Group show at Signal gallery – Mixed doubles

In our first group show in the new Paul Street space, we are presenting four very interesting artists whose work links and entwines in very winning ways. It’s a fine match between the abstract and figurative ends of the painting spectrum.

However, this is not a one sided game, but an exploration of overlapping skills and techniques, that will make excellent viewing, if not producing any obvious winners.

Dan Baldwin
Of the two strongly figurative artists in the show, Dan Baldwin is best known to the UK. His dynamic and intricately subtle paintings are a familiar and respected part of the contemporary/urban art scene.

Joram Roukes
Joram Roukes is a new name to the UK. Roukes large-scale oil paintings have a sense of fantasy and humour that is superficially akin to Baldwin’s work. However, there is a more robust and serious purpose to these works, which gives them a powerful and dark effect.

Joram Rouke

Andrew McAttee
The absence of any familiar figurative imagery seems to create an unnerving sense of emptiness. This is indeed joyous and decorative work (Power Pop Art as the artist calls it), with a childlike directness, but somehow there is still a sense of a void, giving the work an edge.

John Squire
His artwork first came to public notice with the very popular Pollockesque album cover designs for his band. Since then, his work has been paired down and has become generally abstract in form.

When
10th February Private View.
11th February – 5th March open to public.

Where
Signal gallery – 32 Paul Street London, EC2A 4LB

Words by Signal gallery

Space-Themed Stamps

Royal Mail is to release a unique series of stamps, the theme : Space. This is to marked the 50th anniversary of Britain’s first contribution to space exploration—and Britain’s launch of its first satellite.

Osborne Ross is behind this set of stamps which depicts The Sun, Saturn, Saturn’s largest moon Titan, the Lutetia asteroid, Venus and Mars. The images featured were from European Space Agency missions.

Get yours soon, the release date is on 16 October 2012.

Royal Mail stampRoyal Mail stamp

Our Aim is to Survive, photographs by Brian J Morrison

Our aim is to survive by Brian J MorrisonThis work is the result of an exploration into the area of masculinity and social stereotypes. As a documentary photographic essay the work opens the doors to a lesser-seen area of society in an attempt to challenge pre-existing British stereotypes surrounding male identity and firearms.

Our aim is to aim is to survive focuses on Blackpool Pistol and Rifle Club: it’s physicality as a space, the people who use it and the inter-relationship between the two. These images are bound together through their formal presentation yet each image contains a strong individual presence in many cases confirming expectations but in others, interestingly confounding and challenging both the preconceived ideas attached to firearms and Shooting Clubs.

The Blackpool Pistol and Rifle club as been running since 1948 and is a typical example of what you would find in many shooting clubs throughout the United Kingdom. After a 1997 firearms amendment outlawed all but muzzle loading and single shot pistols, the membership to these clubs dwindled. As with many things within contemporary society the unfashionable quickly becomes lost and the
traditions of old soon turn to nostalgia. The walls of this club speak of a time gone; the faux wooden panels and the photographs proudly displayed offer an insight into “the good old days”. However they spoke as much about an acceptance of their fate as it offered a reminder into the past. The unfashionable has already become nostalgic whilst still in existence. To emphasize the idea of ever shifting social opinions I have offered a critique on the normative opinions associated masculinity and firearms by mixing the past and present contained within each frame.

Throughout the work the viewer is encouraged to draw off there own pre-existing opinions before eventually having these opinions subverted. By using masculinity as a focal point, symbolic links are drawn between the continually changing view of masculinity and the decline in popularity of those things that
do not fit within today’s society.”

““an acceptance that photography at the least can capture the present and the visible, he (Coekin) adds an understanding that what we know of the present what we know, and don’t know, of the past and the future”
David Campany on Chris Coekin’s piece Knock Three Times.

Words from Brian J Morrison

See more on Brian J Morrison website

Our Aim Is To Survive by Brian J MorrisonOur Aim Is To Survive by Brian J Morrison

Rippled, light painting and animation at their best

There are quite a few light-painting based videos/animations out there these days, some very well done, some others a bit less but what about this one – “RIPPLED“, another collaboration between Darcy Prendergast and the creative team at OH YEAH WOW.

Two words – truly amazing.

You do not get perfection or beauty without pain. 6 months is how long this work took to get wrapped up and frame by frame animation and long exposure technique were how they proceeded. The camera was the weapon and the creativity topped it all off.

Track – All India Radio- The Silent Surf

Four cities at Black Rat Press

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)

Chasinghosts or documenting the London street art scene

Time has come for the Chasinghosts duo to celebrate their time snapping street art wonders in London. Indeed they are are launching the first edition of the Chasing Ghosts Photo book.

The book contains 40 pages with 150 full colour photo’s dedicated purely to the streets of London. This edition is limited to only 50 copies, each signed and numbered.

The launch party will take place on Tuesday the 29th of March 6pm to 9pm and hosted by the LAVA Gallery:

Where
LAVA Gallery | 11 Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London, W1B 5PW

When
29th March 2011

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS