ARTS IN LIVERPOOL - 2014
From the much-anticipated re-opening of one of its favourite theatres to exhibitions from
the likes of Piet Mondrian and Andy Warhol – not to mention the small matter of the UK’s
contemporary arts festival – Liverpool is gearing up for a major year of cultural activity in
2014.
We’ve prepared a summary of some of the highlights. However, this is just a taster; if
you’d like any more information about arts in Liverpool, please get in touch with Joe
Keggin:
0151 600 2977
[email protected]
Liverpool Biennial
International art that unfolds across Liverpool’s spaces, places and galleries between 5 th July
and 26th October.
The 8th Liverpool Biennial exhibition is curated by Mai Abu ElDahab and Anthony Huberman.
It takes place across the city at venues including public spaces and galleries such as the
Bluecoat, FACT and Tate Liverpool. Partner exhibitions include Bloomberg New
Contemporaries, the John Moores Painting Prize, Open Eye Gallery and the Exhibition
Research Centre, while newly commissioned artworks interact with the urban landscape.
This is also a chance to see work by artists and curators in solo and group exhibitions and
performances throughout the city, ranging from the Royal Standard to the Walker Art
Gallery.
Tate Liverpool
The spring season will focus in particular on the relationship between words and images and
how their continuous transformation and migration impact on everyday life. Curated in
collaboration with Iniva, London, Keywords: Art Culture and Society in 1980s Britain builds
on Raymond Williams’s book, ‘Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society’ with a
particular focus on British art of the 1980s. The exhibition has inspired a continued
collaboration between Tate Liverpool and The Reader Organisation as well as a new
relationship with publishers 4th Estate to re-print the original book.
The spring season theme can also be found in Richard Hawkins: Hijikata Twist which traces
how iconic works from Western modern art have been interpreted to create images and
ideas clashing with orthodox interpretations of art history.
Visitors can continue to enjoy DLA Piper Series: Constellations, a display of collection works
that explores connections from across art history, with artists including Barbara Hepworth,
Jackson Pollock and Henri Matisse on display.
Summer 2014 is set to be a highlight of the year with our major exhibition. With The Times
as the exhibition media partner this is sure to be a popular show and also celebrating the
work of the Dutch artist will be Plus Tate partner, Turner Contemporary with its exhibition
Mondrian and Colour.
Abstraction will be the theme for the season at Tate Liverpool and alongside Mondrian will
be a presentation of work by Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi, the largest solo exhibition of
the artist’s work in the UK to date.
Timed to coincide with Liverpool’s International Festival for Business, this summer will see
the return of the Liverpool Biennial and Tate Liverpool will form part of its core programme
from 5 July to 26 October 2014.
To round up the year Tate Liverpool’s autumn/winter season will present Transmitting Andy
Warhol, the first exhibition to explore Warhol’s role in establishing new platforms to
disseminate art. This season's theme will explore artists' use of mass media and
programmed in parallel will be the display of Total Recall 1987 by Gretchin Bender. The 24monitor multi-projection screen installation, explores the accelerated image-flow of
television.
Everyman and Playhouse
Opening in March 2014, the new Everyman, designed by Haworth Tompkins (Royal Court,
Young Vic, National Theatre) is a beautiful evolution of this radical and democratic theatre.
New incarnations of its hallmark features – a 400-seat thrust auditorium and convivial
basement bistro – are complemented by facilities which did not previously exist. 21 st-century
technical equipment, a rehearsal room, costume workshop and sound studio will enhance both
productions and training opportunities. EV1, a large studio dedicated to participatory work,
enables the theatre to involve more young people, schools and community groups, and places
them cheek-by-jowl with the highest calibre professional practice.
The Everyman’s façade – an innovative Portrait Wall comprised of 105 diverse people of
Liverpool – announces our intention that this theatre belongs to everyone, and the new
facilities hugely expand opportunities for involvement.
Everyman begins the next chapter in its history with a parade and event on Hope Street on
Saturday 1st March and a ‘Housewarming’ on Sunday 2nd, before the theatre bursts fully back
to life with Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz’s production of Twelfth Night, from Saturday
8th March, starring Matthew Kelly and Nick Woodeson who began their careers at the theatre
in the 1970s.
The central role of new Liverpool plays in the Everyman story is celebrated with the world
première of Hope Place by acclaimed playwright Michael Wynne (The Priory, Royal Court;
Being Eileen, BBC) from 9th May. The inaugural season at the Everyman concludes with a
collaboration with the irrepressible Kneehigh on a radical new version of John Gay’s musical
satire The Beggar’s Opera, titled Dead Dog in A Suitcase (and other love songs) in June and
July.
The Playhouse season opens with Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge featuring Lloyd
Hutchinson (Collaborators, National Theatre; Utopia, Channel 4) as Eddie Carbone and Julia
Ford (Mogadishu, Royal Exchange/Lyric; The Paradise, BBC) as his wife Beatrice and the
theatres will also co-produce the UK tour of laugh-out-loud, feel-good musical Betty Blue Eyes
in July.
FACT
Science Fiction: Myths of the Present Future (27 March – 22 June 2014) shows how our
everyday lives have become embedded by mass technology and narcissism, and science
fiction no longer belongs to the realm of the future but rather of the present. The project
has been innovatively conceived as a deconstructed film in which the curators play the role
of the director, artists that of the actors, the gallery becomes the set… with a script by
acclaimed author China Mieville.
FACT will present a survey show by Sharon Lockhart which will play a significant part in the
2014 edition of the Liverpool Biennial. Presented in the UK for the first time, the exhibition
will encompass a major new commission together with previous works.
At the end of the year, Type Motion will bring to life an archive of diverse script films,
advertising, music videos and artworks, this exhibition aims to compile and present content
from twenty countries dating from 1895 to the present.
The Bluecoat
The Negligent Eye will run at The Bluecoat from 6th March to 15th June. It is curated by Jo
Stockham and developed by the Bluecoat in partnership with the Printmaking Department
at the Royal College of Art, London, and the School of Art & Design at Liverpool John Moores
University.
Printmaking has long embraced the digital but recently there has been an acceleration of
interest in a younger generation of artists in questioning technology. The Negligent Eye will
reflect such artists’ increasing experimentation with computers, scanning and digital
multiplication.