Arch 402 is pleased to present the latest solo exhibition by acclaimed British artist Rory McCartney. Psycho Boogie introduces a new series of drawings and paintings that continue the artist’s investigations of abstract imagery.
Referencing the visual effects of Op Art, 18th century marbling techniques and 60’s pop-psychedelia, McCartney incorporates the erratic behaviour of materials to create powerful images that are spontaneously and organically formed.
Against McCartney’s flat graphic backgrounds, media such as oil, resin, pigment, and lacquer react to emit an explosion of colour and pattern that is both arresting and surprising.
McCartney’s work has been shown internationally in commercial galleries as well as public spaces including the Royal Academy and the Victoria & Albert Museum.He is the art director of Arena Homme plus magazine, and lives and works in London.
Words from Arch 402
When
25 March – 28 April 2011
OPENING PARTY Thursday 24 March 6:00-9:00 pm
We were instantly moved when we looked at Victor Lundy’s sketchbook.
The quality of the drawings is impressive and the story behind them heart breaking : Victor Lundy’s documented his time in the army and fighting in the second world war.
We appreciate the soft yet very efficient touch in Lundy’s drawings. We feel that his drawings were done in one sitting, no erasing but a driving hand screen printing, if you like, what his eyes recorded.
_____
A ‘natural-born’ skilled individual
We learned that Victor Lundy was born in New York City in 1923 and very young, he showed some artistic skills which will lead him to attend New York University to study architecture, specialising in the Beaux Arts style.
A will to help post-war
Lundy did not have to be involved with war but the thought of doing his bit in rebuilding Europe once World War II was over was very strong, so much so that he voluntarily joined the Army and very quickly ended up at the very forefront of the action.
This is at that time where he would capture any faces, scenes or moments in his sketchbook.
We included a few drawings of the very evocative Victor Lundy’s sketchbook (all images below are courtesy of LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
Intentional Abstractions is Brett Amory first UK solo show and first show of the year at The Outsiders
The works on display are part of the ‘Waiting’ series Brett Amory started back in 2001 in which he depicts morning commuters transiting via BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations around San Francisco.
Here is what he says about it –
“I started the ‘Waiting’ series in 2000. I was working in Emeryville and living in San Fran, so I was commuting via bart. I became really interested in how people looked in the morning especially on Monday after the weekend. I noticed how everyone seemed to be somewhere else, not at all in the present. I also started noticing a disconnect. The bart would be packed shoulder to shoulder but there would be no communication and minimal eye contact.”
In his latest series and in this one on particular, the composition is minimal, the environment seems to fade away. The artist is trying here to give some emphasize on the guy waiting, to hopefully make him come across as something more than a waiting guy
The minimum composition in Amory’s works certainly makes you focus on the character, on the commuter. Look at it 3 feet away from the wall and it is difficult to fully realise what is going on, get closer and find out loads of details you just missed earlier, see the commuter differently. Amory’s works appear like some sort of mirages or hazed slices of personal stories, stories of these people in the morning waiting for their mean of transport, our story for most of us.
“Reified people proudly display the proofs of their intimacy with the commodity. Like the old religious fetishism, with its convulsionary raptures and miraculous cures, the fetishism of commodities generates its own moments of fervent exaltation. All this is useful for only one purpose: producing habitual submission.”
Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, p.33
White 12 (L’Atalante), (c)2011 Cathy Lomax
My first question was what exactly is a ‘reified person’? “In Marxism reification is the thingification of social relations or of those involved in them, to the extent that the nature of social relationships is expressed by the relationships between traded objects,” I found that definition in Wikipedia, it made an impression on me once before and I wondered if it would shed light on what Debord might mean as a ‘reified person’.
Some possibilities perhaps:
1. a person who worships someone in the public eye turning them into an idol and collects all manner of idol memorabilia
2. a person who takes on the attributes of a worshipped idol in the projection of a personal identity
3. a person who expresses personal identity through the outward display of status brands
4. a teenager
5. each and every one of us in the Western World (I cannot speculate here on other cultures)
As I wrote the first three, I realised the fourth and fifth. Some of these possibilities present themselves through the work of Cathy Lomax and other artists in This ‘Me’ of Mine such as Annabel Dover and Kate Murdoch, though, in their work, not as idol worship but the simple expression of social relationships through objects or the exchange of objects. This idea of ‘reified people’ is implicit throughout my interview with Cathy Lomax, The Perfect Wrapper.
Muslin, (c)2008 cathy Lomax
Jane Boyer: Your work often deals with pop idols (Sixteen Most Beautiful Men, Dead Filmstars) and iconic film imagery (Film Diary, The Count of Monte Cristo). Curiously though, it’s not pop culture which is your subject, but the fascination, escapism, hero-worship and fan-love we’ve all experienced. What fascinates you about our psychological propensity to fascination and ‘longing for something unobtainable’?
Cathy Lomax: I think that pop culture in general is just a wrapper for supplying the things that the market demands – i.e. what we want. These things do not change much; they are excitement, desire, escapism etc. So with this in mind I let myself lead the direction of my work by following what it is that I am drawn to. I do not like to think that I am in any kind of elevated position in my commentary on my subjects; I am in and amongst the subject matter. Looking deeper into what it is I am interested and fascinated by, it is apparent it is something that I do not actually want but rather that it is something I can think about and live out in my head – probably because this is the safest way to do it. This is what led me to the Film Diary as film for most people is the most intense way to experience other lives and worlds.
If you like street art or graffiti, you know that you should find some good stuff at Lazarides as these guys have been around for a while and primarily sell this type of art. Artists such as Antony Micallef or Jamie Hewlett to name just a few have seen their first artwork being sold by Lazarides.
The exhibition, a retrospective of Faile’s work over the last 10 years consists of two parts, the first bit is held on Greek street and is the fun and interactive one, the second one is a more classical exhibition held on Rathbone place is all about showing you a number of Faile’s pieces from when he started up to today. ART-PIE went to the latter one (but will go this week end to the one on Greek street soon!) Continue reading Faile at Lazarides – part 1→
JR has been busy for the last recent months and even more since he won the TED prize earlier this year.
PARIS –
JR is always keen on putting interaction and social aspect right into his work. I present you “Photo Booth”, the new social art project currently help at the George Pompidou Centre. The concept is simple, enter the photo booth and get yourself on a full scale printing from JR. The end date for this project is the 5th September 2011.
JR has also been busy and stuck on various streets of NYC. Take a look at the pictures below to fill the iconic Bowery and Houston Mural space, as we’ve seen(here).
New-York based street artist and real painter, Dan Witz masters the technique called “trompe-l’oeil” with his technique – he uses metal grate graphic that he backs with a 1/8″ thick plastic that give the lifting effect and then the 3D effect is achieved.
Head to the blitz website to check out the latest series entitled “What the %$#@?” (WTF) series and pocket you one up for just 30 dollars.
Hibernate is an amazing selection of works from some of Hang-Up‘s favourite urban and contemporary artists.
With brand new limited edition prints and original artworks from the likes of Mark Powell, Pure Evil, Delphine Lebourgeois and Joe Webb as well as sought after collectors pieces from Takashi Murakami, Banksy and Invader.
We included below some of the pieces from the show
WHAT – Hibernate WHERE – 81 Stoke Newington Road, Stoke Newington, London N16 8AD WHEN – until 31/12/2015
Banksy – Christ With Shopping Bags – Signed Limited Edition Screenprint of 82Delphine Lebourgeois – Superhero I – Limited Edition Screenprint of 35
