Despite the dodgy weather in what’s supposed to now be spring, some of our favourite artists haven’t been deterred and continue to get up with some excellent work appearing in recent weeks.
No one fits that description more than Art Pie favourite Conor Harrington who added this stunning portrait to the East London streets.
This piece follows on from the Irish artist’s work at the recent Wide Walls Paint Jam in Mallorca where another exquisite black and white piece was added.
Of all the public art on display at the St Pancras station in London (UK), one piece stands out.
I am talking about the bronze statue called The Meeting Place that proudly stands at the south end of the upper-level beneath the station clock. The numbers: 9-metre (29.5 ft) high, 20-tonne (19.7-long-ton; 22.0-short-ton), impressive isn’t it? But have you been near it and noticed the frieze, a myriad of smaller sculpture works all around the plinth?
No? I did and was genuinely seduced by it.
This whole sculpture is the work of British artist Paul Day, and is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace. However this is for the main part of the work, the part that everyone can see from the window of the train…. but, what about the work located at the pedestal? At first glance, there is nothing romantic.
The frieze was actually added by the artists in 2008 and caused a stir as it was branded as ‘controversial’. It indeed originally depicted a commuter falling into the path of an underground train driven by the Grim Reaper (understand ‘Death). The image was one of many featured on a frieze for a controversial sculpture planned for St Pancras in London.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘The frieze as originally suggested will not go ahead and work on it has stopped.”
In his defence, the artist replied that the image was created in a tragi-comic style meant to be a metaphor for the way people’s imaginations ran wild. He added: ‘The imagination and real life are often intermingled.”
Day revised the frieze before the final version was installed and it can be seen today. No trace of Grim Reaper but a multitude of faces with strong or bold expressions, often hard to pin point. Are they sad, happy, tired, pained? I do not know, but what I do know is the artist mastered conveying feelings in this work.
Have you seen this work? What do you think?
If you’ve not seen it, please do as it’s worth the trip. Enjoy the photographs below in the meanwhile.
John Stezaker once said of Collage that it “is a yearning for a lost world and reflects a universal sense of loss”. Those sentiments are certainly reflected in the work of artist and radical feminist Linder Sterling (also known as Linder).
In her series Pretty Girls, Linder reacted to visual world she occupied, a society of inequality and the gender specific rhetoric. Linder used the magazines of the late 70’s and 80’s as her painters brush. Splicing images of naked women from pornography, and kitchen appliances from those awful home improvement catalogues, she created a curious and slightly disturbing, yet telling depiction on the representation of women of the time.
Looking back at these images from the 70’s and the post punk era it’s amazing how contemporary they feel. Is this due to the inherent nature of collage and it’s yearning for a lost world (as Stezaker put it). Or is it that in a time when we are bombarded with imagery on a daily basis that more and more contemporary artists and looking back in time in an attempt to decipher it all?
Guest post by Brian J Morrison
Opening reception: Thursday 1st September 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Scream gallery will soon host Greg Miller’s first solo UK exhibition. The large-scale works artist will again use his creativity using collages.
His style is very much pop art-inspired paintings and his “Phantom Lady” got noticed this year at an Bonhams urban art sale earlier this year. See picture below.
“In his new work…Greg Miller brings the pictorial poise of Pop to the eloquent fury of street art, effecting a marriage – or at least a torrid affair – between two hot items. One item is hot today, the other has been hot for half a century, but in Miller’s hands there is no generation gap, only a spiritual union – one that generates a sky, or at least wall, full of sparks.” Peter Frank
Opening reception: Thursday 1st September 6.30 – 8.30 pm.
Please contact lee@leesharrock.co.uk for guest list
Opening times: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm; Sat 11am-5pm
Gallery address: Scream | 34 Bruton Street | London W1J 6QX
Brooklyn-based artist KAWS has come up with 1,000 sets that contain 3 bulbs each, of one bulb in each color: red, purple and green. The 3 watt bulbs have a warm low glow. Dimensions of each globe is about 4.75″ x 2.25″ and they screw into any standard incandescent fixture. Continue reading The Standard X KAWS Light Bulbs
Off Brick Lane. Beauty. Picture by @bablu121
This work is the result of an exploration into the area of masculinity and social stereotypes. As a documentary photographic essay the work opens the doors to a lesser-seen area of society in an attempt to challenge pre-existing British stereotypes surrounding male identity and firearms.
Our aim is to aim is to survive focuses on Blackpool Pistol and Rifle Club: it’s physicality as a space, the people who use it and the inter-relationship between the two. These images are bound together through their formal presentation yet each image contains a strong individual presence in many cases confirming expectations but in others, interestingly confounding and challenging both the preconceived ideas attached to firearms and Shooting Clubs.
The Blackpool Pistol and Rifle club as been running since 1948 and is a typical example of what you would find in many shooting clubs throughout the United Kingdom. After a 1997 firearms amendment outlawed all but muzzle loading and single shot pistols, the membership to these clubs dwindled. As with many things within contemporary society the unfashionable quickly becomes lost and the
traditions of old soon turn to nostalgia. The walls of this club speak of a time gone; the faux wooden panels and the photographs proudly displayed offer an insight into “the good old days”. However they spoke as much about an acceptance of their fate as it offered a reminder into the past. The unfashionable has already become nostalgic whilst still in existence. To emphasize the idea of ever shifting social opinions I have offered a critique on the normative opinions associated masculinity and firearms by mixing the past and present contained within each frame.
Throughout the work the viewer is encouraged to draw off there own pre-existing opinions before eventually having these opinions subverted. By using masculinity as a focal point, symbolic links are drawn between the continually changing view of masculinity and the decline in popularity of those things that
do not fit within today’s society.”
““an acceptance that photography at the least can capture the present and the visible, he (Coekin) adds an understanding that what we know of the present what we know, and don’t know, of the past and the future”
David Campany on Chris Coekin’s piece Knock Three Times.
Words from Brian J Morrison
See more on Brian J Morrison website
With computers everywhere (or almost) and the digital age, a new form of art is emerging and while the end product can be rather astonishing, this can surely not be compared with the real thing that is painting with a physical medium.
Do not get me wrong here, ART-PIE does not dislike it or having a go at all the digital painters, I am just trying to say that I surely would not get the same feeling of excitement I get with holding a spray paint can or a brush if I had to paint with a computer as my canvas and a stylus or a digitizing tablet(as they call it) as my can or brush – not for me. Continue reading Digital painting: not like the real thing isn’t it?
When having CDs is becoming so nineties, everything getsstored online in the cloud as they call it, Meet Sean Avery, a talented artist, thought twice about discarding his CDs and have found a way of turning them into amazing and crafted animal sculptures.
Sean Avery has created a series of sculptures—from bears to peregrine falcons and even the Loch Ness monster thanks to a clever use of the reflective splinters of his CDs. There is no much more to say to appreciate the time, effort and above all talent in his artwork.
Nick Gentry is another artist who recycles once very useful objects. His thing are floppy disks used to make up portraits.
The humming bird and the rat are just superb. Have a look below.
Introducing Elissa Franceschi, a prolific songwriter with a distinctive powerhouse vocal who has built a reputation based on organic, grass roots promotion and haunting live performances. Having previously performed in some of the UK’s most famous venues (Brixton Academy, The Roundhouse, Astoria and Wembley Arena – supporting Paramore and You Me At Six), Elissa spent the majority of 2012 performing all over the UK with her live band, and being teamed up with the country’s top songwriting production houses (of Jessie J & Ellie Goulding fame) to co-write for other artists.
The release of ‘Devoid of Rue’ on 24th June 2013, the follow-up EP to Elissa’s three independent album releases ‘Touch’, ‘I Hold My Breath’, and ‘Into The Light’. Recorded and mixed by Matt O’Grady (You Me At Six, Don Broco, Deaf Havana), ‘Devoid Of Rue’ was funded without label support but instead through a successful fan-funded Pledge Music campaign, where Elissa gave fans exclusive access to bonus tracks and videos, opportunities for one-of-a-kind experiences, along with live updates which gave fans a unique interactive look at the process of making the EP. The embedded stream can be found here;
The record is an evolution of songwriting for Elissa, giving new listeners a taste of previous albums in the beautiful piano-and-vocal-only track ‘Oceans’, and existing fans something new in the form of the rockier ‘Outside My Body’. With additions of atmospheric ‘Chasing Something’, epic ‘Dust’, and the anthemic brand new single ‘All These Days’ – this EP really showcases the exciting and emerging talent Elissa Franceschi has become.
Elissa saw even greater success in 2012 as the first artist hand-picked to perform at the London 2012 Olympics as part of the Emerging Icons search for the UK’s best unsigned talent, and saw her track ‘Rainbow On Fire’climb Number 14 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart through word of mouth alone. Now, 2013 has seen Elissa scale new heights with recent single ‘Salt’ being voted as ‘Track Of The Week’ on the Radio 1 Review Show with Edith Bowman, beating global superstar artists Beyoncé, will.i.am, Justin Bieber and 30 Seconds To Mars; while also hitting Number 1 on the National Student Radio Charts.
What – Elissa Franceschi EP Launch
Where – Nothing Hill Arts club
When – 25/06/13 from 7pm
More from the artist
elissafranceschi.com
facebook.com/elissafranceschimusic
twitter.com/elissa_f
youtube.com/elissafranceschi
