Contemporary art

‘You cannot begin by calling me France’s most famous living artist!’: Sophie Calle interviewed

4 November 2023 9:00 am

‘You cannot begin by calling me France’s most famous living artist!’ Thus Sophie Calle objected to the first line of…

The greatest artist chronicler of our times: Grayson Perry, at the Edinburgh Art Festival, reviewed

2 September 2023 9:00 am

The busiest show in Edinburgh must be Grayson Perry: Smash Hits which, a month into its run, still has people…

Policed conviviality: Serpentine Pavilion 2023 reviewed

1 July 2023 9:00 am

As I sat down at this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, I overheard a curious exchange. ‘You mustn’t create art within art,’…

As seductive as Chagall: Sarah Sze’s The Waiting Room reviewed

27 May 2023 9:00 am

Exiting Peckham Rye station, you’re not aware of it, but standing on the platform you can see a mansard roof…

At her best when lightly ruffling the surfaces of things: Cornelia Parker, at Tate Britain, reviewed

9 July 2022 9:00 am

Cornelia Parker wasn’t born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but when she was growing up her German godparents…

Exquisite and deranged: two glass exhibitions reviewed

16 April 2022 9:00 am

A ‘Ghost Shop’ has appeared between Domino’s Pizza and Shoe Zone on Sunderland High Street. Look through the laminated window…

Fails to dispel the biggest myth of all: Whitechapel Gallery's A Century of the Artist’s Studio reviewed

26 March 2022 9:00 am

Picture the artist’s studio: if what comes to mind is the romantic image of a male painter at his easel…

Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning art scene

5 March 2022 9:00 am

Stuart Jeffries on Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning art scene

Part-gothic horror, part-Acorn Antiques: Louise Bourgeois, at the Hayward Gallery, reviewed

19 February 2022 9:00 am

Louise Bourgeois was 62 and recently widowed when she first used soft materials in her installation ‘The Destruction of the…

How the Beano shaped art

23 October 2021 9:00 am

Stuart Jeffries on the cultural influence of the comic that said it was good to be bad

Paintings dominate – the good, the bad and the very ugly: Frieze London 2021 reviewed

23 October 2021 9:00 am

There’s a faint scent of desperation wafting through the Frieze tent this year. Pre–pandemic, this was where you came to…

Glorious: Bernardo Bellotto at the National Gallery reviewed

14 August 2021 9:00 am

What is the National Gallery playing at? Why, in this summer of stop-start tropical storms, is the NG making visitors…

What really went on at Britain's Bikini Atoll?

31 July 2021 9:00 am

Stuart Jeffries takes the ferry to Orford Ness, a strange shingle spit on the Suffolk coast, where art mingles with death

The Turner Prize shortlist is an embarrassment

22 May 2021 9:00 am

In 2019 I was asked to be on the jury for the Turner Prize. I was pretty happy about this.…

How has this complete original been sidelined?

22 May 2021 9:00 am

A party of disorderly couples has gatecrashed the Picture Gallery at Bath’s Holburne Museum, climbing on to the antique furniture,…

The artists ensnared by the capitalist system they affect to despise

24 April 2021 9:00 am

Stuart Jeffries on the artists ensnared by the capitalist system they affect to despise

It's almost touching that the NFT world see itself as radical

17 April 2021 9:00 am

Some things are explained so many times that they become unexplainable: we can only relate to them as something complicated…

Is the hottest new podcast, The Apology Line, worth sticking with?

30 January 2021 9:00 am

With the arts world still largely in hibernation, the launch of a big podcast is as close as we get…

The rise of bad figurative painting

30 January 2021 9:00 am

Galleries are awash with gimmicky paintings that look like they’ve been designed by algorithm. Dean Kissick on the rise of zombie figuration

Inane, modish and safe: The White Pube podcast reviewed

28 November 2020 9:00 am

The White Pube started life as an influential art blog, written by Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente. The…

As immersive art goes, nothing can compete with Berghain

26 September 2020 9:00 am

In Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, the protagonist, at the Venice Biennale, muses on installations. ‘Ideally, the perfect art installation…

I didn’t expect to be so moved – galleries reopen

27 June 2020 9:00 am

I’m in Mayfair and I’m boarding an airplane. Or rather, I’m boarding an approximation of an airplane. In the centre…

The artist who left no physical record of her work

2 May 2020 9:00 am

While locked-down galleries compete to keep their artists in the public eye — or ear — by uploading interview podcasts,…

Are there ways in which virtual exhibitions are better than real ones?

4 April 2020 9:00 am

Six months ago I published a book about travelling to look at works of art. One such journey involved a…

The grisly art of Revolutionary France

28 March 2020 9:00 am

There was a basket of thick red wool and two pairs of large knitting needles at the start of University…