Best in Show 2014

My annual round of up of the top ten shows of the year made it on to Dazed this year (with explanation) but here is the round up again in list form (with my own picture selection)

1 PIERRE HUYGHE AT HAUSER AND WIRTH, SAVILE ROW

2 KERRY JAMES MARSHALL AT MUHKA ANTWERP

3 KP BREHMER or YVONNE RAINER AT RAVEN ROW LONDON

4 CAMILLE HENROT AT CHISENHALE AND NEW MUSEUM

5  PAUL MCCARTHY AT MONNAIE DE PARIS

6 ISA GENZKEN AT MCA CHICAGO

7 ED ATKINS AT SERPENTINE GALLERY

8 MICHAEL SMITH AT TRAMWAY, GLASGOW

9 ART AND SOUND AT FONDAZIONE PRADA, VENICE

10 THE MOVING MUSEUM, ISTANBUL

And special mentions to Sigmar Polke at the Tate Modern and Iwona Blaswick's incredible show with NEON in Athens 'A Thousand Doors'.

Antwerp

I went to Antwerp for one night last week and here are my recommendations

Old
The Museum Mayer van den Bergh is a 17th century building filled with a 19th century collection of some of the best paintings I have ever seen, including the Breughel 'Mad Meg' apocalypse pictured above.

New 
The Kerry James Marshall retrospective at Muhka - the reason I went - was amazing and his more recent paintings are an incredible development in technique, medium, scale and content. Tim van Laere is a contemporary space with some good people in its roster.

Shop
Every single high low medium clothing shop in Europe has a space in Antwerp. Highlights for theatrical shopping experiences are Seven Rooms (I have never seen a concept shop like it), Dries van Noten and Delvaux.

Sustenance
Fiskebar - order the mixed grill (or if you like squid, expect a shoal when ordering the calamares) and make sure you book. The ginger tea and Aperol Spritz at cafe/bar Vitrin across the road is also very good. I also ate lunch every day at healthy veggie Lombardia which was bloody tasty. 

My Top 50 Living Artists

There was no reason to make this list but its so hot I cant focus on work so I did it anyway - my current favourite 50 living artists not necessarily in order...

1 Rashid Johnson
2 Cameron Jamie
3 Josephine Meckseper
4 Kerry James Marshall
5 Wolfgang Tillmans
6 Mark Leckey
7 Janett Cardiff and George Bures Miller
8 Danny McDonald
9 Alex Hubbard
10 Mike Nelson
11 Raphael Hefti
12 Sterling Ruby
13 Steven Shearer
14 Jeremy Shaw
15 Thomas Zipp
16 Haris Epaminonda
17 Andro Wekua
18 Steven G Rhodes
19 Seth Price
20 Pierre Huyghe
21 Thomas Hirschorn
22 Friedrich Kunath
23 Marlene Dumas
24 Cory Arcangel
25 Jim Shaw
26 Jeremy Deller
27 Oliver Laric
28 Leigh Ledare
29 Tauba Auerbach
30 Antoine Catala
31 David Ostrowski
32 Steven Claydon
33 Sylvie Fleury
34 Josh Smith
35 Scott Treleavan
36 David Noonan
37 Paul McCarthy
38 Christopher Wool
39 Haroon Mirza
40 Ed Atkins
41 Eli Cortinas
42 Douglas Gordon
43 Cindy Sherman
44 Sture Johannesson
45 Jonathan Meese
46 William E Jones
47 Cecile B Evans
48 Susan Hiller
49 Paul McDevitt
50 Christoph Buchel

 

Images: Top Left Leigh Ledare, Double Bind, Collage on white, mixed media, silver gelatin prints, assorted print media, Silver gelatin prints, magazine, newspapers and personal and found photographs, Top Right Pierre Huyghe Frieze Projects 2011 commissionBottom Left Rashid Johnson, Our People, Kind Of (2010), Bottom Right Cameron Jamie Infante (2011) Glazed ceramic, steel
44 x 23 x 20 cm,