Art exhibitions that gamers may be interested in

Interesting because they resemble game environments!

From Friday April 11 until - May 9, the Chambers Gallery near theBarbican has painting by Ukrainian artists Vladimir Zhugan, AnatolyShariy and Yuri Zorko, who specialise in portraying the country'sindustrial heritage. Zhugan's work, especially, with its huge rustingedifices, brings to mind the landscapes in Quake II, STALKER and theforthcoming Damnation. More info here.

Then, at the New Cross Gallery until April 26 you can see the work of German artist, Mudwig,whose style mixes animation, painting and 'billboard suberversion'. Ithink the mixture of media would be great for a Tsumoto Kuono or KeitaTakahashi game and reminds me a little of the visual concept behindLittleBigPlanet.
Well, if you're interested in occasionally viewing art that has somevisual and thematic similarities to game worlds (and who isn't?), goand see the Mie Olise Kjærgaard exhibtion at the Alexia Goethe gallery in London. From the preview:

"[Kjærgaard] uses deserted structures such as quarrytowers, mine shafts, ships and sawmills as the subjects for herpaintings. Encapsulating both the function and redundancy of spaces andmachines that were once productive, built and designed of necessity;there is a melancholy and sometimes brutality to her depiction of theirneglect."

Videogames, too, make regular use of wasted industrial and urbanlandscapes - from the burnt out cities of COD4 to the sci-fi distopiasof Gears of War, Bioshock and Resistance: Fall of Man. The piecepictured looks a bit like one of the locations in GRAW. And like thepaintings, these games turn architectural degradation into somethingaesthetically appealing.
It's worth checking out the other paintings - they really remind meof some of the sketches I've seen game artists create before 3Dmodelling begins. I'm not sure the artist would thank me for that.
The exhibition runs from 29 Feb - 7 Apr 2008.