Gordon Cheung at Room: multi media artist

I always find fascinating when an artist can juggle between medias or techniques, when artists can be as varied as Gordon Cheung is. It is definitely a sign of open mindedness and in this case also talent.

Pyrographics, spray paint, oil, acrylics, sculpture, animation… Gordon Cheung seems to explore everything in is art. THE JOURNEY (ink, acrylic gel and spray paint on canvas), BEAR and BULL (both being acrylic gel and spray on canvases) are definitely my favorite pieces. Acrylic gel is superb to get incredible texture and relief. Continue reading Gordon Cheung at Room: multi media artist

London Art Fair – artists we enjoyed, Doyle & Mallinson

We strolled through the London Art Fair for the fourth consecutive year and as always stumbled upon remarkable artworks from ever so talented artists.

In this series, we will tell you why we liked a particular piece from these artists as well as posting more works. We hope you will also enjoy it as we did.

Feel free to comment too at the end of this article. Let’s get started….

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Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson

We stumbled upon the piece called “Sumo Ergo Sum(I shop therefore I am)” – cast bronze, edition of 9, H 42.5 x W 45 x D 56cm.

Doyle & Mallinson | Art-Pie
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The skeleton sculpture, like any other ones to be honest, tickled our eyes right away.

Looking at the skull face expression, it was clear to us that it conveys a strong social message which was confirmed after reading up about the artists – keep on reading below.

About the artists

Our work deals with political and social thought. The forms we use to articulate our ideas often come from popular culture or are second hand, borrowed from another source. The way we put things together is witty, cheeky and aggressive; it mirrors the way we talk to each other. Context within our work is deliberately inconsistent. That inconsistency is our attempt to accommodate the messiness of the real world and allows different audiences different readings.

The lived-in, shabby aesthetic employed reflects the environments that excite us – the underfunded regional museum, the car boot sale, the dump; places where value systems are fluid, more confused or don’t exist at all. In these situations, forms and ideas have the potential to acquire alternate meanings and take on a new life. Through re-imagining objects and their identities we explore the processes of cultural transformation that take place after an object or idea has served its initial purpose. This re-cycling is a means of distilling useful agents; elements approaching redundancy are stripped down, re-formed and re-packaged. The results challenge the cleaner more commercial concerns of some other art forms and celebrate the possibilities of extreme behaviour and belief.

Other works from this artist

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Doyle & Mallinson |Art-Pie

ecce-homo-tesco-2_666

Doyle & Mallinson |Art-Pie

Mikael Alacoque – Mitty and Badbabysitter

This is badbabysitter!
This is mitty!

Artists Statement:

Initially trained as a traditional figurative sculptor and Mouldmaker. I now seek to find new meaning and relevance in old outmoded techniques.

I’m fascinated by the idea of the public monument and much of my work revolves around the need to investigate the way in which society records events and people by casting them in metal and stone.

I seek to rip the idea of the public monument asunder and then re-build it in a new order with a revised iconography. My work seeks to expose and examine the insecurities and frailties of society, and our place within it.

Recent works ‘Gnome Kone’ and ‘Bad Babysitter’ are part of a series of sculptures that are concerned with a playfully sinister bastardization of familiar objects. The pieces have an initial feeling of innocence and irreverence but on closer inspection seem more bizarre and
unsettling.

More of Mikael’s stuff here

Pictures and statement taken from the A GALLERY website

The latest JR installation is strong and powerful

JR | Art-PieThe latest JR installation is strong and powerful. Meet Kikito, a Mexican baby boy.

The place: the US-Mexico border fence. Which way is the baby looking over? You would have guessed it – Kikito is looking over the border from the Mexican side.

The daily struggle for Mexicans to cross the US border

This new installation,a huge scaffolding installation, tells us about the struggle of millions of Mexicans to cross the border and enter the US.

Kikito is depicted as happily playing while looking over the US side of the infamous border wall but neither him nor his family can see that, neither him nor his parents can cross the border – and this is the point of this artwork.

JR | Art-Pie
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Each time I’ve seen walls that have caught my attention, or that I’ve heard about a lot in the media, they would stick in my mind. I would even dream about it. When Trump started to talk a lot about a wall along the Mexican border, one day I woke up and I saw a kid looking over the wall.

I was wondering, What is this kid thinking? What would any kid think? We know that a one-year-old doesn’t have a political vision, or any political point of view. He doesn’t see walls as we see them.

JR

Up until the 2nd October

If you are lucky to be in Southern California between now and the 2nd October, here is the exact location. We would strongly recommend to swing by to see that.

JR | Art-Pie
A view of the scaffolding used for this installation

About JR

JR is a French artist who has been working on his “Inside Out” project for quite a few years. He travels the world in his photo-booth truck and snap portraits of people he meets along the way. Then, he pastes them onto buildings or walls – or on scaffoldings in this instance.

Fran Williams – contemporary artist who marks

We have had the chance to ask a few questions to Fran Williams

ART-PIE:Tell us about yourself in a few words?
FRAN WILLIAMS: I explore the process and of paint and its emotional impact through mark making. Using the human form as a vehicle to create emotion with paint.

A-P: What is your process/approach when making art?
FW: My process is one of discovery through continual manipulation of paint and surface…throughout the smudging and hacking away of paint I get an idea of the ‘personality’ of a potential painting before choosing a pose which I feel will bring a readable emotion to it.Its all about the overall energy a of a painting…detail and meaning are secondary whilst Im creating it… the titles and meaning I attach afterwards come from things I have been thinking about outside of the studio.

A-P: Where/what do you look for inspiration?
FW: Everything everywhere is inspiring in one way or another…the changabilty of the sky is something Im inspired by all day…its a continual reminder of the impermanence of any experience which is something I find very useful should I ever have doubts on whether I could /should do something…it reminds me to just do it, and enjoy the journey.

In terms of artistic fuel Im always looking at the art of the Symbolist Painters such as Odilon Redon and Jean Delville…aswell as contemporary and mixed media artists such as Celia Paul and Dave Mckean.

A-P: Any upcoming shows?
FW:
Solo show ‘Helpless Angels’ opens at Bo-Lee Gallery May 14 – June 11
Affordable Art Fair – View Gallery May 13 – 15
Signal Gallery Group show in June
Blackhall studios London- Bo-Lee gallery group show June 13 -18

Make sure to check Fran William’s website

We thank you Fran Williams for taking time to take part in this interview. Find below a few pics of her best work. All three pieces are using oil/acrylics on canvas.

Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes

Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes | Art-Pie
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We recently received “Printmaking – a Complete Guide to Materials & Processes ” from our favourite publisher Laurence King and were astonished by the amount of information in this new edition. If you are after any level of guidance on how to print anything, get that book today!

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Printmaking is a practical and comprehensive guide to printmaking techniques. This fully updated edition includes expanded chapters on digital and mixed media processes, and a brand new ‘Print & Make’ chapter, which explores the opportunities for creative expression within the many processes available to print makers.

The more traditional techniques of relief, intaglio, collograph, lithography, screen printing and monoprint have also been refreshed with the addition of new images showing a broader range of subject matter, including more contemporary prints and international artists. A new section on the traditions and techniques of Japanese woodblock printing completes the update.

Each technique is explored from the development of the printing or digital matrix, through the different stages of creation to image output. Clear step-by-step illustrations, interviews with contemporary printmakers and a wide range of images showing the best of cutting-edge printmaking today offer an inspirational resource.

Guidance on how to set up a print studio, sections on troubleshooting techniques and the inclusion of up-to-date lists of suppliers, workshops and galleries make this an essential volume for beginner and experienced printmakers alike.

Kelsey Brookes at The Outsiders

Kelsey Brookes has reinvented psychedelic art for the 21st Century for his UK debut exhibition.

His latest body of work consists of large scale canvases, with paintings of animals, bold geometric shapes and kaleidoscopic abstraction, which is unusually inspired by migranes.

The powerful affliction is often associated with not only visual hallucinations but all other ‘synaesthetic’ experiences (the interpretation of one sense as another, for instance ‘hearing’ colour). The geometric lines and colours come directly from the hallucinogenic experiences just before the headache.

The work is impulsive, extravagant and spontaneous, an echo of the spirit.

Words from The Outsiders website

Artist: Kelsey Brookes
Location: The Outsiders – London
Dates: Friday 4th of November 2011 to Saturday 26th of November 2011

Kelsey Brooks

RETNA at The Old Dairy

The Hallelujah World Tour is RETNA’s first solo exhibition in the UK. This show will present new works by Los Angeles based artist RETNA and will be hosted at the Old Dairy, London.

RETNA mixed inspirations from Asian calligraphy, Incan and Egyptian hieroglyphics, Hebrew and Arabic script to traditional UK gang style graffiti writings seen since the 1970’s in Los Angeles .

Where – The Old Dairy | 7 Wakefield St | London |WC1N 1PB

When – 9/6 till 27/6/2011 | Tuesday to Saturday | 11am to 6pm

Meet the little workers in Clerkenwell

Looking down as usual when I am on my way to the office, I must have heard them calling on me that day. I looked up that morning. One was proudly sat down on a wooden pillar while another little man and a woman had found refuge in small cavities of what looks like a  very depraved wall. But they were all very glad, I spotted them as so many by-passers never do, they told me.

DomusAt first I loved them but was also eager to know what the hell these little characters were all about. After a what seemed to me a long chat, I did not know more than before I talked to them. What I knew for sure is that they were over the moon that someone took them out of their boredom by spotting them.

Slightly puzzled by this encounter, I was trying very hard to remember whether I had seen these guys elsewhere when right there in front me, was another little worker but this time amongst the display of some kitchen and bathroom furniture shop on Clerkenwell road. I was stunned and started to believe they were either following me or spreading all around.

I decided to step in the shop and find out once for all…

These little workers are actually part of an advertising campaign to increase awareness about the imminent opening of a new DOMUS shop on Great Sutton street. DOMUS is speacialising in tiles. Representatives have been around shops in Clerkenwell and gave away these little figurines to scatter around willing shopkeepers’ shop windows as well as right on the street nearby the new store.

Whatever this is, street art used in advertising, this is a genius idea and if the guys at DOMUS had in mind to get people to find out and talk about these guys, well they got it right. Look above, I mentioned three times their brand in this blog post and are about to insert a link about their new shop which is about to open. Clap, clap, clap.

Read more about the new DOMUS shop (might be of interest to you, huh?). Find out what they look like with photographs below.

Domus

Domus

STREET ART