Erik Johansson is one of those guys who have raw talent. He excels on digital photography and produces outstanding results. And you know what? He has not have any formal training in photography or studio art — or even classroom instruction in Adobe Photoshop
Erik Johansson is keen on surreal landscapes and often depicts characters trapped in their surroundings in some temporal break down.
We have included below the Cut & Fold (2012) piece as well as a very interesting video that will show you how Erik Johansson got to the end result.
Here is what the digital artist says about the work: “Inspired by the cut-along border of a magazine coupon, I wondered what a landscape would look like if it were peeled back along a road’s dotted line like a coupon.”
Australian artist MEGGS’s first show outside his native country is opening tomorrow, 23rd June 2010 at the Red Bull Studios and is called “Inner Demons.”
The show will have two main aspects: MEGGS’s exploration of “fears fears, desires, and obstacles each person faces within themselves” but also an insight into his process when making art through a series of photographs and references to what he does and use in that very process.
Expect screenprints, canvases, paintings and collages. Take a look below at one of his pieces as well as the documentary made as a preview for the show
When – 23 till 27/6/2011 Where – Red Bull Studios | 155-171 Tooley St | City of London | SE1 2JP
I like walking down the Regent’s canal, just for a stroll but also to spot street art. Many famous street or graffiti artists such as Banksky or Team Robbo have let their spray cans go wild on the walls of the surrounding buildings or bridges along the path.
Come to the canal this summer and get away from the Olympics madness and enjoy art, from performances, visual art to music. The Regent’s canal festival will be held from the 13 to the 15th July 2012. The submissions are being taken right now and until the 10th June 2012 so hurry and get this once in a lifetime opportunity.
“Regent’s Canal Festival celebrates the 200th anniversary of the formation of the Canal, while engaging local communities provides an excellent platform to deliver a wide range of artistic disciplines – such as audiovisuals, performances, visual arts, live experiences, events and music.
The Regent’s Canal Festival is taking place alongside the canal, crossing boroughs from Little Venice to Limehouse Basin. The Festival will be transforming the Regent’s Canal into an artistic and cultural hub raising awareness of environmental issues through the arts.
In order to create this, we are looking for art works that thematically fits our artistic vision, enhancing the look and feel of being surrounded by water.
The pieces may be interactive or purely visual spectacles, they can potentially incorporate elements of water or fire but they must be relatively durable and suitable for all weather conditions. Floating and light sculptures are particularly welcome.”
This application is most applicable to existing art works that you would like to exhibit to a wider audience. But if you have a new project that you like to create for the Festival don’t forget to send all the budget details.”
Deadline for project submission: Friday 1st June, 10pm
If you are interested in hearing about the upcoming programme of the Regent’s Canal Festival please emailinfo@regentscanalfestival.org.ukto join our mailing list.
If you like street art or graffiti, you know that you should find some good stuff at Lazarides as these guys have been around for a while and primarily sell this type of art. Artists such as Antony Micallef or Jamie Hewlett to name just a few have seen their first artwork being sold by Lazarides.
The exhibition, a retrospective of Faile’s work over the last 10 years consists of two parts, the first bit is held on Greek street and is the fun and interactive one, the second one is a more classical exhibition held on Rathbone place is all about showing you a number of Faile’s pieces from when he started up to today. ART-PIE went to the latter one (but will go this week end to the one on Greek street soon!) Continue reading Faile at Lazarides – part 1→
Saturday 26 November I made way to Degree Art’s gallery on Vyner Street to view the works of Helen Gorrill on show in the solo exhibition titled DEICIDE. The gallery is not so far away from Bethnal Green as people might think and a fair pace will get you to the gallery in 10 minutes.
Upon arrival to the gallery I chatted with gallery manager (and all round arts, culture & fashion voice) Ryan Lanji who gave me a few pointers about the show, which I had not picked up on from my brief musings online. The first of which being the portrait of a Pope which was attached to the floor at the entrance of the gallery; meaning that everyone that enters walks over the Pope – a sign of the conflict with sexuality and religion which appears a central aspect in Helen’s work.
Degree Art Gallery Manager, Ryan Lanji
After which Ryan explained about the Confession Chamber which was the interactive element of Helen’s work; a look at the notion of confession, who to and why. Within the chamber, which has been meticulously created to represent a real confession box, are confessions from every body that has entered, along with some well know confessors from the art world. Some of which have been stitched into the fabric of the inside, some written in chalk on the walls and some placed in envelopes on the wall. Everybody was encouraged to enter there own confessions…
The last point we covered, which really was not apparent with the online material was the sheer size of Helen’s work. I had imagined them to be water colour pieces which would look great in a plain white frame and would be of reasonable size to go above the fire place, hang in the dining room or be a centre piece for the spare room. I did not for one minute imagine them to be the slightly oversized real life height that they are!
The reason for this as I found out when talking with Helen is intertwined within the whole body of work. The role reversal; the woman in charge, the woman in power, the woman imposing in height standing above the crouched, submissive man.
Ryan Lanji and Helen Gorrill
Helen’s work was hung from chains on the ceiling to allow for the full effect of the size to be felt. They covered the main walls of the gallery and in my opinion are hard to find fault with in terms of the concept. Secured to the floor were 3 images of men in submissive postions, all positioned under the images of the women. In addition to this there was Helen’s provocative installation pieces which are steeped in religious references as well as a swipe at the controlling nature of the Church.
Helen’s background is that of an interesting mix of religion and control. A Christian background, a marriage to a Policeman who was also a Jehovah’s Witness and a seeming questioning of the effect of male influence in her life and choices. One of Helen’s shows was censored; the male nudity was covered but the female nudity was not – a very interesting point, especially as it was censored by men. This also questions the influence that men have had over society and the extent of control over what social acceptances should be. Helen’s work was actually featured on a Vatican sponsored website for some time because they thought it was promoting the Confession – when they realised it was actually asking a few more questions it was promptly removed!
Listening to Helen reference sexuality, feminism and religion in her work was very compelling in considering whether this is just a result of Helen’s personal experience or is a genuine perception of the world which many of us overlook or choose to ignore. Helen was supported by Degree Art’s very own Chloe Lawrence who covered some points in
literature relating to the feminist cause and the response this drew from female artists. References to Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”, Carole Schneemann’s “Interior Scroll” and Judy Chicago’s “Dinner Party” were all made. In addition we also heard from Kim Foxton who spoke about religion and the role of women through history and how this has changed.
Ryan Lanji, Helen Gorrill, Chloe Lawrence & Kim Foxton
Questions from the audience as well as Degree Art Founders Elinor Olisa & Isobel Beauchamp followed and this evolved to more personal discussions with the speakers accompanied with refreshments.
Overall a very well put together show which had important questions to state, as well as what I felt were aesthetically pleasing works. A great
environment to discuss the work and a well chosen line up of supporting speakers made a very enjoyable ‘art evening’.
Information
The provocative solo show ran from 3 November to 28 November 2011 with an evening in conversation with the artist on Saturday 26 November 2011.
Rhizomatic is an experimental, decentralised curatorial system based on the concept of the Rhizome, as explored in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical masterpiece A Thousand Plateaus. This is Departure Gallery’s largest and most ambitious show so far and includes work by over two hundred artists exhibiting in 100,000 sq ft of warehouse space. Continue reading Rhizomatic at Departure gallery→
Les Baker V’s INEBRI-NATION project is one of a kind. One may look at it as another purely photographic work while others a bold take on drug use and in some cases, abuse.
Meet Les Baker, a New Mexico-based photographer who has embarked on the most ludicrous, yet interesting in many aspects, projects taking portraits of people at the moment when the subjects reach the ‘high’ state on different drugs.
The idea behind it is to showcase just how diverse the effects can be, with many various transformations of individuals’ faces. And this is why we like the concept, because we believe the last thing a drug user wants is to face their face in such a state.
Another point worth highlighting is the array of people who took part in this project. You may have thought participants are all drug addicts or heavy users and perhaps from a disadvantaged background, but you could not be more wrong.
“The individuals featured in this series showcase the diversity of those who use mind altering substances. They include students, servers, doctors, soldiers, lawyers, politicians, mothers, fathers, artists, teachers, police officers, fire fighters, and judges,” .
The Creators Project spoke to him about his influences, his visions, and why he started the project in the first place, so head over to find out more about it.
In the meantime, we included some of these portraits below, notice the caption for them which tells you what drug these (brave) souls are on.
Would you be up for having your face which you may not feel but you probably like it <– some may have worked out the reference to this tune “Can’t feel my face” by The Weekend… fitting nicely uh? 🙂
Australian artist MEGGS’s first show outside his native country is opening tomorrow, 23rd June 2010 at the 
I like walking down the Regent’s canal, just for a stroll but also to spot street art. Many famous street or graffiti artists such as Banksky or Team Robbo have let their spray cans go wild on the walls of the surrounding buildings or bridges along the path.
This application is most applicable to existing art works that you would like to exhibit to a wider audience. But if you have a new project that you like to create for the Festival don’t forget to send all the budget details.”
