If you’re interested in visual art, there’s no better time to be
living in or visiting the West Midlands region. What was once, in the
dim and distant past, considered by some as a bit of a cultural desert,
is now a hive of local, national and international activity with an
energetic and growing community of artists at its heart. That’s if you
can catch them – many of them are out and about, working on exhibitions
and projects in cities all around the world, whether shows at
commercial galleries in New York, London, Milan and Geneva or in major
public art biennales such as Venice or Shanghai. And if you’re quick
off the mark, you can usually get to see their work in the West
Midlands before they achieve national and international success – the
trick is knowing where to look.
The West Midlands has a rich history of civic museums and galleries,
generated by industrial wealth in the 19th Century. The region is
fortunate to still have them, and many of them are thriving.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, for example, home to one of the country’s
most respected collections of Pop Art as well as gems from many periods
of art history, recently opened a major new wing. Similarly, Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall and Waterhall expansions in the past
two decades have significantly increased the number of large-scale
temporary exhibitions on view to the public, whether playing host to
the British Art Show and the Arts Council’s contemporary art collection
or historical shows from Canaletto and Burne-Jones to the German
Symbolists and Equiano, the recent show forming part of the national
celebrations for the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.
With other civic museums and galleries in cities and towns including
Worcester, Wednesbury, Rugby, Dudley and Shrewsbury, the region has a
solid foundation for developing both its permanent collections and
temporary exhibitions programmes.
One of my favourite collections is at the Royal Pump Rooms in
Leamington Spa. With its heritage as a destination for those with
health problems, the Pump Rooms’ contemporary collection particularly
reflects this role, with many pieces connecting in some way to medical
themes, such as a series of prints by Damien Hirst relating to
pharmaceutical products, food and religious belief. While it keeps a
relatively low profile, the Royal Pump Rooms has consistently put on
ambitious and stimulating temporary exhibitions, including one of the
most arresting exhibition experiences I’ve ever had, witnessing Jordan
Baseman’s film of a man having open heart surgery accompanied by the
foreboding evangelical doctrine of an American minister.
Any consideration of more modern venues for art in the region must
begin with the Midlands Arts Centre – a 60s building currently closed
for major refurbishment. One of the nicest things about the MAC is that
it is used by almost every age group from every community in Birmingham
and beyond – everyone feels at home there. And the variety of the
programming is startling – you can be watching a cult classic film,
contemporary theatre or world music concert and step out into an
exhibition of photographs of the M6 toll road, exotic eunuchs or Brits
who dress up as famous Americans. It’s also one of the best venues for
seeing temporary exhibitions of art produced in the West Midlands,
whether painting, sculpture, photography, new media or craft. Another
major arts venue in the region is Warwick Arts Centre, which in
addition to a concert hall, theatres and cinema, is home to the Mead
Gallery with an exceptional programme of temporary historical and
contemporary exhibitions.
The 1990s was an important decade for contemporary art in the
region, symbolised by the relocation and development of Ikon Gallery in
Brindleyplace. Ikon is perhaps the region’s jewel in the crown in terms
of contemporary art, internationally acknowledged for its dynamic
programme of exhibitions, projects and events. The list of artists to
have had major exhibitions there includes internationally acclaimed
figures such as On Kawara, Marcel Dzama, Olafur Eliasson, Richard
Deacon and Gillian Wearing. Ikon also supports emerging stars from the
region, such as Ruth Claxton and Juneau/Projects/. And of course, the
small but well-stocked shop and tapas restaurant and bar only add to
the pleasure of visiting Ikon…
Hot on the heels of Ikon’s redevelopment, the New Art Gallery
Walsall also sprang up in the 1990s in an exceptional building designed
by award-winning architects Caruso St. John, bringing new life to the
excellent Garman Ryan Collection as well as helping to cement the
region’s reputation as a place presenting work by leading contemporary
artists from around the world. Recent solo exhibitions include Jane and
Louise Wilson, Christopher Le Brun, Conrad Shawcross, Hew Locke and
Kerry James Marshall as well as a variety of intriguing thematic group
shows such as Cult Fiction, Back to Black, Out of Place, and You’ll
Never Know. The New Art Gallery Walsall also supports emerging talent
from the region, either through its residency programme or by means of
exhibitions, such as Stuart Whipps’s show of exquisite photographs
documenting the decline of the motor industry in Longbridge and the
rise of car manufacturing in Nanjing, China.
As with Ikon and the New Art Gallery Walsall, The Public Gallery,
opening in summer 2008 in West Bromwich, is also part of a wider urban
regeneration scheme. This vast complex, designed by the inimitable
architect Will Alsop, is part of a £500 million development project in
the Sandwell area, and comes with a theatre, recording studios and
conference spaces. Proudly boasting no vertical walls, this promises to
be no ordinary arts centre experience and a haven for those with a
particular interest in digital technology and interactive arts.
Indeed, significant new venues just keep on appearing, such as the
privately owned Compton Verney and Initial Access. Located in a
stunning Grade 1 listed mansion in Warwickshire, Compton Verney puts on
an impressive programme of historical and contemporary exhibitions
ranging from Van Gogh and Giacometti to Luc Tuymans and Susan Hiller.
As with many of the aforementioned institutions, Compton Verney has
lots of activities and events for visitors of all ages, and has the
makings of an excellent family day out. Initial Access is home to Frank
Cohen’s extensive international collection of contemporary art. With
temporary exhibitions from the collection curated by David Thorp,
Initial Access turns two large industrial units in the Wolverhampton
countryside into international-quality gallery spaces.
While there is clearly lots going on all round the region,
Birmingham has become a real focal point for contemporary art with
venues and organisations almost everywhere you look, from the Drum in
Newtown to the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in the Jewellery
Quarter, from the Barber Institute in Edgbaston to the International
Project Space in Bournville. It’s also increasingly clear how important
the regeneration district Eastside is becoming to the city, home not
just to VIVID with its ambitious media arts programmes, but also to the
photography development agency Rhubarb Rhubarb, sonic arts agency
Modulate, Friction Arts, Fused magazine, Capsule, the Custard Factory
and Ikon Eastside, a second space for Ikon Gallery. The latest addition
to the ever-growing cultural scene in the area is Eastside Projects, a
new venue that seems to have got everybody talking.
The Eastside district has also played host to some of the city and
region’s many festivals and fairs, including New Art Birmingham,
Supersonic, New Generation Arts, the Rhubarb Festival, Gigbeth, the
7-Inch Cinema festival, and The Event – a festival devoted to the
region’s artist-led community. This community is really active and
accounts for much of the energy in the region’s contemporary art scene.
Again, these can be found all over the place, from Crowd6 in Smethwick
to Airspace in Stoke-on-Trent. There are also groups and initiatives
that spring up in different locations, creating temporary and
site-specific projects, such as AAS, [insertspace], Pub Conversations,
COLONY and Capital Art Projects. The art community is very much
interwoven with Birmingham’s music scene, so there are events, film
screenings, talks, performances and happenings taking place every week,
both in the region’s centres and out in the suburbs – Birmingham’s
villages of Balsall Heath, Moseley and Kings Heath are positively
brimming with artists, musicians, writers and curators.
Artists in or from the region achieving national and international
success at different stages of their careers include Richard
Billingham, Simon and Tom Bloor, Ruth Claxton, Ravi Deepres, Tessa
Farmer, Matt Golden, Roger Hiorns, Juneau/Projects/, Idris Khan, Karin
Kihlberg and Reuben Henry, Heather and Ivan Morison, Kate Pemberton,
Kristian Ryokan, George Shaw and Stuart Whipps. Together with the
amount and quality of international contemporary art on display in the
region today and so much happening from artist-led to major
institutional levels, it would not be exaggerating to assert that a
contemporary art renaissance is quietly taking place here at the
moment. For the time being there seems to be little awareness beyond
the region that this explosive transformation has been taking place.
Maybe it’s time we started making a bit more noise.
Matt Price is a writer and editor based in Birmingham and
London. Following a degree in art history from the University of
Nottingham and an MA in curating from the Royal College of Art, he
started his career as an editor for Hans Ulrich Obrist before being
appointed Managing Editor of Flash Art International, Milan. He has
since worked as Deputy Editor of ArtReview and Publications Manager at
Serpentine Gallery. In addition to Flash Art and ArtReview, he has also
written for magazines including A-n, Art Monthly, Fused and Frieze. He
is now working on a freelance basis producing publications for Albion,
London, and is curating an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in
autumn 2008.