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© Paul McCarthy, courtesy the artist and Hauser &
Wirth, photo: Fredrik Nilsen
© Laura Oldfield Ford
© Brian Paumier, courtesy Fred (London) Limited
© Batman and Bunny, Image courtesy Luhring Augustine ©George Condo
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The diary
13. urban wastelands
With a pitiless and relentless eye, Laura
Oldfield Ford unveils London’s changing
city landscape in times of urban renewal and
redevelopment. Her drawings, composed
with ballpoint pens as well as acrylic and
spray paint spotlight the city’s abandoned
places and wastelands in a photorealistic way.
Ford’s highly political works, pinpoint the
social tensions between those who can afford
to shop in the glittering new shopping malls
and those who are left behind – a theme that
the artist explores extensively in her selfpublished
’zine ’Savage Messiah’.
Laura oldfield Ford:
Transmissions from a discarded future
From 25 th November to 14 th January 2012
Hales Gallery, London
halesgallery.com
*
ThE MarKET To Go To
pop up Vintage fair
@ Islington assembly hall (London), on
20 th November – Whether a granma-style
cupcake stand is what you’re after, or a
perfect-fit vintage piece is what’s topping
your wishlist, chances are Islington’s
Pop up Vintage Fair has a stall for you.
Fashion, accessories, jewelry, homeware
and antiques all combine to make this
market a vintage lover’s paradise.
facebook.com/popupvintagefairs
14. Queer as folk
Taking a fresh look at identity, reflection
and the sense of self, this group show
by Fred (London) Limited exhibits recent
portrait works by gay and transgender artists
from around the globe. Using their bodies as
a canvas and examining their own projected
image, the artists explore wider and deeper
themes such as their relationship with their
health or biting cultural and political issues
through customary humour and wit. Ranging
from a wall of wigs to a pair of hairy breasts
or poses in black lace in the corner of a sheep
pen, this self-reflective body of work excels
and endears through its sheer diversity.
Queer Self Portraits Now
From 24 th November to 29 th January 2012
Fred [London] Ltd, London
fred-london.com
15. american psycho
Paul McCarthy is not only one of the
most important and influential contemporary
American artists but also one of the most willingly
provocative. Disrespecting and mocking
sacred cultural references, his sexually charged
and somewhat violent works are a critique of
the American culture and consumerism. Since
the early 90s, McCarthy’s performance-based
art is mainly focused on creating sculptures,
many of them mechanical, which he directs in
monumental stage productions. The seemingly
chaotic but nevertheless thoughtfully arranged
’Pig Island’ for instance, a mix of low and high
culture that has been evolving over a period of
seven years, exposes an immoral world with a
population ranging from Hollywood actors and
politicians to Disney characters or pirates and
cowboys. It’ll disturb and shock you, yes, but it
is also guaranteed to make you laugh.
Paul McCarthy: The King, The Island,
The Train, The house, The Ship
Until 14 th January 2012
Hauser & Wirth, London
hauserwirth.com
16. beauties and beasts
In what is the first major retrospective of
American artist George Condo featuring about
80 of his paintings and sculptures from the past
28 years, tragedy and comedy collide unashamedly.
Uniting the beautiful and the grotesque,
Condo’s portraits, displaying fantasy characters
as well as The Queen of England for instance,
are defined by their adventurous, imaginative
and provocative character. Completed by a series
of sculptural heads made out of gilded bronze,
Mental States provides an overview of the body
of work created by one of Keith Haring’s or Jean
Michel Basquiat’s contemporaries.
George Condo: Mental states
Until 8 th January 2012
Hayward Gallery, London
southbankcentre.co.uk
*
ThE arT FaIr you CaN’T MISS
rca Secret 2011
@ royal College of art (London), on 26 th
November – The idea is rather straightforward:
postcard-size artworks, all
going under the hammer for 45 pound
a pop, and all done under the auspice of
anonymity. So you could just as well end
up with a piece from an undergad as you
could from, say, Tracy Emin.
rca.ac.uk/secret