Whitechapel Gallery

For this year’s Children’s Art Commission, artists Simon and Tom Bloor present an interactive installation, transforming the gallery walls into a giant chalkboard for visitors to draw on using colourful hand-made chalk sculptures. The work continues recurring themes within their practice that consider creativity and play as both rebellious and utopian acts.

Suitable for

Admission

Free

This exhibition is supported by Hiscox.

A Love Meal is the third in a series of displays of rarely-seen works from the Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. The display brings together installations, sculptures and film which explore portraiture and the construction of identity. The centrepiece is Cuban-born artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled” (A Love Meal) (1992). This iconic sculpture of the 1990s consists of a hanging ribbon of 42 illuminated light bulbs created to memorialise the artist’s partner.

Suitable for

Admission

Free

resents a major exhibition of Romanian-born artists Gert and Uwe Tobias. The artists’ collaborative woodcuts, detailed collages, wall paintings and new ceramic sculptures will be part of a site-specific installation for the Gallery.
Identical twins Gert and Uwe Tobias paint, sculpt, make traditional woodcuts and draw with a typewriter. They have worked together since 2001 and when in their studio the artists often complete each other’s work. Their work is full of strange characters and creatures drawn from eastern European folk art combined with diverse influences, from abstract art of the early 20th century to German post-war painting.

The exhibition includes work from 2008 to the present day as well as a series of new works exhibited for the first time. The artists will also produce a unique woodcut exhibition poster, continuing a tradition of creating a woodcut to mark every one of their solo exhibitions.

The Tobias brothers’ giant woodcuts and wall paintings draw on modernist geometric abstraction; however they combine line, shape, colour and typography with the narrative images and patterns of folk art, using decorative motifs such as flowers, plants, patterns, embroidery and domestic objects. These elements are often placed against a grid or flat painted background to create dramatic and surreal tableaux.

Transforming Gallery 1, the Tobias brothers will create an installation incorporating the tradition of modernist stage design with geometric shapes and lines in bold colours extending from the works across the walls. A selection of their new ceramic works will also feature in the show. Taking mass-produced crockery, the artists add ceramic extrusions and coloured glazes to everyday plates and vases, creating new and unexpected expressionistic sculptures.

The Whitechapel Gallery’s presentation follows an exhibition of Gert and Uwe Tobias’s work curated by Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery, at The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida from 9 December 2012 – 4 April 2013. This exhibition is made in partnership with The Gallery at Windsor.

Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a pioneering German photographer who came to prominence in the 1920s. A trained sculptor, draughtsman and teacher, he created exquisitely beautiful, close-up photographs of plants

Suitable for

• 14-15
• 18+
• 11-13
• 16-17

Artists’ Film International showcases artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 14 partner organisations world-wide and presented over the course of a year in each venue. This season presents three artists’ films offering different approaches to performance and bodily presence. Neha Choksi is selected by Project 88, Mumbai, India
Kaia Hugin by KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Sandnes, Norway and Alix Pearlstein by Ballroom Marfa, Texas, US.

Suitable for

Admission

Free

Admission free
Supported by Bloomberg. Additional support by the Wingate Scholarships. Giuseppe Penone Exhibition Circle: Aïshti Foundation, Aud and Paolo Cuniberti.

Over the past 45 years, Italian artist Giuseppe Penone has examined our relationship to nature. For the latest Bloomberg Commission, he has created a twelve metre bronze cast of a tree, with a radiant gold-leaf interior, which spreads across the columned gallery. The tree is carefully balanced on its branches and divided into sections to allow visitors to move between the separate elements. The work contrasts with the urban environment surrounding the Gallery, highlighting hidden nature within the city. The installation is accompanied by a year-long programme of talks and events exploring the rich relationship between nature and the city.

Suitable for

Admission

Free

This exhibition is supported by the University of Brighton and the Museum of British Folklore.

A new archive display revisiting the Gallery’s 1951 exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade. Coinciding with the Festival of Britain, the exhibition challenged established ideas about the cultural value attached to particular kinds of objects. Celebrating everyday items, from the traditional and the handmade to the mass produced, it included lavishly decorated pub mirrors, an edible model of St Paul’s Cathedral and a talking lemon advertising Idris lemon squash.

Suitable for

Admission

Free

A series of conversations on curatorial and participatory practices with Felicity Allen, Editor of the Documents of Contemporary Art anthology: Education. Guest speakers address dynamic pressures within UK art institutions through the lens of activism, feminism and globalisation.

Suitable for

When

6:30-8:30pm

Where

Study Studio, Whitechapel Gallery

Admission

£10.00

Professor of Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art Julian Stallabrass and Course Director in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication Paul Lowe address current shifts in documentary practices. This event launches Documentary, the latest anthology in the Documents of Contemporary Art series edited by Stallabrass.

Suitable for

When

7-8:30pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)

Urban Ecology Tree Trail

25 May 2013

Join us for a walking tour exploring trees within the local area, inspired by The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone: Spazio di Luce. Led by Eleanor Reast (Open Air Laboratories Community Scientist for London and the South East). Meeting point - Whitechapel Gallery Foyer (free, all ages welcome).

Suitable for

• Family friendly
• Any age

When

1-2:30pm

Explore folk tales and create playful narratives through print and collage. Responding to the art of Gert & Uwe Tobias and Blossfeldt, children build giant murals through collage techniques, colour mixing and printing with natural materials. Courses for 5–8 and 9–12 year olds led by artists Shiraz Bayjoo and Leigh Clarke.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

Admission

(£45 for a 2 day course)

A tour of the Gert & Uwe Tobias exhibition with choreographer Chisato Minamimura in BSL.

Suitable for

When

7-8pm

Admission

Free

Opening with a poetry reading by acclaimed poet Stephen Watts in Gallery 2, ‘Places of Work’ explores sites of creativity
featuring work by filmmakers, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren Nicholas Collins, Annabel Nicolson, Guy Sherwin, Margaret Tait and others. Guest curated by Peter Todd.

Suitable for

When

7-9pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Creative Studio, ages 14–24 only. (Free, booking essential)
An introduction to working with Processing, an open-source programming language. Learn how to create a physical interactive installation where real world movements and actions trigger visuals and sounds that you’ve created. Led by interactive arts and technology studio Codasign.

Suitable for

When

1-5pm

Admission

Free, booking essential

Conversation and film documentation on the life of Martin Kippenberger led by Susanne Kippenberger, the artist’s sister, in what would have been his 60th year. This event marks the publication of Kippenberger: The Artist and His Families by Susanne Kippenberger, published by J & L Books.

Suitable for

When

3-4:30pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)

Coinciding with Karl Blossfeldt’s exhibition, this discussion explores the role of botany in art, its subversive potential and its use as a teaching tool in avantgarde practices. With Edward Juler, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Lisa Le Feuvre, Head of Sculpture Studies at the Henry Moore Institute.
Organised with the Henry Moore Institute.

Suitable for

When

2-3:30pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

From the classroom to the studio, what is the status of philosophy in contemporary art teaching and practice? Led by lecturers Marquard Smith and David Cunningham. In association with My Night with Philosophers: Institut Français and the IMCC, University of Westminster.

Suitable for

When

3-5pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)

Artist Ahlam Shibli talks about the ways her photographic work addresses the violent denial of home and traces the resistance against its loss, revealing the efforts to create new ways to exist far from home. Supported by Pictet & Cie.

Suitable for

When

7-8:30pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

An evening of writerly performances with students and guests of the MFA Art Writing, Goldsmiths.

Suitable for

When

8-9pm

Admission

(£4/3 conc.)

World premiere of a filmed encounter with the American philosopher and anthropologist Alphonso Lingis
part of a series of screened conversations by performance theorist Adrian Heathfield, in collaboration with photographer Hugo Glendinning. Curated by Performance Matters.

Suitable for

When

6-7:30pm

Admission

(£4/3 conc.)

Drawing on Black Eyes and Lemonade, curators, artists and researchers Simon Costin, Liz Farrelly, Jeff McMillan, Catherine Moriarty, Martin Myrone, Louise Purbrick and Penelope Sexton examine the presentation of popular, traditional and folk arts in historic and contemporary gallery contexts. Organised with the University of Brighton Design Archives.

Suitable for

When

11:30am-4:30pm

Admission

(£20/15 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)

Showcasing work by some of the best emerging UK film and video artists, in a diverse moving image programme brought together by the artists shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award 2012. Supported by Film London and Arts Council England.

Suitable for

When

7-9pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)

A tour of the archive show: Black Eyes and Lemonade with BSL guide David Moller.

Suitable for

When

7-8pm

Admission

Free

Scottish artist Charles Avery speaks about the presence of trees in a body of work called the ‘Jadindagadendar’ - the name given to the municipal park in ‘Onomatopoeia’, the capital town of Avery’s fictional Island.

Suitable for

When

7-8:30pm

Admission

(£8/6 conc.)

Popular weekend drawing classes led by artists for young people aged 10–15. In association with The Princes Drawing School.

Suitable for

• Especially for children

When

10:30am-12pm

Admission

(£100 for 10 sessions)