Liverpool

Artists on Show in Liverpool

• See Rothko

  Title:	Untitled (Circa 1946-47)
  Address:	Tate Liverpool Albert Dock Liverpool L3 4BB
  Website:	www.tate.org.uk/liverpool

• See Temporary Exhibitions

  Liverpool Biennial 2006 Tate Liverpool 15 September - 26 November For the 2006 Biennial, consultant curators Gerardo Mosquera and Manray Hsu have overseen the commissioning of around 35 new works. Mosquera has invited artists from the Americas and Asia to make work responding to Liverpool's present, post-imperial condition. Drawing on the model of acupuncture, Hsu's commissions represent his "energy-chanelling" system of "archipuncture" and are located at "nodal points" in the city. The Biennial demands two days of dogged gallery going at the very least. Tate's a good place to start as most of its fifteen exhibitors have made specific work for the Biennial. Big names include Californian filmmaker Brian Tolle, sculptor Monica Bonvicini (best known for feminist-influenced works critiquing modern architecture), and manipulator of sound and light Julianne Swartz. www.tate.org.uk

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  The John Moores Painting Prize 2006 Walker Art Gallery 16 September - 26 November The John Moores, a painting competition open to British artists, now forms one of the Biennial's main strands. This year Yorkshire born Martin Greenland has scooped the £25,000 first prize for his oil painting Before Vermeer's Clouds - a technically virtuosic, fantastical landscape that's borrowed its sky from Vermeer's 1660 masterpiece A View of Delft. www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

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  Goshka Macuga Sleep of Ulro The Furnace, Greenland Street 15 September - 26 November Macuga's increasingly grand scale sculptures and installations combine quotes from Modernist high culture with found souvenirs, trinkets and scrap. Other artists are also invited to add their own works to the mix. A collaboration with If-Untitled Architects, installation Sleep of Ulro echoes set designs from the 1919 Expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. Visitors are invited to navigate the work's elevated walkways, corridors filled with display cabinets, rotating platforms, hidden rooms and anti-chambers. www.afoundation.org.uk

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  Liverpool Biennial International 06 FACT 16 September - 26 November FACT 's Biennial programme showcases six new gallery commissions from international names Matthew Buckingham (USA), Shilpa Gupta (India), Kelly Mark (Canada), Anu Pennanen (Finland), Sissel Tolaas (Norway) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), plus SEEN, a varied programme of film screenings featuring equally interesting artists and groups. www.fact.co.uk

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  Lisa Oppenheim: By Faith and Industry Open Eye 16 September - 26 November New Yorker Lisa Oppenheim's project uses mid-20th Century archive photography of Liverpool to reimagine the city in ways that blur the boundaries between past and present. www.openeye.org.uk

Galleries / Art Spaces / Organisations

Tate Liverpool

Opened in 1988 in an ex-warehouse on Albert Dock, Tate Liverpool is the city's leading modern and contemporary art gallery. Its exhibitions feature an international range of artists' work, often including pieces from Tate collections. In 2007, Tate Liverpool hosts the Turner Prize, the first time it'll be held outside London; all part of the build-up to Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008. To 26 November 2006, the Tate and all the organisations below are participating in Liverpool's fourth international art Biennial: see Temporary Exhibitions.

Walker Art Gallery

Billed as the "National Gallery of the North", the Walker's outstanding collection contains works dating from the 1300s to the present. Contemporary art is always on the menu in some form; the Walker also commissions new pieces.

Bluecoat Arts Centre

At 290 years old, the Bluecoat building is the city centre's oldest. For the past century it's served as an arts centre and community meeting place. Now closed for a well earned £9.75 million renovation, the centre continues its activities from temporary premises in Paradise Street via its Connect outreach programme.

Greenland Street

September 2006 saw the launch of Greenland Street - charity A Foundation's showcase for "the very best local, regional, national and international contemporary visual arts practice". The site comprises three vast spaces: The Blade Factory, The Coach Shed and The Furnace. Soon, it'll also offer an arts bookshop, cafe and hospitality area.

FACT

The Foundation for Art & Creative Technology is the UK's leading organisation for the commissioning and presentation of film, video and new media art forms. Working from TKTK premises in Liverpool, it organizes exhibitions and screenings, commissions new works and collaborates with other arts organisations nationally and internationally.

Open Eye

Ropewalks area gallery Open Eye first opened in the Grapes Hotel Public Bar in 1977. Since then it's grown into a specialist art centre and gallery focusing on lens-based work, including film, photography, video and installation.

Independents Biennial, The Art Organisation

The Liverpool Biennial's fringe equivalent, Independents Biennial and The Art Organisation, both host websites that offer virtual gateways into the city's artist-led, independent or not-for-profit scene. Set up for this year's Biennial, TAO offers spaces in the Ropeworks district to various groups, including the Projection Gallery, the Living Gallery, the Community Gallery and the Re-Evolutionary Gallery.

Artist's Tour

• Iain Forsyth
  & Jane Pollard

• Other City Guides

External Links