David Hockney @ Nottingham Contemporary

At Nottingham Contemporary they are currently showing a David Hockney retrospective until the end of January. For such a small exhibition which is held in only two of the rooms at the new gallery they really managed to create a narrative of how his personal art has developed over his career. I especially loved the piece entitled "Life Art for a Diploma" in which he mocks his lack of interest in his colleges life drawing classes which needed to be completed for his course. This showed a ironic and satirical nature of his work that later developed into his famous depictions of californian life.

A short but sweet little exhibition.

Nottingham Contemporary

This week a brand new contemporary Art gallery has opened in my old stomping ground of Nottingham. It sits on the crest of a hill which has provided the Caruso St John architects with a unique site that they have taken full advantage of. They play with its various aspects and levels; framing the appealing views with carefully placed windows as well as carving out some new rights of way for any pedestrian. Unlike the design of many contemporary art galleries the architects have not been brazen with its form- it sits comfortably within the existing skyline, yet not too comfortably that it is not intriguing. I especially loved the lace imprint made onto some of the exterior concrete panels, a little nod to its site on the edge of the old lace market.

All in all I can hardly criticise any initiative that adds exciting new architecture to the city skyline, let alone free Art to the residents of that city... a resounding thumbs up!

Radical Nature @ The Barbican

I trekked across London last week to catch this exhibition before it closed. Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a changing planet was to me a bit of a disappointment. I don't want to be too harsh as individually there where some exciting pieces; instead my dissolution rests with the organizers of the exhibition, who put together something that was shoddily presented and with no real narrative to drive the spectator through the space. Dealing with such a relevant issue of the relationship between nature and architecture it failed to make any clear statement- most of the pieces being highly conceptual and unable to relate to contemporary life. The curators chose pieces that were not subtle about their chosen subject, In fact many seemed to shout "Im an artist dealing with nature!", an example of this poster art being the section of rainforest tipped on its side in Henrik Hakansson's Fallen Forest (2006). Having been to so many wonderfully exhibitions of late that employ a meaningful narrative that enhance the spectators experience, it was hard to feel that they had got the most out of this topic at the Barbican.

Telling Tales @ The V&A

This current exhibition explores the unique and high-end pieces of contemporary designers who deal with themes of opulence, fantasy and nightmare. We visited on a busy saturday afternoon which meant that the surreal atmosphere constructed by the curators was partly destroyed by the bustle of visitors. Spectators 'oohd' and 'arrd' at the sensationalist design pieces - a favorite being the bath in the form of a boat. Personally, I enjoyed many of the pieces, and found the theatrical stage set upon which they were placed was a good way of presenting them in there full glory. The latter part of the exhibition which dealt with the theme of nightmares was less successful in this regard. Pieces where obscured by fragmentary viewing windows which, instead of providing a justified framing became irritating, complicating the spectators experience to an unnecessary degree.

An Atlas of Fabrication @ AA

The current exhibition at my school shows the work of the Barkow Leibinger Architecture firm which is based in Berlin. It demonstrates the experimental nature of contemporary practices who spend a lot of time researching structure through materiality. The small exhibition reads like a catalogue of textures, rather than the integrated design of spaces - still, quite an interesting little show to fill up my lunch break today.

Le Corbusier @ the Barbican

Until June a retrospective of the architect known as the father of modern Architecture is being held at the Barbican, which according to my tutor is a "truly atrocious space". Whilst trying my best to ignore the vulgar surroundings I observed his vast canon of work. I have nothing really to criticize about his actual buildings, not only because this would be blasphemous to any architect, but simply because they embody a theory that is still deeply engrained in the architecture of today. What struck me most poignantly was how his work encompasses so many different fields from poetry, writing, painting, photography through to furniture design. I love the idea that an architect must absorb themselves as much as possible in the culture and arts to understand the society that they are designing for.

"I am an acrobat of forms

 creator of forms, player with forms.

 Forms means to express all plastic emotion.

 Form, expression and style of the mind."

- Le Corbusier

Boom @ Royal College of Art . . .

This is the RCA's work in progress show before the final graduation show in june. The Architects were all dealing with themes of Boom and Doom: tackling how to design for a new rather depressing world of limited space, deforestation, lack or resources, etc. There was some interesting work in the Art and Animation sections, although I could not easily understand their development, as there was very limited information available. It seems that I am consistently drawn to work that clearly shows a process, which I find to be more accessible - at the RCA; this seems to occur most frequently in the work of the architecture students.

Palladio @ Royal Academy

16th Century Architect . . . nuff said!

Unveiled @ Saatchi . . .

Slipped my way across London on the ice, whilst my school was closed, to visit this exhibition today. At points the themes of oppression and conflict by the middle eastern artists was hardly subtle yet there were certain pieces that struck an emotive chord with me: the most obvious being the empty tinfoil vessels of women in prayer by Kader Attias; as well as Halim Al Karim's haunting triptychs of photographs. (Phone pics again - will try not to forget camera next time!)

Hussein Chalayan

Tres cool retrospective at the Design Museum that I visited today . His dresses with Lasers and LED lights where amazing but I wasnt able to get a very good picture of them.