All posts by Laura Cutajar

Designs of the Year

I must admit I don’t often think about how design is all around me. I could say it is embedded in my life, from when I wake up to when I go to bed. My alarm clock, the typography in my book, the label on my favourite bottle of plonk and the lamp I switch off at night.

If you think design is just function, think again. Immerse yourself in the top floor of The Design Museum with their Designs of the Year exhibition.

This array of international pieces span: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics, Product and Transport. Feast your eyes on this ‘look book’ across the design spectrum for the museums Design Awards. A high profile judging panel decide the best entries in each of the seven categories. The category award winners and the overall winner of the Design of the Year Award shall be announced in April 2012.

Turning function on its head, the Design Museum display also includes works poking fun at design in computer functions with – Your Browser Sent A Request That This Server Could Not Understand – an illustrated depiction of the internet by Koen Taselaar.

Designs of the Year looks outside the box; not just new spangled technology or expensive materials. Noma Bar (above) produces simple shapes, that reveal hidden possibilities, whose negative and positive spaces draw the eye every time. There are designs that are simplistic, that save lives. The Earthquake Proof Table by Arthur Brutter and Ido Bruno (below) is astonding in its clean back to basics design that could help thousands.

 

The Earthquake Proof Table

 

Shopping online and on the move is nothing new but South Korea have taken mobile and digital aspects to the next level. Homeplus Tesco Virtual Store is the result – below. Choose your item from their virtual store!

Holographic shopping en route home?Augmented reality is given a breath of fresh air by Swappu, creating a ‘holo-deck’ feel, well, okay it’s not quite up to Star Trek level. The animations are great and the playfulness of it will be a hit for kids. Its a soft and easily lovable digital world that shall no doubt advance rapidly.

See the app in action here > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBmLWdjtzPw

© 2012 Dentsu London

One Thousand Cranes for Japan is a charity project that aims to inspire and bring people together to be part of a final creation. Members of the public can choose, download and print off the paper designs to fold into their own origami creation. A chance to be part of the designs final creation, it’s nothing groundbreaking, but it’s not meant to be.

Image by Anomaly/Unit9  anomaly.com

The Comedy Carpet (below images) takes typography bold and big. It reminds us font is more than just Arial and Times New Roman selected on a computer screen. This gigantic installation, created by Why Not Associates, sprawls out in front of the Blackpool Tower and features over 160,000 granite letters embedded in concrete. It refers to the work of more than 1,000 comedians and comedy writers, giving a visual form to jokes, songs and catchphrases.

The Comedy Carpet in progress

Comedy Carpet, Blackpool

The Crates (below) by Naihan Li & Co is a product that is a must for the clothes obsessed, and those who need organisation of all their essential fashion items. See just how functional a plain industrial looking crate can be, reacting to our clothing hoarding and need for storage.

This work is in stark contrast to Sarah Burton‘s now infamous handmade lace that’s delicately on display. This painstakingly handcrafted work was stitched into the nations memories on Kate Middleton’s wedding dress.

The wide spectrum at the Designs of the Year should open up your eyes to the flexibility and intricacy of design and its ability to problem solve, whilst looking back to the past for inspiration.

With mass market production all to easy to snub, design is at an exciting point; using mass production processes to save lives but taking us back to simplicity, creating unique angles on our lives.

The Designs of the Year exhibition runs 8 February – 4 July at The Design Museum. For tickets and information click me!

Wimbledon Art Studios

Want to see art outside of the commercial galleries? Or maybe like me you have lofty dreams of starting your own art collection. This weekend take a trip to South West London from 25 November to the Wimbledon Art Studios, Winter Open Studios Art Show.  The open show sees artists opening up their studio spaces this weekend, giving the public the chance to explore a treasure trove of new works. There’s an eclectic mix by up and coming, as well as established artists, photographers, ceramicists and textile designers.

Community and the artist

Darryn Eggleton
By Darryn Eggleton

The Wimbledon Studios aim to provide a spring board for working artists, which couldn’t be apt in today’s dire financial climate. The studios are the largest, single site art studio complex in London and Britain. This fantastic project is not merely about the singular artist and the creative community within, Wimbledon Art Studios aim to give local people the opportunity to view and appreciate contemporary art, whilst building links with the resident artists.

The opening night was bustling with proud parents, artist’s friends and locals. The last open show attracted over 5,000 visitors and I suspect they shall hit they figure or more this year.

On the preview night studio workers were happy to talk about the spaces and I was impressed by the colour map brochure produced for the show. Plenty of friendly guides and artists were on hand when I lost my bearings in the rabbit warren of corridors and stairways, so be warned you may loose yourself but find an interesting artwork in the process!

The entrance, which bridged the two buildings in a temporary structure, displayed some key pieces including Kate Kelleher’s eye catching painting, and a sculpture by Kevin Herlihy who uses found and recycled mediums. There were also some small board works for sale to raise money for the studios upkeep. At £55 a go, I decided to snap up a board by Jayson Lilley. Other artists you should stop by at –  Darryn Eggleton‘s amazing animal paintings and Alison Pearl‘s delicate and seemingly impossible objects made from paper.

Inside the spaces

As I tottered around with my new art work I explored the studios which are spread over 2 areas.  The main Red Studio building, originally a paper warehouse, opened with just 6 artists renting spaces in 1993. Now, the original warehouse consists of over 100 studio spaces and in addition there are now 60 studio spaces in a newly, purpose built ‘Blue Studios’ building, on the same site. On 1st November 2011 an additional 55 brand new studios were opened in a reclaimed section of the warehouse. Now the site has over 200 artist tenants. The close proximity of the studios make it feel homely, it felt like I was stepping into a person’s private space, almost like their bedroom, a definite plus side away from the clinical commercial gallery spaces.

The artist and the studio

Is a studio site like the one in Wimbledon an ideal place for an artist to gain recognition though? And do the resident artists actually like the makeshift space in the built up industrial estate in Wandsworth? I asked Idun Eustace, an resident artist at the Wimbledon site who is displaying her pieces for the show.

Idun has been at the studios since 2007 and first exhibited during the autumn show. Idun lectures in life drawing and oil painting for EAL, Ealing, West London. Her works of semi-abstract still life evoke many influences from the Norwegian landscape where she was born and brought up.

Alison Pearl
By Alison Pearl

What do you think of the new studio space that opened in November 2011? So how does it compare to other, more formal, settings you’ve shown at? Such as gallery spaces/fairs?

The new space (as a whole) has got a nice feel to it & is much more spacious than the studios in the old Red Studio building – Although my new space has no natural light ,I feel this doesn’t matter so much, as I look upon it as a challenge to see how it changes my work. There are studios with natural light but I chose this one for the space as I want to run life drawing classes from there as well as paint.

Do you feel the studios are successful in terms of building a creative hub for emerging artists and also for artists to sell their work too? Or do the more traditional roots of art fairs and private galleries, like the Affordable Art Fair, work better?

I think it’s a little hit and miss sales wise  – sometimes you sell and others not.  The good thing about the studios is that they don’t take a commission on sales whereas fairs, such as AAF and other London Galleries take 50 %. It does give merging artists as well as more established artists a great platform to sell their work.

Where do get your ideas for pieces? Whilst travelling around London, or more abstractly?

I draw a lot and source ideas almost everywhere – e.g. If I go in to London on the train (with my sketchbook) I will look out of the window and take a mental picture and draw it immediately, or when I’m on holiday (usually to Norway), I always have my sketchbook (and camera) handy. I also sometimes draw and paint from memory so these may be more abstract – I look on the drawing process this way; if you’re an artist you ought to draw as its part of the process of painting. Painting is really drawing with your brush.

Idun Eustace
By Idun Eustace

You are trained in many different disciplines, painting, printmaking, life drawing, photography, graphics, illustration & textiles. Do you or would you ever incorporate these into you pieces?

I do use photography as reference only, whether it be a design ref or a colour reference – I have used printmaking in my art but not currently – I do however like the way Munch used print making as reference/addition in his art and have recently been looking into this. I’m quite interested in African tribal art textiles. I have also been toying with the idea of introducing burlap/hessian in my work but at present this is embryonic only. I am looking at the work of artists like Tapies and Sandra Blow for inspiration.

You are quite active on Twitter, do you feel artists have to embrace this more so now? Have you felt the need to use it more?

I feel the use of twitter is essential to reach out to a wider audience and think that one’s got to advertise oneself, no-one else will do it for you and  hopefully one’s twitter followers will RT and thus reach more people – so it can only be a good thing. You have to grab opportunities as life is too short.

Idun’s works feature at the open show till 27 November and she is also planning to run classes that will be available to artists at the Studios as well as outsiders, contact her here for more information idun@blueyonder.co.uk. Follow her on Twitter @idunart

The Open Studios Art Show at the Wimbledon Art Studios is open to the public till 27 November Friday 2pm – 10pm
Saturday & Sunday 11am – 6pm. For more information about the show and the artists see click here.

Leonardo Da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

Virgin of the RocksThe much hyped Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition opens at the National Gallery from today with a seven room exhibition. The display is ideal for those who adore the technicality of the line and the workings of an artist , with many drawings and paintings by Leonardo and his pupils on display.

Its build up has been felt for many months, ever since its advance booking opened in May 2011 – a long seven months before its actual opening day.

With its future opening date released then came the capped visitor numbers announcement, with the gallery saying it would restrict visitors due to an, ‘unprecedented demand’. Today (9 November) The Evening Standard has reported how the tickets have sold out until mid-December. The pressure for this display to deliver to its global audience is immense.

The exhibition brings together an impressive collection of international loans never before seen in the UK, from the Queen, America, Poland, France, Scotland and from Art Fund acquisitions.

One difference with this exhibition from others is it the first to be dedicated to Leonardo’s aims and techniques as a painter. Don’t expect reams of glorious huge paintings, though there are a few pretty ladies, curly haired men and angels.

The whole display focuses on Leonardo as an artist, his technical skills and his teaching skills, showing how his works were often finished or copied by his pupils, and in some cases edited. In particular it concentrates on the work he produced as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza, in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s.

As well as finished pieces, each room is peppered with Leonardo’s preparatory and experimental sketches.

The final part of the exhibition, a few mintues walk away in the Sunley Room features a near-contemporary, full-scale copy of Leonardo’s famous ‘Last Supper’, on loan from the Royal Academy. Seen alongside all the surviving preparatory drawings made by Leonardo for the ‘Last Supper’ it makes for an interesting viewing,  but seems rather ‘tagged’ on to the exhibition.

Pieces to stop by:

The Musician (1486-7) Room 1 – An unfinished portrait demonstrating Leonardo’s skill in positioning of the face creating a life like portrait with depth.

Portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza (1493) Room 2 – Get your fill of opulence with this lavish picture showing a traditional Milanese style dress, with Leonardo’s profile technique on full view.

Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with the Ermine) © Princes Czartoryski Foundation
Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with the Ermine) © Princes Czartoryski Foundation

The Lady with an Ermine (1498-90) Room 2 – This piece is centre stage of the room and shows off Leonardo’s portraiture and colour skills. The lady almost leaps out of the canvas due to her 3/4 turned pose and the black back background, giving her a 3D quality that soon become sort after by Leonardo’s pupils.

Studies of the Nervous System (1485-8) and Studies of the Human Skull (1489) Room 3 – This is one of many anatomical studies in this room, and they took my breath away. He’s used hints of shadow and light to depict tiny features of the human body. The skull looks perfect in minature form and these observations were no doubt the ground work for his future paintings, making figures seem as real as possible. It astounds me how these delicate sketches are over 500 years old.

The Virgin of the Rocks (1493) Louvre and Virgin of the Rocks (1491/2-9 and 1506-9) National Gallery Room 4 – These pieces are obviously the focal point for this room and essentially a key point for the exhibition. They are on show together for the first time and are intended to show Leonardo’s difference in style and views of  painting and art. The earlier piece is very rich in colour and could easily fit into a church altar piece. The second is restrictive in its colour palette and the figures are more sculptural with a porcelain quality.

The Burlington Cartoon ( 1499-1500) Room 6 – This lively large piece in charcoal seems to move as you move around it. The unfinished aspect of the piece almost makes it work more, it stands out in this room. The figures are fluid and contemporary, it’s a break away and step up from Leonardo’s meticulous anatomical studies.

Two drawings of the boney structure of the head, 1489
Two drawings of the boney structure of the head, 1489 The-Royal-Collection-©-2011

Room 7 in the Sunley room has a handy time line of Leonardo’s artistic career, with significant events and works. This would of been suited to have at the beginning of the exhibition, putting this display into context even more, especially for those less familiar with his pieces. The room feels tagged on, an afterthought. It’s interesting to see the workings that may have gone into this work, and then the copy of the Last Supper is astonishing to see in its grand scale.

Head along to this exhibition for a peek into Leonardo Da Vinci’s undoubted skill as a technical drawer and creater of astonishing life like works, which capture humanity and idealised beauty in all its forms. He perhaps saw himself as a creator and observer of humanity, what’s key from the exhibition is that he was always striving for improving his skills and thankfully we get to see these still today in this exhibition.

‘If the painter wishes to see beauties that enamour him, he is the master of their production, and if he wishes to see monsterous things.. he is their lord and god.’

The exhibition is open now:  09 Nov 2011 – 05 Feb 2012 Mon – Thu, Sat, Sun 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM; Fri 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM Closed Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, Christmas Day.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan

The Factory: Warhol and His Circle

Warhol, just the name conjures up an instant catalogue of artworks/images that transcend generations – the Campbell’s Soup tins, the Jackie Kennedy prints – and define the pop art movement.

This exhibition gives viewers a glimpse into something other than the primary colours and consumerism images of Andy Warhol. Proud Chelsea is exhibiting a photographic memoir of a year at the Factory – Warhols working world of creativity and notoriety. The images were taken by David McCabe who was a rising star on the New York photography scene during the 60s, he was contacted by Warhol and asked to collaborate with him in documenting life at the Factory between 1964 and 1965.

David McCabe Philip Johnson's Glasshouse 1965McCabe was asked to conform to two conditions by Warhol: that he didn’t use a flash and that he was someone who would fit in; David became part of the Factory’s entourage and took over 2,500 photographs at the Factory and other locations around New York.

This is McCabe’s first UK exhibition and highlights this world that Warhol created the exhibition features snap shots of other artists Warhol knew, such as Salvador Dali.  In one image Dali is seen to be explaining one of his paintings to Warhol, almost in a teacher/professor like manor.

This small display at Proud Chelsea of McCabe’s photographs are a peek into Warhol’s world and the stars of the Factory,  one of these was Edie Sedgwick, for whom this display is for; commemorating the 40th anniversary of her death. She features across many of the images and her contemporary look could be straight out of a bar in Chelsea today.

One striking image for me is Philip Johnson’s Glasshouse1964/5  something about the angle, the glass and space that perhaps say a lot about Warhol and the world he was cultivating, his look of almost a surveying nature. It also reminded me of a clothing advert – the slick, clean cut look and serniness of the image –  it could almost be for Burberry.

The  images still feel modern and some are more candid than others, such as one featuring Edie, Chuck Wein and Warhol at a party at the Empire State building in1965, which could almost be a Facebook picture, the three of them are huddled in close, looking up at the camera.DavidMcCabe Spring nyc 1965

The display  features images that Warhol decided did not portray him in a light he was keen to cultivate and they were put away by McCabe and left. Some of these unique photographs have been untouched or unprinted, for nearly 40 years so its well worth a look.

Downstairs are some of Proud’s other images by terry ONiel and others. My favoruites is a shot of the Rolling Stones with paige boy hair cuts from 1963, an open shirted Mick Jagger striking a pose for an image entitled ‘Mick’s Lips’ and the sultry Marianne Faithfull in knee high socks and Mary Janes. All of the images no matter what the year still look modern, with looks straight out of today’s catwalks.

The exhibition opens today at Proud Chelsea and runs till the 4th December Mon, Tue, Thu – Sun 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM; Wed 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM.

White Cube, Bermondsey

Funding cuts aplenty and rent price hikes it’s no wonder galleries are tiptoeing around trying to make the best decisions when it comes to their businesses. So there was surprise when art collector Jay Joplin announced the opening of his third London space – White Cube Bermondsey.

Already coveting two sort-after addresses in Mayfair and Hoxton this new venture seems to be taking on not only a larger space – in fact 58,000 sq ft of interior space-  but a different vibe too. Set in 1970s warehouse it is the largest of the gallery’s three London sites and has been re designed by Casper Mueller Kneer Architects. The result is what on the opening last night looked like a cross between a spaceship and a multi-storey car park entrance.

There is a particular timing about this new space as it debuts at a perfect few weeks in the art calendar. For the next 2 weeks hundreds of collectors and buyers descend on London for the Frieze Art Fair and the whole host of exhibitions and pop up spaces that come along with it.

Neverland II by Damien Hirst - © Ian Nicholson/PA
Neverland II by Damien Hirst – © Ian Nicholson/PA

After queuing and being penned in for around 30 minutes we finally got inside. With it being dark outside already the bright lights and white walls were overwhelming, I felt like I needed blinkers to stop squinting. Once inside  you are greeted with a long corridor off of it are the three principal exhibition spaces, private viewing rooms, an auditorium and a bookshop – which I have to say was my favourite space I could have spent a lot of money.

After trying to match the exhibition descriptions on the guide to the artworks (no labels featured) we explored the first space at the centre of the building, a gallery entitled ‘9 x 9 x 9’.  Presenting here is Cerith Wyn Evans with a clinical neon light installation that wraps around this literally cubed room. It felt as if the words had come out of the walls due to the white neon and smooth quality.

Structure & Absence in the South Galleries include Gary Hume’s works which looked like they were dripping off the canvas in Room I with their metallic surfaces popping out from the white smooth walls.  Room II features some bits and bobs from Damien Hirst. His Chinese scholars’ rocks and more familiar things like his ‘Neverland’ in room II – a mirrored shelved board filled with pills –think Smarties and disco.

Three smaller galleries, collectively known as the ‘North Galleries’ is where Kitty Kraus’ pieces can be found which are highlight for me. Her light box installations are tranquil and the prisms of light reflect on the blank canvas walls creating cityscape structures that reminded me of Tron.

light box installations by Kitty Kraus © Oli Scarff

Dinos and Jake Chapman have their two cents worth in the screening room. Can’t say too much about it as, well, you just have to see for yourself. If features Rhys Evans as an angst ridden artist and left us with puzzled faces afterwards.

It’s worth a look to see some of the lesser known contemporary artists on show and for the space itself, no doubt there will be some bigger things to come from this space in future.

“Structure and absence” runs until the 26/11/11
White Cube | Bermondsey Street | 144 —152 Bermondsey Street | London SE1 3TQ
http://www.whitecube.com