Art

Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance – Book Feature

Love Letters: 2000 Years of Romance – Book Feature

Saint Valentine’s Day should be about sweet-nothings whispered in the ears of doe-eyed lovers and a celebration of that crazy little thing called love but let’s face it; if you get more than a fistful of flowers, an extra ‘X’ on the end of your morning text and a Moonpig greetings card this year, you’ll [...]

February 17, 2012 | 0 Comments More
Vault – London Arts Festival of Theatre, Film and Music

Vault – London Arts Festival of Theatre, Film and Music

On the surface, the area around Waterloo station might not seem like such a strange or dark place. However, upon looking hard enough, a bizarre current is noticeable, pulsating through the streets; the remnants of cardboard-city tucked away in the subways, free-runners prancing about the rooftops and, deep underground, a cavernous space dripping with history, [...]

February 17, 2012 | 0 Comments More
A Fetish for Failure – David Shrigley – London Art Show

A Fetish for Failure – David Shrigley – London Art Show

David Shrigley’s crude, childlike renderings are humorous, memorable, and often unnerving. Famous for his stick figures set against satirical text, this year The Hayward Gallery is showcasing all of Shrigley’s diverse talents in this major London art show. The playful exhibition, Brain Activity, includes sculptures, animations, paintings and sounds from throughout the career of one [...]

February 14, 2012 | 0 Comments More
Chen Man – Fashion Photography Exhibition

Chen Man – Fashion Photography Exhibition

Chen Man is one of the leading photographers of her generation. For a decade now she has led the way with some inspiring images for both magazines and leading international brands. Her striking and powerful photography has graced the pages of Elle, Cosmopolitan and Vogue. When we were asked if we would like to  be [...]

February 7, 2012 | 0 Comments More
RAWards – Lawren Alice ‘Visual Artist of the Year’ Arts Awards

RAWards – Lawren Alice ‘Visual Artist of the Year’ Arts Awards

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards arts awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping hand [...]

January 31, 2012 | 0 Comments More
RAWards – Jeff Blucher ‘Photographer of the Year’ Creative Industry Awards

RAWards – Jeff Blucher ‘Photographer of the Year’ Creative Industry Awards

Last year we were approached to be main media support for the RAWards creative industry awards which helps cultivate bright new creative talent across the USA. We were honoured to be asked and so accepted the invitation. RAW go above and beyond in their pursuit of the finest future artists to give them that helping [...]

January 25, 2012 | 0 Comments More
Life on board the Titanic – The Photos of Father Browne

Life on board the Titanic – The Photos of Father Browne

The footage of the dramatic sinking of the Costa Concordia and the loss of life brings mental images flooding back of that almost mythic sinking of RMS Titanic back in 1912. The same pictures come to mind of party going passengers suddenly plunged into cold, dark, unforgiving waters.   The Titanic story shook the world [...]

January 20, 2012 | 0 Comments More
White Cube Hong Kong launches with Gilbert and George

White Cube Hong Kong launches with Gilbert and George

The growing internationalisation of art and the arts industry takes another stride forward with the opening of White Cube Hong Kong. This is a major move by the gallery brand adding to their existing three London gallery spaces (pictured): Hoxton Square in East London, Masons Yard in St. James’s and Bermondsey Street in South London. [...]

January 13, 2012 | 0 Comments More
Toby Ziegler – London Art Show

Toby Ziegler – London Art Show

This latest London art show by the artist Toby Ziegler deals with memory. It is a striking and unnerving set of images and sculpture that conjure up emotions and nostalgia for memories, people and places that were never really ours in the first place. So they appear at once familiar yet unsettling.   In an [...]

January 12, 2012 | 0 Comments More
Alex Hartley – London Art Show – The World is Still Big

Alex Hartley – London Art Show – The World is Still Big

I cling to bare branches of trees as I clamber around the edge of the pond at the back of Victoria Miro Gallery. Following closely is artist Alex Hartley who instructs my footfall as we approach our colourful, yet tattered destination – a Geodesic dome floating on a raft which Alex and his chickens have [...]

December 27, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Picture Perfect – Stuart Pearson Wright London Art Exhibition Preview

Picture Perfect – Stuart Pearson Wright London Art Exhibition Preview

BP Portrait Award Winner Stuart Pearson Wright unveils his intriguing new collection, which explores the use of the smile as an icon and signifier of a successful life, and how it is prominently used this way in advertising, culture and the mass media.   At the heart of this collection is Keira Knightly – who [...]

December 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Unseen Animal – Interview & Feature with British Artist Joe Machine

Unseen Animal – Interview & Feature with British Artist Joe Machine

His work permeating shock and sex, Joe Machine salivates life through painting. Primarily focused on death and forced lust, the work of this British artist draws us in, but leaves us wincing. Turning his childhood exposure to pornography and violence into his trademark pictures of sailors and bloodshed, there is a raw truth in the [...]

December 11, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Villa Tokyo – European Arts Festival Hits Japan

Villa Tokyo – European Arts Festival Hits Japan

Villa Tokyo Arts Festival – Polish meditations in the land of the rising sun – November 11-18 2011 Eight months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged Japan in March, the Villa Tokyo arts event, an innovative hybrid lying somewhere between art fair and festival, brought the tonic of contemporary European culture to the [...]

December 2, 2011 | 0 Comments More
The Cardboard Ladies – London Photography Exhibition

The Cardboard Ladies – London Photography Exhibition

London is well known as a hot bed for international photography talent. The city features regular shows from some of the world’s most groundbreaking photographers and the latest London photography exhibition by Christian Tagliavini definitely falls into this category. The Alice in Wonderland-like pictures invite us on a  flight into the surreal world of cardboard [...]

November 29, 2011 | 0 Comments More
India Art Fair – 4th Edition – The Globalisation of Art

India Art Fair – 4th Edition – The Globalisation of Art

As well as a powerful cultural force, art is an increasingly global currency. The days when the West held sway when it came to Contemporary Art are fading fast. Rising superpowers are producing artists of international stature and there are new international art fairs emerging that reflect this new world. Art Fairs such as the [...]

November 25, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Freedom from Torture: The Art Auction – Interview with Stuart Semple

Freedom from Torture: The Art Auction – Interview with Stuart Semple

Freedom from Torture : The Art Auction is a great idea that we fully support. It uses artwork from some of the UK’s most respected artists including Anthony Gormley, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Cornelia Parker, Gavin Turk, Stuart Semple, Julian Opie, and Michael Craig Martin to raise money and awareness for survivors of torture. Claire [...]

November 18, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Andy Warhol’s The Factory: Warhol & His Circle

Andy Warhol’s The Factory: Warhol & His Circle

This month, Proud Chelsea is presenting a photography exhibition by David McCabe, that gives us an insider view into Andy Warhol’s The Factory in all its gory glory. Wouldn’t it be great to be a fly on the wall so you could go back in time and visit Andy Warhol’s The Factory in its heyday? [...]

November 13, 2011 | 0 Comments More
George Condo: Mental States at the Hayward Gallery

George Condo: Mental States at the Hayward Gallery

George Condo – Bankers, Brokers, Butlers and Queens He has been responsible for some of the art world’s most provocative work over the past 30 years, including paintings of Queen Elizabeth II as you’ve never seen her before, and that Kanye West album cover. This week sees the opening of a major retrospective of George [...]

October 26, 2011 | 0 Comments More
The Household Box – Art Inspired Boxed-Book

The Household Box – Art Inspired Boxed-Book

The Household Box aims for a broad and ubiquitous demographic. The lifestyle companion is geared for those burgeoning into ‘adult’ life, facing a long climb to career peaks and nestled between two states. One foot quivers excitedly on the edge of the nest, whilst the other stamps defiantly, afflicted with Peter Pan syndrome. Independence is [...]

October 21, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Myths, Monsters, and Legends – Rankin and Damien Hirst

Myths, Monsters, and Legends – Rankin and Damien Hirst

Fresh from LA, this new exhibition full of myths and monsters brings together two art legends; Rankin and Damien Hirst. The iconic artists have long been friends, and this collaboration allows for the duo to blend both their respective creative mediums and shared fascination with ancient mythology. ‘Myths, Monsters and Legends’ presents a series of [...]

October 21, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Out of Sight – A Treasure Trove of Street Art

Out of Sight – A Treasure Trove of Street Art

When confronted with the term ‘street art’, it’s perhaps easy to envisage the deviant murals that pepper our cities, the hooded figures that swiftly spray-paint their tags onto concrete, the art with swagger that’s on view for all to see in the most public of galleries. But there is a quieter, more secretive haven for [...]

October 14, 2011 | 0 Comments More
European Cultural Congress starring Krzysztof Penderecki, a Radiohead and an Aphex Twin

European Cultural Congress starring Krzysztof Penderecki, a Radiohead and an Aphex Twin

European Cultural Congress, Wroclaw, Poland As EU finance ministers exchanged pleasantries at the weekend over the fate of the Euro, national economies and the plight of Greece, the thought of their compatriots coming together only a week before to celebrate the continent’s cultural wealth may stir thoughts of Nero strumming his lyre while Rome burned. [...]

October 13, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Zee at Abandon Normal Devices

Zee at Abandon Normal Devices

How do you describe the indescribable? Entering Gallery 1 at FACT in Liverpool, the only nugget of information I could recall from the guidebook was “hold on to the rope”. Moments later this instruction would suddenly make a lot of sense. The moment our guide opened the door and set our group of 12 loose [...]

October 6, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Adrian Ghenie

Romanian Art Infiltrates London

Romanian Art from Marius Bercea, Stefan Constantinescu and Adrian Ghenie Over the last 20 years sine the fall of communism in eastern Europe, the region’s contemporary art scenes have developed with a quiet confidence. At home, young and international cultural cliques have forged nascent scenes, while abroad a clutch of artists have seen their profiles [...]

September 28, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Power of Making at the V&A

Power of Making at the V&A

A giant silver-backed gorilla stands sentry inside the lobby of the V&A museum, temporary home to the recently announced Power of Making exhibition. On closer examination, the fur of the chest-beating gorilla is made entirely of steel coat-hangers, a second in a series of metal primates by Scottish sculptor David Mach. The exhibition exposes the [...]

September 22, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Zed Nelson – Love Me – A Photographic Journal

Zed Nelson – Love Me – A Photographic Journal

Photographer, Zed Nelson, in his own words on his photographic joural, ‘Love Me’: I began Love Me when I was in my mid thirties. I’m sure that was no coincidence. Like many of my long-term fascinations, I don’t know exactly when the idea seeded itself. Perhaps it began quite simply, one day, when I looked [...]

September 20, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Exemplar: Joy Division by Kevin Cummins

Exemplar: Joy Division by Kevin Cummins

Ian Curtis was in his early twenties when he chose to end his life way back in 1980. We never got to see him grow old and or maybe record a bad album nor get to hear about him moving his money to a tax haven as we have with other ageing pop stars. This [...]

August 26, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Michelangelo Pistolleto – The Mirror of Realisation

Michelangelo Pistolleto – The Mirror of Realisation

Leaving Serpentine Gallery I faced a bewildering encounter with Kensington Gardens; my face resisted against the dusky breeze, lungs opened hospitably to the air and I was self-assured the green expanse continued beyond the horizon. I had re-entered a space of certainty and familiarity, a departure from the constricted navigation and deceptively benign buttress of [...]

July 27, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Versions and Diversions

Versions and Diversions

Discarded photographs. Unwanted and jettisoned or dropped unknowingly by their former owners in a hurried moment. Curator Karen Downey presents ‘Versions and Diversions’, an experimental exhibition showcasing the works of three contemporary artists, Maurizio Anzeri, Ruth Claxton and Mariana Mauricio. Bringing together a selection of works, ‘Versions and Diversions’ intervenes with forgotten images that have [...]

July 5, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Tattooed by The Family Business

Tattooed by The Family Business

Mo Coppoletta is a London tattoo artist, a Verona born true master of the tattoo craft. He’s now in such demand that you could wait up to a year to get him to do work on your body – the wait, I can testify, is worth it. After time served obsessing about tattoos, and then [...]

July 3, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Launch of Richie Culver Show at LN-CC

Launch of Richie Culver Show at LN-CC

“I do believe that my work is essentially 100% British, the way I describe it, is like listening to a Cure album or The Smiths. I relate my work to grey but happy Britain, with me in the middle I guess.” Richie Culver is becoming something of an outsider-art-world phenomena. With no formal artistic background, [...]

June 19, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Silent Cities

Silent Cities

We like this blog, Silent Cities. We like seeing images of some of the most noisy and crowded places in the world momentarily bathed in silence. There is something both serene and eerie about these scenes. The images below are from London, Sydney and Detroit.   Born out of a drunken debate about how it [...]

June 14, 2011 | 0 Comments More
The Best View of Heaven is from Hell

The Best View of Heaven is from Hell

In the treacherous heat of Helmand Province, a civilian photographer stumbles upon a chilling piece of graffiti, emblazoned across the wall of a captured building acting as a HQ for ISAF troops. The blood red scrawl is a stark contrast to the dirt and dust that surrounds. It reads: ‘THE BEST VIEW OF HEAVEN IS [...]

June 13, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Shadowlands – The Photography of Zadoc Nava

Shadowlands – The Photography of Zadoc Nava

The urban spaces of cosmopolitan cities throughout the world bear a degree of uniformity, aspiring to a horizon of shining glass and steel towers as symbolsof their modernity and to varying degrees littered with billboards bearing signs of commodities. In Tehran where an increasingly youthful population has access to almost everything that can be found [...]

June 10, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Queen – Stormtroopers in Stilettos

Queen – Stormtroopers in Stilettos

“The concept of Queen was to be regal and majestic. Glamour was part of us, and we wanted to be dandy,” vowed Freddie Mercury. The singer, an art school graduate, has a truly multi varied history, re-styling clothes, painting, dancing – and using his eye to manage the stage presence of his band. “It was [...]

June 9, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Richie Culver at LN-CC

Richie Culver at LN-CC

Late Night Chameleon Café – or LN-CC – is proud to present ‘Too Dark One Light’; a solo exhibition of new work by artist Richie Culver. The London based concept store will launch their gallery space with a show by Richie Culver - a series of new paintings, collages and mixed-media installations that sees Culver continue to [...]

June 8, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Le Crazy Horse – London Burlesque Supper Club

Le Crazy Horse – London Burlesque Supper Club

London is currently enjoying a wave of Parisian culture; we lived in Breton tops, dined solely on macaroons, and re-watched Breathless, but the latest French import comes in a slightly more riske form. This week marks the launch of Paris’ infamous Le Crazy Horse night. Situated in the secretive Supper Club in Notting Hill, the [...]

June 1, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Hilary Jack at Castlefield Gallery

Hilary Jack at Castlefield Gallery

Items once loved now cast-off and forlorn in the strangest of resting places. We’ve all seen this strange phenomena from time to time. Products deemed rubbish and discarded by the roadside, the forest glen, some of the most unlikely places. A pair of underpants abandoned in a park. A pair of high heels on a [...]

June 1, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Whisper – new printmaking gallery

Whisper – new printmaking gallery

Whisper is a new art gallery in central London aimed at expanding the definition and relevance of contemporary printmaking. According to Whisper gallery director Jamie Wood ‘there are a vast amount of techniques within the practice of printing, and we aim to explore them with our artists and give people the chance to see prints [...]

May 31, 2011 | 0 Comments More
The Festival of Britain, 1951

The Festival of Britain, 1951

The Festival of Britain took place in 1951 as we attempted to cast of the shadow of 2 world wars and look once again towards the future. Robert Leeming looks back with fondness and despair at a utopian vision that was quickly assigned to the dustbin of history. Harlow. 1961. Pram town. Rent a house [...]

May 30, 2011 | 1 Comment More
Dior Illustrated by Rene Gruau

Dior Illustrated by Rene Gruau

A celebration of the renowned illustrator René Gruau (1909-2004), who created some of the most iconic fashion and beauty images of the 20th century, this exhibition will showcase groundbreaking artworks including over forty original illustrations for Christian Dior Parfums, exquisite vintage perfume bottles, sketches, magazines and poster adverts. The show will also feature a selection [...]

May 24, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Most Wanted – Exhibition by artist Richard Philips

Most Wanted – Exhibition by artist Richard Philips

Richard Philips latest exhibition of large-scale glossy portraits sees the artist turn his gaze on contemporary pop culture. No longer restrained to the pictorial style of the fifties and early sixties, the artist has produced a series of ten portraits to delve into the world of the superficial worship of teen celebrities. The exhibition from [...]

May 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Meek’s Cutoff – Interview with director Kelly Reichardt

Meek’s Cutoff – Interview with director Kelly Reichardt

Kelly Reichardt’s latest feature film, Meek’s Cutoff is a beguiling period piece drenched in atmosphere and quiet dramatic moments which, slowly but surely, unfurl into profound developments and realisations. Meek’s Cutoff takes place on the famous Oregon Trail in 1845 and concerns a wagon train of settlers led by self-aggrandising charlatan Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) [...]

May 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Allison Anders on the making of her new film ‘Strutter’

Allison Anders on the making of her new film ‘Strutter’

“I’ve really had the career I wanted initially, you know. I wanted to be part of a film movement – I didn’t know how we were going to have it, but in film school I’d read about the French New Wave, the New German cinema, and I was like, well I want to be part [...]

May 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Misericord

Misericord

What do you see as the future of art? “Cathie Pilkington and Jay Cloth”. The artists behind Misericord. The butchered, tortured, unconscious creature returns your gaze, the discarded remnants of consumerist culture is reborn, reworked, and returned to greet the society which once deemed it debris. Misericord, the seminal new exhibition by curators Jo David [...]

May 23, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Limbo – from artist Simon Faithfull

Limbo – from artist Simon Faithfull

Nowadays you can get an I-Phone App for almost anything you might need. Many of them are selling you stuff though and that so-modern-of-conditions techno-nausea kicks in as you contemplate the thousands of icons all shouting at you just how important they will be to your life. Thankfully Limbo is a website and iPhone App [...]

May 19, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Mark Leckey at the Serpentine

Mark Leckey at the Serpentine

In his first UK Solo show, Mark Leckey uses the Serpentine Gallery to explore the themes of humanity and transformation. After winning the Turner Prize in 2008, he has had exhibitions across the continent, showcasing his multimedia expressions of British subcultures.   Leckey is most noted for his video installation, ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’, in [...]

May 17, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Vidal Sassoon the Movie

Vidal Sassoon the Movie

Paying homage to the hairdresser who shaped the 60s, Vidal Sassoon The Movie documents the life of the man who changed the world with a pair of scissors. Most famous for his geometric shaped haircuts, this film portrays Sassoon as a rags-to-riches story, defining the hairdresser as one of the founders of the 1960s British [...]

May 16, 2011 | 0 Comments More
Chicks on Speed – Don’t Art Fashion Music

Chicks on Speed – Don’t Art Fashion Music

An Airport Novel on Speed…..Or an interview with Chicks on Speed? “BTW, we say… Don’t do it yourself, do it with everybody else.” As hyperactive, multi-talented, multi-discipline collectives go, you can’t get much more super-charged than Chicks on Speed. The all female art group, electro-punk band and fashion designers, currently comprise of six members spread [...]

January 8, 2011 | 0 Comments More