Category: Front Page

Artist Show
Dulcy Lott’s ‘Everyone, Everyone Knows It’s Me’
At Blackwell’s Coffee Shop, Oxford

DSC_04741

1st of September – 14th of September

Dulcy Lott’s new collection of photographs, titled ‘Everyone, everyone knows it’s me’, touch on the darker side of fairy tales and focus on the surreal, unsettling moments that life throws at us. It also investigates the physicality and relationships within the photographers frame.

Dulcy used local Oxford dance artists Callum Anderson, Helen Wadge and Emma Jane Grieg, as well as models from a non dance background to create the work. The nimble dancers were put into dramatic and challenging dance positions, often within quite harsh surroundings such as rusty old fences, coarse stone walls and large,abandoned shipping containers. This combination, creates a tension and unease within the viewer as well as a chance to study the elegance of the human form in such demanding poses, for that split second, before they’ve been lost.

‘Everyone, everyone knows it’s me’ is on show at Blackwell’s Coffee Shop, Oxford.

A River Runs Through It

Juxtapoz-OlafurEliasson001

Juxtapoz-OlafurEliasson006

Juxtapoz-OlafurEliasson003

Danish-Icelandic artist and designer Olafur Eliasson has created a riverbed in Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art entitled ‘Riverbed’. The whole floor of the South Wing of the museum was layered with rocks, creating a terrain for a stream of water to wind through. Visitors to the gallery are transported back outside, to experience walking on top of loose terrain, along a river.

Eliasson’s says of the piece ‘what I’m interested in with my work at the Louisiana isn’t really that you experience an object or an artwork. I am interested in how you connect this landscape to the rest of the world and ultimately, how you experience yourself within it. when we’re in our familiar surroundings, in our circle of family and friends, our senses are very finely tuned, but the further away we get from the local context, the cruder the sensing becomes. I wonder if our focus on the atmospheric can give us a relationship with something that is very abstract and far away.’ (Via)

Art Circus Spotlight
Lynne Wixon’s Architecture on the Beach

L0009162

My paintings are essentially representational but I also want them to take the viewer further. I want the paintings to present more than an image of a familiar place or object but also to take you to a time you once knew or feel reminded of. I like the paintings to create a narrative. They are all about man made structures and mans interaction with them but I remove all human representations to allow the viewer to find their own narrative.

This is the East arm of the entrance to Whitby harbour (featured above) I have a particular soft spot for this painting as I live just down the road from Whitby. It was also important to paint it at this time because its sister pier (west pier) had had its connecting bridge closed and the council were not planning to repair it. This would have meant that both piers would be completely unaccessable. Fortunately there was a successful local campaign and it was repaired. This painting therefore emphasises the lonely detached nature of the East pier with its boney remnants of what once linked it to the land. It now looks as though it might bob off into the North sea. Continue reading “Art Circus Spotlight
Lynne Wixon’s Architecture on the Beach” →

Q&A with Hyunjeong Lim

hyun1

Hyunjeong Lim, born in Busan, South Korea, 1987. She has studied at Seoul National University, South Korea and Central Saint Martins, London. She currently lives in Busan.

Do you come from a creative family?

Actually, I’m the first and only artist from my family, both father’s and mother’s side. Though my parents are very supportive of me.

How did art school help, if at all, in the development of your practice?

I graduated Busan Art High school in my hometown, where I earned most of my drawing and painting skills that I use for my current practice. Back then, I didn’t think that I would become an artist but I could improve a standard of draftsmanship under the system of entering Korean art universities. After, I studied at the Seoul National University then at the Central Saint Martins, experiencing the art world bit by bit.

How did you find studying in London?

Although surviving in London was extremely expensive, spending part of my life in London as a student and an artist was certainly a the most valuable thing I’ve ever done. I just had so much fun by visiting all kinds of museums and art galleries in London. Becoming a museum goer has enormously inspired my practice and directly led me to research old western masters’ drawings and paintings. Continue reading “Q&A with Hyunjeong Lim” →

Art Circus Show
‘The Last Man’ Views From The Gallery

MCKI001_hole

Here are some gallery shots of The Last Man exhibition at the James Freeman Gallery, along with some photos of the opening night. We had a great evening and would like to thank James Freeman, the artists involved and to everyone who came down. The show is on until the 2nd August 2014, so a few more weeks to check it out. Continue reading “Art Circus Show
‘The Last Man’ Views From The Gallery” →

Abandoned Jellyfish

jellyfish-tank-walter-hugo-zoniel-designboom-05

jellyfish-tank-walter-hugo-zoniel-designboom-02

Alongside the Liverpool biennial, every evening until July 27th, at a derelict building in the Toxteth district, an unused storefront shutter automatically opens at 10:00 pm. A beautiful glowing installation is revealed to unsuspecting passers-byes of a stunning, luminous tank filled with living, floating jellyfish. Created by artists Walter Hugo & Zoniel, the piece will be live streamed from the jellyfish tank and shown on the exterior of the Gazelli Art House in London. (Via)

Q&A with Christopher Gee

L0009024

How did your time at Camberwell help in the development of your work?

I didn’t really go into college much to be honest and preferred working from my room or exploring London. Although I did meet a life long friend there who still influences me greatly.

The works appears to take inspiration from horror films such as Village of the Damned The Brood and The Innocents. Is this the case and if so could you talk about your interest in these films?

No this isn’t the case. I don’t really watch horror films. I have seen The Innocents and enjoyed it very much. I was interested in the introverted characters of the two children. I like the ambiguities in the film and the general disquieting atmosphere. Continue reading “Q&A with Christopher Gee” →

Artist Show
Mugshots: Sally Kindberg + Philadelphia PD

sally

28 June – 9 August 2014

Successful portraits resist description in a way that other types of picture do not. A portrait is something other than just an image. Simple images aspire to tautology; “I am what I depict” they insist. Portraits make the precise inverse of this claim. Portraits suffer from the ravages of their sitters’ old age and dissolute characters.

See these two black and white images of a man’s head, face-on and in profile. The expression is inscrutable; is it fear, anger, defiance, resignation? That his name, aliases, the nature of his crime and the date of his arrest are listed on the reverse is of no help.

The mugshot and the passport photo are the most straightforward, the most concise and accurate of portraits. They are intended only for the purposes of identification. They describe their subjects fully and simply, yet they cannot be fully and simply described themselves. The only way to make a portrait comprehensible is to dissect it, dismember it, reduce it to a collection of appendages and features; here are the eyes, here is an elbow… Sally Kindberg goes further; she has obliterated the face altogether. With cheese. Continue reading “Artist Show
Mugshots: Sally Kindberg + Philadelphia PD” →

‘Behind the Mask’ by Ben May

batman

Illustrator Ben May has just released his first book titled ‘Behind the Mask’, which brings together a collection of beautifully drawn masks from the movies, from the very recognizable and iconic to the more obscure and cult films. The book is presented as a game, with the reader guessing the character and their movie.. But as well as a great guessing game, ‘Behind the Mask’ shows us how a well designed mask can make the character, as well as the film, intrigue us, stick in our minds and sometimes haunt us. Take a look and put you film knowledge to the test.

Continue reading “‘Behind the Mask’ by Ben May” →

Q&A with Vasilis Avramidis

2

Taking care of nature and looking after gardens are often mentioned with your work. Are you a gardener?

No. I reference the life and routine of gardeners in a group of works. The gardening process seems to be somewhere close to the process of life sometimes. And this was a starting point of thought, which developed into a painting concept.

On average, how long do you spend on a piece?

Usually it takes about one month if everything goes well, but a painting may be re-worked on after a while if necessary.

How important to you is selling your work for you to make more work?

All artists are always making new work, regardless. Exhibiting is important, because it is the only way that your work can relate to other people. When a painting is acquired by a collector, it’s a way to know it’s appreciated, it’s a great way to support the practice of an emerging artist, and it’s equally positive for the artwork itself, as in this way it takes an independent course. Continue reading “Q&A with Vasilis Avramidis” →