New Art at the Walker

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

The Walker Art Gallery, more renowned for its classical historical collections, including many works by world renowned artists, have assembled an engaging exhibition, titled ‘Art In New Spaces’, of contemporary art that they have built up over the past 20 years.

“This is a great opportunity for visitors appreciate the growing diversity within our contemporary collection and to enjoy some pieces that are being shown at the Walker for the first time.” Said Ann Bukantas, curator of Fine Art at the gallery.

The exhibition includes paintings, video and installation, sculpture, and real human skulls cast in bone china – this was produced, in a work called ‘English Family China’, by Christine Borland.

The core of the collection on show is derived from past biennial John Moores exhibitions of contemporary art, which has been staged at the Walker since 1957. It provides a platform for the most impressive artists of the day to show their work, with a number of the pieces being added to the gallery’s permanent collection.

Paintings currently on display include ‘Super-Star Fucker: Andy Warhol Text Painting’, which is far less provocative than the title suggests – it consists of a multitude of star shapes containing words inside them, painted on to a large canvas.

Michael Rardecker’s painting ‘Mirage’ caught my attention in the show because he has used threads in areas where you would normally expect paint to be.

There are also sculptures by famous artist Anish Kapoor, who was artist in residence at the Walker in the early 1980’s, as well as a video work, titled ‘Dual’, by Stephanie Smith and Edward Stewart. It consists of a man and a woman both forcing a hand of each other to pen a signature, to the accompaniment of loud discordant noises and two scrawled signatures. Strange!

Perhaps even more unusual is Kate Blacker’s sculpture ‘Geisha’, which was made from a discarded rusty piece of corrugated iron found in a scrapyard.

The exhibition runs until April 25. Admission is free.