Visual Arts July(1).qxp_Layout 1 20/06/2022 10:31 Page 1
Visual Arts previews from around the region
Grown Up In Britain: 100 Years Of Teenage Kicks The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, Fri 1 July - Sun 12 February
The everyday experiences and cultural impact of young people is celebrated in this brand-new exhibition. Featuring photographs, objects and stories, Grown Up In Britain has been curated by and drawn from the extensive photographic collections of the Museum of Youth Culture, an emerging organisation dedicated to the styles, sounds and social movements innovated by young people over the last 100 years. The Museum has been gathering together photographs of youth and subculture movements for more than 25 years. Its impressive collection includes everything ‘from the bomb-site bicycle racers in postwar 1940s London, to the Acid House ravers of 1980s northern England’.
Bristol Archives: Empire Through The Lens
Your Shakespeare, Your Culture
Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, Sat 9 July - Sun 11 September
The Gallery, Library of Birmingham, Fri 22 July - Sat 5 November
With the Commonwealth Games kicking off in Birmingham at the end of the month, Empire Through The Lens aims both to foster debate about decolonisation of culture and reflect on the UK’s relationships with the rest of the world. Featuring objects from Bristol Archives’ Legacies of Empire Collection, the exhibition includes a unique selection of still and moving images - presented alongside new contemporary commissions - which aim to explore the impact of the former British Empire and the Commonwealth. The exhibition also showcases new sculptural works by Birmingham-based artists Carla Busuttil, Faisal Hussain and Mahtab Hussain.
The People’s Shakespeare Library at Library of Birmingham is home to more than 40,000 volumes, 17,000 production photographs, 2,000 music scores, hundreds of British and international production posters, 15,000 performance programmes and 10,000 playbills. And courtesy of this Royal Shakespeare Company-curated exhibition, visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the unique story of the library and all things Shakespeare. But that’s not all... The exhibition also includes Shakespeare’s first folio, a specially commissioned short film, a brandnew spoken-word piece by Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey, and interactive exhibits encouraging visitors ‘to share their culture, make their mark and create their own version of a library’.
40 whatsonlive.co.uk
David Batchelor: Colour Is Compton Verney, until Sun 2 October
Sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography and animation all feature in this first large-scale survey exhibition of work by Scottish artist & writer David Batchelor. Although incorporating pre-colour works from the 1980s, the exhibition mainly celebrates Batchelor’s preoccupation with colour, his enthusiasm for which is impressively evidenced in numerous experimental works from the 1990s, vivid multimedia installations from the early 21st century and more-recent pieces, including a glowing animation. A number of the works on show come directly from the artist’s studio and are here going on display to the public for the very first time.
