Birmingham

Artists on Show in Birmingham

• See Temporary Exhibitions

  Marijke van Warmerdam: The First Drop Ikon Gallery 27 September - 19 November Dutch artist Van Warmerdam is best known for her brief, looped films and videos in which repeated actions conjure up a sense of suspended time and small gestures acquire a poetic resonance. In The Hat's Return (1998) for example, a hat, flung from a clifftop, skims off into the distance, only to return magically to its departure point a few moments later. The Ikon's show - her first major one-person exhibition in the UK - will feature both existing and newly-commissioned works. www.ikon-gallery.co.uk

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  Mark McGowan International Project Space 16 November - 16 December The agonizing, exhausting performances of Mark McGowan (famed for his 2003 New Cross to Downing Street nose-to-the-ground monkey nut shunt - remember that?) certainly reconfirm contemporary artists' power to grab tabloid headlines. Sensationalism or substance? Join in the debate, at ISP. www.internationalprojectspace.org

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  Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy (Desperate Optimists) and Kartoon Kings (Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio) Birmingham Big Screen, Chamberlain Square 19 October - 17 November Downbeat studies of everyday hopes and anxieties, via the Kartoon Kings' cartooning and the Desperate Optimists' video study of the crises and dilemmas of being twenty.

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  Legacies of Dissolution (Group Show) Colony 10 October - 12 November Featuring the work of eight artists, Legacies of Dissolution proposes to test art's capacity to resist the homogenising effects of the "group show" formula. Among the exhibitors are Terry Atkinson, painter and co-founder of celebrated artists' group Art and Language and sculptor Eric Bainbridge

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  Jerwood Drawing Prize Cotton Gallery and Theatre Foyer, MAC 11 November - 1 January 2007 Featuring 43 exhibitors this year, the annual Jerwood Drawing Prize provokes an interesting question - when is a drawing not a drawing? For some its choices are too experimental, for others they're too conservative. But itwon't be troubling Charlotte Hodes whose digitally manipulated drawing and inkjet collage Wallace Collection Series I won this year's £6,000 first prize. www.macarts.co.uk

Galleries / Art Spaces / Organisations

Ikon Gallery

Forty-year-old Ikon gallery began life as a small kiosk in Birmingham's Bullring shopping area and grew to become the city's leading contemporary arts venue. Now housed in a former Victorian school in the city's centre, Ikon presents a continuous programme of art exhibitions reflecting the full spectrum of contemporary artists' activities, as well as running off-site projects, talks, tours, educational workshops and seminars.

MAC

Visited by over half a million people a year, Midlands Arts Centre offers a varied programme of arts events and education activities as well as a continually changing series of arts exhibitions in its various public spaces.

International Project Space

Located in South Birmingham at the Bourneville Centre for Visual Arts, ISP's exhibitions, residencies and talks serve local, national and international audience as well as staff and students at UCE Birmingham's Institute of Art and Design.

Birmingham Big Screen

Birmingham's Big Screen in Chamberlain Square has counterparts in Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool. Between September and November 2006, all five celebrate the birthday of Manchester-based media arts commissioners The Bigger Picture with after-dark video screenings.

Vivid

Founded to promote the development of media arts and interdisciplinary arts practices, Vivid runs a flexible presentation space suitable for both exhibitions and live events. Its exhibitions programme restarts in February 2007 with a series of shows by West Midlands artists.

Colony, Birmingham Artists, Springhill Institute

Birmingham boasts a good variety of independent, not-for-profit, artist-run spaces and organisations. Birmingham Artists was founded in 1987 by artists in pursuit of affordable studio space. As well as studio management, the artist-led group now runs projects, workshops, open studio days and other events. Window Gallery at Birmingham Central Library showcases the studio's activities to the general public.

"Your values mean nothing!" announces the website of artist-run project Colony. We're sure they aren't referring to Birmingham Artists, so this must be a quote from work in their forthcoming show Legacies of Dissolution (see below). Colony has led a nomadic existence since its birth in 2004, but maintains its commitment to "art which is interesting", irrespective of genre.

Founded about the same time, artist-led Springhill Institute greets website visitors less abrasively with promises of "a rich residential atmosphere, coffee, home cooking and comfy sofas". Presently in hibernation, its exhibition programme recommences in April 2007.

Artist's Tour

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