Caleb White

  ★   ★   ★   ★  ☆ Outside, despite the humidity, it is threatening to rain. The pavements are slick from a recent downpour, yet it is warm, very warm. I am back in Oxford (the closest thing I have to a stomping ground) and have dragged my parents along to explore ‘Movements for Staying Alive’ at Modern Art Oxford. I say dragged, but they’re willing participants. Modern Art Oxford being the location of my formative contemporary arts memories, it is always nice to see what is on. The exhibition – on display until September 7 – combines new commissions with 20 th century work, all designed to explore embodiment, movement, connection. The first artwork encountered one of the new commissions: Estampa’s Archival Corpus . A video, bisecting the room diagonally, shows AI mapped individuals working in an archive. The walls display images found in said archive, artificially grouped based on visual similarity, challenging visitors to investigate the connections and c...

★   ★   ★   ★ ★ By now it was approaching midday. The sky was clear, and the sheer number of cars and people always make cities that one fraction hotter. After stopping for a while on a bench in the east of Mayfair, I decided not to attempt any other close by contemporary art galleries. Instead, I made my mind up to head towards my final destination for the day, The Serpentine Gallery. In the heat, I traipsed through Hyde Park. The sun was high in the sky as I cut through, walking for a good half an hour through the grasslands, under the shaded boughs of trees, and past the grand Serpentine Lake. I stopped for food. On a sunny Friday the park was busy. Unable to find a shaded bench, I made camp under a nearby tree. After resting another while, I repacked my things and headed up to the South Gallery itself. Beginning to burn out – I now recognise in hindsight – I neglected to take notes on the gallery, and have since misplaced the written handouts I had taken. Instead,...

  ★   ★   ★   ★   ☆ Around the corner, still in Mayfair, sat the JC Gallery. I initially passed by, but doubled back and entered. Currently on show, ‘Through the harrowed Land: Alfred Maurer and Modernism’. Taken by the bold, beautiful and pastoral landscape the gallery had decided to use, scaled up, as a banner, I entered. I was a touch soured by my previous gallery visit. However, the gallerist immediately greeted me, struck up polite conversation, and handed me a professionally bound copy of the exhibition materials. The gallerist in question was James Ward, Director of JC Gallery. While he busied about his own tasks – which included making himself a cup of tea – he made it clear that he was there if I had any questions. He even, after asking how long I was to be in London for, suggested some other recent openings and current exhibitions I should visit. JC Gallery specialises in American modernism between 1900-1950. Alfred Maurer, one such American Mode...

  ★   ★   ☆ ☆ ☆             Remaining in Mayfair for the moment, I chance upon the Gazelli Art House. I’ve brought gifts for some London-based friends and – wearing my hiking backpack and wading through the warm weather – I feel like an out of season Father Christmas. The Gallery is empty, save for a gallerist who is on the phone, mid-conversation with – from what I can gather - some sort of historian. He ignores me. His pocket square is vibrant, stark against his navy suit. It is only upon leaving that he offers a wave in my direction, revealing that he had, all along, been aware of my backpacked presence. This space is demonstrably not for me, not in my current get up at least. ‘The Way Forward: Derek Boshier and the Sixties’ spans both floors of the Gazelli Art House, and runs from April 25   - June 28. It is a posthumous exhibition, Boshier – a key figure in British Pop Art – passed in 2024. For someone unschooled in Art Histor...

★   ★   ★   ★   ☆ I return to writing after a considerable hiatus with a small spree of contemporary arts exhibition reviews. The subjects of the following reviews were encountered in Mayfair on Friday 2 nd May. I am in London for a social occasion and, arriving early at Victoria Station, decide to beat the swealtering heat by ducking into a few exhibitions. Up first, ‘this, that and the other: Jacqueline Poncelet’ at Richard Saltoun. Shown between March 11 – May 3 – myself arriving on the penultimate day – this exhibition showcases an retrospective of Poncelet’s varied and impressive career. Poncelet’s work ranges from ceramics to watercolours, each of her works possessing innate character, rhythm and motion. I chose this exhbition as my starting point on the strength of the poster. On it, an image of her ceramic work ‘untitled no. 5’. Within the gallery space, two key sculptures were hidden in shaded alcoves. This bestowed them with an anthropomorphic presence, ...