January to March 2010

January to March 2010, originally uploaded by wil_freeborn.

Great work from Wil Freeborn - take a look at the detail and colour full size. Well worth a look through the rest of his Flickr stream.

Natsko Seki

Public Bath, 250 x 250mm, 2008

I went to see the Pick Me Up show at Somerset House yesterday and was really overwhelmed by the amount of great work on show. One artist that really did stand out to me that I'd never seen before was Natsko Seki. Her work is amazingly detailed (which is difficult to get across here) and really fascinating. It's joyful and happy but also quite subtle, and the range of techniques she uses in the pieces she showed seemed to blend together seamlessly, and gave an energetic feeling of depth. Really beautiful stuff. I wish I could of afforded one of her larger pieces, but I did manage to pick up an (unlimited edition I think) print of the gorgeous 'Kite' from the shop for a meagre £20.

It was amazing to see Rob Ryan in action, carefully and determinedly drawing away with an automatic pencil, while one of his glamorous assistants sat cutting away with a scalpel. The room was packed and actually kind of claustrophobic. I would of loved to talk to him, but he was so engrossed I didn't want to disturb him. Also, what am I going to say?! "Hi I'm a huge fan. it's really great for me to be able to meet you. And I'm definitely more important than the other 100 megafans also in here. I can't afford to buy any of your work though." YAWN.

ATMOSPHERE

ATMOSPHERE, originally uploaded by wearebrainstorm.

Atmosphere
18" x 24"
5 color silkscreen print
$30

www.wearebrainstorm.com

Rob Ryan - light and space

Rob Ryan posted these quite beautiful snaps on his new(ish) blog this week. Papercuts aren't just for hanging on walls you know.

Cabin + Cub

Spotted this on the Etsy front page today and loved it straight away! There's something about the slightly angled cut-out and rich swirls that contrast really nicely. A giclee print of an original collage, you can snap up Constant Bird Talk for only $15, from a limited edition of 100 prints.

See more sweet things at the Cabin + Cub Etsy shop and read more about Valerie, her work and her inspirations at the Cabin + Cub blog.

enormouschampion

Not a hugely stocked Etsy shop but some interesting bits and bobs, enormouschampion are a duo with some lovely printy stuff.

Charting the Beatles: Working Schedule, 1963-1966

Charting the Beatles: Working Schedule, 1963-1966, originally uploaded by ChartingTheBeatles.

Charting The Beatles

Shake It

There's quite a lovely Polaroid exhibition at the moment at Battersea Park's Pump House Gallery, featuring a fetching David Hockney composite Nicholas Wilder Studying Picasso, some gorgeous Guy Bourdin images and André Kertész's intriguing portraits of glass blobs. And I never knew that Andy Warhol was responsible for those endless Beauty features in glossy magazines - you know the ones - lightbox + perfume bottles = feature...

Banksy's Steam Roller

I'm not sure the point of this recent Banksy work is to bring to mind Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I'm afraid that's what I'm getting...

does anyone know who painted these?

does anyone know who painted these?, originally uploaded by kweezy mcG.

Mystery solved! It's the talented Graham Carter, and limited edition prints are available online here.

Rob Ryan. Yes, again.

Bristol's Soma Gallery brought some lovely lovely new prints to my attention. (How is this guy not writing songs?)

Kuniyoshi

I went to see the Kuniyoshi exhibition at The Royal Academy last week and thoroughly recommend it. One of the most influential and prolific creators of Ukiyo-e, Kuniyoshi was not only a highly skilled craftsman but also an innovator, developing the use of tryptych. His work covered so many areas, from his famous Warrior series, to political satire (not easy to get away with at the time), narrative, landscape, portraits of actors and popular stage productions, and even his own line in pretty surrealistic shunga. If you can then go when there's a guide to take you round, we tagged onto the group a few times and the guide was really interesting. I hadn't realised that prints of this kind were very mass-market, costing not much more than a couple of bowls of noodles apparently, and were also copied by rival print-houses - there's even a counterfeit version of one of the prints on show for comparison.

Now I'm pretty clueless when it comes to manga and other comic books, but just looking at Kuniyoshi's warrior prints you can clearly see a forerunner to the modern graphic story-telling of Japan, so much so that some of the compositions are deceptively modern, only the slight fade of the ink and wear of the paper give away their age.

There's a (much better written) in depth review of the exhibition here, and more info here.

Picasso: Challenging the Past

I went over to the National Gallery a couple of weeks ago to see the new Picasso exhibition there. I'd really recommend seeing it, it was so interesting. His painting is so full of expression, even when his works vary to such a huge degree stylistically I feel he could not help but communicate a sense of how he felt about the subject. For instance, portraits of his first wife from the beginning of their marriage and a couple from later in their relationship certainly betray a lot of feeling about her beyond those of her being a muse. One felt even sarcastic. I can't say I've felt that about a painting before.

One of the more obvious questions the exhibition presents is that of originality and authenticity - these are all paintings openly based on other artists' previous work - and what that means. What is inspiration, and what is, frankly, copying? Picasso presents a range of works where he more than successfully demonstrates that a confident personal style and vision is what shows through beyond subject matter. I think spirit matters too. A lot of this work felt like it was produced for the enjoyment of painting and exploring the concept first and foremost. Anything slightly more commercial just would not, by it's nature, communicate this spirit.


Olga au col de fourrure, Pablo Picasso, 1923.

Apak

Some psychedelic cuteness from Apak. Available to buy on Etsy. They're also featured on the, erm, charming, Charming Wall gallery.

Paul Catherall

I saw some of Paul Catherall's work, and an interesting short film about his linocut process, at the London Transport Museum this weekend. He has a really distinctive style and uses colours in an unusually poetic way that grabbed my attention - I remember seeing these out and around on the tube.
This particular series, Four Seasons, is available to buy at the Transport Museum Shop.

Saw Your Face

Saw your face, originally uploaded by alistairh.

Something, somewhere in Amsterdam.
It made me smile.

Update: This work is by Marijn van Kreij and Alistair has more info on the exhibition here.

Marian Bantjes - Love Stories

Marian Bantjes has just published a set of fantastic personal work in the latest Monograph (available to Creative Review subscribers only). Luckily the Creative Review blog also has a bit of information about it, and you can see lovely big images of all the work on Marian's website. Each of the beautiful pieces is the story of someone she loves, and you really get a sense of the people behind these.

Ray Fenwick - Magic Tricks

Magic Tricks, originally uploaded by Ray Fenwick.

More lovely stuff. I recommend a good look through his Flickr, it's all fantastic.

Casey O'Connell

There's a great interview with Casey O'Connell over on Josh Spear at the moment. An interesting read and some beautiful work.

from Francis Bacon's 'Detritus'

from Francis Bacon's 'Detritus', originally uploaded by hello.vickibrown.