LONDON—Art Info's U.K. correspondent fills us in on the latest news and most interesting shows from London and beyond. This week's letter includes a review of a post-grad student show; a report on a new, art-focused social club being launched by a major player; recommendations for two can't-miss shows in Edinburgh; and more.

This Year’s Student Crop

One of the last of this year’s many graduate shows was Chelsea College of Art & Design’s “I’ll Show You Mine” exhibition of students receiving their post-graduate fine art diploma. The work was not, honestly, universally surprising.

But it did offer a brand new art experience: interactive karaoke. Benjamin Northover’s (benjamin_northover@hotmail.com) architectural video, whose small screen gives the work an intense clarity, was looped to the sound of Handel’s Dido and Aeneas—and displayed a karaoke “libretto” and had a microphone permanently switched on, inviting viewers to make a sound track.

Who could resist? I couldn’t, especially when I found out that certain recordings would be part of the on-going development of this project. So I sang “ah ah ah deep in the ground my bones are buried” in my basso profondo. I’ll keep you posted; avant-garde singing could be an entirely new career for me.

Other than this interesting interactive work, the show was, on the whole, mired in high-concept art, which made the few paintings on view look very avant-garde.

Best from this small group of paintings were tiny gestural works by Christiane Pooley, in which the intimate small scenes and figures in landscapes were boldly striated by horizontal strokes. I liked them so much, I might buy one.

Chelsea’s MA and BA shows will take place from Sept. 20-23. It will be interesting to see whether the next generation of students will move away from high-concept art and toward paint. I’ll let you know.

Those who would prefer to see a curated overview of some of the best student work will be glad to hear that Kay Saatchi, Flora Fairbairn of Madder Rose and Catriona Warren (who has one of the sharpest eyes in London for emerging talent) are putting on a graduate show of their picks of the very best of this year’s work.

This show, which opens on Sept. 27, is cheekily called “Antefreeze.” It will be on view in Portland Place, just down the road from the “real” Frieze fair and will run until the end of October. Check it out—because it will show entirely new work chosen by three of the best pairs of eyes in London.


Art & Society

Breaking news on the art/social front: Martin Miller (who started Antique Price Guides and owns London’s most outrageously fashionable bed-and-breakfast hotel) is launching a members-and-guests art club in Notting Hill called Miller’s Academy of Arts and Science.

It will have a serious lecture program and day events and courses. You can also hang around in the bar and have supper.

Founding members will pay £111.50 per annum. A pre-lecture drink, lecture, question-and-answer session and post-lecture supper (including drinks) will be £44.50 for members.

I’d say this is a bargain, and the Academy could be a good deal for those of you coming into London once or twice a year and needing an instant fix of what’s happening in the local art community. And Martin always does everything well, so I encourage you to check it out. You can email for more information at academyrooms@millersacademy.co.uk.

Before They Were Famous

“Surprise Surprise” is a silly-season show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts that asks us to guess the artists in a show of juvenilia from some Very Big Names indeed.

Here’s Chris Ofili going through a Martin Maloney phase. … There’s Dinos Chapman’s wonderfully piggy papier-mache piggy bank he made at the age of nine. Also keep an eye out for Damien Hirst’s Arthur Dove-like collage I Have the Privilege of Remembrance.

It’s an intriguing idea, but does it tell us anything about the development of these artists? Well, I'll admit, it is interesting seeing well-known artists’ false starts—and quite difficult to guess who was doing what way back when.

Edinburgh Bound