Nancy Spero - Serpetine Gallery 3 March - 2 May 2011

Nancy Spero
Female Bomb 1966n

Nancy Spero. Protests made through drawings and prints. I thought the works were very repetitive, the quality of the drawings were almost the same in each one, which it is not a bad thing but it was kind of boring after being in the exhibition for a while. What I really enjoyed from this exhibition was the way that the drawings were displayed onto the wall, like a big protest banner and the quality and oakcolour of the frames. All the pieces worked really well together, I enjoyed the colourful drawings and its lively but also painful expression. Taking into account the quality of Nancy Spero's work she appeared to be a very passionate female artist that she used her art as a political statement against war, male dominance and abuses of power.

Transfers, Angela de la Cruz at Lisson Gallery until 30 April 2011

Compressed (cream)2011 Oil on aluminum 122 x 70 x 56 cm

There is somethings about Angela de la Cruz's work that I really like. The main reason might be that, like me, she uses her own personal experiences to create row and fiercely emotive artwork, also her use of bold colours in  the destroyed canvases she presented when shortlisted in this year Turner Prize were very graphical and aesthetically beautiful.

I am not sure whether I like this artist for the mere fact that she is Spanish and had achieved so much in current contemporary art in this country or because I really like her work. Either way she has inspired me this year and has set new goals for me to achieve. Her work is fun but aggressive at the same time, raw but methodical in the way it has been created and later on destroyed.

I read in the title of this show "Transfers" as the period  when she had a stroke and left her in a wheel chair. Transferring her from the bed to the wheel chair, from the wheel chair to the bath and so on... 

Angela de la Cruz, Transfer (ivory), 2011

I particularly like this work called Transfer (Ivory), for me represents the artist sited in a sofa with her lower body parts paralysed resting her legs on a chair.

Modern British Sculpture - Royal Academy of Arts - 22nd January-7th April

Anthony Caro, Early One Morning, 1962,

I was particularly interested in seeing this exhibition since I made the decision of going into the second year of the BA Sculpture course next academic year.

I was quite impressed by the works in this exhibition, mostly with the works of Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Anthony Caro. Not sure why a film by Len Lye was at the exhibition and was categorized as sculputre, perhaps for its elasticity of the drawn forms onto the film? However to see something that actually moved distracted me from all the other stationary works. Henry Moore's Reclining Figure was absolutely stunning and made me think of the female figures painted by Picasso, i.e those of Madamoiselles d'Avignon. The hollows spaces of the figure, the sensual shapes of the figure reminds me of a rolling hills landscape. Every single angle offered me with a new perspective , the figure was always evolving although was still the same once your eyes were far enough to contemplate the sculpture in a whole. Barbara Hepworth was also quite inspiring, very similar to Henry Moore, magnificient pieces of work on marble and stone. Anthony Caro's Early One Morning was for me the best piece on the show, it was free, airy and fresh despite being so old,  only a different viewpoint, as in the work of Henry Moore, was just needed to enjoy this work, the work unfolded and expanded into the spectator's space . The zinging orange against the grey colours of the floor made it even more stand up and more effective graphically. Regarding the simple forms and the simplicity of this piece in general I would say that, less is more and Anthony Caro has achieved this in this piece.

I neither enjoyed the early 20th century sculputure at the beginning of the show but either the more contemporary sculputures at the end, like the work of Damien Hirst, which I thought that killing flies in front of people was really savage, I did not see this work as a work of sculputure, perhaps more of a performance.

It was good to see some much "called" sculputure, it did help me to locate my work and understood the possibilities of sculputure. However I did not see any 3D work made out of fabric, most materials were hard as marble, stone, steel, etc... and this made me wondered whether the art world still rejecting needlework as artwork itself and still be categorized as craft. Something what I have also noticed is the little work by female sculptors in the show.  This excentric exhibition had some controversy for not including work from Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, but what about the women? Is this really representative of the current state of British sculpture?