Ikon Gallery

Ikon is pleased to present a new exhibition of work by A K Dolven, one of Norway’s most prominent artists.

Through a variety of media - painting, photography, film and sound - she is concerned essentially with the representation of sublime natural forces. In this respect she identifies with the renowned nineteenth century Norwegian painter Peder Balke (1804 - 87), whose work is also included in the exhibition.

In his landscapes of the far north, Balke’s human subjects are dwarfed by their circumstances, as small figures in the landscape; Dolven is more overtly philosophical, dealing with the nature of perception and the subconscious functioning of memory and emotions. It is significant that she focuses on densely multisensory situations, in which her main subject is at once very present and resonant with lost time.

Website

http://ikon-gallery.org/event/8095/

Angolan artist Nastio Mosquito is one of the most energetic and versatile artists of his generation. Using music, photography, film and performance poetry, Mosquito comments on the nature of our globalised world.

His videos, which often dwell on contemporary art and its role in society, are knowingly politically-incorrect, referencing post-colonial clichés in a way that is both smart and funny. For Ikon, he proposes a sprawling site-specific installation.

Ikon’s 50th anniversary celebrations will culminate in Artists for Ikon, an exhibition at the gallery (24 April – 4 May 2015) followed by a major contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s, London in July 2015. The exhibition will preview works donated for the auction by some of today’s most important artists, all of whom have exhibited at the gallery. It will be a survey of Ikon’s greatest hits.

Artists include Hurvin Anderson, Martin Creed, Ian Davenport, Marcel Dzama, Ryan Gander, Antony Gormley, Carmen Herrera, Roger Hiorns, Beatriz Milhazes, Julian Opie and Cornelia Parker amongst others. The proceeds of the auction will lay the foundations for Ikon’s 50th Anniversary Endowment Fund, dedicated to the gallery’s artistic programme and the commissioning of new art work.

Website

http://ikon-gallery.org/events/category/exhibitions/

Pavel Büchler is a Czech artist who has been based in the UK since the early 1980s. This is the most comprehensive exhibition of his work in the UK to date.

Utilising a variety of media including text, obsolete technologies and material discovered on the internet, Büchler frequently pairs seemingly unrelated things, often through accident or chance, drawing attention to the everyday and revealing it as fundamentally strange.

Relentless in his consideration of art as an institution and his own place within it, Büchler explains that “a lot of my work is realised, polished and resolved recognising the potential link to art history, to the work of artists that interest me.”

Website

http://ikon-gallery.org/events/category/exhibitions/

Vanley Burke, born in Jamaica in 1951, resident in Birmingham since 1965, is renowned as a photographer concerned especially with black culture in Britain.

Next summer the entire contents of his flat in Nechells, north-east Birmingham will be transferred to Ikon’s first floor galleries. Besides furniture and other household items visitors will have an opportunity to explore his archive, a vast collection including printed material - posters, flyers, publications etc - clothes, records, ornaments and countless other items that provide invaluable insights into our African and Caribbean communities. In this way the artist will be revealed as a subject of his own enquiry. His personal story, in which it vital archival impulse, is integral to the bigger picture he is making for us.

Website

http://ikon-gallery.org/events/category/exhibitions/