Nottingham Contemporary

At the weekend whilst visiting friends I was lucky enough to pop into Nottingham Contemporary. The building always captures my eye due to its striking interior and exterior design. Due to its location within the area of the town historically famed for its production of lace, the whole concrete exterior of the building has a textured lace pattern.

The Gallery itself featured the work of 2 photographers- Anne Collier and Jack Goldstein.

Collier uses romantic,sentimental and often cliched images to reflect the cultural world and the mass media in which we are absorbed. Many of the images are iconic, timeless and passed on from generation to generation. Although her works often include the borrowing and reproduction of existing imagery (Appropriation Art), she also adds a touch of self-portraiture. For example a print of a close-up of her eye floating in chemicals in a developing tray. Through the presentation of stereotyped images of women she explores the sexual politics of photography.



Anne Collier, Woman With A Camera, 2009

I particularly liked the electric atmosphere that exuded from Jack Goldstein's paintings which portray the world’s last images, following natural cataclysm or even destruction from war.
“An explosive is beauty before its consequences,” he wrote.