Jon Blackwood

Vitebsk Virality Vitebsk's astonishing new kit modelled by (l-r): Diego Santos Carioca (now Shakhtyor Soligorsk), Daniil Chalov, Dmitry Gushchenko, Ruslan Teverov It's rare that anything from Vitebsk goes viral, these days. Yet in the last week an extraordinary and all too rare collaboration between the worlds of fine art and football, went viral on social … Continue reading Art, Football and Vitebsk →

Why Make Sense? is a show of new work done during the lockdown period by Alan Grieve, founder and driving force behind Workspace Dunfermline, that unique blend of haircuts and visual art that has been running in the Fife town for a decade now. Alan's work as a hairdresser had enabled him to funnel money … Continue reading Why Make Sense? →

Triple Harvest Films, Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, Corby It's been a very hard millennium so far for the steel industry, coming immediately after the precipitate decline of the late twentieth century. The UK's remaining large steelworks, at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot, have been engaged in a pitiless, attritional struggle for survival; whilst Scunthorpe and "British Steel" … Continue reading Stripping the Overburden →

Background For the first time in perhaps a decade, tensions are stirring in Belarus. The country is approaching a general election on August 9th, in which the incumbent President Aleksandr Lukashenko, in power since 1994, is facing his stiffest challenge for many years. Aleksandar Lukashenko addresses the Belarusian National Assembly on 4 August (BBC) Lukashenko … Continue reading Contemporary Protest & the Visual in Belarus →

It's really exciting to see Mladen Miljanović's first Scottish exhibition come together at The WorM in Aberdeen- it opens this coming Thursday at 1800hrs. I have written a new long essay on his work which you can download and read here! The show runs until mid-March.    

I spent last weekend at the Groundwork weekender in Milton Keynes, organised by the artist / curatorial collective, Tracing the Pathway. Groundwork set itself up as a three day event involving artists, performers, researchers, writers to respond to the environment of Milton Keynes through a carefully curated series of projects and events, and to leaven … Continue reading Groundwork Weekender in Milton Keynes →

It's been a long time since I wrote anything on here. Partly due to a scepticism that anyone bothers reading blogposts anymore, partly due to a belief that anything much over 240 characters these days is tl;dr for most; partly because everyone seems to be shouting past one another now, with no one really listening … Continue reading A Patina of Normality →

It's a busy week next week in Edinburgh, as Friday night sees the opening of an exhibition that has been a long time in the making; the arrival of six contemporary artists from the Republic of Macedonia for the exhibition Captured State. Macedonia is not a country with a high profile contemporary art "scene", unlike … Continue reading Captured State : New Art from Macedonia →

I am very much looking forward to my talk at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh soon- looking at apsects of Patrick Elliot's show on British realism in the inter-war years. It's been a while since I was last at the gallery and the talk also provides an opportunity to look again at material … Continue reading Lecture in Edinburgh on British Realism Exhibition 2 October →

I am really looking forward to this event hosted by fermynwoods contemporary arts in Corby, Northants next week. If you are in town or nearby and interested, the event is going to be in Corby's Irish Centre. Kick off on Tuesday 5 September is at 1900hrs. "Join football fans, an artist and a writer, at … Continue reading Art, Fans & Football @ fermynwoods, Corby →