Moki Cherry: Here and Now @ Institute of Contemporary Arts In London

Moki Cherry
Malkauns Raga 1973
Textile appliqué
235x190cm
Courtesy of Artist


Here and Now displays over 30 artworks and archival material of Moki Cherry including works that have never been shown in the UK. The exhibition celebrates her exploration of where art and life meet, her collaborative and interdisciplinary practice, and her inventive resolve in the face of gendered challenges working both as an artist and mother – issues which remain pertinent to artists and audiences today. Drawn entirely from the Estate of Moki Cherry, this exhibition presents a rare chance for the public to view these privately held works, which remain preciously cared for by her family.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by an untitled drawing, an abstracted figure with arms outstretched embracing the words ‘Here & Now’ against a cloudlike landscape alongside a star and birds. It reflects the artist’s longstanding study and practice of Buddhism and its teachings which focus on being in the present, rather than dwelling on the past or speculating on the future. Characteristic of Moki’s playful use of language, it recalls her jazz musician husband Don Cherry’s 1976 album Hear & Now, for which Moki designed the cover using appliqué and collage.

Moki Cherry: Here and Now is on display through September 3rd at the Institute of Contemporary Arts at The Mall, St. James's, London

Patty Chang: The Wandering Lake, 2009-2017 @ Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

Organized by the Queens Museum, New York, The Wandering Lake, 2009-2017 is Chang’s most ambitious work to date: an eight-year project that redefines the role of artist, image, object and performance in the construction of narratives through an exhibition that integrates video projection, photography, sculpture, publication, and performance as one expansive body of work. The exhibition allows viewers to navigate through Chang’s personal, associative, and narrative meditation on mourning, caregiving, geopolitics, and landscape. The exhibition has been structured to replicate the complex way in which stories develop through geography, history, cultural mythology, fiction, and personal experience. While Chang’s multi-year project was in part inspired by turn-of-the-century colonial explorer Sven Hedin’s book The Wandering Lake (1938)—which tells the story of a migrating body of water in the Chinese desert—the project also chronicles the loss of Chang’s father as well as her pregnancy and the birth of her son.

The Wandering Lake, 2009-2017 is on view through August 4 at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1717 E 7th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021. photographs courtesy of Elon Schoenholz/ICA LA

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists @ Institute of Contemporary Art

This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich and Many Other Artists surveys an array of world-renowned artists and one indispensable assistant—the Los Angeles-based artist, sign painter, and fabricator Norm Laich. The exhibition will consist of paintings and graphic installations fabricated by Laich over the past three decades. Laich has been a key contributor to the production of many iconic works by a range of artists including Ed Ruscha, Paul McCarthy, Barbara Kruger, Allen Ruppersberg, and Jenny Holzer, among many others. The exhibition is on view through September 2 at Institute of Contemporary Art 717 East 7th Street Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

When Savage Culture Was The Norm: Smiler Captures The Wayward Visages Of London's Squatters

An exhibition of unseen photographs by Smiler (aka Mark Cawson) of London squats from the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s is currently on view at the ICA in London. The content of the exhibition focuses on a body of work that Smiler mainly shot between West London and Kings Cross. The exhibition consists of black and white images taken on an analogue camera. “I used the camera like a storm anchor helping me to navigate and freeze a spinning world of change and flux.” Smiler Against the backdrop of social and political upheaval, young people across the city were drawn to squats by the prospect of a place to live, but also by an identity and a sense of community. Smiler’s photographs document the people who lived in squats across the city, at a time when salvage culture was the norm. Smiler: Photographs of London by Mark Cawson will be on view at the ICA until November 29, 2015, 12 Carlton House Terrace London