Peter Blake: Portraits and People

Made sure I caught this Peter Blake show before it closes later this month. This is the first show in his career dedicated solely to his portraiture, and it displays a good range of his artistic styles incorporated in his portrait work, such as collages, watercolours, acrylics and oils. This exhibition also incorporates Blake's figurative sculptures created from cigar boxes and other ephemera.

This is a fantastic collage entitled Aquarium and it is the first artwork to greet you in the exhibition. It is large and incorporates a range of historical portraits taken from a variety of found printed sources. All of the people in the picture look out of the picture plane rather than at the fish in the aquarium.

These are commissions and personal portraits of friends and colleagues demonstrating Blake's techniques in the show. Below is a study from life of Helen Mirren.

The back room of the gallery is a dedicated homage to one of Blake's musical heroes - Elvis, and contains lots of memorabilia, all artfully curated and displayed in the form of two shrines.

My favourite works in this exhibition, and throughout Blake's career, are the fictional characters/portraits that he creates for wrestlers, exotic dancers and tattooed men and women. I like that their facial features are taken from different photographic sources, and that in some cases those facial features are too large for the heads of the character giving them an odd appearance, which somehow seems to suit their fictional personas. The thing that comes through in these works, like that of the Elvis shrines is that Blake is really a fan of his subject matter, and popular culture in general.

Peter Blake: Portraits and People
until 30th January
Waddington Custot
11 Cork Street 
London

Max Alexander: Butterflies Through Others Eyes #18

Brrr! It's freezing! Warm, and cosy knitted moths for these cold winter months courtesy of textile artist Max Alexander.

The Mountain Of Butterflies

Loved this Google doodle by artist Kevin Laughlin, which appeared on the search engine at the weekend to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the 'discovery' of The Mountain of Butterflies. 

Butterfly Mountain refers to an area of the Sierra Madre mountains in southern Mexico where approximately one billion Monarch butterflies migrate to hibernate every winter. The Monarchs travel south from Canada and across north America down through Texas and Mexico, before settling in the mountains of Michoacán state. The Mountain of Butterflies was discovered in 1975 by Ken Brugger and Catalina Trail as well Canadian Zoologist Fred Urquhart who tagged the butterflies and followed their trail south to the Oyamel trees found in these regions of the Sierra Madre mountains where they live between October and March. 

The area was recognised for its ecological importance and became officially known as the Monarch Biosphere Butterfly Reserve in 1980, and then went on to gain World Heritage status in 2008. The Monarchs cluster together on trees during the winter months to conserve heat, and turn the branches a bright orange. The limbs of the trees appear to sag because of the sheer numbers of the millions of Monarchs that land on them. 

Even though Butterfly Mountain was 'discovered' in 1975, the local inhabitants of the area - the Purépecha, have known about the phenomenon for centuries, and describe the sound of millions of Monarchs taking flight to go home in March as like 'light rain'. 

The Monarch migration also coincides with the annual Mexican 'Day of The Dead' festival where people gather to remember and pray for family and friends who have died, and locals believe that the millions of butterflies that descend on the area are the souls of people's ancestors returning for their annual visit.

Art_Textiles

Paid a visit to the recently expanded space of the Whitworth Art Gallery and really enjoyed the Art_Textiles exhibition which I managed to catch before it closes. I like the fact that the boundaries are blurring, and textiles/craft are now being recognised as a legitimate art practice and being shown in art gallery spaces. Many of the pieces certainly made a statement and more than held their own justifying their inclusion in the Whitworth's space. Below are a selection of the pieces that held my attention for a variety of reasons.

This piece is by Jessica Rankin is like a map, and is so intricate and delicate yet seems to make a strong statement.

These figurative sewing machine drawings (below), by Do Ho Suh are just beautiful. Would love to own one of these. (I will be showing some new works in February which also use the sewing machine as a drawing tool, and build on the Rabble series that I started last year).

There is a good sense of movement which is enhanced by the coloured threads.

These pieces below by Anne Wilson disturbed me slightly as they were composed with hair and reminded me of the residue left after a bath/shower, and those Victorian lockets which contained locks of their loved ones hair.

I loved these pieces also by Anne Wilson who works with found textiles stitching into and exaggerating worn holes in areas of domestic linens. I started reworking voids in my own work last year culminating in pieces like Interstice and Drift.

These pieces by Monika Zaltauskaite-Grasiene had a Pop Art sensibility about them in the way in which they reinterpreted classical myths in a modern way. Some of her pieces are hand-stitched whilst others are digitally manipulated pixelated tapestries.

This monumental, red woven piece by Magdalena Abakanowicz dominates the main exhibition space and brings together the disciplines of sculpture and tapestry.

I love looking at typography in its various forms so enjoyed the pieces in the exhibition by Lawrence Lemaoana, which referenced political banners used by Suffragettes and Trade Unions branches.

This piece by Miriam Schapiro was an intriguing crochet installation entitled Womb Room it was like being trapped in a giant spider web. Lots of wonderful patterns and textures were created by the crochet work.

Yet more good examples of type in textiles from Ghada Amer. These are stencilled political slogans over-layed with embroidered threads to create interesting textures.

I don't like everything that Tracey Emin creates, but I did like the combination of type and image on this appliquéd blanket which contained an embroidered female figure in her signature scratchy drawing style, and had coins sewn onto it spilling forth from female figure.

This installation by Mary Sibande was very powerful because of its scale and the associations of black people in roles of servitude. I like the way in which she counters this with the powerful homage and portrait of Madame CJ Walker an African-American hair care entrepeneur, who was the first self-made female millionaire in America.

Lastly a snippet of a Grayson Perry tapestry exploring issues of class and taste. The colours were so vibrant, and it was exquisitely crafted combining modern and traditional methods.

This peacock feather piece in the first exhibition space at the Whitworth by Susie MacMurray, was not part of the Art_Textiles exhibition but complimented it wonderfully.

Art_Textiles
until 31st January 2016
Whitworth Art Gallery
Oxford Road 
Manchester
http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/