The Loughran Gallery’s January Group Show on Cadogan Gardens is currently showcasing works from:
Charlie Barton, Corinne Dalle-Ore & Damien Hirst, as well as Dale vN Marshall, Dave White,Frédérique Morrel, Jessica Zoob, Nick Jeffrey & Piers Bourke.
The group show will come to a close on January 29th, marking the last exhibition in their four-month Cadogan Gardens residency.
Of all the public art on display at the St Pancras station in London (UK), one piece stands out.
I am talking about the bronze statue called The Meeting Place that proudly stands at the south end of the upper-level beneath the station clock. The numbers: 9-metre (29.5 ft) high, 20-tonne (19.7-long-ton; 22.0-short-ton), impressive isn’t it? But have you been near it and noticed the frieze, a myriad of smaller sculpture works all around the plinth?
No? I did and was genuinely seduced by it.
This whole sculpture is the work of British artist Paul Day, and is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace. However this is for the main part of the work, the part that everyone can see from the window of the train…. but, what about the work located at the pedestal? At first glance, there is nothing romantic.
The frieze was actually added by the artists in 2008 and caused a stir as it was branded as ‘controversial’. It indeed originally depicted a commuter falling into the path of an underground train driven by the Grim Reaper (understand ‘Death). The image was one of many featured on a frieze for a controversial sculpture planned for St Pancras in London.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘The frieze as originally suggested will not go ahead and work on it has stopped.”
In his defence, the artist replied that the image was created in a tragi-comic style meant to be a metaphor for the way people’s imaginations ran wild. He added: ‘The imagination and real life are often intermingled.”
Day revised the frieze before the final version was installed and it can be seen today. No trace of Grim Reaper but a multitude of faces with strong or bold expressions, often hard to pin point. Are they sad, happy, tired, pained? I do not know, but what I do know is the artist mastered conveying feelings in this work.
Have you seen this work? What do you think?
If you’ve not seen it, please do as it’s worth the trip. Enjoy the photographs below in the meanwhile.
Already a legend within the international graffiti community, London’s ‘King Robbo’ will soon lead his entire UK crew (known to the world as ‘Team Robbo’) into Signal Gallery for their first gallery show of the year.
Team Robbo is an intentionally amorphous and anonymous graffiti crew, which has now grown into The Team Robbo Network. Its presence stretches across the world, overseas members working in collaboration with their UK counterparts.
Team Robbo UK will be represented in this show by core crew members: ROBBO, CHOCI-ROC, DOZE, FUEL, PRIME and P.I.C. – some of whom have worked together as a crew for around 25 years!
They will be supported by the artist known as ‘Pranksky’, who provides coverage of Team Robbo’s continuing war with street artists via his media organization, Prank Sky Media.
Several members of Team Robbo are already well-known to members of the street art/ graffiti community and to art collectors alike. This stemmed from several very successful shows last year, including Robbo’s solo show at The Pure Evil Gallery plus Fuel & Prime’s work in ‘The Architects’ Group Show at The Atom Rooms in London. Prime’s controversial piece ‘The Age of Shiva’ was widely publicised when it appeared again last year in Pictures on Walls’ show – ‘Marks and Stencils’ before Christmas.
The crew’s new show, ‘The Sell-Out Tour’ (which can be interpreted in a variety of ways), will be the first time that Team Robbo UK have exhibited in a gallery together.
It will showcase an impressive variety of their work: prints, canvases, sculpture and photographic work. The photographs trace Team Robbo’s joint output, (both legal and illegal) over the years. They will be shown alongside new solo work where crew members push forward the graffiti genre and develop their own work in highly divergent and novel artistic directions. The show is expected to tour the world after the Signal Gallery launch.
The Sell-Out Tour will be supported by work by the artist Pranksky. His work is described as hybrid art (merging art, photography and graffiti) providing a commentary on the ongoing art feud between street artists and graffiti writers that has received considerable media attention.
The show offers a rare chance to both view and purchase original new works and prints by this notorious crew. All work shown is for sale.
Words by Signal gallery
When
7th April: Private View and Press.
8th April: Writer’s night (By invitation only).
8th April – 7th May: open to public.
Where 32 Paul Street | Hoxton, London, EC2A 4LB.
www.signalgallery.com
We are big fan of artists using what they can find around them to help them making art or in Nick Gentry’s case, using floppy disks to be his support for his art as well as being integral part of his end product – mainly portraits.
Nick Gentry uses wood panels layered with floppy disks which he might paint or not, but one sure thing is that they are fully integrated in his pieces. Using the round bit of the floppy disk as the eyes is a recurrent occurrence in his art. Nick Gentry portraits all these imaginative or not, I do not know, characters which behind that scruffy brush stroke comes to live.
The show at Whisper gallery is now over
Stephen Whatcott is now a regular with The Creative Bubble, a multi-discipline pop up event at Roxy Bar and Screen, London.
The first time we came across his work, we just thought that the talent was obvious so we are very happy to have it once again in our upcoming pop up art gallery (see details at the bottom of this post).
Although, his pastel and acrylic works are mostly using black nuances, we think a touch of colours could be a winner, the quality of the drawing is remarkable and some of his pieces are pretty large and imposing when hung on the wall
We asked the man a few questions about himself and his art –
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Art-Pie – Can you tell our readers about yourself in a few words?
Stephen Whatcott – Well, I kind of see myself as a painter who draws or something like that anyway. I think my work is difficult to categorise: I paint with acrylic but draw with pastel, it’s realistic but with a kind of comic book feel, and I often merge lots of images together like a collage to put an idea across to the viewer.
Art-Pie – Can you tell us about your creative process and where does your inspiration comes from?
Stephen Whatcott – I illustrate people in everyday life situations, or doing everyday things, with the intention of capturing the mood or the feelings that the people are experiencing. I’m primarily concerned with the notion of what it is to be human. I like the idea of capturing the time we live in right now and our moment in human history.
Art-Pie – Give us the names of three artists you admire or like?
Stephen Whatcott – It’s hard to name just three. When I started painting in an attempt to earn a living I was massively influenced by the New York artists from the mid twentieth century like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning. But Edward Hopper was my first fine art crush back in high school, and Egon Schiele, too. Contemporary artists I admire are guys like Erik Jones, Joel Daniel Phillips, Andrew Salgado, Herbert Baglione, Robert Mars, Francesco Francavilla, Rich Kelly… there are so many. I blog about art I like at www.thatguywhodrawsstuff.blogspot.co.uk/.
Art-Pie – Street art is something we like at Art-Pie, what is your take on that form of art?
Stephen Whatcott – I think Street art is another organic art movement that happened as a natural reaction against the formal art world, like Impressionism was. Why enter the gallery arena when the world, and the public, are outside your door? It’s also a political movement, like Punk was in the 70s, but unfortunately it tends to get ignored by the fine art world for whatever reason, because it can be low brow or something, who knows. I think it’s culturally relevant and very important especially in today’s political landscape.
Art-Pie – Are there any other projects or shows that you will be involved with for the rest of 2015 that you want share with us?
Stephen Whatcott – The past year has been pretty crazy on a personal level due to moving house and studio which has eaten into a huge chunk of my work time. I was in the Pastel Society’s annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries last month though which was great. I’m currently concentrating on producing some new work at the moment which I’ll be showing as and when throughout the year… so I’ll be around.
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WHAT – The Creative Bubble, POP UP Art Gallery, Spoken Word, Poetry, Short Films, Music & Networking
WHERE – Roxy Bar and Screen, 128-132 Borough High Street, London SE1 1LB
WHEN – Wed 29/4/2015 (POP UP art gallery opening night) / Thursd 30 (Spoken word)
Without mentioning (but I will anyway) that the hype around Damien Hirst these days is far too much, member of the YBA (Young British Artists) is, was, want to be, should not be; the point here is that he can now get away with mediocre work but some people, a large number of them sometimes, they will confabulate about it for days.
Slagging off over.
Below is his latest work and is not for anyone, it is for the Red Hot Chili Peppers upcoming album entitled “I’m with you” and I am happy to say: “Damien, you nailed it, well done.
What do you think?
We all like when art means having fun, don’t we? How about then if you could skateboard on a sculpture and even better glow-in-the-dark skate park? Yes you would or at least you would support the concept.
The concept is out there in fact and in France precisely. Korean artist Koo Jeong-A has come up with a solution. The structure is called Otro, and is made from green phosphorescent concrete (how cool is that) so it gives off a radioactive glare at night. It is composed of different bowls, a cradle and three tunnels. See pictures below.
Koo Jeong-A invites anyone to share the physical and sensorial experience of her sculpture/skatepark. With OTRO, Koo Jeong-A tries out the fragile visibility of the artwork, its discrete appearance that tests our perception, obliging you to discover with patience the artwork’s essence. So if you are on holiday in France near Limoges, make a stop for Otro, you’ll like it.
Exact location: Lac de Vassivière | 87120 Beaumont-du-Lac, France | View the location on Google maps
Go onto the www.escaut.org website to find out more about the OTRO project
Award winning Curious Duke Gallery are proud to present the first UK solo show of Polaroid transparency artist Andrew Millar, with Chasing Ghosts. The East London based gallery invites you to rejoice in all things retro glamour this April 2016.
East London’s Curious Duke Gallery is known for nurturing young talent into the bright stars of the art world: Andrew Millar is no exception. UK born Millar joined CDG last year and took the gallery by storm with his distinctive ethereal style.
Hailed as a big hit at Moniker Art fair 2015, the artist creates the little known process of Polaroid collage transparencies with finesse and vintage beauty. If you haven’t seen his back catalogue yet, you will soon be falling in love with his latest collection, Chasing Ghosts.
Breathing new life into vintage imagery, like his forebears such as Andy Warhol before him, Millar collects from markets and antique dealers, the artist revives forgotten faces with his little known process of Polaroid collage transparencies. Millar explains how “When I produce the pieces I use a lot of old facial imagery so whilst lifting the polaroid and applying the gold it kind of brings them back.”
It is the final touches of these artworks that create experimental images that call to filmmaking of the 1960s and beyond, with layers of black and gold giving a touch of Hollywood glamour.
Part of our 3 street art works series you should see today. Artists featured are Akers, Aryz and JR.
Akers
Aryz
JR
Part of our 3 street art works series you should see today: Telmo Miel, Klaas Van Der Linden & Saturno Ags
Telmo Miel – located in Belgium
Klaas Van Der Linden – located in Antwerp (Belgium)
Saturno Ags
