Ozu (4 – 10 January 2019)

Shot by one of Japan’s greatest cinematographers, Kazuo Miyagawa, and starring an extraordinary ensemble, the rarely seen Floating Weeds is suffused with the nostalgia and bittersweetness of the late Ozu. A remake of his silent A Story of Floating Weeds, the film focuses on an itinerant acting troupe, “weeds” who “float” through the countryside. When they arrive in a remote fishing village after a long absence, the head of the troupe is confronted with a dilemma of paternity.

 

SoundState, at Southbank Centre | Claire Chase, Du Yun, Rebecca Saunders & More (16 – 20 January 2019)

Bringing together an unrivalled concentration of global creativity, SoundState celebrates the artists who are defining what it means to make new music in the 21st century. Claire Chase, Du Yun and Rebecca Saunders lead an international line-up from Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Slovenia, Sweden, Germany and beyond, across five nights of cross-boundary sounds and cutting-edge music. Experience groundbreaking performances by Ensemble Modern, Resident Orchestras London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Sinfonietta, and Associate Orchestra Aurora Orchestra, plus more.

 

London Short Film Festival 2019 (11 – 20 January 2019)

Now in its 16th year, London Short Film Festival returns for 2019. This year’s highlights include a retrospective of the 1980s Scratch Video movement, Cosey Fanni Tutti in conversation at ICA, and Derek Jarman: The Music Videos, a screening which is followed by a ‘Derek Jarman disco’, featuring music by bands he directed music videos for; The Smiths, Pet Shop Boys and Suede. A bunch of industry workshops are also part of the programme, including film criticism workshops with gal-dem and a free casual networking event hosted by the British Council and BFI Network.

 

Female Human Animal, at Whitechapel Gallery | Josh Appignanesi & Chloe Aridjis (31 January 2019)

Shot in the real-life contemporary art world, Female Human Animal is a darkly romantic psychothriller about a creative woman disenchanted with what modern life has to offer her. When writer Chloe Aridjis curates the Tate retrospective of the surrealist Leonora Carrington, an elusive, brooding man appears, seeming to offer more. But as she descends into a world of obsession, is she hunter or hunted?

 

Events

Architecture on Stage: Forensic Architecture, at Barbican Centre | Eyal Weizman & More (10 January 2019)

Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture, discusses the group’s practice combining architecture and digital forensics. Since 2010, Weizman has led the Goldsmiths-based research group, combining architecture with digital forensic practices to re-appropriate tools employed by governmental institutions for evidence production. In 2018 the group was nominated for the Turner Prize.

 

The Artist Dining Room: The Futurist Supper, at Guest Projects | Jake Norman & The Gramounce (18 January 2019)

The Artist Dining Room is a supper club at Guest Projects where creative minds can engage with the ideas of a well known artist through food. The Futurist position presented a radical shift from tradition. Like all revolutions, it was created out of a retaliation with the past. To understand the intensity and vigorous nature of the movement’s works, The Gramounce will create a performative tasting menu as a response to the era’s ideas.

 

Words by Stevie Mackenzie-Smith | Feature image: Market Place, Goa. March 2018. Photograph by Grace Wales Bonner (Courtesy Serpentine Galleries)

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