art


ANATHEMATA Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno Until Sun 6 Feb


If nothing else, it seems likely that Anathemata is the first ever exhibition to source its displayed material from the respective archives of scandalous avant- garde French writer Pierre Guyotat and former Wales and Manchester United centre-forward Mark Hughes.


even if that dynamic duo don’t sit at the exact intersection of your interests, several more great creative minds are represented here in a show running throughout autumn and most of winter, with the notion of the epic poem the approximate theme for Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou’s curation.


Sarah Kane, Cleansed at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, England, 1998.


Guyotat, who died last year aged 80, is one of four artists represented here who created radical work in the 20th century – in his case, astoundingly visceral texts including Eden, Eden, Eden and Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers which are neither novels or poems exactly but do feature ceaseless sexual violence meted out to man, woman and sheep alike. British playwright Sarah Kane’s short body of work – she died in 1999 aged 28 – expressed a comparably brutal, war-fixated outlook in Blasted,


best known production; she was also a Man United supporter who wrote of


her And


the parallels between their matches and Greek mythology, hence the presence of Hughes’ 1985 FA Cup final shirt.


David Jones, an painter and poet whose most notable work lends its name to this exhibition, was traumatised – and artistically influenced – by his experiences in the


transgressive French literature, ducked out of the conflict on account of his laudanum addiction but, like Jones, went on to craft texts of vast historical, religious and philosophical scope.


As well as these four late scribes, Anathemata features new work from Martin Bladh and Karolina Urbaniak, who display a video work based on Artaud’s vision of a global apocalypse; James


multimedia artist who tells a stormy tale in 80 slides; and Paul-Alexandre Islas, whose There Will Be Blood is talked up as being post-Artaud in its ethos.


Admission: FREE. Info: mostyn.org


NOEL GARDNER Richards, a Cardiff-born Artaud, another of


expounding on it at length later on. Antonin


WWI trenches, icon


John Akomfrah - Vertigo Sea (2015) © Smoking Dogs Films; Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery


DAVID HURN: SWAPS /


THE RULES OF ART? National Museum, Cardiff Until Sun 27 Mar / Sun 16 Apr 2023


Two large-scale, set to be long-running exhibitions have just opened at the National Museum Wales. David Hurn: Swaps presents over 2,000 photos from the titular photographer’s collection. Spanning almost an entire lifetime, the documentarian’s favourite pastime is full of fascinating windows into the nation’s history, both big and small.


The second National Museum show, set to be displayed for around 18 months, ambitiously questions The Rules Of Art through displaying the museum’s collection


specifically, reappropriating the 17th century’s introduction of the “hierarchy of genres,” from history painting to still life.


in a very different RAPHAEL REVEALED:


EXHIBITION ON SCREEN Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea Tue 7 Nov


Can you believe it’s already been 500 years since Raphael died? In case you weren’t able to attend the celebratory exhibition of the late great painter’s works in Rome last year – which, given last year was 2020, not many would have – you can catch the whole thing on screen at the Taliesin in Swansea this month.


way;


With canonical names like Rembrandt and Picasso juxtaposed with newer ones, including 2018 Eisteddfod winner Zoe Preece, The Rules Of Art? breathes new life into older pieces in order to tackle pressing issues of the present-day, such as representation and the environment.


Admission: FREE. Info: museum.wales/cardiff


HANNAH COLLINS


The Italian master is usually mentioned in the same breath as fellow Renaissance geniuses (and TMNT name originators), Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, and perhaps most famous for his exquisite “Raphael Rooms” in the Vatican Museum – rivalling Michelangelo’s own Sistine Chapel paintings, which Raphael was a huge fan of.


This major exhibit, bringing together over 200 of his works, some of which for the first time, aims to not only provide a complete overview of the artist’s extensive body of work but also dispel some of the myths preventing him from being truly “revealed” to us.


Tickets: £10-£12. Info: taliesinartscentre.co.uk


HANNAH COLLINS DANNY MAY: OBSCENE


BEASTS AND CORPSES Aberystwyth Arts Centre Thurs 25 Nov-Fri 28 Jan


Danny May takes a fragment of a quote by Aristotle as the title of his exhibition, and cites Hieronymus Bosch as one of its primary influences. The work on display, which was exhibited earlier this year at the MOMA in his home town of Machynlleth and transfers to Aberystwyth this month, doesn’t telegraph its taste for the grotesque quite as clearly as that might suggest, but in presenting both two- and three-dimensional pieces utilises both forms rather neatly.


His sculptures are carved from oak using a lathe, with the intention that they depreciate over time: appendages jut out bulbously, elegant but also a little obscene. (A ‘progressive’ city council might deploy one as a Christmas tree, a la Paul McCarthy.) Paintings meanwhile evoke these cartoonish curves, colourful in an autumnal way, with what May says are references to the story of the Garden Of Eden – there are indeed treelike and snakeish figures in there, though much is left open to interpretation.


Admission: FREE. Info: aberystwythartscentre.co.uk


NOEL GARDNER NO TIME TO PLAN AN


ENDING G39, Cardiff Until Sat 18 Dec


There’s a light irony to the title of this exhibition, intentionally so you’d imagine, as the artists involved in it have been afforded more planning time than ideal over the last two years. Becca+Clare [pictured], Freya Dooley, Rebecca Gould, Rhiannon Lowe, Will Roberts and Neasa Terry are seven of 20 artists accepted onto Cardiff gallery G39’s Fellowship programme, which aims to support Welsh creatives via workshops, training, mentoring and so forth.


The process has been rather wonkier than was expected at the outset, with the gallery’s space only sometimes being accessible, but what’s emerged, in a broad stylistic variety, is an unspecific jumble, in a good way. It’s germane to Becca+Clare’s arch, community-minded conceptualism, for example, likewise painter Roberts’ fixation on people’s living spaces and how we personalise them. Cardiff-based Lowe’s highly personal work, relating to her trans identity, is reliably worthwhile, and the mixed media of Dooley and Gould’s contributions sound like they’ll offer ample food for thought.


Admission: FREE. Info: g39.org


NOEL GARDNER


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