ManchesterOnline

Up close and very personal

FROM showbusiness legends to hard-hitting photojournalism, the Photographic Portrait Prize has it covered, writes Sarah Walters.

The Irony of Flatness @ Bury Art Gallery

DECEPTION, illusion and interpretation are three of the most useful tools for an artist.

Saying it within flowers

A ROSE by any other name is still as sweet, but in the hands of Asian artist Tsang Kin-Wah, the ancient symbol of love can hide an ugly message.

Solo show for Gwon

WHEN Gwon Osang unveiled his photographic sculptures at the Asia Triennial earlier this year, they were the talk of the festival.

Seeing a Double side of love...

A PEOPLE'S painter frowned on by the high art establishment, Robert Lenkiewicz was an ambitious artist who created massive murals and works of art during his heyday.

Klimt show is pure gold

MENTION Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze to anyone in the art world and they'll wax lyrical about it in overtures of admiration.

Paul's plea pays off

PAUL Roberts, a first-class honours graduate in graphic communications, is a self-taught artist, illustrator and toy maker who wanted to take his talents a little further.

Being the new Dahl is Child's play

SHE dreamed of being an air hostess but instead Lauren Child has become a literary icon.

Michael and a work in progress

CONTROVERSIAL artist Michael Browne is displaying his work-in-progress at Chorlton café-bar and comedy club, Orlando's.

The spray for today

A NUISANCE or a misunderstood art form? A bad habit to relieve the boredom or a potential career path?

Art? It's child's play

THE spontaneity of childhood is something most of us lose - and miss - as we get older, and rarely is that openness of expression better demonstrated than in children's drawings.

Finding humour amid the horrors

A NEW exhibition at the Imperial War Museum North uses the gut-wrenching guffaws of the Horrible Histories books to bring one of the worst periods of human conflict to life.

Welcome to garden of secret treasures

TATTON Park has been a popular spot on a sunny day since it was bequeathed by Lord Egerton to the National Trust in 1960.

A natural inclination

FOR centuries, potters have sought to replicate the shapes, textures and behaviour of the living world, producing tactile interpretations of nature. Life Forms is at Gallery Oldham.

2,000-year-old murder?

HOW Lindow Man died in 50AD is one of archaeology's great mysteries.

Breathing new life into Lowry

THE paintings of Laurence Stephen Lowry popularly evoke life in the north west as clearly as any gritty plot from Coronation Street.

Manga the magnificent

SEXUALITY to Shakespeare: there isn't a topic that Manga comic writers are afraid to explore.

Street art comes in from cold

"IN some ways, it's a bit like Prohibition in America - because they have banned street art, they have sent it underground. Even if they put the death sentence on street art, people would still do it," said Jon Winstanley, co-owner of Upper Space.

Gutsy show set to shock

CONTROVERSY surrounds the show before it's even thrown open its doors, but Body Worlds 4 will undoubtedly be the biggest exhibition in Manchester this year.

Squire schedules Oldham exhibition

MUCH to thousands of Stone Roses’ fans dismay, the seminal band’s enigmatic guitarist John Squire has turned his back on music for good it seems, putting pay to any lingering hopes of a dramatic reunion.

Ancoats: Our Naples

AMONG the streets are delicatessens selling pasta, olive oil and garlic-infused sausage. It is the start of the 20th century and this is Little Italy, Ancoats.

What the Romans really did for us Brits

CONQUERING tyrants they may have been, but it's hard to imagine what Britain might have been like today if it hadn't been for the Romans. There'd probably be no indoor plumbing for a start. Ghastly.

Turning down Nicole

AS a first-time fiction writer, it's not the kind of thing you're led to expect: Nicole Kidman personally ringing to ask you to change your story so that she can play the main character in the film version.

Shape up on your statues

THEY are the faces of statesmen and heroes passed by thousands every day. But how many visitors to Manchester would be able to put a name to the men and women immortalised in statues and monuments?

Manchester arts online: Your essential guide

THE visual arts scene in Greater Manchester is an exciting and varied one and this online guide aims to help you find out more.