PHOTOGRAPHY: PRAGUE
Only the Good Ones: The Snapshot Aesthetic Revisited
Prague’s Galerie Rudolfinum presents a new exhibition tracing the influence of the snapshot – impromptu amateur photographs replete with blurred edges, red-eye, and limbs not quite fitting inside the frame – on artistic photography. Only the Good Ones follows the snapshot back through the 20th century to 1950s America where, arguably, amateur photography first started to make a widespread impression. The exhibition features over 250 works by 40 artistic types who took inspiration from this seemingly inartistic genre, including Jürgen Teller’s “William Eggleston listening to Tchaikovsky” (2010), Daido Moriyama’s black-and-white print “Hunter” (1972), and Corinne Day’s portrait of Kate Moss, “Kate 1990”.
Galerie Rudolfinum, Alsovo Nabrezi 12. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00-18.00 (except Thursday, 10.00-20.00). Until 6 April.
galerierudolfinum.cz
SCULPTURE: ISTANBUL
Osman Dinç: Theorem
Paris-based Turkish sculptor Osman Dinç is showcasing a selection of his newest works and some rare photographs in Theorem at Istanbul’s Pi Artworks gallery. Dinç is known for highlighting the materials of his sculptures that sit stylistically somewhere between the no-frills austere vision of Italy’s Arte Povera movement and also a graceful sense of minimalism, whether he’s working in wood, metal, glass or concrete. For Theorem he is shining the spotlight squarely on iron, opting for simple forms that explore themes of construction and deconstruction – values that have been at the core of human civilisation since the Iron Age.
Pi Artworks, Istiklal Cad. Misir Apt. 163/4. Open Monday to Saturday, 10.00-19.00. Until 22 February.
piartworks.com
THEATRE: LONDON
Isabella Rossellini in Green Porno
Isabella Rossellini is not just an icon of the big screen, since 2008 she’s been a star online too in a series of shorts for The Sundance Channel called Green Porno, which charmingly and creatively tell the stranger tales of animal and insect sexuality. With a new theatre version having debuted in New York in January, this Saturday for one night only it hits the stage of London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre. Rossellini is not the only talent helping create Green Porno, the show is co-written by Academy Award-nominated Jean-Claude Carrière and design, video and lighting comes from up-and-coming videographer Antoine Manichon.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. 9 February at 19.30.
southbankcentre.co.uk
PAINTING: HONG KONG
Recipe for a Painter: Mr Chow aka Zhou Yinghua
Michael Chow, the famed restaurateur behind Mr Chow Chinese restaurants across the globe returned to work as a painter in 2012 after a break of more than 50 years. His show Recipe for a Painter now at Hong Kong’s Pearl Lam Gallery reflects on his uniquely cross-cultural experience, having left China as a child who then became separated from his family amid Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution. Chow has overseen the interior design of all of his restaurants since first opening up in London, 1968, but these newest works are large-scale mixed-media canvases incorporating anything from gold leaf to household waste and other found items. This recipe might be unusual, but hopefully Mr Chow’s sense of taste remains intact.
Pearl Lam Galleries, 601-605 Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street. Open Monday to Saturday, 10.00- 19.00. Until 8 March.
pearllam.com
MUSIC: GLOBAL
Ásgeir: In The Silence
Ásgeir Trausti Einarsson is an Icelandic singer whose new album In The Silence combines the aching balladry of Bon Iver with the hummable hook-heavy pedigree of fellow deceptively complex Nordic poppers such as A-ha. The album is also something of hybrid itself, having been released in the Icelandic language previously but now appearing with English lyrics co-rewritten by acclaimed US songwriter John Grant. Miraculously, all that tinkering doesn’t appear to have affected a refreshingly clearheaded collection of melancholy pop songs that deserve their place in any musical landscape – be that in Iceland, the US, or in the wild and unforgiving terrain of your record collection.
‘In The Silence’ is available to buy now.
asgeirmusic.com
