PREVIEW

Pam Glew at Blackall studios

‘Beautiful and Damned’, the shows title, is of course taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1922 novel, which explores the listless lives of moneyed society during the Jazz Age.

This captivating era, drenched in glamour yet tinged with tragedy is the decadent setting for this extraordinary series of work. The exquisitely beautiful movie starlets, society icons and characters on display capture the spirit of the age all who are caught in the unforgiving glare of the limelight and some sadly burn out before their time.

As Pam states, “the tragedy amongst the beauty is what has inspired this show, the sharp contrast between a blessed life and one that ends in scandal, hedonism or destitution”.

Words from Mauger Modern Art

When – 25th till 29th May 2011 (late opening on the 26th)

Where – Blackall Studios

STREET ART

Herakut in Russia

Herakut has been busy recently and produced a very expressive piece on the walls of children’s home № 32 in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Not only the work is remarkable, they also put together a very well shot and edited video to support “the struggle with the monster of irresponsibility”, name of this another awesome association between these two artists.

If you have not got Herarkut book, get it from Amazon now. It is full of wonders.

HERAKUT – the perfect merge
flexcover. 21×26 cm. 200 pages

IN THE NEWS

Dick in FSB Captivity, the latest from VOINA

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Voina, a russian art collective, is making people to talk about them again. They have done crazy things in the past such as hurling live cats at McDonalds workers, engaging in a full-on orgy in a state museum, and shoplifting a raw chicken from a store by hiding it in one member’s vagina!

Their members got in all sort of problems of course with some being put in jail but they are now recognized by the establishment, VOINA has indeed just received one of the highest honors for contemporary art in their country Russia.

Dick in FSB Captivity is why they got this award. The artwork is a 210-foot outline of a penis on a drawbridge facing the the headquarters of the state security services, yes the KGB. When the drawbridge raises, the penis appeared to become erect – genius.

Bansky takes a keen interest in VOINA and gave a large amount of cash earlier this year to get two members of the collective out of custody.

Art terrorism like some call it?

Related links
The VOINA website – http://en.free-voina.org
Read more about Voina on Wikipedia
Read more about VOINA on The Guardian

CONTEMPORARY ART, REVIEWS

The Unknown Room at Red gallery

Click to enlarge

We managed to get a glimpse of The Unknown Room at Red gallery. This installation was put together to coincide with Close Eyes to Exit, an exhibition at Red Gallery in London (2nd – 18th April) which celebrates the launch of the fifth issue of  LE GUN as well as number 6 of its sister publication: BARE BONES.

Le Gun and Bare Bones are two independently published paper funded entirely by its contributors. No editorial or commercial restraints, you and I with ideas can contribute and your work may get featured in their next show.

The Unknown Room stands right in a middle of the first room on the right when you get into the gallery and you get thge feeling that you are up for some bizarre and quirkiness but this would not surprise RED gallery regulars.

Luckily, a massive help to understand what you are looking at is right there on the wall – the briefcase of a certain George Melly was randomly find in a basement and its contents were right there on display. No more needed to be said, a quick spin round and I was looking at my first skull and tramp juice bottle.

PREVIEW

Literal-eyes at London Miles

London Miles is proud to present an all-new group exhibition that takes a closer look at the content found inside the dusty book covers of iconic written works by great literary masters from across all generations. Literal-eyes concentrates specifically at the ways in which great writers have inspired this hand selected group of young and emerging European artists to be the painters they are today.

London Miles will be looking into the depths of the artist’s psyche; their individual artwork will reveal their way of thinking which maybe totally disparate to how we visualize the same text. This comparison will be explored individually by the viewer and will allow great scope for various levels of interaction during the exhibition.To mark this special exhibition, London Miles will be taking over a white wall gallery space in East London, an exciting pop up space divided onto two floors and over 1000 sq ft; situated off Brick lane.

When
Opening reception: Thursday, May 12th 2011. 6pm to 11pm.
Exhibition on show: May 13th to May 16th 2011

Where
65 Hanbury Street | EI 5JP (LONDON MILES GOES EAST!)

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS