Beyond the Canvas
The memory of open wounds
There are wounds so deep they never really heal. They are the wounds we share with other people, whether we know them or not, the wounds...
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Beyond the Canvas
Jul 15, 20212 min read
Marcus Rashford, footballer, leader, change-maker and all-round beautiful human being.
It's not the first time that this blog talks about Marcus Rashford. The 23-year old mancunian footballer used his social media platform...
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Beyond the Canvas
Jun 9, 20212 min read
Abu Dhabi's billions: Soft power and an ambitious foreign policy agenda.
According to the Financial Times, Abu Dhabi is planning to spend $6bn on various cultural projects to diversify from oil. This is not a...
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Beyond the Canvas
May 3, 20212 min read
A lapsed reader's whinge
"I would like everyone to read, not so they become writers or poets, but so that no one is a slave anymore." - Gianni Rodari I recently...
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Beyond the Canvas
Apr 18, 20212 min read
The Brixton riots 40 years on
"I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. A riot is the language of the unheard." Martin Luther King, Jr....
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Beyond the Canvas
Mar 23, 20212 min read
Laura Aguilar's courageous rebellion
“My photography has always provided me with an opportunity to open myself up and see the world around me. And most of all, photography...
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Beyond the Canvas
Mar 18, 20212 min read
Women as icons and targets
Revered by the public, reviled by the art establishment and eventually sold at auction for almost £1m, the Mona Lisa of kitsch was...
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Beyond the Canvas
Feb 4, 20212 min read
Kerry James Marshall IS the canon
“Who needs to NOT think of you as a Black artist to consider you a real artist?” - Kerry James Marshall There are a handful of artists...
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Beyond the Canvas
Jan 15, 20212 min read
A legal killing spree
"When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it really doesn’t have any effect." — Andy Warhol Warhol was an avid collector of...
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Beyond the Canvas
Jan 8, 20212 min read
May Steven's Dark Flag
"Political activity does not interfere with my work, it feeds it. And if I'm interested in racism and fighting racism, then that should...
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Beyond the Canvas
Nov 1, 20202 min read
Kim Abeles' Smog Collectors
"The Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe. I place cut, stencilled images on transparent or opaque plates or...
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Beyond the Canvas
Oct 25, 20202 min read
Empty plates in Southend (things are about to get very political)
I was researching a post that involved smog and plates (fear not, it's coming), when I came across photos of different plates. These are...
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Beyond the Canvas
Oct 20, 20202 min read
Fourteen days to the US Presidential election.
“We are at a precipice in this country, and we are either going to move forward or we are not.” - Carrie Mae Weems In 2016, nearly half...
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Beyond the Canvas
Oct 9, 20201 min read
Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk -Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Iconic, but not frozen in time - a garment that continues to evolve and fascinate. That is the premise of this show that traces the...
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Beyond the Canvas
Oct 4, 20202 min read
The liberation of Artemisia Gentileschi - National Gallery, London
The overwhelming dominance of Artemisia Gentileschi's personal narrative over her worth as an artist has always bothered me. The rape,...
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Beyond the Canvas
Sep 20, 20201 min read
Americans in Venice
Venice is, among many other wonderful things, synonymous with glass. The work of the Murano glassblowers has inspired countless artists...
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Beyond the Canvas
Sep 13, 20202 min read
Niccolò dell'Arca's Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1463) - Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna
"This Christ will never be forgotten. Was it made from earth? Was it rotting flesh? I didn’t know what the medium was […] The three Marys...
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Beyond the Canvas
Sep 3, 20201 min read
Héctor Zamora's Lattice Detour, The Met rooftop
"The wall is a monument to openness over enclosure, lightness over heaviness, transience over permanence — it’s also fraught with...
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Beyond the Canvas
Sep 2, 20201 min read
Martha Rosler's iconic photomontages
" I want to open a space in people’s minds where they see that they can be active, intellectually and personally, rather than passive...
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Beyond the Canvas
Aug 29, 20202 min read
Lorna Simpson's fantastical hairscapes
"Black women’s heads of hair are galaxies unto themselves, solar systems, moonscapes, volcanic interiors. The hair she paints has a mind...
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