If the thought of having to go out there at night, hood on and a few cans in the pockets seems to you just not doable, the new Stencil Republic book, by London-based creative studio Ollystudio’s Oliver Walker and published by Laurence King, may be your alternative.
Pick one of the 20 stencils printed onto perforated card which have been created by international street artists such as Artiste Ouvrier, BS.AS.STNCL, Chris Stain, Dan Innes, Orticanoodles, Ozi, Run Don’t Walk and Stencil King, who has penned the book’s introduction.
Hours of fun and feeling of being a street artist, uh within the safe walls of your living room or bedroom, whatver this is a great toy.
One of the street art pieces you will be able to drop is Orticanoodles skull pictured below so what are you waiting for?
Here is what street artist AIKO has to day about the whole thing, ‘This is something you cannot learn at school. It doesn’t matter whether it is commissioned or unauthorised, painting in the dirty alley, on postal stickers, canvases, store signs, outdoor murals, you have to feel it, jump in, don’t stop and…have fun.’
Stencil Republic by Ollystudio is published by Laurence King Press on 1 October, priced £19.95
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
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.
When Quiet British Accent started working as a duo, someone told them that sport had no place in art. Since then, they seem to be hell-bent on disproving this through their textile and graphic slogan art.
The couple’s recent exhibition at Core at Nolias Gallery in London had two themes. They took the ‘sport in art’ argument as a call-to-arms and used risograph prints and vintage football shirts as canvases for their DIY sporting aesthetic. This theme expanded to include the powers (both real and imagined) of heroes to their fans. Not necessarily football heroes either, as Quiet British Accent place football within wider popular culture.
The following pieces are appliquéd textiles on vintage football shirts and risograph prints.
Andy Warhol Says Hello
Andy is smiling down at his still-pervasive influence over us all. Any connections to Warhol’s ‘Chelsea Girls’ film, or echoes of Campbell’s Soup cans in the shirt itself, are purely intentional.
What Would Johnny Rotten Do?
The ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ mantra applied to an Arsenal-supporting popular culture hero, crediting him with a deserved influence.
Sport& Art Don’t Mix
A poke at the proclamation Quiet British Accent are often faced with since deciding to limit themselves to working within the world of sporting culture.
I Don’t Know About Art, But I Noel What I Like
Yes, that Noel. QBA treat art the same as they treat football and music. Not belittling music at all, but putting it on an equal footing with art.
Hello Boys
The duo’s first large scale piece of work is stenciled onto giclée prints and hijacks a famous advertising slogan to give it social clout, mocking the echoes of sexism and homophobia in the sport.
ARCH 402 gallery has now been running for just over a year but has already become a major London venue to show and promote street art and this upcoming show – Street Art @ Arch402 should be another cracking show.
Often here, works from East London’s street art scene will be put on show so expect wonders from Ronzo or Sweet Toof. New works, prints and crafted objects will make up this show and tunes will be played by a DJ.
All unframed work will be available to take away on the night and throughout the show.
Featured Artists: Cept | SweetToof | Grafter | Stik | Ronzo | McBess | Melody Rose | Nathan Bowen | Pure Evil | Run
When – 2 December 2011 – 13 January 2012 (Opening party – 1 December 2011 18:00-21:00) Where – Arch402 gallery | Cremer street | London
VETA GORNER at the BEN OAKLEY GALLERY, Greenwich
Preview Evening 9th November 2012, 6.30pm – 9.30pm
A fresh and exciting solo exhibition of new works by Veta Gorner. Veta is a multi-instrumentalist high quality Printmaker. Using her own Press she creates unique etchings, lithographs drypoint, screenprints, colographs and processes that have not even been named yet.
Technically excellent her works are strong in colour and delicate in content, they carry a dense raw energy that are aesthetically balanced, some built up from layers of the finest hand made papers with waxes and thread woven through, it is in the detail that you can read the time consuming journey that goes into each individual piece.
Ben Oakley comments: “This new body of work sees Veta experimenting on an open brief with no real narrative, some natural abstract fluid forms effortlessly merging with bolder but subtle architectural influences.
Veta shares time between her London & Swedish Studios always observing the cultural differences in each country and around the world, she is engaged and fascinated in the parallels of life as they overwhelm and delight us simultaneously.”
VISITOR INFORMATION
BEN OAKLEY GALLERY
9 Turnpin Lane, Greenwich, London SE10 9JA
DLR: Cutty Sark Greenwich ( 2 minutes walk )
Overground Train: Greenwich Station ( 5 minutes walk )
Opening Times: Thursday –Sunday 11-6pm
Monday –Wednesday by appointment.
All media enquiries /invitations: contact Ben Oakley:
This latest work from Sainer and the Etam crew has been going around lately on the web and rightly so. This is a huge mural that Sainer put together and the quality of the drawing is remarkable. What do you think?
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
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 byJayson 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.
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.
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.
Emma Stibbon’s work in this exhibition looks at history and collapsed empires. The shadow of classical antiquity cast on Western civilization ominously stretches into present times – the city is a symbol of both memory and amnesia.
Her focus looks at simultaneous periods of time, mainly sites of ancient Rome, and how Imperialist and republican architecture was later appropriated to lend credibility to new regimes. She is interested in the dialogue between two pasts; that of Ancient Rome and Mussolini’s Fascist plans for the city and in places that can be read as a palimpsest, a layering of historical traces.Rome as a site of overlaying ideologies – the ultimate collapsed empire leading one to reflect on human endeavour,
vanity, frailty, time and impermanency.
Where
31 Waterson Street | London E2 8HT | www.roomartspace.co.uk When
10 November – 17 December (Wednesday – Saturday 12- 6pm)
