ROA at Form gallery

ROA - Paradox at Form galleryROA is an artist that we are very familiar with being that he was one of the first artists we followed while in the UK. We lived around his street works and would see some of his iconic pieces on a day to day basis. We even attended his first ever solo show at Pure Evil Gallery in London. So we were extremely excited to hear that he would be extending his tour to Australia.

The focus of ROA’s work of course is monochromatic animals of epic proportions that are typically inspired by the wildlife in the regions that he visits. Australia is home to an enormous amount of native animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, so you could imagine that there was plenty to inspire a unique body of work.

The show was hosted by Form Gallery, a large space in Perth CBD. The installations were designed to lead you through a specific path so that you could view and interact with all of the larger pieces. At the entrance to the gallery was a ten foot high Kangaroo with two rotating doors mounted in the piece that lead you into the main room where there was a series of smaller yet still impressively interactive works on offer.

Something that was unexpected was the second large installation at the rear of the gallery, a desert bone yard of sorts, featuring walls of and a floor of red dirt synonymous with Western Australia.

ROA must have been under an incredible amount of pressure putting together this show in only 3 weeks and creating all the original pieces of art on location in Perth. The collection of recycled materials used for the pieces was just another beautiful part of the show which we later found out were mostly harvested from old warehouses in the Midlands. Yes, this Belgian artist really connected with this space and Australian culture.

This show runs all the way through to January next year, so if you find yourself on the other side of Australia, go check it out.

Check out the full photoset on flickr

ROA - Paradox at Form gallery

ROA - Paradox at Form galleryROA - Paradox at Form gallery

Ye Hongxing "The Modern Utopia" at Scream

Ye Hongxing | Art-PieBeijing based artist Ye Hongxing is having her the first UK exhibition at Scream on Eastcastle street, London and the interest seems to be great and not only for this artist but for the entire Chinese contemporary art since the country has turned to capitalism.

Hongxing new works will be an answer to this profound social system change that has gone with that change. What jumps straight at you you when looking at her works is the explosion of colours and the somewhat chaos of the composition. One will see in this body of works a mirror of what China’s expansion has been – fast paced, anarchic and incoherent. The artist looks at questioning what it has cost China and its people and put forward the utopian vision that governing people may sometimes have.

On a more pratical aspect, the artist’s technique is remarkable and definitely creative. Hongxing woud use canvases and elaborate complex collages made of stickers and what we could called popular imagery collected for different medias since she was a kid. This clever assemblage often results to an eruption of colours and intricated compositions.

For those interested to know where the title of the exhibiiton comes from, it actually references the 1905 novel ‘A Modern Utopia’ by H.G Wells and is suggestive of the artist’s investigation into society and modern life.

Ye Hongxing | Art-Pie

Ye Hongxing | Art-Pie

Read more about Ye Hongxing on the Scream gallery website

What – “Modern Utopia” by Ye Hongxing
Where – Scream | 27-28 Eastcastle street, London W1W 8DH
When – opens to the public on the 13th September 2012

Rhizomatic at Departure gallery

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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

Slinkachu X Andipa Gallery "Concrete Ocean".

Slinkachu takes figures from miniature train sets and painstakingly modifies them so that they can be used as part of his almost invisible world.

He creates comical, satirical and sometimes slightly dark scenes with these figures, places them all over the world, shoots them with spectacular quality and then leaves them to become part of the scenery.

The first of this series was “the little people project” the photos were formed into a lovely little hard cover book produced in 2008. I purchased a copy of it and was suitably impressed with the content and quality of print.

This left us very excited for the new show “Concrete ocean”, hosted by the Andipa Gallery in South Kensington. It had been two years since Slinkachu hosted a show in London and when it comes to most artists after such a period of time you would expect to see significant progression in their body of work. This however was not the case with the Slinkachu show, but it really didn’t matter. The gallery was laid out with huge high quality prints showing the detail of the characters and the photographs almost bring them to life. The large prints were accompanied by very small location shots to show you just how much they disappear into their surroundings.

Andipa Gallery is a large space located in a very upper class area, totally different to the Hackney / Shoreditch spaces we are used to attending, yet it seem more than suitable for this body of work, it was extremely well organised and the 3d installations were well spaced so you could appreciate the minute detail.

It would come as a surprise to us if this show did not make you smile, laugh and sometimes feel just that little bit sad.

Check out our huge collection of shots from the evening here:

Slinkachu

Neon Lit Acrylic Collection from www.pimpartworks.com

PimpArtworks cutting edge Acrylic artworks come complete with backlit neon Lighting.

The customised LED lighting has 8 changeable neon lighting effects via a RGB controller, including a rainbow effect which gradually cycles through all the electrifying colours.

Set it to your preference or let it cycle. Whatever option it will back light your artwork & wall in style.

These are limited. Once they are gone, they are gone…

Related link
See the whole Neon Lit Acrylic Collection – www.pimpartworks.com/artists_neon

‘History’ – portraits from Adam Neate at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms

As I am reading the press release of History – Adam Neate. Portraits from 2006 -2013, I remember that last time I got that excited by a show about portraits was when I went to see Joram Roukes at Signal gallery.

Adam Neate (as much as Joram Roukes) is the sort of artists that will challenge whatever perception of portraiture in art you might have by giving you something radically different to look at. Do not look for resemblance  in Adam’s work, his portraits are more expressions of characters in their social environments but what makes his work unique is the mediums he uses – Perspex, metal, fabrics, lenticulars and film.

Neate’s subject matter is in the strong British tradition of social realism, yet the materials he uses to make his brush strokes challenge tradition. In his iconic portraits, as well as in his portrayals of domestic life, the self-taught artist continues to push boundaries and challenge himself. Neate wrestles with new ideas in painting while working through the powerful emotions that are ever present in his overtly personal work.” Elms Lesters Painting Rooms.

Adam Neate at Elms Lester Painting Rooms

What – ‘HISTORY’ ADAM NEATE . PORTRAITS FROM 2006 – 2013
Where – Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London
When – 16Nov 2013 – 14Dec 2013 | Tuesday – Friday 12 noon – 7pm Saturdays 11am – 5pm

Artcrank – your bike is art

Artcrank | Art-PieThere is still time to go and see Artcrank “A poster party for bike people” in Hoxton where cycling is broken down into art under the form of posters. Yes you heard me you hipsters, this is the place YOU HAVE to be so hurry and enjoy illustrations from international artists such as Dark Star Brewing, Pista Collective, Lezyne and Otesha Project UK to feature bike-inspired poster art by UK artists.

Admission is free, and limited edition, signed and numbered copies of all posters will be available for £30 each. We have included some pf our favorite posters below

What – Artcrank “A poster party for bike people”
Where – Plain Wall Projects in Hoxton | 2A Corsham St Shoreditch, London Borough of Hackney, London N1 6DP, UK
When – 7 till 14th September 2012

Artcrank | Art-PieArtcrank | Art-Pie

STREET ART