Lava Gallery has been cranking out quality shows on a week by week basis, this time, Co-founder and art director of the Lava Gallery Ashes57 presented her new body of work entitled “On the wild side”.
This show is simply good fun, the centre piece being a huge 3d installation featuring her trade mark line drawn city scape’s and characters like the sitting dog. Ashes’ line drawing style has a great flow and creates allot of depth, You will discover something different in her work every time you look at it.
The show features a collection of hand drawn city scape’s, hand painted canvases and limited run prints, a good mix of work and plenty to keep your attention.
There was a great vibe and good turn out on the night, plenty of drinks were had and a few tunes grooved to courtesy of live DJ’s.
See the rest of the pics from the opening night here:
Since the day we first saw Jonathan’s work in 2008 we have been amazed at how much it has blossomed and how many people have responded positively to his distinct and developing style. Since then several shows at Signal and exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver have confirmed his international appeal.
Jonathan has achieved that rare thing of combining socio-political subject matter, with a real sense of beauty and truth. Despite the evils in the world he depicts, you come away from a Darby piece feeling refreshed.
Jonathan’s second solo show ‘Favela’ at Signal will take him deeper into the areas of concern he has touched on so successfully before. Concentrating on the favelas (slums) in the big cities of Brazil, Jonathan became acutely aware of the overwhelming social problems facing these communities. The favelas have been abandoned by national and local government and have been taken over by drug dealers and their gangs. A culture of lawlessness and violence exists unchecked, creating a level of poverty that gives Brazil the dubious accolade of nurturing the biggest gap between rich and poor in the world.
Some of the most vulnerable victims of this sorry state of affairs are the countless number of street children orphaned or abandoned by their parents. Jonathan’s show focuses on them and their plight. The show will be supported by the charity CARF (Children At Risk Foundation) that was founded by Englishman Gregory J Smith. Giving up a lucrative business career Smith set up and ran a home for street children called The Hummingford Project in Sao Paolo. Also a passionate photographer he has brilliantly documented this entire experience. Many of Jonathan’s works for the show will use these photographs as source material, creating a direct link to the abandoned children of the favelas. Some of the proceeds of the show will donated to CARF.
Jonathan’s work for the show is moving away from the more obvious use of logos. Instead, he will be using a range of more subtle artistic means to achieve his artistic goals. He has also spent time collecting together wooden objects to paint on, so that many of the works will have a more organic feel to them than his works on canvas. His aim in the show will be to create a unique experience combining paintings with atmospheric installations. This will be Jonathan’s most ambitious body of work to date, exploring an important issue using a wide range of materials and techniques. The show should establish him as one of the most important young artists on the scene.
When: 11th – March – 2nd April 2011
Tuesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm Where: Signal Gallery | 32 Paul Street, London EC2A 4LB | 0207 613 1550 | mobile 07766 057 212
It is now almost 25 years since we first heard about the “Young British Artists”, a phrase popularly abbreviated to YBAs. Of course, the graduates from London’s Goldsmiths College who began their commercial careers by exhibiting in dilapidated warehouses and empty factories – most notably Damien Hirst in the 1988 Docklands exhibition Freeze – were not initially known by this term. Continue reading The Rise and Decline of Young British Artists→
There is a new boozer in town, located on Curtain road to be precised, and should you fancy having a drink while looking at various pieces from emerging (mainly) street artists, well this is your kind of place.
Ben Oakley’s Gallery acts as the curator along with Kevin Martin from Hoxton Gallery. Currently on display are Xenz, Above, Lucas Price, Cranio, Cept and Guy Denning. We are not talking just a few spread pieces but walls covered of stuff and I am not even mentioning the toilets, the best we have seen in a long time, so long that we have included a few shots below.
WHAT – Far Rock Away
WHERE – 97-113 Curtain Road, Shoreditch, EC2A 3BS.
Abstract painter Sandra Blow’s new show at Fine Art Society is entitled “Eleven Works” and is opening on the 9th January 2017.
“Stripes” by Sandra Blow | detail
The Fine Art Society will present eleven large- scale canvases by the English abstract painter Sandra Blow RA (1925-2006). Spanning a period of almost 30 years, the show will include a number of works which have never been exhibited before.
A pioneer of the abstract art movement in the 1950s, Sandra Blow is best known for her monumental canvases experimenting with abstract form, rhythm, light, space, and texture. Blow introduced a new expressive informality into British art, combining cheap, discarded materials such as sawdust and plaster with the more conventional medium of paint. Her unique manner of abstraction was strongly influenced by the Italian artist Alberto Burri, who she met in Italy in 1946.
Arriving on the London art scene in 1950, Blow quickly received international recognition and went on to exhibit throughout Europe and America alongside the most important artists of the day. Her canvases became increasingly graphic, colourful and exuberant as her career developed, as did her ambition of scale.
Blow moved from London to St Ives in 1994, but continued to participate in every Summer Exhibition at Burlington House, fulfilling her role as a Royal Academician, which she was elected for in 1971. St Ives and the sea inspired the strong but subtle use of colour that characterises a number of canvases featured in this exhibition.
“The Swimmer” by Sandra Blow, Acrylic On Canvas | Click to enlarge
The artist John Mclean described Sandra Blow as “the most amazing colourist and the most original composer of a painting we have had in recent years”, comparing her to the likes of Matisse and Mirò. Indeed, the grand statements presented in this exhibition suggest that her importance is yet to be fully recognised.
Sandra Blow’s work is included in a number of major international private and public collections including the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. An exhibition to celebrate Blow’s 80th birthday was held at Tate Britain in 2005.
At last there is something for the “looking down while walking” individuals. There is a good reason to ignore your siblings, there is the new work from Jessica Stockholder to look at.
“Color Jam” is the name of the installation and is a make-over of State and Adams streets in downtown Chicago. A flow of colors have landed on the concrete and are licking the surrounding building.
Orange, lime green and turquoise shapes seem to wait for the bypassers in the hope of lighten these often bleak faces. Jessica Stockholder hit again with what she does best – site-specific works that merge painting to a three dimensional element.
Below is a photo of another installation made also in Chicago back in 2009 where brightly colored plywood platforms and metal bleachers were assembled to turn a section of Madison Square Park in New York into an abstract painting, “Flooded Chambers Maid.” Children instantly appropriated it as a playground, and adults used it as an informal seating area.
Cork native artist Fin DAC has not been around the street art scene as long as some other artists such as Inkie for example but he has been nevertheless left his mark out there and his works are appreciated by an ever growing amount of people across the world.
UK, France and USA is where you are the most likely to encounter his ‘Urban Aesthetics’ as he likes to define his art and style which combines paint and stencil techniques. Fin DAC did not go to some Art Schools but rather grab spray, cardboards or brushes and had a go.
We thank him for doing this.
His influences range from dark graphic novels through to the works of Francis Bacon and Aubrey Beardsley.
Location : New York (x Christina Angelina)
Location: Wales
Girls seems to be the main subject in Fin DAC’s works. Here is what the artist says about this:
“I use 2 different models or muses: Nicole Wu for the very pretty/flowery pieces and Meghna Lall for the more edgy/rockier stuff. They are both people I found through Flickr. The shift towards more asian influenced themes in my artwork coincided with a seismic shift in my output and interest from the outside world… but I don’t ever think about the significance of that ”
I am lucky to live in London where it must be said, you can find striking looking bars. And let’s face it, it is much better if you sit in some settings which wow you or which makes you happy to be there. After all, I (usually) go to bars to enjoy the moment, to relax or spend time with friends.
Have a look at this. We are now in Melbourne looking at this amazing piece of architecture – the Prahran Hotel, where massive concrete water pipes are used to make the bar stand out of anything nearby we hear (I have never been in Melbourne)
One might say that there are some sort of pigeon holes for humans but I would simply look at the inviting leather seated booths that the 17 tubed offer and grab my pencil and add this place to my “must-go” list.
