New York Kings was a group show, held at the Pure Evil Gallery. This exhibition contained many famous graffiti writers from NY. "A unique exhibition of the godfathers of graffiti art using New York subway maps as their canvas to tell their 30 year story while remaining true to their roots. This is a rare opportunity to see examples of a genre that is often temporary by its very nature."
Pure Evil gallery is a very small and hidden space, but it suited this particular exhibition perfectly, as the public doesn't get much insight in to the world of graffiti writers anyway.
I really enjoyed this exhibition, there were many outstanding works, some of my favourite techniques were collaging and preparing backgrounds for the final piece.
Sound and Vision exhibition was a single artist show by Shepard Fairey, held at the Stolen Space Gallery. I thought this show was one of the most interesting ones I have seen so far in terms of layout and curating. There was a small exhibition in the main gallery, few steps outside on the corner there was a store selling Obey merchandise, even the shop had some lovely touches to it in the theme of this show. In another, much bigger space was where the main exhibition took place. And he pasted his works around Shoreditch in order to promote the exhibition. You could really make an evening out of this whole event. As a viewer I was intrigued and couldn't get enough of the art work. Shepard Fairey uses such a big variety of materials and techniques to produce his work, sometimes big masses of work can be unpleasantly overwhelming like when you go to a museum for example, but this was different because each piece had so much character and vibrancy to it there was no way of getting sick of seeing everything.
I cant put my finger on a favourite piece of his, but I do like a couple of techniques he used. Collage is one of them, he pastes on layers up on layers of various aged advertisement and newspaper sheets to create a background and then screen prints designs on to it. Second technique is screen printing on to metal and wood, its something I always wanted to try.
Overall the show was great, he really made an event out of an exhibition, we don't get too see many other artists doing so very often.
This exhibition was a group show, by a diverse range of designers, practitioners and artists who see typography as big part of their practice. The idea of this project was to gather various discourse from these people and generate a book. Visual pieces followed as an afterthought, each participant was given a chance to produce a visual piece of work in response to the Future Type Map.
Holding this exhibition at the Kemistry Gallrey seems perfect, as its a very neutral space, so the works can speak for itself. As a viewer and a typography lover I felt really inspired by the whole project and visual works that came with it. I thought this exhibition helped me towards my Thesis research, as my topic of interest is the future of the book, and type goes hand in hand with the printed book. I also discovered many new and exciting designers, which I will be researching further to get inspiration and develop my views on typography.
The Charm of Hummingbirds took place at the Outsiders Gallery in Soho, exhibition space span between two stories, the building itself looked very old and small, which makes the work seem more intimate and more connected to the viewer. Dimmed lighting also added to the exhibition, which I think was the artists aim., as some of the work was painted directly on to the walls of the gallery to create an illusion that the viewer is part of the tropical forest. I thought that was an unusual way to showcase work, but most definitely in a good way. As to me it shows artists dedication and passion for the exhibition.
My favourite pieces were the three dimensional perspex images, layered pieces of glass inside the frame with hand painted hummingbirds looked beautiful as a set of six. I really liked the colour scheme he used, each painting looked very vibrant with a hint of metallics. These particular works caught my eye mostly because they looked slightly different from each angle due to their dimension that's what sets them apart from the rest.
Overall I really liked his technique, combining bold spots and drips of paint with delicate paint brush strokes to produce the humming birds.
Hide and Seek was a single artist show by Malika Favre, held at the Kemistry Gallery in Shoreditch. Kemistry Gallery is one of my favourites, as they often showcase a wide range of works by artists and designers. The gallery itself is the size of a living room, I think small spaces give displayed works some kind of closeness between the viewer and the art work. There was a beautiful doorway piece painted outside of the gallery, it looked intriguing and inviting from the outside on the street. There wasn't much explanation to each piece of work, but they looked very powerful none the less. Works were shown in a large format, they were a little overwhelming from up close as the repetitive geometric shapes and lines created optical illusions.
I particularly liked Blinds and Balconies works, as previously mentioned they had a very powerful optical illusion and were beautifully screen printed. I also like the idea of solid black and white blocks of colours with a hint of strong primary colour. I felt like the artist wanted to create a vibe of mystery, which was successfully achieved through out the whole exhibition.
While visiting Belgium during Easter, I went to the Atomium a structure that was built in 1958 for the first world fair after war. Inside there was an exhibition called concrete walls based on the rapid development of concrete architecture from 1958-1980. I think Atomium as a venue really connects to this particular exhibition, as it shows the way Belgium and the rest of the world developed and picked themselves up after the war.
As a viewer I was lead around different levels of Atomium by various photographs, maquettes and prototypes of architectural structures. I thought it was very impressive the way all the prototypes looked so beautiful, there was so much form and structure behind all the buildings mentioned at the exhibition. It felt like a mix between architecture and sculpture.
Works that stood out the most for me were, headquarters my Marcel Breuer, civil engineering arrow by Jean Van Doosselaere and an office building by Constantin Brodzki. All of these architectural pieces look extraordinary for the time they were built in, and even today they can still be considered as modern architecture. I also really admire the beauty of repeating patterns.
I have expanded my knowledge on Architecture after visiting this exhibition, even though I have always had an interest on this subject I feel like there's always something new to learn from exhibitions like this.
On the weekend I went to a show at the Historic Dockyard, it was filled with beautiful cars and steam trains on display outside. There was also an exhibition on works of art from the guild of railway artists. The venue for this exhibition is perfect as the Historic Dockyard has a past of steam train transportation. The gallery space was quite small but none the less works displayed were very impressive. There wasn't much information on the works apart from who they were by, I think it would of helped to provide viewers with a little bit more background information to the works.
I really liked how life like all the paintings were, however the ones that caught my eye were pieces by Matthew Cousins his works had a graphic feel to them, as he introduced text to the rail paintings. I also like how simple and beautiful the colour schemes are in all of the works.
After viewing this exhibition I have been inspired to produce vintage feel lino cut posters in the future, perhaps as a side project.
Pick me up was a contemporary graphic art fair, filled with great young artists and designers. I feel like this exhibition has been the most relevant to my practice this year, as there were displays of various printmaking works and a few graphic design pieces. The fair took place at the Somerset House, this place is quite well known for holding out door cinema viewings and its historical background.
Pick me up was spread across three different levels of the building, as a viewer I felt like the work was leading me through the space because I wanted to see more. The great part of this event was that not only could I be an observer, I was given an opportunity to take part in producing work by participating in various workshops.Having workshops at such event is a great idea! After viewing amazing pieces of work at the gallery I felt very inspired and taking part in creating something on the spot can prove to be challenging and fun at the same time, a good way to test imagination too.
I really admire most work at the fair, but my favourites were all collages by Krisjana S Williams, she uses nature as her main theme for her work. I particularly like a butterfly piece, which has been collaged on to a gold background using various beautiful colourful butterfly wings.
I also really enjoyed a series of small screen prints by Michael Kirkham called 'Inside'. The series contains three prints of the same image screen printed in single different colours.
This fair has motivated me a lot and I also picked up some ideas for future projects, it has given me something to aspire to for the future.
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| John Smith, 'Lord Buckhurst and Lady Sackville' 1695 |
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| Bernard Lens ii, 'The fireworks display' 1695 |
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Carl Wilhelm Kolbe, 'I too lived in Arcadia', Germany, AD 1801
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