Shoreditch as always will be hotting up at the week end with street art, dance and good music. Zack and his team at eeeefun throwing a party this Saturday 16th April 2011. Best of all, mention ART-PIE and get your names on the guestlist by emailing eeeefunparty@gmail.com!
From Zack
We’re hosting a party on Saturday 16th April at Shoreditch Studios in London where we’ll be recording the international brand film for a cutting-edge new electric scooter. As well as appearing in the commercial, everyone who attends will also get the chance to show off their artistic talents and submit their creative design for an eeeeFUN scooter.
The best one designed on the day will go into commercial production, with the winner getting their very own e45 scooter with their design on. We’re looking for street artists and designers, plus musicians, actors, DJs and dancers (as well as people who just want to enjoy a free party).
In 2007 the global population living in urban environments passed the halfway mark, and that trend is accelerating. As cities become bigger and denser, and within the rigid structures of a mass-market society, truly meaningful personal interactions become increasingly elusive. The anonymising effects of scale and excess on the actor in the postmodern city can lead to a shared sense of social isolation.
In Four Cities Black Rat Projects will take a look at the four artists whose experience of urbanity propelled them to create within their environment in similar ways. With new works by represented artist Swoon, and secondary market works sourced from Os Gemeos, Banksy and Shepard Fairey, BRP will map the parameters of the street art movement across continents through the voices that emerged simultaneously as the strongest of their respective city scenes.
Artists featured: Swoon, Os Gemeos, Banksy, Shepard Fairey
Where –
Black Rat Projects When –
20th May – 23rd June 2011 (Preview – 19th May – 6-9pm)
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.
I am now back from Barcelona where I had the chance to enjoy a warm winter sun, delicious tapas but also and above all eye-catching graffiti.
You can see quite a few scattered around the city and especially in the main avenues of the city but head down to the port, look for the maritime museum and you will definitely spot the Jardins de Walter Benjamin, a very formal name for what is a hotspot for so-called underground activity: graffiti.
A selection of best shots is below as well as a map where this spot is located.
This is the movie everybody is talking about right now and whoever is behind the promotion of it is just very clever.
We are at the Sundance Film Festival last month in the United States. No mention at all about the movie in the official programme but rather a very late announcement a few days before the start of the festival and there you had it: speculation and expectation leading to the sort of buzz that makes people queuing up hours before the screening.
I expect the same level of interest when Exit through the gift shop comes out here in Europe on the 5th March. Let’s not forget that Banksy’s show last year at the Bristol Museum attracted more than 300,000 visitors.
Should anyone have thought that at last Banksy’s identity would be revealed, ditch that idea, this is not what that movie is about at all. Banksy can only been seen from behind and in shadow and his voice is digitally altered. Who would give up his identity when it precisely what is making some of his artworks fetch the £200,000 + mark, come on.
“I guess my ambition was to make a film that would do for graffiti art what ‘The Karate Kid’ did for martial arts — a film that would get every schoolkid in the world picking up a spray can and having a go,” Banksy said of his first film earlier this month at Berlin Film Festival.
Beyond being some sort of graffiti ambassador, I believe Exit through The Gift Shop deals with a much more interesting issue: How do we assess or evaluate Art and eventually like it? Why Street Artwork is now selling as much in terms of value than more classical type of Art?
With actor Rhys Ifans as narrator, he allowed Thierry Guetta to film him while ‘at work’. To make it short (a post about Thierry Guetta is coming up soon) he is the cousin of the artist Invader, a French guerrilla artist who sticks mosaics upon walls and buildings inspired by the video game Space Invaders. Guetta filmed his cousin’s artwork as well as other artists and was thus sucked into the street art world which led him to meet Banksy.
The London premiere of ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ is happening right now as I am writing this post around Leak Street tunnel so if like me you did not get an invite, you might as well watch the trailer below
Okuda (Spain) and Remed (France) have renewed the symbolic sculpture located in the vineyards of the winery Campo Viejo in La Rioja, Spain this past week. The work entitled “A Bridge Between Sky and Earth” pictured by the artists was built in 2013 and became an icon for the wineries. Three years later, the sculpture is reborn with a new look, colourful and vibrant with the unmistakable graphic line of the two artists.
A 6 meters hight sculpture
The renewed appearance of this large public artwork, more than six meters high, is a celebration of the Campo Viejo Wineries with the art and this intense collaboration of the two artists.
The fourth limited edition label of Campo Viejo Art Series range signed by Okuda and Remed, will be presented with the image of the sculpture as well.
A long running collaboration between the two artists
Over the past four years we have had the opportunity to witness how this duo of artists, Remed and Okuda, has gradually created a lot of artwork and participated in several places around the world teaming up with Campo Viejo.
Okuda
Places as diverse as Mexico, Miami, Toronto, Warsaw, Madrid, London, Oslo, Zurich, Brussels, Dublin… have hosted the multiple stops of the Streets of Color, Rioja winery project in which the two urban artists have created a recognizable style in which the bright colors and geometric shapes intertwine in a unique way. “It is like a third artist were born from the collaboration of our two styles.” Remed says.
This ongoing collaborative journey between Okuda & Remed with the Campo Viejo winemakers celebrates the expressive nature of the wines and the sculpture in the vineyards was the first work and starting point for all other collaborations that have emerged on the edge of the years between the renowned Pernod Ricard brand and the two artists.
The artistic collaboration is managed by the cultural enterprise Nobulo since 2012.
More about the artists
REMED
Remed
Remed (Paris, 1978) is an expressive French Artist based in Madrid who is well known for his bold use of shapes and colour and large-scale murals. He started painting in 1995 in the privacy of his studio in his home town of Lille, but felt limited by a canvas framework so quickly moved his art to the streets.
Born in Santander, Spain, in 1980 and based in Madrid, Okuda is a passionate and internationally renowned Urban Artist.
Okuda has developed over the years a unique style of artistic expression characterized as “pop-surrealism meets Urban Art”. He uses geometric, bright-coloured abstract shapes with interplay of grey bodies and organic forms to depict contradictions about existentialism, the fake freedom of capitalism, the war between humans and themselves, and the meaning of life.
Since 2002, Okuda has received international recognition and now gets invited to participate in group shows and art events across the world. He has showcased his work at over 56 exhibitions and his portfolio expands a range of mediums from conceptual mixed media installations and mixed media canvas to mural paintings and Street Art.
Ever since two local winemakers – Beristain and Ortigüela – created the first vintage in 1959, Campo Viejo has represented the expressiveness, colour and vibrancy of Rioja.
The Rioja winemaking region is situated in the north of Spain, in the heart of the Ebro valley. It’s the most important Spanish wine region and in its heart lies Campo Viejo.Campo Viejo’s winemakers work hard to ensure that Campo Viejo wines are the very best expressions of contemporary Rioja, conveying the vibrancy of the region in a way that is in keeping with the expressive, fruit-driven style which today’s wine drinkers are actively seeking.
I knew I would not be disappointed when I heard about the Lock Up exhibition and disappointed I wasn’t, oh no, I was overwhelmed.
By the way, that event happened last year (20th Nov till 10th Dec 2009), yes I know it is a bit late to report on it but I never got round to do it before today… But keep reading, those artists are just phenomenal. Continue reading The Lock Up exhibition: just what I like→
CANAL is pleased to present its show for the summer, an exhibition by Phil Ashcroft, mixing live painting, large scale canvases and screenprints.
Ashcroft will create a new large format painting in the gallery over the course of the exhibition, bringing his studio process directly into CANAL, as well as presenting a new lightbox work inspired by the gallery’s location on the Regent’s Canal at Haggerston, east London.
Ashcroft’s works are influenced by 1980s graffiti, comics, street art and graphics. His paintings are rendered in a bold, graphic style, combining loose, gradient brushwork utilising a limited palette.
Post-apocalyptic, overtly heroic landscapes reference sources as diverse as Japanese Ukiyo-e art, American pop art, Abstract Expressionism, graffiti and Marvel comics. The works draw on the myths of failed civilizations.
Ashcroft also collaborates on live-painting projects in galleries and alternative spaces from street locations to shops. These have included No Soul for Sale , Tate Modern, London (2010); Cans 2 Festival , London (2008); Special Relationship , Scion Space, Los Angeles (2008), Elephant Technique , Village Underground (2006), All The People We Like Are Dead , London (2004), and Graffiti Meets Windows 1 , Hank-Yu Department Store, Osaka (2002).
Click to enlarge
His first monograph, Solar System Parameters , with forward by Paul Hobson, was published by Gamma Proforma in 2013.
Works are held in public and private collections worldwide. Commissions include projects for Aedas Architects, Amnesty International (UK), British Film Institute (Godzilla film poster/dvd cover), Levis, muf architecture, Nike Town, Royal Mail, Sony PSP and Yahoo (UK).
