Gi diary - Friday 18th April

After work this afternoon I met up with Michael Stumpf in the Mackintosh Gallery to discuss his current exhibition This Song Belongs to Those who Sing It at Glasgow School of Art. Exhibitions Director, Jenny Brownrigg and Exhibitions Coordinator Talitha Kotzé have invited me to write a response to the exhibition, and bearing this in mind, I had a few questions to pose to Michael.

I then battled my way through the crowds on Buchanan Street (the sun was shining so everyone was out), along to 42 Carlton Place to see the exhibition of work by Christina Ramberg.

Ramberg is best known for imagery of bound, fetishised hands and bodies, and for schematised torsos that can shade into ‘pure’ diagrammatic abstraction.

Once again, 42 Carlton Place offers something refreshing to the Gi programme, an exhibition of drawings and paintings that are immediate and intimate.

Rowena and I then popped into The Modern Institute on Osborne Street to visit the current exhibition by Tobias Madison, Emanuel Rosseti and Stefan Tcherepnin. The most interesting part for me was the painted doorway and facade to the building that nods to the aesthetic of ghost trains and set design.

We then went to Alistair Frost's makeshift nail bar where people can get motifs painted onto their nails. These motifs are picked from a selection of paintings and objects produced by Frost which are installed throughout the space. I felt a little cheated as neither was the artist nor the nail technician there, and therefore was hardly a functioning social atmosphere which the artist is supposedly investigating.

At Glasgow Print Studio, by far the most interesting work for me, was the rectangular block of sand that was in the centre of the space. A triangular shape had been stencilled onto the top surface using metallic spray paint. One corner of the work slab had begun to collapse as the conditions forced the sand to dry out and crumble. How this piece related to the other works in the exhibition is beyond me!

Mary Mary presents an interesting exhibition of ceramics by London-based Jesse Wine. "Amidst an array of traditional materials and methods, Wine’s practice has a strong engagement with the process of making, which sees him pursue a line of chance and surprise in the final outcomes. The works are gestural with Wine pushing the boundaries of how clay, glazes and ceramic forms act when the maker relinquishes control of the end result."

The final exhibition stop of the day was to Universal Studios, part of Open House (a Gi fringe festival). The two-person exhibition featured collages, pin-hole camera photographs, a video and the pinhole cameras themselves.

Clive Hodgson - signed paintings at 42 Carlton Place

 Another wonderful exhibition at 42 Carlton Place. The paintings, all unframed are simply hung on the wall with pins or resting on nails. This simplicity is matched in the work. Hodgson uses subtle colours, often created through the layering of different shades. These are revealed when Hodgson signs and dates his work, often removing the top layer of paint to show what lies beneath.

Clive Hodgson’s paintings can be lyrical, disarming or mordant. They evoke emblem, signage and diagram.

Becoming known in the 1980s for anecdotal figuration, he has moved through alternations and combinations of abstraction and representation, deploying varied technical means: geometric pattern; stenciling; apparently casual daubing; stipple and spatter; ornamental calligraphic design. His diverse strategies build to a concerted interrogation of the puzzles of art and life.

The current exhibition is largely of recent work in which the signing (and dating) of the paintings is a significant part of imagery and content.

Clive Hodgson was born in Nottingham in 1953. He studied at St. Martin’s School of Art 1971-72 and the Slade School of Art 1972-77. He had a residency at The British School at Rome in 1998. Recent exhibitions have included: 2005 ‘Incorrigible, Sentimental’, Filles du Calvaire Brussels; 2006 Terrace London; 2008 ‘False Friends’, Five Years London; 2012 Broadbent London; ‘ Ever Since I Put Your Picture in a Frame’, 42 Carlton Place Glasgow; ‘The Smallest Composite Number’, Standpoint London.