Picasso Portraits at National Portrait Gallery is an astonishing display of the artist’s versatility October 6, 2016 The sheer prodigious output by Pablo Picasso is one reason he’s regarded by many as the greatest artist of the 20th Century. A gift for curators, his rich catalogue can be examined from all manner of starting points. It is surprising then, that this survey of his portraits is the first large-scale exhibition on the [...]
On National Poetry Day, City A.M. turns its searing newswriting hand to something more artistic October 6, 2016 It's National Poetry Day – you may have seen – so while simultaneously reporting the biggest business stories and breaking news, City A.M. journalists have written a few lines of poetry to cover some of the major talking points in recent days. Vice reporter Francesca Washtell offers 'Sin Haiku': Booze, cigs, sugar, bets, Vice would seem to have it [...]
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 review: This masterful recreation of the beautiful game marks a return to form for the series October 5, 2016 Trump and Clinton can squabble all they like over the fabled US “swing voter”. In the world of console football games, there are no such shifting loyalties. You are either a Pro Evolution Soccer fan or a FIFA fan, not both. But like it or not, Pro Evolution fans have had to admit for some [...]
NBA 2K17 games review: Enjoy the specific acoustics at your favourite stadium while you conquer the basketball world October 5, 2016 Platforms: XBO, PS4, PC 2K Sports’ NBA series rarely fails to deliver an authentic experience. Even without a rival nipping at its heels (EA’s own floundering NBA games often don’t even reach the shores of our b-ball ambivalent island), it continues to improve year on year. With NBA 2K17 the developer has tightened its grasp [...]
FIFA 17 review: For the first time in years EA’s annual footy title feels fresh October 5, 2016 For years, the FIFA series has been coasting. A new player on the box, a shiny new sponsor on the ball, a gameplay tweak here and there. Just enough to keep fans playing for another year. FIFA 17 is a more significant update, adding more than a handful of tackling animations. While you won’t find [...]
12 things you need to know about this year’s Frieze Art Fair October 5, 2016 Frieze officially begins tomorrow, with 160 art global galleries exhibiting works by more than 1,000 artists, all inside a giant tent in Regent's Park. Here’s a list of everything you need to know – and what you need to see – as Frieze turns 25 years old. 1. The 1990s are in: To celebrate a quarter [...]
Queenies are a blast from the past for Mark Hix, who recommends baking them in herbs October 5, 2016 When I was at primary school my mate Mark Hawker’s dad had a fishing boat, and from it I would watch the local ships come in piled high with sacks of queen scallops fished from the reefs. Sadly, over-trawling put an end to all that, and you rarely see them fished in Lyme bay any [...]
Will Superman and Batman meet their match in this new series by former Alexander McQueen artist Jacky Tsai? October 3, 2016 You might have wondered who would win between Superman and Batman (Superman, obviously), or Captain America and Iron Man (#TeamCap), but what about your favourite comic heroes against figures from Chinese mythology? Well, in Jacky Tsai’s striking lacquer carvings, Superman and Captain America seem to have met their match… “Welcome Refugees” depicts the Man of [...]
Simon Stålenhag’s haunting painted stories in Things From the Flood are science fiction at its most beautiful October 3, 2016 Dystopian science fiction is often filled with explosions and sirens, chaos and pain. But the Swedish illustrator Simon Stålenhag’s work captures a different face of the future. His work is characterised by stillness and melancholy, a sense of good things having passed. His astonishingly good Tales From the Loop, published last year, imagined an alternate [...]
The Machine at Barbican is a darkly funny immersive theatre experience with added circus tricks October 3, 2016 Immersive theatre often promises more than it can deliver, held back not by the imagination of the production but the temperament of the audience. The most effective ones – Secret Cinema, Punch Drunk Theatre – tend to be hours long, giving the audience time to let their guard down. The Machine instead attempts to turn [...]