Amelia’s Magazine | Made In Britain – Art Exhibition, London Miles Gallery

Work by Mr. Penfold.

There has been a lot of excitement in Pop Surrealist Fanboy circles about the big show of American work in Bristol this summer. So the London Miles gallery’s latest exhibition is a very timely wake-up call to the fact that Pop Surrealism, with its Graffiti and Lowbrow fellow flavours, has a very natural home here in the UK. We’re so culturally jam-packed with icons, ironies and idiosyncrasies, its a recipe fit to burst kola-kube-sour onto your culture buds.
But any recipe needs skilled chaps and chappesses to cook it up. London Miles has done well to gather so many first rate artists, and the artists have done very well to respond to the British theme without being gimmicky or repetitive.
Andrew Rae depicts the “Great White Hunter”, a British Raj-style heartless toff in the colonies with massive moustache and blunderbuss, his Chai Wallah at his side, as they stand atop a pile of murdered target practise – a tiger, a unicorn, an elephant, a mermaid. All rendered in a gauche Tintin outline with a dulled palette of Imperial Tales for Boys, circa 1930.

The Great White Hunter
“Great White Hunter” – Andrew Rae

Contrast that with Kevin Wayne’s bas-relief revision of Richard Hamilton Pop Art masterpiece “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”, now titled “…so depraved, so appalling”. He seems to suggest that, while people in the 60s thought the 60s was a bit crass, we in the present are far too witless and lost even to know that anything’s gone wrong.

Society
“Society” – Studio Diablo

Studio Diablo, on the other hand, presents us with “Society”, a bold and happily overpopulated image that chronicles one day’s happy-snapping on Brick Lane, cool people at the front, street cleaners at the back, the bagel guy half way down, set against East London’s beautiful streetlamps, CCTV cams and a lovely grit-salt bucket. It’s a big draw, and soon has a crowd standing around it only a little bit smaller than the one in it. It also doubles up as a partytime Banksy version of Where’s Wally. (I spotted him quick)
Other standout works include a a high-speed procession of three-eyed horses and assorted oddbods through the sky, driven on by the excitement of tea (by an artist called Mooselumps), a lovely bold pig-faced man asking for two sugars in his tea (by Mr. Penfold), and a surly Peckham Skingirl (who looks like she could use a nice cuppa, by Mr. Frivolous). And Xue Wang applies the laws of Mark Rydenism to Britishness by way of a very creepy big-eyed-girl in a chastity belt with a Henry VIII puppet.

A Grand Cavalade of Brew House streamer a la mode.
“A Grand Cavalade of Brew House Streamer a la Mode.” – Mooselumps

Don’t get the idea that everything here would fit neatly into a “California goes Laaandaan” Juxtapoz compendium. A lot of this work comes from purely British veins of illustration, graffiti and image. There has been a great liberation on both sides of the pond. This exhibition is the strongest sign yet that British talent no longer faces the choice between hiding away or selling out to the Saatchi scene. As recent years on Brick Lane have shown, barriers are coming down between art and graphics, plus a lot of disciplines we used to have to look down on.

High Tea
“High Tea” – Xue Wang

English Rose
“English Rose” – Ink Fetish

This is the best show I have seen for a while, in one of London’s tastiest spaces. Energetic, democratic, authentic, and even, dare I say it, affordable. It doesn’t have a big ego, doesn’t puff itself up. It just does what it says on the tin, as gleefully as possible. If Britain’s really got talent for a new dawn, this is the place to watch.

London Miles Gallery

Speaking of talent, the show runs concurrently with a little solo show corner. The work of Illustrator artist Mesh 137, a supafly stylist of the first order. Check out his orange teapot. Both shows until October 1st. Visit www.londonmiles.com for more know-how.

Categories ,Andrew Rae, ,art, ,banksy, ,Britain, ,Graffiti Art, ,illustration, ,Ink Fetish, ,london, ,London Miles, ,lowbrow, ,Pop surrealism, ,Studio Diablo, ,Xue Wang

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Amelia’s Magazine | Made You Look Kickstarter Campaign

Made you Look-Work by Anthony Burrill 5
Made You Look is a documentary about the contemporary DIY graphic arts scene in the UK, lovingly put together by Anthony Peters of Imeus Design. Via candid interviews with top British creatives, publishers and agency owners the film explores how people are turning towards analogue means of creating things, even though we are living at the height of the digital era. The film is due for limited theatrical release in 2015 and will be premiered at a major UK Arts festival. I asked Anthony to write me an exclusive piece about his project, so read on, be inspired, and back the project here: this is a film that deserves to do well.

Made You Look is a documentary that began life in mid 2013 as a film about the DIY scene in UK graphic design and illustration. We take the rich graphic arts scene for-granted now but back in the early 2000’s there were very few key figures, and many of those people are now held in high regard.

Made you Look-Work by Ben The Illustrator 2
Ben The Illustrator.

Made you Look-Work by Anthony Burrill4
Made you Look-Work by Anthony Burrill stickers
Anthony Burrill.

Made you Look-Work by Nobrow Books
Nobrow Books.

Along the way a different story began to emerge, there seemed to be an unusually large amount of artists using traditional methods of making things. Letterpress, linocuts, screenprinting, live drawing, riso, papercraft… all these methods and many more were now increasingly popular.

Made you Look-Work by Helen Musselwhite
Helen Musselwhite.

Made you Look-Work by Ed Cheverton
Ed Cheverton.

Made you Look-Work by Brecht Vandenbroucke print for Nobrow
Brecht Vandenbroucke print for Nobrow.

So our subtext became our core story, and using candid interviews with artists such as Anthony Burrill, Hattie Stewart, Helen Musselwhite, members of Peepshow collective, Ian Stevenson, Ben O’ Brien and Kate Moross we managed to create a story which discusses the perils and pitfalls of creativity in the digital age.

Made you Look-Work by Andrew Rae
Made you Look-Andrew Rae
Andrew Rae.

Made you Look-Print Club London 2
Print Club London.

So many of us are living our lives skipping from screen to screen, viewing the world through a pixelated filter, creating things that only ever exist on hard drives. It’s the height of the digital era, yet many cultural movements are taking things back to basics, we have slow culture movements and craft based movements popping up all over the place. These movements aren’t really about nostalgia, rather a way to stay connected to the tactile, real world that exists beyond the screen.

Made you Look-Will Hudson It's Nice That
Will Hudson, It’s Nice That.

Made you Look-Pete Fowler
Pete Fowler.

We do live in an incredible age. Regardless of what medium an artist uses, its fair to say that very few contemporary creatives could have a career without the trappings of the internet, and this is where the tension lies in the film.

Made you Look-L&Y 2004
Look & Yes 2004.

Made you Look-kate Moross
Kate Moross.

Its beautiful to hear the surprising responses from some artists when asked seemingly naïve questions such as ‘how would you feel if the internet was switched off forever tomorrow?

But of course we won’t spoil the film by sharing any of these answers yet!

Made you Look-Hattie Stewart
Hattie Stewart.

Made you Look-Ben The Illustrator
Ben The Illustrator.

We have had an incredible response to our trailer, with over 30,000 views, and have had invitations to film festivals and to educational Q&A screenings across the globe.

We are now running a Kickstarter campaign to be able to find the resources to finish the film. We have a few final bits of filming to do, plus post production tasks like Grading and audio post work. We would also love to be able to license music from artists like Bibio, CFCF, ISAN & Zoon Van Snook as well as having a score composed by Mathieu Karsenti.

Look us up if you would like to be part of the film!

Made you Look-Anthony Burrill _ Adams of Rye 2
Anthony Burrill, Adams of Rye.

Made you Look-Adrian-Johnson
Adrian Johnson.

So what are you waiting for? Get involved and help make Anthony’s film a great one.

Categories ,Adrian Johnson, ,Andrew Rae, ,Anthony Burrill, ,Anthony Peters, ,Ben O’ Brien, ,Ben the Illustrator, ,Bibio, ,Brecht Vandenbroucke, ,CFCF, ,Creativity, ,diy, ,documentary, ,Ed Cheverton, ,film, ,Hattie Stewart, ,Helen Musselwhite, ,Ian Stevenson, ,Imeus Design, ,ISAN, ,It’s Nice That, ,Kate Moross, ,Kickstarter, ,Kickstarter Campaign, ,Look & Yes, ,Made You Look, ,Mathieu Karsenti, ,Nobrow Books, ,Peepshow, ,Pete Fowler, ,Print Club London, ,Will Hudson, ,Zoon Van Snook

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