The Art Of Parties
January 28, 2007
 Well, after saying I'd try and include artists I saw at the London Art Fair in each post. I haven't got round to writing any until now. Amongst the distractions was a trip to Surrey to the Gallery-One Private View of Ronnie Wood paintings. For which I must say a huge thanks to Marian and Co for their hospitality.. and tolerance of us Londoner's who didn't buy a thing but had plenty of the champagne and canapes!
Unfortunately, RW wasn't present himself and we had to make do with Mike Read and Kid Jensen as the "celebs". Erm, ask your parents kids!
Also went back to Volume on Friday, as it ends today, and was disappointed to find there were big queues, time limits to look at the installation... and some interpretive dance we had to endure, before we could get up close and personal with the lights again. That's the trouble with stuff being popular I guess.
Other distractions this week have included Lucy's Birthday lunch, which we had to rush in order to get Jake to Fulham in time to be ball boy at Saturdays 4th Round FA Cup tie with Stoke City. Which was shame really as the food at Il Pagliaccio was really good and you can't do a plate of Gnocchi justice in 15 minutes. Best beef carpaccio I've had for a few years I must say.
So... those artists then! Firstly, two artist represented, at LAF, by the Ingleby Gallery.
Ian Davenport. I should already know his work I guess. He was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1991 and was one of a group of young artists who maintained the tradition of abstract paintings during the late 80s/early 90s. Working with paint, which has been allowed to drip and flow but with a degree of control exerted over it, Davenport says 'The structure of the painting is formed by the paint running into itself. Each of my paintings has evolved from a very deliberate process, not from intuitive marking'.
Garry Fabian Miller. Since the mid eighties he has made essentially abstract photography without camera or film, exploring the possibilities of image making with light itself. There were a few artists that work with light represented this year, including the Carter's of course.
Categories: Art, London, Food & Drink
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London Art Fair
January 21, 2007
 We went to the London Art Fair last Wednesday and I've been meaning to write something up about it ever since. I've not attended the LAF before and it really isn't like any of the other fairs that I have been to. Zoo, Frieze, the Affordable Art Fairs have a pretty high proportion [if not a majority in some cases] of, unknown, or at least relatively so, artists. This was pretty much like doing Cork Street and the regional equivalents in one day.
Very useful, I must say and I was very pleased to see an abundance of St. Ives artists, plenty of Hockney's, even the odd Warhol, Hodgkin, Matisse and Picasso. Saying that; a lot of artists that I wasn't previously aware of, or had seen very little of their work, caught my eye. Consequently I've spent whatever spare time I have had since Wednesday looking up these artists and the galleries exhibiting them. The result of which is 65 artists and to a lesser extent a number of galleries I'd like to mention. Which is obviously far too much for one post, so I'll try to pop a couple of them into each post for the next couple of months, by which time I may have re-evaluated my opinion of a few of them!
I was previously concerned that I might have to DJ at Trev's impending 40th Birthday bash and would be otherwise occupied with trying to find some tunes I could bear to play that people would actually dance to! But it seems there are sufficient DJs now so I've been relieved of that responsibility... so I'd better get on with this list. It's probably as well though, as I've just been listening to M.Ward, Vashti Bunyan and Bert Jansch, which haven't been the most popular choices round here and I doubt they'd fill a dance floor either!
Categories: Music, Art, London
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Beckett's To The Wall
January 14, 2007
 We finally got to see the James Turrell exhibit at the Louise T. Blouin Foundation on Saturday. Fantastic Building, if a little tucked away. I thought the entrance of £10 was a bit steep for what is in effect 20 prints and five "projections" but you don't get to see his work too often over here.
The last time I saw any of Turrell's work was for the eclipse of the sun on August 11th, 1999. Turrell conceived two perceptual spaces: The Elliptic Ecliptic, a "Sky Space" built on a hillside facing St. Michael's Mount, and Arcus, a "Shallow Space" construction in the Newlyn Art Gallery.
After that we wandered over to Books For Cooks, which was far too crowded to browse around but I did spot the painting of Samuel Beckett [above] on the corner of Blenhiem Crescent and Portobello Road. I can't believe I've not noticed this before. Anybody got any idea who was responsible for this?
Categories: Art, London, Books, Food & Drink
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Street Art Inside
January 12, 2007
 We made it to the She One thing at the Union Works tonight. I got some surprisingly good photos, seeing as the flash on my camera seems to have given up the ghost altogether. I ended up using my phone, and then didn't use the flash on that anyway! Definitely need a new camera though.
It was pretty cold in what is, to all intents and purposes, a demolition site [as of tomorrow]. The wind whistled through the place and there were a few large puddles. But the low, mostly red, lighting added to the atmosphere and the building almost overshadowed the work.
Not having seen any of She One's work before I was expecting more textually based work than the Japanese feel of the strokes here. Only a few pieces really worked with the building, rather than just being housed there and most of of the exhibit would really be better suited to the gallery than the street, in my opinion. But I guess this way the two meet halfway.
Still... it'll be a shame to lose some of the pieces, especially the triptych on "found" pieces of metal and the [what I imagine is a larger piece of cut up] paper pieces. But if you don't go tomorrow, you've missed 'em!
See my flickr set: She One @ EXIT
Categories: Art, London, Photography
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Light Moves
January 11, 2007
 Kinetica Museum
SP2 Pavillion
Old Spitalfields Market
London, E1 6AA
Tel: 020 7392 9674
Wed - Sun: 11am - 6pm
Mon-Tue: Closed
rAndom International
On Christmas Eve we staggered round Spitalfields Market, hungover and laden with presents. Probably not a brilliant way to do it, but we hadn't been up there since it was all developed and thought the market would be quite festive. It wasn't particularly. Lunch was good, sitting in the window of Canteen, watching the world go by. What we didn't notice though was the Kinetica Museum.
Starting January 18th, until March 11th, they will be running Luminaries And Visionaries, Kinetica's third major group show, which will present artists working in the fields of projected vision, light and illusion.
This exhibition will feature the work of international luminaries such as Martin Richman, Christian Schiess, Jim Campbell, Sam Buxton, Gregory Barsamian, rAndom International, Dianne Harris, Rob & Nick Carter and Peter Sedgley.
I'm looking forward to seeing more work by Rob & Nick Carter and especially to being introduced to the work of rAndom International.
Categories: Art, London
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Exit... This Way
January 08, 2007
Just when I had my week all planned The Londonist alert me of this...
Illuminate productions present EXIT - The first London solo show of British graffiti artist SheOne/James Choules.
Inspired by abstract typography and expressionism Choules will transform an historical site on the South Bank before its demolition - using bold strokes, emblems and personalised shorthand; a style that has won him acclaim for its quietly dramatic minimalism.
SheOne began making graffiti in his teens and went on to become an influential part of the 80’s graffiti renaissance. Originally inspired by rock/punk music and spray names on the New York subway, some twenty years later SheOne has received international recognition and proved that graffiti has a place in the contemporary art world.
Union Works is a historical grade II listed building a disused factory, that also houses the last remaining bear-baiting arena dating from the 1680’s. The site has a unique energy, vast size, temporal structure and historical importance. The building will be demolished when the exhibition ends with the paintings still intact – A film documentary will be made of the destruction.
6th January – 13th January 2007
Union Works, New Globe Walk, London. SE1 9EB
12pm to 7pm - FREE
MAP
Categories: Art, London
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Should You Be Laughing At This?
January 05, 2007
 Got a great little book from Kerry & Rob for my birthday - Should You Be Laughing At This? by Hugleikur Dagsson.
Soooo wrong. In fact I'm surprised Penguin published it. It seems to have upset quite a few folk anyway, if the press cuttings on his MySpace page are anything to go by. Craig Taylor is less outraged in this piece in the Guardian though.
Right: One of the less offensive cartoons...
Categories: Art, Books
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Musical Peripherals
January 03, 2007
 Seems everyone is creating USB versions of stuff to attach to your PC... We've already had the turntable and guitar, now the ever wonderful Firebox have a Drum Kit and a Mixing Kit. Whether or not these can be used with software such as Reason or Ableton Live, I've yet to find out.
I quite like the idea of Mogopop as well. Mogopop supposedly rolls your video, audio, pictures and text into a single piece of iPod content that anyone can download. You can register and download free content on Mogopop or start creating and publishing your own free content. My first attempt produced no images on the iPod and I can't see how you are able to remove any unwanted content after you've downloaded it yet. It also requires you to install a Download Manager, so the content isn't managed by iTunes.
Categories: Music, Web
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Happy New Year
January 01, 2007
 Shame that 3 couldn't get their network together to allow me to text folk last night. Fun and games were had round Chez Phillips with games of Buzz and Wii in the afternoon followed by a long messy night grooving to Rob and Kev's tunes then a bracing walk home about 8.00am this morning.
Spent the day loading the new Nano I bought on Saturday.
Court House Hotel Bar
It was hell in Oxford Street but we found a quiet place for an overpriced drink or two in the Court House Hotel, which used to be Marlborough Street Magistrates Court - A lot more enjoyable to my previous visit to said building in its former use!
Followed by a fantastic sausage and mash at Mother Mash. A very friendly, reasonably priced cafe/pie and mash shop style place on Ganton Street, near Carnaby Street. Both Sam and I had the Champ mash. A traditional Irish mash with milk, butter, cheddar cheese and spring onions. I had Beef and Guinness sausages with onion gravy and Sam had the Lincolnshire with farmers gravy. Very large portions of mash and extra gravy in a jug. Brilliant! Must go back and try the pies.
Categories: Music, London, Food & Drink
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