I began to understand that the object of what I had been making were these shadows. It was ephemeral but it was also material, so it was both.
Corbin Shaw, Soften Up, Hard Lad, 2019
Feature
Class Distinction
Morgan Quaintance asks what continues to suppress the working class in the visual arts sector, and what are their prospects for the future
In much the same way as the colonial subject existed as the irrational other against which the rational, civilised and civilising western subject was measured, the working-class subject must inhabit a position of socio-cultural lack to fulfil the role of uncultured other.
From the Back Catalogue Art/Class
Bob Dickinson wonders whether working-class culture can survive in the UK. First published in 2022, now free online.
sponsored
Jasper Marsalis, Stadium, 2020
Profile
Jasper Marsalis
Michael Kurtz
In November 2020, Jasper Marsalis left a crater in the rubble of a vacant site in Minneapolis. The simple earthwork was surrounded by seven powerful floodlights and titled Stadium, but there were no performers and no crowds.
sponsored
Editorial
Class Actions
Mainstream representations of the working classes, which are rarely produced by people who would consider themselves working class, deliver a level of misrepresentation that ultimately leads to either scapegoating or erasure.
Joel Budd, in his new book Underdogs: The Truth About Britain’s White Working Class, refers to this as ‘ventriloquising’, an example being how the middle classes project their own prejudices, for instance about migration or Europe, onto the working classes.
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Artnotes
Political Case for Art
In the lead up to the government’s Spending Review, numerous art organisations make the case for the visual arts; authorities suffer a backlash from the arts against a misleading interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Equality Act; the British Museum chief rules out restitution of looted artefacts; insipid proposals for the QEII Memorial are revealed; climbing on Winston Churchill’s statue is to become a criminal offence; artists and art organisations in the UK and the US stand against the rise of fascism; plus the latest on galleries, people, awards and more.
Obituaries
Dara Birnbaum 1946–2025
Chris Townsend
Peter Sedgely 1930–2025
Anna Harding
Tris Vonna-Michell, Boxed Matter, 2024,
Moon Grove, Manchester
Exhibitions
The World Through AI
Jeu de Paume, Paris
Chris Townsend
Tris Vonna-Michell: The Art of Clockmaking
Moon Grove, Manchester
Dylan Huw
Do Ho Suh: Walk the House
Tate Modern, London
Deborah Schultz
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Sarah Roberts: SICK (a note from Sandilands Road and other stories)
The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds
Paul Carey-Kent
Nolan Oswald Dennis: throwers
Gasworks, London
Amrita Dhallu
Fake Barn Country
Raven Row, London
Peter Suchin
sponsored
Ann Hamilton: We Will Sing
Salts Mill, Bradford
Lauren Velvick
Berlin Round-up
ChertLüdde • Dittrich & Schlechtriem • PSM • Michael Werner
Ari Nielsson
Colin Sackett, Manifold
Artists’ Books
Colin Sackett: Manifold – Publishing 1984–2024
Greg Thomas
Connections are drawn, for example, between the spacing of words and the passage of rivulets through rock, or of dead crustacean fragments through a desert sea; between the forward motion of the eyes across the page and a bike gently accelerating downhill.
Looking at the Woman in a Bomb Blast cover image
Books
Daniel Jewesbury: Looking at the Woman in a Bomb Blast
Michaele Cutaya
Daniel Jewesbury has been thinking and speculating about FE McWilliam’s 1974 sculpture, Woman in a Bomb Blast, for over 20 years, fuelled by a persistent unease about how audiences ought to respond to it.
The Activism of Art
Books
Dipti Desai and Stephen Duncombe: The Activism of Art – A Decentred Anthology
Daniel Neofetou
The editors’ introduction opens with two epigraphs which appear to stake out the coordinates of the book: one from Plato, who affirms the risk to society of art, and thus its activism, and another from Audre Lorde, for whom art’s activism in this sense renders it a ‘vital necessity’.
Eimear Walshe, Free State Pangs, 2025
Film
Eimear Walshe: Free State Pangs
Maria Walsh
The film is partly an allegory of Eimear Walshe’s own non-violent resistance and subsequent arrest at Shannon Airport for protesting, with two others, the use of the facility as a stopover by US military aircraft.
Film Workers for Palestine protest attended by BFMAF programmers
Film
Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival
Najrin Islam
St Aidan’s Peace Church hosted the anthology project titled Some Strings, which comprised over 100 shorts made by filmmakers around the world in response to poet and teacher Refaat Alareer’s recent death caused by Israeli military action in Gaza.
Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat, Go With Your Heart, 2025
Performance
Tim Etchells and Vlatka Horvat: Go With Your Heart
Aoife Rosenmeyer
The performance avoids all sense of conflict – at most, figures position themselves on the periphery of others’ actions. Tim Etchells and Vltaka Horvat’s exemplary group presents a benign portrait of society.
Avant-Garde Institute, photo by Aneta Grzeszykowska and Jan Smaga, 2004
Reports
Letter from Warsaw
Nick Thurston
Poland has such a rich tradition of self-organised and alternative practice, and Warsaw seems to feed on the extraordinary strength of the country’s art academies and DIY scenes in Poznan, Gdansk, Wroclaw and, especially, Krakow.
Nico Vascellari, ‘Pastorale’, 2025
Reports
Letter from Milan
Leonardo Caffo
From the thousands of intelligent people who come to the city from all over the world to be here, it is those, some sleeping ten to a room in the suburbs just to be present, which perhaps gives the true meaning to the art fair’s ‘among friends’ theme.
Andy Warhol, Cagney, 1964, estimated at $2.5m–$3.5m, sold for $2.3m
Salerooms
New York Sales
Colin Gleadell
One pre-sale fear that did materialise, however, was that Donal Trump’s trade war with China dented Asian spending at the sales, particularly on work by American artists who make up the bulk of the US auctions – an own goal by the president.
Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts
Artlaw
Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts
Henry Lydiate
No regulatory frameworks were developed by or for the international art industry, which is why the art market is often described as being like the Old Wild West: a self-built society without law enforcement, just the survival of the fittest – the ‘elephant in the room’ being lack of transparency and regulatory oversight compared with other global industries.
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Liza Giles Artist Exhibition Tour Flowers Central, London, Sat 7 Jun 1.00pm
Conversation between Artist Joëlle de La Casinière and Curator Caroline Dumalin Goldsmiths CCA, London , Tue 10 Jun 6.30pm
Oreet Ashery in Conversation with Caspar Heinemann Studio Voltaire, London, Wed 11 Jun 7.00pm
Collecting Stories Lecture: Focus on Nazi-Looting in Art Collections V&A, London, Thu 12 Jun 1.00pm
The Sea: An Opera about Palestine Bold Tendencies, London, Sat 14 Jun 7.30pm
Archive Research at Tower Hamlets Archives Four Corners Gallery, London, Fri 20 Jun 2.30pm
Curator Tour of Arpita Singh: Remembering Serpentine Gallery, London, Sat 21 Jun 12.00pm
Anselm Kiefer in Conversation with Simon Schama Royal Academy of Arts, London, Wed 25 Jun 11.00am
James McVinnie Organ: JS Bach, The Art of Fugue Bold Tendencies, London, Fri 27 Jun 7.30pm
PhotoFutures: Photography and Sustainability Impressions, Bradford, Sat 28 Jun 1.30pm
Jamie Sutcliffe on Caspar Heinemann Studio Voltaire, London, Sat 28 Jun 3pm
Selected Exhibition Openings
Manifesto for Sustainable Experimentation Beaconsfield, London, opens Wed 21 May | PV 31 May
Terence McCormack Roland Ross, Margate, opens Sun 1 Jun | PV 1 Jun
Gala Porras-Kim Sprüth Magers, London, opens Wed 4 Jun | PV 3 Jun
Manifesto for Sustainable Experimentation Beaconsfield, London, until Sat 9 Aug BAW, Sonia Boyce, David Burrows, Michael Curran, Luana Duvoisin Zanchi, Minna Haukka, Trevor Mathison, Emily Mulenga, Ellis Parkinson, A.L. Steiner, Luke Turner, Joseph Walsh and many others celebrate 30 years of Beaconsfield, 1995-2025.
promoted
Milly Thompson, Sophie Podolski Goldsmiths CCA, London , opens Thu 5 Jun | PV 4 Jun
Jimmy Robert Thomas Dane, London, opens Fri 6 Jun | PV 5 Jun
Boxes a.Squire, London, opens Sat 7 Jun | PV 6 Jun
Mercedes Azpilicueta: Fire on the Mountain, Light on the Hill Collective, Edinburgh, opens Fri 20 Jun | PV 19 Jun A monumental tapestry and soundscape for the first solo exhibition in Scotland of visual and performance artist Mercedes Azpilicueta.
promoted
Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín Elizabeth Xi Bauer, London, opens Fri 20 Jun | PV 19 Jun
Find local shows with the Art Monthly gallery maps!
Podcasts
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May: Rachel Pronger discusses the work of Vaginal Davis at the Gropius Bau, Peter Suchin covers Barbara Steveni’s work at Modern Art Oxford, Henry Broome looks at the troubled history between art and gentrification and Elizabeth Fullerton reports on the art scene in Tallinn.
Apr: Maja and Reuben Fowkes discuss the lessons we may learn from trees, and how artists can be their voice in this Pyrocene age.
The Michael O’Pray Prize is a Film and Video Umbrella initiative, in partnership with Art Monthly. Supported by University of East London and Arts Council England.
An award for new writing on innovation and experimentation in the moving image by early-career writers. There will be a £750 prize for the winner, with £350 each for two further awardees. All three awarded texts will be published online by Art Monthly and FVU. Film and Video Umbrella, UK Wide | 9 June fvu.co.uk
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Open Call - UK deaf artists for Stagetext Anniversary Commission
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