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Showing posts with label diary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diary. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 November 2026

Artlyst: The Art Diary November 2026

Here's my November Art Diary for Artlyst:

'In ‘Women, Art, God’, art historian and priest Ayla Lepine invites us to explore the relationship between faith and imagination. Across centuries, cultures, materials and subjects, women’s stories and works of art provide wisdom about the power of images. In this book, which I am currently reviewing, Lepine, through vibrant conversations about art, life and faith, enables us to glimpse God in the visions of artists including Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi and Sonia Boyce. Women’s art and spirituality guide readers across centuries and continents, encouraging us to take religion’s importance in visual culture and creativity seriously. Women, Art, God provides a bold and fresh approach to feminist theology and art history.

For the November diary, I begin by staying with the question that Lepine explores in her book: How can art by women transform our experiences of spirituality and religion? Highlighted exhibitions include works by Edmonia Lewis, Ethelwynne M. Quail, Emma Kunz, Gabrielle Goliath, Cecilia Vicuña, and Yu Hong. This is followed by commissions and exhibitions involving Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, Maurice Denis, Stanley Spencer, Gary Bunt, Charlie Mackesy, and Mark Dunford. We then move through the centuries with exhibitions moving from Constantinople to the Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age. I end with a series of relational group shows for European Cultural Centre Italy, Focal Point Gallery, NIKA Projects, The Minories, and Foundling Museum.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Michael Kiwanuka - Summer Clothes.
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Friday, 16 October 2026

St John's Waterloo - ‘Anthony Lawrence: A Practical Guide To Aesthetics‘



















Last night I had an advance view of ‘Anthony Lawrence: A Practical Guide To Aesthetics‘, an exhibition of the work of post-modern artist Anthony Lawrence at St John’s, Waterloo. See my Artlyst Art Diary for October for more on the exhibition and my review of last year's retrospective for more on Anthony Lawrence.   

Coinciding with Frieze week, the exhibition shows some of Lawrence’s major works from his series of grand themes, such as Dante, Tannhäuser, and the Damned Demoiselles, as well as portraits and several of his religious and spiritual paintings. Lawrence worked intensively over five decades, creating a vast collection of work that is now being made public.

‘A Practical Guide to Aesthetics’ follows a critically acclaimed 2025 retrospective at Nick and Caroline de Rothschild’s Palais des Vaches Gallery in the New Forest, which was the first to show the full spectrum of Lawrence’s career. Forbes described the work as blending “classical technique, pop-cultural wit, and poetic imagination. Playful portraits, surreal landscapes and painterly still lifes bring overdue recognition to a hidden genius of British art”. Many of the works in that show had not been seen before then; this exhibition at St John’s will bring to light several more of Lawrence’s paintings, including some from the newly restored ‘A Practical Guide to Aesthetics’ series from the early 1990s.

Lawrence worked throughout his life on portrait commissions; his works included sitters such as John Wayne, Yehudi Menuhin, Ian McKellen, and Rt Rev Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, among others. Included in this show are Lawrence’s paintings of Francis Bacon and Seamus Heaney, with whom he became friends.

Fascinated by religion, Lawrence spoke of the “constant fight between the sacred and the secular” and made many works relating to religion and spirituality. His own ‘The Stations of the Cross’ was inspired by the restoration of the display of religious imagery in the Byzantine Empire; these colourful and dramatic paintings show his commitment to technique, stressing the importance of post-modern framing. In my review of the 2025 retrospective for The Church Times, I said, “While constantly evolving through styles and series as a great ‘knowing’ Post-Modernist, Lawrence sought, through his blend of tradition and invention, history and innovation, to hint at how reconciliation might be found in the great contest of social humanity.”

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Posted by Jonathan Evens at 21:49 0 comments
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Monday, 5 October 2026

Artlyst: October 2026 Art Diary

Here's my October 2026 Art Diary for Artlyst, 

'October is a stunning month for art linked to aspects of spirituality, with several of my favourite artists exhibiting. Solo shows mentioned in my October art diary include Anthony Lawrence, Peter Howson, Richard Kenton Webb, Rob Floyd, Mimmo Paladino, Antony Gormley, Hilma af Klimt, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Rachel Feinstein, and Liz Larner, among others. There are also group shows in Malta and Finland focusing on aspects of the spirituality of women artists, along with the Laing Art Gallery’s survey of ‘Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry‘, which surveys artists and poets for whom spirituality was often central to their practice.'

See also my review, for Church Times, of Anthony Lawrence (1951-2022): A Retrospective at Palais des Vaches, Lower Exbury. Also read my exhibition review for Seen and Unseen on Peter Howson's 'Salvation' exhibition at Flowers Gallery. My interview with Howson can be read here, my review of his retrospective - here, my VCS exhibition including a Howson work - here, and reviews of earlier exhibitions here, and here. 

Read also my exhibition review for Church Times of Richard Kenton Webb: ‘Passion’ drawings + ‘English Iconoclasm Paintings’ at Benjamin Rhodes Arts. Read my interview with Kenton Webb for Art+Christianity here, my article on Kenton Webb's exhibition at Milton's Cottage is here, and my Church Times review of an earlier Kenton Webb exhibition here. Kenton Webb is part of a group of artists who create in the tradition of British visionary art, for more on this group see here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

My articles about the Pre-Raphaelites can be read here, here, here, here, and here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Iain Archer - Frozen Northern Shores.
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