Crash Bang Wallop

For four more days you can catch an extraordinary exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in Kings Cross. A host of influential and controversial modern artists have work on display that forms an homage to JG Ballard's Crash.
Some of the work forms obvious links, whilst some is on display to provide a reference, or a feeling of the environment at the time... despite not always being completely cohesive, or as visually/sexually powerful as the (Cronenberg's) film, some of the pieces and the concept make it well worth seeing. Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton etc all have work on display, and the Chapman Brothers did limited edition of the book which is available to buy...

Tar Magazine Premiere Issue

There is something unintentionally ironic about new magazine Tar running an article on overcrowding in its premiere issue. If there is one thing not needed at the moment, it's another magazine that promises a new wave, and burns itself out within a few issues.

Good thing Tar, despite its borderline cringeworthy mission statement ('tar' is an anagram of art, the distillation of organic matter, sticky stuff we pave roads and secure roots with - a foundation) has a few signs of longevity.

There seems to be a reputable publishing company at work behind it, and the inclusion of higher profile features, such as the main spotlight and interview with Benicio Del Toro gives it a certain seal of quality and scope.

That said, I hope that much like bed-fellow Tank, Tar manages to maintain quality of content, and hasn't peaked straight out the gate by using too much of its target content straight away, which reads like a dream list. However, given that it's a bi-annual we can hope this isn't the case.

Features include:

Matthew Barney, David Cronenberg, Andreas Gursky, Ryan McGinley, Terry Richardson, Naomi Wolf.