Manchester’s gallery in the park is now open. With new spaces to explore, including a panoramic landscape gallery and a whole new floor, the feeling of the extended building is one of space. Highlights of the opening programme include Cornelia Parker’s largest solo show to date, which allows Parker’s playful tendencies to come to the fore. Look out for a squashed silver service set suspended from the ceiling and her most famous work, Cold Dark Matter (AKA an exploding shed, frozen in time) plus new commission, War Room. This tent-like installation is made from the holes left behind when Remembrance Day poppies are cut out. There’s a Sarah Lucas retrospective too (look out for her ‘tits’ wallpaper) and the landscape gallery is home to Cai Guo-Qiang’s room-sized panorama, Unmanned Nature. Originally created using explosives for the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, the scene is displayed around a large pool of water and it’s the work’s first outing outside of Japan. The gallery has been extended over the last 18 months by MUMA architects. New spaces include a glass-clad cafe which projects out at first floor level amongst the park’s trees as well as a new facade to the rear of the building. The cafe (pictured) is still run by the Modern Caterer.
The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER. Tel: 0161 275 7450. Open 10am-5pm daily, until 9pm Thu. During half term week, there are toddler sessions in the Grand Hall, Mon-Fri, 11am-1pm, FREE, www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk
- Words:
- Ruth Allan
- Published on:
- Mon 16 Feb 2015
