Noel Clueit / Jess Flood-Paddock / Josephine Flynn / Laura Ford / Toby Huddlestone / Jock Mooney / Laurina Paperina / David Sherry / Jamie Shovlin / Miles Thurlow

Deadpan presented several newly commissioned works alongside key pieces borrowed from collections, as well as artwork previously unseen in the UK

Deadpan examined an art world at the point of oversaturation by questioning strategies used by artists to make new work. Considering mimicry and the referential alongside the blatancy of homage, the exhibition presented a pastiched viewpoint of art, providing a glimpse into the dirty world of satire within contemporary art.

Running parallel to the exhibition, a curator’s talk was held for Long Night, 2010.

Richard Proffitt / Sam Venables

Cartel Gallery, London

Opening at the Cartel Gallery in London, Krimskrams featured artists for whom the habitual nature of scavenging and chancing upon objects influences the work that they make; a half-eaten chippy tea, dog-earred scraps of church pews of the golden arches of a fast food sign abandoned at the side of a road.

Jonathan Baldock / Christian Newby / Pil and Galia Kollectiv

Lucy MacDonald / Laura Robertson

Hierarchies of Allegiance was a group exhibition which brought together UK based artists encompassing film, performance, drawing and installation. Linked by an interest in examining art historical figures and their sensitivity to myth, custom and symbolism, the works in the exhibition reference the Uncanny, the darkly humourous and the melancholic. Each artist engaged with a particular socio-cultural subject with which they have strongly identified, reconfiguring it in unique ways, to parody social traditions and mediate on the relationships between ceremony, theatre and arcane ritual.

A series of talks and events accompanied the exhibition: a performance by Pil and Galia with Victor Jakeman and Ruth Angel Edwards; and screening of films and an artist talk with artist Jonathan in conversation with curators Lucy and Laura.

Hierarchies of Allegiance was one of two exhibitions for the Liverpool Biennial, 2010.

Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau / Simon Raven

Artists Matthew and Simon presented their work made during their residencies at The Royal Standard.

Matthew made work about the regeneration of Liverpool, W G Sebald and donkeys.

www.dekersaint.co.uk

Simon worked towards ideas for films, performances and sculpture, drawing form research into the development of the waterfront in Liverpool, with a particular interest in the Pier Head Ferry Terminal and the high number of abandoned houses in the city.

www.nevarnomis.com

Sovay Berriman / Tomas Chaffe / Claire Greenshaw / The Grubby Mitts / Ilana Halperin / Celia Hempton / Robert Motherwell / Bobby Niven / Claes Oldenburg / John Salt / Laura Shimmin

Bryony Bond / Lucy MacDonald / Claudia Lastra / Harry Lawson

This Matter was an exploration into the physical nature of landscapes, drawing together the changing ideas of what is natural and what is unnatural in our surroundings.

The exhibtion was accompanied by a series of events and supersocials, bringing together artists and curators in discussion over a meal: Artist Sovay and curator Bryony discussed their collaborative projects with artists and museum collections; Dr Timothy Martin – lecturer in Architecture and Cultural Theory at Leicester University, discussed the life and work of Robert Smithson; a screening of films selected by the curators and a build-you-own (un)natural disaster workshop.

Supported by PH Holt Foundation, Oakwater Trust and The Royal Standard

www.thismatterblog.blogspot.com

Tate Modern, London

To celebrate Tate Modern’s 10th anniversary, the gallery hosted No Soul For Sale – a Festival of Independents. Bringing together over 70 of the world’s most exciting independant arts spaces, non-profit organisations and artists’ collectives to take over the iconic Turbine Hall with an eclectic mix of events, performances, music and film. Participants exhibited alongside each other without partitions or walls, creating a pop-up village of global art for visitors to explore.

For further details, see www.nosoulforsale.com

The Royal Standard, Vauxhall Business Estate

BAD IGLOO LUST asked the question: what does it mean to be a local or an international artist, in this means anything at all? The exhibition was developed as a direct response to Global Studio at the Bluecoat. Both exhibitions showed simultaneously, in a move directed at opening up a dialogue and cross-fertilisation between audiences at the two Liverpool art venues.

The Directors of The Royal Standard have selected a cluster of high calibre artists, regardless of where they are from or where they are currently based.

Craig Atkinson / Andrew Bracey / Helen Brown / Jim Busco / Mike Carney / Ameila Crouch / Ross Dalziel / Leo Durand / Jemma Egan / Stephen Forge / Andy Foulds / Madeline Hall / Aaron Head / Natalie Hughes / Karin Kihlberg and Reuben Henry / Michael Lent / Katherine Lloyd / LOW PROFILE / Lucy MacDonald / Susan Massey / Nicki McCubbing / Hamish McLain / Laurence Payot / Richard Profitt / Laura Robertson / Rubric / Aillie Rutherford / Emily Speed / Andrew Sunderland / Sam Venables

The Bluecoat, Liverpool

Artists form different parts of the world in collaboration for an exhibition at the Bluecoat. Global Studio showcases the work of Liverpool artists who have forged international networks outside of the city.

This event was comprised of 5 parts.

Part 1:
The Royal Standard studio artists exhibited their work in the Bluecoat gallery.

Part 2, Thinking Outside the Box:
Hamish has initiated a group exhibition looking outside of his own painting to see how artists working in their own mediums realise their ideas. The exhibition engaged with issues of place and how experience affects our response to different environments through painting, sculpture video, text and photography.

Part 3, TRACE:
Curated by Laurence, this exhibition questioned the meaning of documentation in today’s art practice, where networks are extending globally, forcing artists to give access to their work beyond its local presentation. The works presented revealed how documentation has played a vital roles in art throughout the years and how contemporary artists use the concept of documenting not only as a trace but as an integral part of the work.

Part 4, The Tiny Touring Round The World Exhibition:
Curated by Kevin Hunt, this was a collection of artworks and documentation generated through encounters with artists and curators on a recent trip across the globe. Kevin carried a selection of Liverpool based artists in his backpack. By pushing accepted notions of collection, acquisition, production and display, the Tiny Touring Round the World Exhibition aimed to realise new modes of engagement, simultaneously on a global and miniature scale. Working as an artist and curating within his current locality at any given time, Kevin forged international links between Liverpool and abroad.

Part 5, Trap: The Matterhorn:
Curated by Jemma, this exhibition transported the viewer to the base of one of the most iconic mountains in the world and granting the opportunity to pose in front of the stunning vista. The installation will raise questions about the authenticity of the commercialised tourist experience. Visitors were invited to view the bogus attraction in order to create a synthetic memory of their ‘trip’ to the Matterhorn.

Rachel Adams / Ian Giles

The Royal Standard, Vauxhall Business Estate / Studio Warehouse, Glasgow

Blind Alchemy is the second in a series of collaborative projects between artists Rachel and Ian.

This exhibition delights in the ‘home-made’ nature of alchemy rather than its wider possibilities. Rachel and Ian have been intrigued by the alchemy that colours the everyday with its magic. One of the pursuits of the alchemist – turning lead into gold – lies in the void between scientific procedure and magical reaction. Turning nothing into something is a key part of both artist’s work.

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council