Exhibition reviews, lectures, and writing on art and education by Shelley Earl.https://shelleyearl.comen-gbhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/myth-of-the-callinghttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/myth-of-the-callingEach label arrives pre-loaded with its own mythology, and none of them, I've come to realise, were waiting inside me at birth like a vocation to be discovered. They were built.Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTOpinionhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/roppongi-crossinghttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/roppongi-crossingMoving through it feels less like following an argument than tuning a radio: signals overlap, interfere, and refuse to settle into a single channel.Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/lauwatthana-beyondhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/lauwatthana-beyondAlongkorn Lauwatthana's exhibition does not so much invite the viewer in as assume you will step into its world and keep up.Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/bui-hai-sonhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/bui-hai-sonBui Hai Son's sculptural installation occupies the gallery with the kind of quiet authority usually reserved for objects that predate the building itself.Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/is-art-a-needhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/is-art-a-needIs art a human need, or simply a desirable accessory to one’s actual needs? Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the quiet radicalism of culture.Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMTLecturehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/academic-enrichmenthttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/academic-enrichmentEnrichment is often perceived as something that happens outside the classroom. That perception can do real damage to school life.Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMTEducationhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/gormley-in-singaporehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/gormley-in-singaporeThere is something uniquely humbling about entering the National Gallery Singapore on a bright, humid morning and immediately tripping over an Antony Gormley.Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/assuming-excellencehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/assuming-excellenceWhat happens when we apply 'assumed excellence', rather than 'assumed incompetence', to professional development as well as to the classroom?Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMTEducationhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/rothko-stillness-that-speakshttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/rothko-stillness-that-speaksThere are moments in galleries when all the theoretical apparatus one has accumulated quietly packs its bags and leaves. On the Seagram Murals.Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMTLecturehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/when-art-bleedshttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/when-art-bleedsTears, hair, blood, ashes and entire corpses: how, exactly, are artists getting away with this?Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMTLecturehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/lee-jaehyohttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/lee-jaehyoLee Jaehyo’s exhibition operates with the calm assurance of an artist who knows exactly how matter behaves, and is not above using that knowledge to unsettle the viewer.Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/yves-klein-at-blenheimhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/yves-klein-at-blenheimWhat happens when a historic British estate hosts an artist whose signature medium is the colour equivalent of a controlled detonation.Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/kusama-in-singaporehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/kusama-in-singaporeThe endurance of repetition, the intimacy of obsession, the architectural demands of infinity, and the choreography of hundreds of ecstatic visitors.Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/cultivating-creativityhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/cultivating-creativityWhy a quality art education matters in an increasingly visual world, and how to motivate children who would rather be doing something else.Sat, 01 Oct 2016 00:00:00 GMTEducationhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/cai-guo-qiang-ninth-wavehttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/cai-guo-qiang-ninth-waveLess like attending a show than walking into the reverberations of a controlled apocalypse.Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/damien-hirst-at-tate-modernhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/damien-hirst-at-tate-modernA little like stepping into the world’s most aesthetically sophisticated morgue. Or pharmacy. Or aquarium. Or possibly all three.Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMTReviewhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/tracey-emin-at-the-haywardhttps://shelleyearl.com/writing/tracey-emin-at-the-haywardNot so much an exhibition as an encounter with a life laid out in meticulously curated fragments.Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMTReview