At first glance you might wonder what the Bloomsbury artist Vanessa Bell and musician, writer and artist Patti Smith have in common, but an intimate exhibition alongside the first ever major retrospective of Bell’s work at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, helpfully shines a spotlight on the radical and uncompromising nature of Bell’s life and work. […]
Comment
My piece of Prince
For those of us of a certain age, the music of Prince probably forms at least part of the soundtrack of our lives. I remember seeing him on Top of the Pops performing When Doves Cry, dancing with my best – and now longest-standing mate – to You’ve Got the Look at art college, the […]
Saving Soho
I like to think I am a fairly adventurous person, open to new things and adaptable to change, but this week I’ve been uncharacteristically nostalgic. I have been drinking in Soho for over a quarter of a century. In my final year at art college, I was desperately in love with an artist, just a […]
The Colour of Culture by Sophie Wilbraham
There is something intoxicating about a country where its people are as bright as the colours it is associated with. Since my trip to Ghana, Africa earlier this summer I have realised there is no mystery as to why we associate Africa as being such a colourful continent. ‘TIA bruh,’ people would say- ‘This is […]
Women artists at Tate Modern
It is 30 years since the campaign group Guerrilla Girls launched amid a flurry of feminism, fur, direct action and razor sharp statistics on the gender inequalities in the art world. In London this year, I wonder whether there is finally some attempt to redress the balance. Women artists are at the heart of the […]
Why Alan Titchmarsh is my nemesis
Alan Titchmarsh became my nemesis almost 16 years ago. A few months after my mother and step-father moved into a new-build home, he left for the affections of the blonde euphonium player in his brass band (well this is the north….) Being left with the pain of betrayal and abandonment after 15 years of marriage […]