English sensibility dominates seductive show
In recent years, curators have become funky art stars in their own right, even getting a louder billing than the artists they're meant to be showcasing.
So it's little wonder that roles are now being reversed and more artists are setting out to become curators.
The Camden Arts Centre has homed in on this trend and, in the past two years, has organised artist-curated shows by Tacita Dean and Richard Wentworth.
These were just as much about exploring what made each artist tick as seeking to find common themes among the artist's show - and, of course, common themes emerged.
Camden's latest artistcurator is the less well-known Brit, Steven Claydon. His choice of 'objects and things' - the 'things' often not strictly artwork but perhaps a plastic A4 folder on a plinth - address what Claydon calls the 'taxonomies of display'.
Put simply, similar-looking objects are clustered together: metal heads by Jacob Epstein and Alberto Giacometti, and the paintings of Graham Sutherland and Edward Burra.
The lengthy title of the show highlights the Surrealist influence but it's one that is British and often whimsical in flavour. For, although influential Europeans are thrown in alongside the odd American, the gentler absurdism of the English sensibility dominates in this subtly seductive show.
Strange Events Permit Themselves The Luxury Of Occurring
Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road, NW3 6DG
