listings

Category: Art

Brief Encounter.

Situated in the window of a dormant second hand bookshop, the Danger In Arcadia exhibition is the first in a series of artist take-overs of Fine Art and rare book specialists by the Amwell Book Company in collaboration with print company Printer Of Dreams. Over the coming weeks and months chosen artists, illustrators, photographers and designers will present a series of intriguing exhibitions within a literary setting. 

LA Confidential.

Danger In Arcadia.

First up, Printer of Dreams presents illustrator Edward Tuckwell. Inspired by film noir sets of the 1930s, pulp fiction of the 1940s and cult classics from the 1950s and beyond, Edward’s bold lines, crisp colours and striking use of graphic shapes and shadows combine to re-create the tension of the taut thrillers that inspire much of his work. UK-based artist, Edward Tuckwell exhibits internationally. A stunningly talented illustrator, poster artist and graphic designer, Edward works across a variety of mediums, most notably using digital and screen-printing processes. 

Our Man In Havana.

Uncommon Valor.

As well as the shop window take over, the doors to the bookshop will be open on Thursday 19th September, 6 – 9pm to showcase a wider range of work. Alongside giclée prints, screen prints and hand-stitched books by Edward Tuckwell, there will be a selection of classic detective fiction to compliment his work. And, the chance to peruse the Amwell Book Company’s extensive collection of design, illustration and art reference books.

Twin Peaks.

Private View: Thursday 19th September 6:30 – 8:30pm
Window take-over: 6th September – 20th September
Facebook event here.

Category: Art

Ezekiel 36:36 is the latest project from photographer Nick Ballon, who many a moon ago contributed a fantastic zoo story to Amelia's Magazine. This time he spent six months in Bolivia documenting Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB), one of the world’s oldest airlines. Here's what the press release has to say:

With only one plane now operational from a downed fleet of aircrafts, LAB is a crumbling empire which continues to survive solely through the loyalty and faith of its remaining 180 unpaid staff. Founded in 1925, it has played an important role in every stage of the country’s history. Since its privatisation in 1994, LAB has suffered at the hands of successive administrations, becoming gradually dismantled due to chronic mismanagement and corruption. The project has resulted in a dedicated book and exhibition which will both be launched at KK Outlet. The project title, Ezekiel 36:36 refers to the name of the only plane LAB currently has in operation, renamed after it narrowly avoided a tragic accident.

Ezekiel 36:36 has in many ways become a metaphor for the story of Bolivia and its people: resigned to look back at past glory and grandeur which is at once half-imagined and half-remembered. There is a paradoxical sense of loss and optimism, which resonates throughout the narrative. Featured in the Ezekiel 36:36 book is an extra booklet which showcases the airline in it’s heyday. There is archive imagery taken by staff, coupled with dynamic graphic design and typography that was created in house using a technique called Rubylith.

Sensitive to this poignant and transitional time, Ballon has created a series of images, which evoke a sense of dignity, allowing us to share intimate moments with the people and personalities still on the airline’s fragile payroll. Together with the Bolivian born writer Amaru Villanueva Rance’s narrative, this is the first time that LAB has been so extensively portrayed in both words and images, and the first time that the story has been told.

Category: Art

After her hugely successful first exhibition Nowhere, Amelia's Magazine favourite Jess Wilson has put together another show for the Jealous Gallery space in Crouch End. For Always Turn Left, illustrator and artist Jess Wilson takes us through a humorous exploration and re-working of classic signs and maps. Designed to make you smile, she takes the familiar and brings it to life with quirky and eye-catching prints that feature her inimitable hand drawn typography. From London underground to world maps, from ‘Save the Bees’ to ‘No Mobile Phone Zone’ signs, this show is full of Jess Wilson classics. Always Turn Left features exclusive new limited edition prints and murals that are available for sale.

Africa by Jess Wilson.

Always Turn Left by Jess Wilson.

Great Britain by Jess Wilson.

Greetings by Jess Wilson.

London Postcodes by Jess Wilson.

OK by Jess Wilson.

Save The Bees by Jess Wilson.

World Map by Jess Wilson.

Opening times: 10am-6pm Thursday to Saturday, 11am-5pm Sunday

Category: Art

Photograph from L'Argent (1928)

The glorious Fashion in Film Festival returns to London today.

This season's celebration is dedicated to seminal but often overlooked French director Marcel L'Herbier.

Films from silent and sound eras are brought together, many for the first time, showcasing the work of this legendary cinematographer. Lavish costumes, eye-watering sets, innovative techniques and dramatic scripts shape L'Herbier's films. If you're unfamiliar with his work or need convincing to attend, run an image search for L'Inhumaine (The Inhumane Woman) and you'll be booking tickets faster than I can say s'il vous plaît.

Film screenings take place across London, from the BFI Southbank to the wonderful Horse Hospital. The festival hopes to explore key themes in L'Herbier's work across fashion, art, design and architecture, and a symposium at Central Saint Martins will aim to realise his legacy.

Photograph from Le Parfum de la dame en noir (1931)

To book tickets (hurry!) check out the full schedule at the Fashion in Film website, and look out for our full reviews of some of L'Herbier's films soon!

Category: Fashion

Orsola de Castro is the creative director of From Somewhere, the revolutionary label she started in 1997, and the first to address the issue of pre-consumer waste and reproducibility in recycling for the fashion industry. Orsola’s Inside Design exhibition will celebrate her unique approach to cloth making and the launch of the new From Somewhere website. Inside Design will dissect Orsola's design process and ask what is important to her: touch, colour, how dresses fall, and how clothes fit. The show will explore how fashion has responsibilities and yet must look great.

Orsola discovered the delights of pre-consumer waste when she visited Miles, one of Italy’s best known high-end knitwear manufacturers, and she immediately focused on the remnants and surplus as a source of material for her designs. This pre-consumer waste became gems for her to play with. From Somewhere collaborations include upcycled collections for Jigsaw, Robe di Kappa and Speedo, for whom she has upcycled obsolete swimwear to create new items such as the Unity dress, designed to celebrate the 2012 Olympic spirit.

Orsola de Castro features in my book: Amelia's Compendium of Fashion Illustration: read an extract of my interview here.

Private View: Tues 11th June 6-9pm
In Conversation with Lucy Siegle: Tues 18th June 7-8pm

Category: Art

The Art Car Boot Fair returns to the car park of the Old Truman Brewery for the tenth year in a row, with the usual stellar line up of artists and live entertainment. Read my review of the 2011 Art Car Boot Fair here, and of the 2012 Art Car Boot Fair here. And here's just some of what you can expect this year:

Marcus Harvey’s Turps Banana print edition leads the charge with an exclusive print from Nigel Cooke. Plus. STOP PRESS! A timely, very limited special edition of Marcus Harvey’s infamous and celebrated 2009 work ‘Maggie’, probably the most innovative contemporary depiction of Margaret Thatcher.
 

Gavin Turk will present something new for 2013 plus a retrospective of all his previous Art Car Boot Fair works, celebrating his 10 years of featuring at the event.
 
Joining the line-up this year is classy cobbler Tracey Neuls. Well known for her collaborations with artists and designers, she’ll be pitching up alongside artist collective Le Gun and outsider art champions The Museum of Everything, both of whom have had artworks featured on Tracey Neuls limited edition shoes.
 

Returning artist Sir Peter Blake, who has been involved with the Art Car Boot Fair since the beginning will be creating a special print to commemorate Britain’s 110 year love affair with Vauxhall Motors and the 10th Art Car Boot Fair. All proceeds raised from the sale of the 110 limited edition artworks will go to Just For Kids Law, Kids Company and Help For Heroes.
 
Artist Darren Coffield and photographer Bid Jones will honour the 20th anniversary of Joshua Compston’s 2003 ‘Fete Worse than Death’, one of the inspirations behind the Fair. Darren’s biography of Joshua: ‘Factual Nonsense – The art and death of Joshua Compston’ will be available plus lots of Factual Nonsense memorabilia and a special commemorative print.
 
Sophie Parkin and Dick Bradsell will create a car boot version of the fabulous Colony Rooms out of a 1948 Vauxhall Velox, posing as Colony founders Muriel Belcher and Ian Board – providing free cocktails for any that impress with their sharp wit and amusing repartee.
 

Trolleyology – celebrating ten years of Trolley Books and paying tribute to its late and much lamented founder Gigi Gianuzzi, whose sheer energy, enthusiasm and derring do bought so many amazing art books to publication, from Nan Goldin to Damian Hirst and Philip Jones Griffiths.
 
New this year – the Art Car Boot Fair will release ten Golden Tickets giving ten lucky people the chance to get in ten minutes early to grab some art bargains before the frenzy begins. Also there will be a chance for undergraduate or post graduate art school students to ‘pitch for a pitch’.

After snapping up cool and quirky art pieces why not treat yourself to some weird food art by Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (read my interview with founder Tasha Marks here) who will be on hand to provide sacred tarts, edible hair and inhalable bacon sandwiches. There will be real bacon sandwiches and ox-heart buns from St Johns Bread & Wine and Shoreditch favourite Leila’s Shop will bring together a collection of fine produce and artisan food. The fabulous Born Hectic Bar will feature resident Frank Sinatra crooner Michael Campari and live Piano Karaoke with Clifford Slapper. The Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club will be putting on a retro variety show featuring Marawa the Amazing plus special performances from Louis Eliot & the Embers and to finish: Supajam’s ‘best live act in England’ The Fat White Family.

What's not to love?

Category: Art

Wieland Payer’s first London solo exhibition brings together recent works on paper, sculpture and painting. He is best known for his intricate drawings in charcoal and pastel depicting mountains and woodland, from which protrude strange objects and buildings that seem to have been plucked from some future era — but which may equally be derelict altars to modernism, projected into post-apocalyptic landscapes.

Wieland Payer’s work originates from close dialogue with German Romanticism: it is always concerned with the monumental and dynamic presence of natural phenomena, capable of giving human beings a sense of their own relativity. Whilst the work is inspired by reality, Wieland Payer’s response to the natural world is never forensic, but rather aesthetic and also surreal. His landscapes are full of visual and spatial paradoxes that remove them from the realm of actual experience. They are beautiful and awe inspiring, yet present us with a vision of the natural world that is far from bucolic and, at times, hostile. This is hinted at in the title of the exhibition, an oblique reference to Tom Wait’s song, ‘What’s He Building In There’. In the song, the question is never answered, but the implication is that whatever is being constructed is menacing and perhaps even murderous.

Opening hours: Tuesday — Saturday, 11am — 7pm

Category: Art

The Free Range Graduate Shows at the Truman Brewery in East London return this May for a mammoth seven week long event. Each week a host of design schools and universities showcase their graduate work in all kinds of disciplines; pick your fave or head down each week to discover the finest that the UK has to offer. Why not check in with my previous reviews to get an idea of the talent on show.

Maricel Pamintuan.

Alex Pengelly.

The shows kick off on the 29th of May with a catwalk show from Winchester School of Art – above is a taster of what you can expect from the Winchester graduates. Middlesex University hits the catwalk on the 7th June, see my previews here and here for an idea of what to expect from their talented fashion and fashion textiles graduates.

All exhibitions are free with the exception of the catwalk shows, which are invitation only. Find out the full timetable here: I'll be getting along to as many shows as I can, live tweeting and instragraming what I find, and creating bigger reviews where possible.


Private views: 6pm-10pm Thursdays

Public shows: 10am-7pm Fridays to Sundays & 10am-4pm Mondays

Category: Art

Join the Edible Art Class from food interventionist company Animal Vegetable Mineral at The Book Club on Tuesday 9th April 2013. Expect a crafty night of artisan abstraction, where playing with your food isn’t just acceptable – it’s essential! From lickable life drawing to edible painting-by-numbers, AVM’s tasty tutor will guide you through an introduction to art and edible expression using all the senses. Master the art of chocolate model-making or try your hand at sugar graffiti, and indulge your creative side in a night of scrumptious, gooey, crunchy, melt-in-the-mouth, good old-fashioned messy, arty fun! 

Animal Vegetable Mineral was set up by food historian Tasha Marks and specialises in private views and cross-disciplinary collaboration; taking artwork, location or theme as a start point and responding to it with an edible curiosity. Projects so far include the ‘Aroma-Tour’ for the National Trust, edible hair for the artist Kate MccGwire and funeral biscuits for the British Biscuit Festival. Read my exclusive interview with Tasha Marks here.

Tickets cost £10 in advance, available here.

Category: Art

Meet 165 extraordinary designer-makers at two Cockpit Arts studio locations this June. Plus enjoy extra events such as a 'Garden’s Edge’ ceramic workshop by Katharine Morling and sustainable craft showcases selected by Oliver Heath. At the same time enjoy summer cocktails & seasonal delights by Hand Made Food.

Holborn: 7-9 June. Cockpit Yard, Northington Street, London, WC1N 2NP
Deptford: 14-16 June, 18-22 Creekside, London, SE8 3DZ
Free Entry, Donations Welcome
Open hours: Friday 6-9pm, Sat & Sun, 11am-6pm