Kounter Kulture / The Future Can Wait 2008

London's 'Art Week' finally has lift-off tonight with a buzz of activity throughout the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane. Before Frieze and Zoo dominate the headlines, it's the turn of new-boy Kounter Kulture and The Future Can Wait (back for its second year) to grab a slice of the art fair pie.

First up is Kounter Kulture. The aim here (as it is for both fairs) is to engineer a return to a more artist-orientated type of fair, and the emphasis is very much on street art, graphics, graffiti, and other 'low art' techniques.  There certainly is a lot of this kind of work on show, and for me, it becomes a little samey after a while. Such pieces often rely on context for their impact, but, shown all together like this, they rather blur together. I'm just not a great fan of the vogue for recherché Pop Art that seems to dominate this particular genre. It seems about as subversive as spelling culture with a k.

Nonetheless some stuff does stand out. For a start, I've always liked Rob Carter's photography: there's something both entrancing and boring about his hypnotic photo-blurs. Chris Kettle's work is cool too – a bit like if Gerhard Richter (in blurry photo-real mode) decided to produce a range of schmaltzy greetings cards. I also like Han XuChang's large-scale images of internal organs – kind of pretty and rank at the same time – and Caroline List's fuzzy vintage landscapes. Pick of the bunch though is Lex Thomas. I definitely think little paintings are back in a big way – sorry Saatchi – and Thomas does small shiny weird little pictures of imaginary or mythological animal hybrids. I love the half-suggested fairy-tale narratives: these are like little glimpses into an oddly ordered story. Brilliant!


Nathan James, 'The Sudden End of the Misfit', Oil on Linen, 2008

Then it's time for a brief stop in at 4 New Sensations. We pick up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and have a quick look about. I remember Jonny Briggs' dark and twisted photography from the Chelsea show: he's definitely one to watch. As is Mark Davey, whose kinetic structures involving household items like chairs and strip-lights are precarious and fun.

No time to linger though, and it's on to The Future Can Wait. We climb the stairs into the vast cavernous space, and who should I catch sight of just a few steps ahead of me? Oh god, it's Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz. I ask them about their recent antics at the ICA. 'Just a bit of fun.' Brener explains. It seems some people'll do anything for a laugh… I then see Mark McGowan lying on the floor with a dagger in his chest and a bright red splodge on his t-shirt. Nobody's paying much attention though, so he gets up and has a chat with Brener.

Anyway, on to the art. The Future Can Wait is much more varied than Kounter Kulture, with work across a wide range of styles and media. Two small paintings catch my eye immediately: Emma Bennett's Winter Was Hard – a beautifully detailed work – and Nadine Feinson's Monad, which shows that her fascinating technique can work on a smaller scale too. There's a massive Gordon Cheung piece, but it's not his best. Somehow the increase in scale here results in a loss of the grandeur that so characterises some of his work.

Gordon Cheung, 'Death Cuts Full I', stock listings, acrylic gel & spray on canvas, 2008

The big multi-headed Sesame Street totem pole that is Christopher Davies' Bert the Panopticon garners a lot of attention, as does Aisling Hedecock's massive multi-coloured polystyrene coral/cauliflower piece, BAROCKARAMA. There's two tondi by Tim Ellis that are great: his highly varnished landscapes are like super-beautiful versions of the Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors universe. And more weird worlds come hidden inside Andrea Gregson's long wooden boxes. A peek inside Headspace II gives a glimpse of a forest world, not dissimilar to those Metz Judderman adverts. Very cool.

Before leaving I ask Brener whether he is planning to do another poo here in the Old Truman Brewery. He shakes his head. 'Oh no, not now,' he says. Turns out he's lying, but by then, thank god, I'm long gone.


Kounter Kulture and The Future Can Wait are at the Old Truman Brewery until 19.10.08

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