BBC Radio 4 Front Row appearances
I’ ve been a freelance guest critic for our wonderful, national arts and culture programme since 2018. I usually have a five minute segment in which to speak about one topic, live in the studio, in discussion with the presenter and occasional panel. You can listen to Front Row from Monday to Thursday at 7:15pm.
On the National Portrait Gallery’s Stories Brought To Life
6 May 2025
Duration: 42 minutes
Duration: 42 minutes
David Hockney and Vincent van Gogh have had the immersive art treatment. Now the National Portrait Gallery is using this approach for its collection in a new exhibition, Stories Brought To Life, that has just opened in MediaCity, Salford Quays. Art critic Laura Robertson gives her thoughts.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
On Liverpool Biennial
7 June 2023
Duration: 43 minutes
Duration: 43 minutes
The Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest contemporary visual arts festival, begins this weekend. Arts journalist Laura Robertson reviews, and the curator of the biennial, Khanyisile Mbongwa, discuss coming up with this year’s theme – uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost things – which reflects on Liverpool’s history as a slave port but also provides a sense of hope and joy.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Presenter: Ekene Akalawu
Laura Robertson visits Signal Film and Media in Barrow in Furness to hear about how the charity has benefited from the latest Arts Council funding announcement and to find out what they have planned for the future.
Presenter: Shahidha Bari
Producer: Olivia Skinner
On the Turner Prize 2022 exhibition
26 October 2022
Duration: 42 minutes
26 October 2022
Duration: 42 minutes
Art critic Laura Robertson reviews this year's Turner Prize show at Tate Liverpool. Laura Robertson brings us up to date on the latest arts news, from the delayed funding announcement by Arts Council England, to Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof gallery's response to rising energy costs.
Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Radical Landscapes is the name of a new exhibition exploring human connections with the landscape, at Tate Liverpool. The Terror-Infamy is a drama on BBC2 depicting the internment camps in the US where those of Japanese heritage were kept after Pearl Harbour - and a strange spirit is abroad. Writers and critics Tahmima Anam and Laura Robertson join Front Row to review both.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Kirsty McQuire.
On the Turner Prize 2022 shortlist
12 April 2022
Duration: 42 minutes
This year’s Turner Prize is returning to Liverpool for the first time in 15 years. Laura Robertson, a writer, critic and editor based in the city gives us a rundown of the shortlisted artists announced today at Tate Liverpool: Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Sin Wai Kin.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Nicki Paxman.
12 April 2022
Duration: 42 minutes
This year’s Turner Prize is returning to Liverpool for the first time in 15 years. Laura Robertson, a writer, critic and editor based in the city gives us a rundown of the shortlisted artists announced today at Tate Liverpool: Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard, Veronica Ryan and Sin Wai Kin.
Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Nicki Paxman.
On Art B&B
15 November 2019
Duration: 28 minutes
Ever fancied sleeping in an artwork? Soon you’ll be able to do exactly that at the Art B&B – a new hotel in Blackpool which has commissioned 30 artists to turns its rooms into works of art. Michael Trainor, Creative Director of the Art B&B explains the vision for the hotel, and Arts journalist Laura Robertson shares her thoughts on the new establishment after getting an early preview.
Presenter: Keisha Thompson
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
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On The British Ceramics Biennial
10 September 2019
Duration: 28 minutes
Ten years ago when the first British Ceramics Biennial took place, things didn't look good for pots or Stoke-on-Trent, known as 'the potteries' of the UK. The 240-year-old Spode factory had shut, ceramics had a dusty image and the pot-making artist Grayson Perry said the art world had more of a problem with his being a potter than with him wearing a frock. In Front Row this evening Kirsty will hear how things have changed. Now the old Spode works hosts artists studios and a boutique hotel and this year is at the heart of multiple exhibitions featuring the work of 300 artists - both established and emerging, from home and abroad.15 November 2019
Duration: 28 minutes
Ever fancied sleeping in an artwork? Soon you’ll be able to do exactly that at the Art B&B – a new hotel in Blackpool which has commissioned 30 artists to turns its rooms into works of art. Michael Trainor, Creative Director of the Art B&B explains the vision for the hotel, and Arts journalist Laura Robertson shares her thoughts on the new establishment after getting an early preview.
Presenter: Keisha Thompson
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
On The British Ceramics Biennial
10 September 2019
Duration: 28 minutes
Presenter Kirsty Lang
Producer Olive Clancy.
On Ren Hang
11 December 2018
11 December 2018
Duration: 28 minutes
The work of the Chinese photographer Ren Hang found admirers worldwide and was championed by Ai Weiwei, though the Chinese authorities were less enamoured. Almost two years after his death at the age of 29 and with the first show of his work in the UK premiering at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, Laura Robertson, critical writer-in-residence at the gallery discusses Ren Hang’s significance.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
The work of the Chinese photographer Ren Hang found admirers worldwide and was championed by Ai Weiwei, though the Chinese authorities were less enamoured. Almost two years after his death at the age of 29 and with the first show of his work in the UK premiering at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, Laura Robertson, critical writer-in-residence at the gallery discusses Ren Hang’s significance.
Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Ekene Akalawu.
On Fernand Léger
13 November 2018
Duration: 28 minutes
Fernand Léger is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool. Leger's work moved between many of the great art movements of the 20th century - Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism - but retained his own distinctive style. Fernand Léger: New Times, New Pleasures is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in the UK in 30 years. Art Critic Laura Robertson explains his significance.
Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Ekene Akala.