listings

Category: Art

Hello Cheeky is the first solo show from talented young London based illustrator Hattie Stewart, who we interviewed a year ago in Amelia's Magazine. It opens on the 28th March at the Brighton based No Walls Gallery.

Best known for her tongue in cheek 'doodle-bombed' magazine covers that are part satire, part adoration, Hattie has adorned such influential and iconic publications as The Face, Vogue, ID, Dazed and Confused, Interview, Rolling Stone and Playboy along with developing a client list that includes House of Holland, Marc Jacobs and Adidas.

Hello Cheeky will include a collection of brand new doodle bombed covers along with a selection of new illustrations and prints and is the second show in No Walls new building, a former 19th century funeral parlour in Brighton’s cultural quarter – opened earlier this year with The Megamunden Show, a solo show with British illustrator Megamunden.

In a short space of time, No Walls has developed a reputation as one of the UK's leading independent galleries, turning the traditional gallery model on it's head in the process and growing a roster of artists that includes Ben Eine, Sickboy, Ben Frost and Hayden Kays.

Opening hours: mon – sat, 11am to 7pm

Category: Art

Orso Major Gallery presents 'Drawing Inspiration' an exhibition featuring the work of artists Sarah Hamilton and Gabriela Szulman who produce art across different disciplines including prints, drawings, paintings, ceramics and jewellery. These two mid career London based artists share a passion for vibrant colour and the fragmentation and reassembly of images. The exhibition showcases work across different media giving a narrative to pieces which could otherwise be seen as unconnected by focussing on the relationship between drawing, painting, and product design. Both artists have a strong following and regularly work to commission.

Sarah Hamilton's work has a hint of the Mid-Century Modern about it yet it remains contemporary and fresh. Her deceptively simple images start as delicate pencil drawings, and from sketchbooks that are filled with drawings by hand or digitally printed, they complement her colourful prints and collages. She is inspired by a love of natural forms, Folk Art and 1950's design. Hamilton trained at Central St Martins and Camberwell College of Art. She has produced numerous private commissions and her work has been featured in magazines from Ideal Home to World of Interiors. Her work most recently appeared in Country Home magazine,
last week.

Gabriela Szulman's work is inspired by the nature of memories. Over the years she has saved family photographs, letters, technical manuals and womens magazines from the 1940s and 50s. Her work is a blend of painting and digital media where she uses acrylic paints, inks and watercolours with digital print onto paper and canvases, to create collages and prints. She has extended this practice into a line of jewellery with miniature prints set under glass. Szulman trained in 3D design at Camberwell College of Arts and later in Printmaking at the University of Brighton. She exhibits widely and is currently preparing for a solo show in Buenes Aires in June 2014.

Opening Times: Tues to Friday 11am-6pm, Saturday 11am to 3pm

Category: Art

With a passion for the weird and wonderful, Atomica gallerists Holly Lander and Orla Bennett have spent the last year championing a huge range of unorthodox contemporary art. Lowbrow, Pop-Surrelism, New Contemporary, Mid-Century, Polynesian Pop, illustration, modern folk, tattoo artistry and plenty more in-between can be found at Atomica Gallery, with 'Vision Quest' being a reflection of this eclectic and unique mix. For their anniversary show Atomica are bringing together new work by several of their mainstay artists, many of whom have never shown before in the UK.

Femke Hiemstra, Oeuf Surprise.

Christopher Conn Askew, Kingyo.

Expect femme fatales, magic, seduction, kaleidoscopic colour and stunning artistry! Vision Quest opens on 17th April 2014 at the gallery’s brand new space in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. Join the Facebook event here.

Ricardo Cavolo, Adventure Time.

Ryan Heshka, night clubbing.

Tom Bagshaw, Earthbound.

Opening Hours: Mon – Fri 12-7pm, Sat – 12-6pm, Sun – 12-5pm

Category: Art

This new exhibition at the Fashion Space Gallery will showcase exclusive imagery created by iconic designer Jean Paul Gaultier from the 1980s up until the present. The show will include the couturier’s unique designs for invitations to haute couture and prêt-à-porter, as well as his iconic advertising campaigns and reflects on how the designer has shaped his image and translated his visionary catwalk collections into iconic invitations and advertising campaigns. The image above was part of an ad campaign for the Tribute to Frida Kahlo collection, Women's prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1998; with art direction by Jean Paul Gaultier and illustration by Fred Langlais. It is a satellite show of the Barbican Art Gallery’s new exhibition, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, which I saw in Montreal a couple of years ago (you can read my review here).

Ad campaign for the fin de siècle collection, Women’s prêt-à-porter spring /summer 1995; art direction and photography: Jean Paul Gaultier

Ad campaign for the Elegance Contest and Casanova at the Gym collections, Women’s and Men’s prêt-à-porter spring/summer 1992; art direction and photography: Jean Paul Gaultier

The exhibition is curated by Alison Moloney of the London College of Fashion. Before joining LCF Alison worked as the Fashion and Textiles Advisor for the British Council’s Architecture, Design and Fashion department. In this role she curated Reconstruction: Cultural Heritage and the Making of Contemporary Fashion, which toured to South Asia; Alchemy: Contemporary Jewellery from Britain which toured to the Gulf; commissioned Dressing the Screen, a fashion film exhibition, for China UK Now and developed the International Fashion Showcase with the British Fashion Council.

Opening hours: Monday-Friday: 10am-6pm, Saturday: 10am-4pm, Sunday & Public Holidays: Closed. Admission: Free

Category: Art

David Hockney – A Bigger Splash – 1967

Want to find out more about fine art? Art History UK's April Art Shot's modern and contemporary art expert, Georgia Ciancimino, will lead you step by step through the fabulous collection of Pop Art at Tate Britain. Georgia will introduce you to key themes such as the impact of World War II, the swinging 60s and the real meaning of ‘conceptual’. She will show you works by some of Britain's greatest artists, including Frank Auerbach, David Hockney, Anthony Caro and Bridget Riley. As with all Art Shots the evening will start with post work drinks from 6pm, and the tour starts at 6.45pm, finishing at 8pm.

Frank Auerbach – Primrose Hill – 1967 – 68

Brigit Riley – Hesitate – 1964

Anthony Caro- Early One Morning – 1962

Tickets cost £25 each, or buy 3 for £65 and 6 for £130. Find out more and buy your tickets here. Art History UK is a boutique London art tours company that runs evening Art Shots events twice a month and well as a series of scheduled day tours. Join the Art History UK facebook page here to find out more.

Your tour guide: Georgia Ciancimino.

Category: Art

Julija Svetlova is a prolific freelance photographer based in East London. Her love of photography began when she started experimenting with analogue cameras as a teenager in St Petersburg. In 2003 she joined the Hermitage Museum's photographic laboratory before moving to London to study Digital Lens-based Image Making at London College of Communication. Her work has been exhibited and published internationally. In 2011 she became a runner-up in the prestigious Fitzrovia Photography prize. In 2012 she contributed to Photography: The New Basics published by Thames & Hudson. Julija Svetlova explains the inspiration behind her solo exhibition:

'London is being photographed by thousands people every day. There are many iconic buildings and views here but for me the question is, how to avoid descending into cliché? For a truly devoted Londoner such as myself, famous sightseeing spots are just one more way to check my photographic credibility. How can I photograph Big Ben and not repeat the millions of postcard and T-shirt images we have seen already? It's actually easy when you keep your eyes wide open and let your imagination float. Working with the double exposure technique and a variety of film cameras I create my dream-like photographs that show London’s familiar landmarks in a new way.'

Opening times: Monday to Saturday 10 am to 7 pm.
Private View: 10th of April, 2014 from 6.30 to 9.30 pm

Category: Art

Sista Pratesi, The Shining of our Design II, 2013

In her new solo exhibition at Vane, The Shining of Our Design, Sista Pratesi creates an installation of paintings that explore the power of belief systems and the structures that are created to enforce them.

'The installation presents both a pictorial space – depicted in the paintings – as well as a physical space through which the audience can move: as the paintings depict an experience, the physical structure creates an experience. A framework constructed of canvases facing in alternating directions winds through the gallery, inviting the viewer to meander along its serpentine length.

The desire to let go and succumb to a belief system that is all seeing and all encompassing is deeply hypnotic. Unfolding in these paintings is the subtle temptation to give up one’s own autonomy in the face of surrounding systems of power and control. Some show strange, lurking figures that seem involved in some arcane ritual, wholly intent on their own mysterious actions, while interspersed with these are images of doors – but doors that are warped and damaged and offer only a pretence of escape. Like a hall of mirrors, there seems no way out, but an endless journey between an interior and exterior world that surrounds and engulfs the viewer.'

Exhibition preview: Friday 8 November, 5:30-7:30pm
Opening times: 12pm to 5pm, Wednesday to Saturday during exhibitions.

Sista Pratesi, The Shining of our Design III, 2013

Sista Pratesi, The Shining of our Design I, 2013

Category: Art

This show will feature the latest unpublished work and paintings of Amelia's Magazine favourite Novemto Komo alongside collages by Steven Quinn, including The Roman Series. Through conversations, both artists felt they were at a similar stage in their art, having spent the past year honing their styles. Their new works 'explore the idea of rebirth through space, emotion, media and the world end.'

Novemto Komo.

Steven Quinn.

Join the Facebook event here. 
You are invited to the opening night on November 7th, 2013 from 6pm.

Category: Art

Atomica Gallery is hosting Covering Synthesis, the debut exhibition from British artists Dominique Holmes and Mister Paterson. Friends for many years, Holmes and Paterson have enjoyed successful careers as tattooists and freelance artists and have spent the past few years concentrating on their fine art practice. Whilst differing stylistically, the pair share a fascination with the process of rearranging elements to produce new and unexpected outcomes; the inspiration behind Covering Synthesis. Central to Covering Synthesis is the friendship between the two artists and Holmes and Paterson will present 3 special collaborative works as part of the installation.

A believer in tradition and true craftsmanship, Mister Paterson’s distinct style involves painstakingly inking black dots onto paper, a process which is both simple and complex. Paterson’s striking technique is instantly recognisable and as integral to his work as the concept behind it. Paterson is influenced by a variety of unlikely sources including the power of religious iconography; frequently we see animals transformed into commanding deities. But whilst Paterson’s technique is deliberate, he leaves the final outcome of his work to chance, picking imagery at random and letting instinct decide their fate.

Dominique Holmes’ work is saturated with references to Eastern culture, from traditional Chinese folklore and superstitions to Islamic art’s relation to science and mathematics. Experimenting with collage, her mixed-media works often incorporate found textiles and objects such as vintage kimono fabrics and cosmological diagrams, adding texture and mystery. Strong symbolism is another recurring theme in Holmes’ work. Imagery representing life, love, birth, death includes lotus flowers, hands and eyes juxtaposed against intricately detailed Mehndi patterns and geometric shapes, lending a beautifully psychedelic quality to her canvases.

Opening party: Thurs 7th Nov, 6-9pm, with complimentary bespoke cocktails from Stripbar & Steak. Facebook event here.

Category: Art

May van Millingen is an illustrator whose work spans the world's of print, books, contemporary culture, fashion and design. May's process combines mark making and strong graphic lines, with a bold use of colour, resulting in a unique style. Taking inspiration from daily life, the natural world, and beauty of food, this exhibition of work at The Modern Pantry is a series of drawings that explores the relationship between food and art. More of May's work can be viewed at www.mayvanmillingen.com.

Opening times:
Monday 12-3pm
Tuesday to Friday 12pm – 10.30pm
Saturday 11am – 10.30pm
Sunday 11am – 4pm