REVIEWS

Under her skin at Atomica gallery

Under her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-PieI looked out of the window and the only thought that came through my mind was “bloody weather”. It was pretty nasty out there, aggressive showers and blistering winds. I was that close to get the sleepers back on but I reminded myself that ‘Under her skin ‘ is the first ever show by this newly born gallery – Atomica gallery, and this was enough to galvanise the small amount of motivation I had and turned into some sort of excitement.

A quick (and unexpected) bus journey took me down to Armhurst Terrace where Atomica gallery is located. The gallery actually sits nicely in the middle of Hackney Downs Studios, which have been in service since 2011 and which consists of events spaces and over 70 serviced studios and workspaces for creative businesses.

Atomica Gallery | Art-PieAs I stepped in, I could not help noticing the relatively small size of the gallery but also the large patio that the gallery benefits from and which was, according to Corey, the graphic designer for the gallery and the person I met that day, pretty convenient to accommodate the large amount that turned up at the opening night.

For their first show, the gallery has paired with Things&Ink magazine, a publication which reflects on tattoo culture from a feminine perspective. ‘Under Her Skin’ has been curated by Things&Ink editor Alice Snape and marks the first anniversary of the magazine and the launch of ‘The Art Issue’. The show features work from 12 female tattoo artists who have appeared in the magazine’s pages over the past year.

I will definitely go back there.

Here is our picks

“The Bare Bones” by Charissa Gregson (Jolie Rouge, London UK)
Under her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-Pie

Cobra Girl by Vicky Morgan (Ghost House, Derby UK) (left) | “Elisabeth” by Lucy Pryor (Into You, London UK)
Under her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-PieUnder her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-Pie

“Medusa” by by Lucy Pryor (Into You, London UK) (left) | “Ruby” by Amy Victoria Savage (Jayne Doe, Hornchurch UK)
Under her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-PieUnder her skin at Atomica gallery | Art-Pie

Where – Atomica gallery – Hackney Downs Studios Amhurst Terrace E8 2BT London UK
What – ‘Under Her Skin’
When – September 12th – 30th 2013

BLOG

The Championships, Wimbledon – related art

The Championships Wimbledon | Art-PieProbably one of the most popular sport events in the UK, The Championships, Wimbledon 0f 2016 are happening right now and have been since 1877! It is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and is widely considered the most prestigious.

It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the others being the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open. Since the Australian Open shifted to hardcourt in 1988, Wimbledon is the only major still played on grass.

We included artists and pieces below which all have a ‘tennis’ element in it.

NB: the top image is a piece from the Pothole Gardener

Pavement art

We’ll kick off with “pavement art” and this extraordinary piece below showing, using 3D effect, a court of tennis where The Championships are normally play on.

The artists are Joe Hill and Max Lowry and you will have noticed that the chair one of the artists is sat on is an actual chair and belnds into the 3D piece.

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie

Joshua Callaghan

Joshua Callaghan, Wimbledon, The Championships | Art-Pie
By Joshua Callaghan. Click to enlarge

Joshua Callaghan, an artist who lives and works in Los Angeles has recently been using the urban furniture around him and expecially tennis one.

The artist disguises utility boxes by pasting pictures onto them of the scenery behind, thereby creating the illusion of an uninterrupted view.

We have included an example on the left (Click to enlarge).

Slinkachu

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie
By Slinkachu. Click to enlarge

Here’s an amazing new artwork by Slinkachu. These are the first images from his forthcoming exhibition entitled “Concrete Ocean”.

This piece called “Last Resort” was created in Wandsworth, South London, by the British artist who has become famous for his installations all over the city using minature trainset figures and graffiti on snails.

We included below a detail and a zoomed out photo of the artwork. Click to enlarge.

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie

Danielle Clough

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie

The artist, Cape Town-based uses thick and often bright thread in her creations. Finished pieces include images of flowers or portraits of people.

We particularly wanted to draw your attention to the pieces depicitng flowers hung on the strings of vintage tennis rackets. We included more of it below. (click to enlarge)

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie

Otto Schade

The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie
Click to enlarge

Otto Schade also produced a “Street Art Olympics” themed series of work a couple of years ago which was on display at Frameless gallery and which includes a piece depicting a player tennis.

We went to the show and even wrote a review about it so we hope that you will have the time to read it.

Some of the works in the show were first visible around the streets of London (see left – click to enlarge)

We also have a few pieces of the artist in our shop so we’ll invite you to have a look

Around the web

We also includes other pieces related to The Championships, Wimbledon or more generally to tennis.

We hope you will enjoy them!

The Championships, Wimbledon |Art-Pie The Championship, Wimbledon | Art-Pie The Championships, Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon | Art-Pie

BLOG, STREET ART

Meet Tristan Eaton, an artist from Los Angeles

Tristan Eaton | Art-PieTristan Eaton is an American artist from Los Angeles. He is a graffiti artist, illustrator, toy designer and also a street art muralist.

Eaton was born in 1978, in Los Angeles, California.

Going from places to places

When he was 8 years old, his family moved to London, England. At age 16, they moved back to the United States but this time to Detroit, Michigan. While Eaton loved the city of Detroit, he always wanted to live in a big city and thus, moved to New York when he was 20 years old.

During his teenage years, Eaton painted everything, from dumpsters to billboards, wherever he lived. He had a troubled childhood and was arrested many times for shoplifting and making graffiti.

He used art as an escape from reality and also to escape from legal authorities by providing artistic evidence to judges, principles and police officers.

Tristan Eaton | Art-Pie

“I am not a graffiti artist”

Eaton became interested in graffiti when he was in London and upon moving to Detroit he started doing a lot of graffiti, mainly due to lack of police regulation. He doesn’t consider himself a graffiti artist but more of a muralist.

His graffiti work does not consist of letters but mostly characters. For his graffiti work, he never focused on using just spray paint but painted with whatever he could get his hands on. According to him, good graffiti is painting something big and beautiful but illegally. Everything else is mural work for him.

Tristan Eaton | Art-Pie

A keen interest in comic books

His interest in comic books also peaked during his time in London. He was inspired by the 2000AD Magazine by British illustrators. He would draw characters from comic books, such as Jack Kirby, early X-Men, Silver Surfer and even the anime film, Akira. At 18, he made his first toy for Fisher Price, which was the beginning of many to come. His creativity led him to becoming a leader in advertising.

He was a regular consultant for many clients, such as Hasbro, Pepsi and Nike.

Tristan Eaton | Art-PieEaton was approached by Kidrobot designer, Paul Budnitz, who offered him to work as an art director on an animated film called Kidrobot. Kidrobot became so popular they stopped working on it and started producing designer toys, mainly action figures.

The action figures were made on a limited edition basis and were inspired by the work of famous graffiti artists and hip-hop culture. Eaton believed these toys allowed people to purchase something which tied fine art with consumerism, because fine art is extremely expensive while consumerism is affordable and available to the masses.

This idea gave birth to these limited edition designer toys that led Eaton to become internationally famous with a huge fan base.

Eaton wanted to showcase his art to the lower-class of the urban cities he visited. He believed everybody had the right to have access to fine art and they did not just had to see gray buildings and big billboards. With this intention, he created remarkable murals all over the country.

Inspirations and where to see Tristan’s works

Eaton claims his artwork is inspired from Os Gemeos, Mode 2, Takishi Murikami and many others. His creations can be viewed at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and some of his collection at the Museum of Modern Art is permanent. On his website, Eaton states “outdoor, public art is the most important to me. Public art has the ability to inspire and transform our communities.” It is obvious how important it is for Eaton to share his art with the rest of the world.

Tristan Eaton | Art-Pie

Currently, Eaton is the President and Creative Director at Thunderdog Studios Inc. Thunderdog is a prominent brand for designer toys and a creative agency based in New York. Thunderdog is the backbone of all of Eaton’s work. His team at Thunderdog helps him put together big projects, such as toys and video collaborations. Tristan Eaton happily resides in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

More on Tristan Eaton’s website

CONTEMPORARY ART

Richard Hamilton – Mr Pop Art

The sudden death of Richard Hamilton yesterday shocked a large number of people in the art world, tweets poured in and everybody agrees – it is a big loss. Some critics are convinced that he was the most influential and important painter post-war, others would defend the fact that he was the root of Pop Art.

Whatever he was, and even if he got expelled from the Royal Academy Schools in his early years on the grounds of “not profiting from the instruction”, Mr Hamilton made his mark in the dense art world and will be remembered for decades if not forever. Here is a tribute to him, here are some of his most iconic works.

Hamilton was known for his paintings, sculptures and collages. Collage is what we will be looking at first and in particular his piece entitled Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?, made in 1956 and regarded as the first statement of Pop Art.

A bodybuilder holding a lolly with the word pop on it makes the focus of this piece. This work was part of the This Is Tomorrow show held at the Whitechapel Gallery. A great artist was on route and he was going flat out.

Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? by Hamilton
Just What Is It That Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing? by Hamilton

Richard Hamilton then went on getting various assignments where political views were expressed but more importantly he met Marcel Duchamp, became friend and curated the first and to date only British retrospective of Duchamp’s work that was held at The Tate in 1966.

White Album cover by Hamilton
White Album
He produced at the same period a series of prints, one of them being Swingeing London inspired from the arrest of Fraser’s and Mick Jagger, for possession of drugs. He then carried on on the pop music scene subject and produced the cover design and poster collage for the Beatles’ White Album

Here is what the artists had to say about this cover: “I thought it would be appropriate to present an album that was just white. Paul was doubtful about it being completely empty so I suggested that it would be fun to number each copy so that it would have the appearance of being a limited edition. I asked how many copies the band expected to sell, and they said about eight million. I made a quick calculation that we would need seven digits.”

After meeting a series of pop artists in America in the late sixties, he moved back to his native country, the UK and in particular in Oxfordshire where he produced a series of paintings and installations where artwork and product design mixed. This period was very fruitful but has always been disregarded and undermined by the series of works he will put out there in the eighties where the focus point was the conflicts in Northern Ireland – another example of Richard Hamilton’s recurrent interest for what was going on around him during his time.

One of the major piece of this period was The citizen part of a trilogy of paintings (1981-83) shows IRA prisoner Bobby Sands portrayed as Jesus, with long flowing hair and a beard. Republican prisoners had refused to wear prison uniforms, claiming that they were political prisoners. Prison officers refused to let “the blanket protesters” use the toilets unless they wore prison uniforms. The republican prisoners refused, and instead smeared the excrement on the wall of their cells. Hamilton explained (in the catalogue to his Tate Gallery exhibition, 1992), that he saw the image of “the blanket man as a public relations contrivance of enormous efficacy.

The Citizen by Hamilton
The Citizen by Hamilton

The best way to wrap up this tribute is probably to let Richard Hamilton gives us his definition of Pop Art: “popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, and Big Business” – stressing its everyday, commonplace values.”

Richard Hamilton was working on a major museum retrospective, let’s just hope it can be carried over and happen anyway.

R.I.P Mr Richard Hamilton (1922 – 2011)

Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton

CONTEMPORARY ART, REVIEWS

French artists at Genty Fine Art’s Christmas Show

1 Comment

I have always loved the saying “you learn something new everyday”; mainly because it is a saying my grandfather always drummed into me and also because I think it is a very accurate description for the ‘art world’.

“L’arbre juane” by Francoise Bossut

This was especially the case when I met David Genty. Genty Fine Art mainly work with established French contemporary artists or artists who have lived and worked in France. For me this was an area I have not really come across as most of the artists I am friendly with, interested in or collect are predominantly English or British.

In addition to the French connection Genty Fine Art showcases sculpture as well as paintings which is another area I have never really ‘got in to’. I think this is predominantly a collector issue in that I can collect works of passion (that are on paper, canvas or print) without really thinking about where they will go, whereas with sculpture I have always felt that the piece has to be carefully thought about to ensure it fitted with the home – plus its not as easy to store sculpture!

David and Helen Genty founded Genty Fine Art as Galerie Genty in Western France in 2005 and changed to the current name when they returned to the UK in 2009. Having studied Philosophy, History & Theory of art and living in France for many years David has an excellent working knowledge and friendship with the artists they represent.

Genty Fine Art’s Christmas Show was therefore a great way to see the selection of artists Genty Fine Art work with, with my two favourites being Jean-Claude Mathieu (sculpture) and Francoise Bossut (paintings). David and Helen were on-hand to provide the right mix of enthusiasm and information about the works complimented with festive mulled cider and mince pies.

Christmas Show
Christmas Show

Exhibition: 10th – 23rd December
Genty Fine Art, Tygers Head, Tonbridge, Kent

For more information visit: www.genty.co.uk
© Genty Fine Art and the Artist(s)

PREVIEW

Adam Neate at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms

Last time we went to see an Adam Neate’s show, precisely at the same venue, we were happily surprised by the freshness of Adam Neate’s three dimensional works.

I hadn’t seen such work, such technique before – 3D in paintings using Perspex being such a modern medium. The sober atmosphere, high ceilings and spot on lighting at Elms Lesters painting rooms enhance Adam Neate’s art which seems to gravitate around you.

You will find below a few pics of his show last year

A definite must see show
When – until 29th October
Elms Lesters Painting Rooms
Tuesday – Friday 11am – 7pm
Saturdays 11am – 5pm

PREVIEW

Maxime Angel – Let My Eyes Be Your Mirror at C4RD

Centre for Recent Drawing presents the first UK solo exhibition of artist Maxime Angel. Through a highly physical and performative relationship to her drawing practice, Maxime Angel mines a deep held fascination with human sexuality and mortality in her intensely beautiful yet disturbing works on paper and card.

Angel’s personal interaction with her medium and her ability to project the internal and external machinations of the artitst’s body onto the 2D plane create a deeply visceral viewing. She lies, sleeps, smudges, interacts, destroys, scars, crumples and lives with her work, upon which she inscribes her fears, experiences and realities. Thus the drawings become an artifact of her life, laid bare in an intimate exchange of imagery and symbolism that sees the viewer not only connecting with Angel but reading something of themselves in the work.

The fragile nature of the medium reflects the works powerful grasping for fleeting beauty, as young vitality morphs into decay. Angel deploys these images as a metaphor for AIDS and our constant slide towards death, although she regards the act of drawing as itself a way propagate life, a Dorian Grey like exorcism of the inevitable.

Maxime Angels work traces a long and complex historical line of queer drawing, from tattooing to gay erotica, yet cannot be described simply as pornography. Her erotic illustrations mesh together both personal and cross-cultural references in uneasy yet sublime cohesion, while her beautiful and complex compositions recall traditions of Vanitas and still life. In doing so she subverts and utilizes the gay sub cultures, religion and pop iconography that have so influenced her life, exposing and exploring perceptions of gay narcissism.

Capturing what Angel describes as the ‘perfection in decay,’ these works entice the viewer with a rich visual language which is at once highly distinctive to the artist yet ultimately recognizable and truthful. We are reminded of our own mortality, but also of the cyclical and uplifting nature of life.

Maxime Angel will be working on a large site specific drawing in the gallery space in the weeks leading up to the show- feel free to come visit and watch Angel’s process on 28-30th April and 5-7th May 12-6pm. The show is curated by Paul Kindersley.

Words by Paul Kinderseley

Where – C4RD | 2 – 4 Highbury Station Road, Highbury Islington, London.

When – opening reception on Tuesday 10th May 2011 from 6 – 8pm. The exhibition will run from 11th May to 17th June 2011

IN THE NEWS

Summer party at Black Rat Press

Black Rat Projects would like to invite you to our Summer Party. On Saturday July 16th during the day we are teaming up with Cargo club next door whose expert chefs will cook up a bbq for BRP’s guests. This is a day for all the family: Matt Small will be doing one of his legendary workshops for the younger audience (if there’s space grown-ups can join in too…). To book for your kids email becca@blackrat.com with an optional £10 donation to ZAMCOG charity.

The day will mark the release of Lucas Price’s new print “Telepathic Heights”. The new edition (each one is uniquely hand coloured) will be hung among works by BRP friends, new and old, including: Swoon, Matt Small, Giles Walker, Candice Tripp, ROA and Brian Dettmer. Best Ever and Barcelona based artist Ruben Sanchez will be painting live on walls nearby.

The show will be a review of this year’s projects, and an ode to the artists who have made the space what it is, as well as a look forward to future projects as we welcome ROA, Candice Tripp and Brian Dettmer into the fold.

Join BRP as we celebrate summer on Saturday July 16th from 2-5pm! Invites will be sent out this week

Words by Black Rat Press

Find below the link of ROA show review at BRP earlier this year plus a couple of pictures that go with it – can’t wait for the next one!

ROA at BRP

ROA at BRPROA at BRP

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS