Rankin Studio is launching a new art fair next month celebrating the talent of photographers whose graduating shows were disrupted due to Covid-19.VISUAL NOISE will showcase 40 of the UK’s 2020-2022 graduating class of photographers (both BA and MA) to showcase their work at Maryland Studio in East London, and is dubbed as the first art fair dedicated solely to the nation’s emerging photography talent.Each exhibiting photographer/artist will have free reign over a 6ft x 6ft empty space to showcase their work - from performance, to collage, to editorial and film.Applications were open to any graduate from a UK university, on a photography or photography-related course, on a simple remit to “be creative” and to show work never seen before. Having received an overwhelming response to this open call, the team at Rankin whittled down pitches from across incredibly diverse applicants to the group of artists who will be exhibiting their work.Within the show Rankin will also being doing print and t-shirt sales, with all profits going to the Legacy of War foundation, which campaigns to end all wars and is actively supporting partner organisations in the Ukraine. You can find out more here.VISUAL NOISE takes place at Maryland Studio on April 9th and 10th, 2022. Early bird tickets are available here.

The Art of Pop Video, an exhibition that celebrates the music video as an artistic medium from its earliest origins to its current manifestations, is now showing at FACT, the gallery and arts centre in Liverpool. Billed as the first exhibition of its kind in the UK, The Art of Pop Video opened on March 14th, and celebrates classic examples of the music video, and also investigates how it has been influenced by and also informed visual art and film in general. The show also looks as far back as the 1920s to the earliest origins of the music video. The oldest film in the exhibition is Man Ray's experimental film Emak Bakia from 1926, and there's also a nod to the influence of the Hollywood musical, via Fred Astaire's timeless choreography in Top Hat from 1935. First exhibited at the MAKK Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne, The Art of Pop Video showcases the work of major visual artists whose work has been heavily influenced by the pop video. Artists featured include Andy Warhol, Pipilotti Rist, Wolfgang Tillmans, Carsten Nicolai and Christian Jankowski. And there's a Liverpool flavour to the exhibition too, with videos for 'local heroes' including The Beatles, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, OMD and Ladytron - and a new video is being made for local band Outfit via a competition organised by FACT and Liverpool Sound City. The Art of Pop Video show runs to May 26th 2013 and admission to the exhibition is free.

Spectacle: The Music Video - the first ever museum retrospective of the artform of music video has just opened at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Spectacle explores the music video format as an important and influential art form in contemporary culture, employing immersive environments, photography, video screenings, objects and interactive installations. The history of the medium is charted from the early pioneering work of Devo, to the mainstream icon-building by Michael Jackson and Madonna, to present day exponents OK Go and Lady Gaga. And Spectacle also uses the museum environment to display the art and craft that went into the making of some of the most groundbreaking music videos ever made. Just some of the artefacts on show are: This groundbreaking exhibition is curated by Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells of Flux, and runs from March 3rd to September 3rd 2012 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati - a building designed by Zaha Hadid, and the first of the famous architect's designs to be built - and will tour cities in North America and beyond thereafter.