Category: Art Circus Spotlight

Alan Craxford
New Book and Launch

In Search of the Blindingly Obvious
In this, Alan Craxford’s first book, he shares a unique insight into his artistic life.
With a career spanning over 50 years, he is an artist, designer, jeweller, silversmith, engraver, teacher, thinker and an inspiration to those who aspire to create.
Acknowledged for his precision and mastery of precious metals and gemstones, his aim has always been to work with the inner creative worlds to manifest beautiful artefacts that speak to those who care to understand.
Through the two parts of this book, Alan shares stories that illustrate the journey of his work and inspiration.
Each piece – however modest or grand – comes from a place of meaning and it is clear that making beautiful, individual objects has been his spiritual practice and life’s endeavour.
Alan believes that the creative process is accessible to everyone.
It can be nurtured and enhanced because it is inherently present in our lives.
Once we become attuned to it, creativity becomes an ever-present force that we cannot simply switch off.
Creativity is not just personal but a means to enrich the lives of everyone.









Visit Alan Craxford

Paul Knight
New Book – Entanglement

Entanglement
A series of still life photographs utilising a technique known as Painting With Light.

Long camera exposures and a moving light source to create a soft painterly quality
reminiscent of the paintings from the Dutch Golden Age of Art.















Visit Paul Knight

Shari Denson & Karen McBride
A Very Insecure Exhibition

Manchester based music photographers Karen McBride and Shari Denson presented a one-night exhibition and book launch in Manchester’s city centre on 22nd February at the Projekts MCR Skateboard park beneath Manchester’s Mancunian Way. Both women are known for their often grainy, atmospheric black and white images of well known bands as well as lesser known local talent.

A Very Insecure Exhibition displayed work dating back to the beginning of the millennium, such as Elbow, I am Kloot, Editors, James Brown, Interpol, Ian Brown, Morrissey, Scissor Sisters, Al Green, amongst other works.
The book was a special double-cover edition produced by UKGiclee and published by Art Circus Books.
Available from UKGiclee.co.uk.

Both Shari and Karen shot primarily on black and white film until around 2010, giving their respective work in such low light situations a distinctive high contrast look. Their paths had crossed in the photo pit at gigs many times since those earlier years, but they were finally brought together last year by their inclusion in ‘Suffragette City’ – an exhibition featuring portraits of 25 of Manchester’s most influential women in music, organised by Manchester Digital Music Archive.

Shari and Karen were interviewed by Manchester music-journalist John Robb.


Continue reading “Shari Denson & Karen McBride
A Very Insecure Exhibition” →

The Art Circus Selection from
The Hampstead Affordable 2019

Artist: Je Shen
Title: Pink Meditation
Medium: Oil Painting
Gallery: Galleria Palmaarte

 

Artist: Park. Sung Sik
Title: I am who I am
Medium: Oil Painting & Plaster relief on Canvas
Gallery: GaGa Gallery Seoul

 

Continue reading “The Art Circus Selection from
The Hampstead Affordable 2019″ →

Makers of Marks
James Freeman Gallery

Sam Branton’s delicate pencil drawings reference the mezzoprints of English artists such as George Stubbs and John Martin. In his gentle but surreal works, Sam develops the romantic and exotic themes of his source materials, presenting fantastical animals in much the same way as Stubbs depicted Australian fauna, but with the dramatic lighting of Martin’s landscapes.

As he often works in groups of drawings, Sam then produces his series as a book, crossing the line back into the realm of print from yet another angle. In this way Sam plays with the idea of the drawing & print as a connoisseur’s reference material, albeit in the context of an imagined world of surreal absurdity.

Makers of Marks
James Freeman Gallery
08/03/2018 – 31/03/2018

Drawing and printmaking have much shared history and enjoy a deeply interwoven relationship, but even so, contemporary artists still find new ways of making them play off each other. In ‘Makers of Marks’ at the James Freeman Gallery, three artists who experiment with this relationship against a background of classical references: Daniel Hosego, Sam Branton and Jon Braley. Continue reading “Makers of Marks
James Freeman Gallery” →

Luciferase by Sam Branton
A New Art-Circus Book

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Elephant Calf with Flamboyance, colour pencil on paper, 24 x 36 cm, 2017

Art Circus is pleased to announce the publication of our newest book Luciferase, a collection of 17 monochrome drawings by Samuel Branton. They follow on from his previous series Deluge which imagined the aftermath and impact on wildlife after a great flood. In Luciferase, Branton uses light from natural phenomena to illuminate what might be taking place during if animals were left in the dark for too long.

The Luciferase drawings are inspired by the mezzotints of John Martin, the ink drawings of Samuel Palmer and the paintings of George Stubbs. Branton’s drawings depict impish and arcane encounters lit up by a hypnotic pulsating glow. We see a heron, pinching a fish from a lion’s mouth; an elephant calf watching as a flock of flamingos soar overhead; a monkey carrying a beached narwhal back to the water; and an elephant calf trying to free a sailfish from a tree.

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A New Art-Circus Book” →

RePortrait at Nottingham Castle
27th May – 10th September

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Reportrait presents thirteen artists who have reimagined historical sources, altered or disrupted typical notions of how the portrait is defined, or used an image or reproduction as a starting point to create something new.

Consisting of new commissions made in direct response to Nottingham City Museums & Galleries collections, alongside loans, and works straight from the artist’s studios, the exhibition showcases painting, photography, installation, digital art, sculpture, video and drawing, many of which have never been seen in public before.

Philip Gurrey, Maisie Broadhead, Glenn Brown, Sasha Bowles, Paul Stephenson, Matthieu Leger, Annie Kevans, Antony Micallef, Jasleen Kaur, Samin Ahmadzadeh, Julie Cockburn, James E Smith and Jake Wood-Evans Continue reading “RePortrait at Nottingham Castle
27th May – 10th September” →

The Art Circus selects the best of
The London Art Fair 2017

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Artist: Ray Caesar
Artist Website
Title: Aria
Medium: Drawing, Multiple, Photography, Print
Gallery: James Freeman

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The London Art Fair 2017″ →

In Search of an Author by Lex Thomas
An Art Circus Book

1Lex Thomas

In Search of an Author is a collection of 62 fluidly drawn ink studies, individual drawings in their own right, but interlinked by the subject of belief and the stories we tell ourselves. Artist Lex Thomas examines unexplained natural phenomena such as the supernatural and paranormal as well as magic, cults and UFO religions. The effect is a non-textual, fragmentary narrative echoing the idea that ‘truth is in the eye of the beholder’. The title acknowledges the playwright Pirandello, credited with breaking through the ‘fourth wall’ with his creation of Mirror Theatre.

In Search of an Arthur is currently available at BookArtBookShop, Shoreditch, Gosh! London or direct from Lex Thomas’ Website.

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An Art Circus Book” →