The State Of UK Art Revealed In MCR

Confidentials 27 September 2013

MANCHESTER is a land of temporary erections and fences, it has that festival feel again, uncertain students and bumptious, slightly wary Tory MPs swelling the mix.

This is where you can bump up against pretension, but slow down and some pieces go to work on you. All of the admirable small Manchester galleries are here - Untitled (with Lee Machin's Cap #3 - created by burning matches around a bottle cap (£1000)), Bureau, International 3 etc., plus others from around the UK.

As one ambles down the Oxford Street, you pass the Midland Hotel fortifications, the gathering of marquees in Albert Square, the surprising bustle of Brazennose Street, and then, down in pop-up land, Spinnningfields has lawns and screens and the large white tent that is Buy Art Fair.

Now in its sixth year, it is a title without irony. You buy art. It is pretty much a purely commercial operation. But this collection of galleries is certainly diverting. Whilst a lot of the art on display is mostly decorative, and occasionally derivative (Marilyn screenprints? - check; anatomically implausible naked women? - check; seascapes with moody skies? - check; rainy cityscapes a la Liam Spencer? - check), you would be hard-pressed not to find something that entertains, intrigues, excites.

Personal favourites include the Erpen stand, with Nathan Pendlebury's small Polaroids (from £80), green, evocative, gorgeous - and neatly framed.

Nathan Pendlebury

The surrealist bent of the Curious Duke is certainly worth a look (fish with guns from around £75), the cakes on Comme Ca Art are luscious, and the oddly enjoyable found objects - shopping lists and random jottings - tapped out into copper and painted with gloss paint at the Salvage Gallery (from £50) made me stop for five or ten minutes.

On another stand, the paintings and prints on pages torn from books were initially fascinating, technically excellent ... but the name of the gallery, Orson Kartt, makes one wonder if the jokes might pall a little too quickly. The red papier mache sculpture The Sleeping Giant by Steve Yeates, certainly has the best 'hang' that I saw, upside down and looking into the space. It has an impressive weight and ambition (and price, over £1,200) - main picture on the article.

Over in the sister venue, The Manchester Contemporary on the Leftbank, you have the 'critically engaged' galleries. (It's an odd term, are they setting themselves apart? They're still after your money.)

This is where you can bump up against pretension, but slow down and some pieces go to work on you. All of the admirable small Manchester galleries are here - Untitled (with Lee Machell's Cap #3 - created by burning matches around a bottle cap (£1000)), Bureau, International 3 etc., plus others from around the UK.

Lee Machell's Cap #3

I fell for a photograph called Cowboy Casino (it's of an abandoned petrol station in Lewes, lit like a national monument) at The Sunday Painter by Rob Chavasse, there is a troubling screenprint to be found at the Festival Gallery (£385), and I laughed at the cheerful prints at Limoncello (£50 -£75).