RA Magazine's pick of this week’s art events (13 – 19 Sep)

1513: A Ships' Opera by Richard Wilson RA
14 September 2013
For anyone who wants to see an opera on Saturday night but can’t get or afford tickets, head down to the Thames and witness Richard Wilson’s wonderfully eccentric performance 1513: A Ship’s Opera.

_{Double Turner Prize nominee, Richard Wilson, testing ships horns aboard a vessel that will be used in 1513: A Ships' Opera, a water-borne, day-long performance by a fleet of historic vessels that is the centrepiece of the 2013 Mayor's Thames Festival.}

In collaboration with Zatorski + Zatorski, the Academician orchestrates a maritime maelstrom of music from the whistles, bells, horns and sirens of ships on the river. The project forms the centerpiece of the Thames Festival and celebrates the country’s sea-faring past, specifically the Royal Charter that in 1513 regulated traffic on the waterway.

A Journey through London’s subculture: 1980s to Now
13 September – 20 October 2013
Anyone who has dipped their toes over the last three decades in the capital’s subcultures and countercultures – from fashion tribes to underground music –will enjoy ‘A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now’, an ICA off-site project in London’s Old Selfridges Hotel, above the Selfridges Food Hall.

_{Installation shot. 'ICA Off-Site: A Journey Through London Subculture: 1980s to Now', 13 September 2013 - 20 October 2013. The Old Selfridges Hotel. Photo: Mark Blower.}

Artist duo Gilbert & George, RA Schools alumni Matthew Darbyshire, design guru Tom Dixon and filmmaker John Akomfrah are among the interesting, influential figures involved, presenting vitrines of ephemera, videos and installation relating to the period.

_{Inigo Jones, one of a pair of life-size busts after Michael Rysbrack, probably cast by John Cheere circa 1740.} The Collection of Albert Richardson PRA
Christie's King Street, 18 - 19 September 2013
In the tradition of architects such as John Soane, architect Albert Richardson (1880–1964) amassed a superb, eclectic collection of art, furniture and other objects, with a particular focus on the Georgian period.

President of the Royal Academy during the 1950s, Richardson acquired a significant group of drawings, watercolours, books and models from architects who inspired him (including Soane), casts of classical busts, and portraits by painters such as David Martin and Angelica Kauffman.

Having previously auctioned the collections of other past Presidents including Benjamin West, Thomas Lawrence and Lord Leighton, Christie’s offers around 650 of Richardson objects for sale next Wednesday and Thursday.

Geoffrey Clarke RA
Pangolin London, 13 September - 26 October 2013
Rather than all-encompassing survey shows, often the more memorable exhibitions focus on a particularly fertile period in an artist’s oeuvre – shows that are less broad-brush overviews of a career than pinpoint perspectives on the years that were most important. Kings Cross’s Pangolin Gallery spotlights the celebrated sculptor Geoffrey Clarke RA this week with an exhibition that highlights his achievements in the ten years between 1955 and 1965, during which his groundbreaking use of alternative materials – from polystyrene and aluminium – enabled the Academician to embrace experimental new forms.

_{Alex Hoda, 'Untitled (IV)', 2013. Statuario Michelangelo marble. 66 x 32.5 x 23 cm.} Alex Hoda: D-Construction
Edel Assanti, 18 September – 26 October
Visitors to the Royal Academy are still often surprised that behind the galleries showing blockbuster exhibitions lies one of the country’s most prestigious art schools. For that reason this blog always likes to take the opportunity to spotlight the work of alumni, as they start to make waves in the wider art world.

A sculptor from the class of 2008, Alex Hoda is the subject of a new exhibition this week at London gallery Edel Assanti. Hoda uses cutting-edge production techniques such as 3-D scanning to shape materials such as marble, rubber and iron into ambiguous abstract and semi-figurative forms, often with reference to the art historical canon.

Sam Phillips is a London-based arts journalist and Acting Editor of RA Magazine

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