5 tons of charity clothes

Rag-rug workshop run by Lizzie Harrison (remadeinleeds.org).

Installation about sorting of cast-off clothing that happens in the UK before going off on various recycling routes.

‘Shoddy’ textile art by kategoldsworthy.co.uk

The hanging method used for the whole exhibition. Printed entirely on recycled paper (a first for photography exhibitions) and built into grids.

Upcycling workshop run by Lizzie Harrison (remadeinleeds.org).

The Ship-Breaking Room. All about ship-breaking in the UK, including a 2yr timelapse.

The Colour Room. All about the value of colour in recycling clothing within the Shoddy industry

A room about the flocking industry, which uses cast-off clothing

Photos by Tim Mitchell www.timmitchellphotography.co.uk

Did you know that around 100,000 tonnes of ‘shoddy’ (used clothes) each year end up in mills in South Asia? Where the workers are paid less than £1.50 a day to work long hours in unhygienic conditions to turn your clothes into threads and then remake them into fabric?

This was a pop up exhibition the Bargehouse a large derelict building just behind the OXO Tower in Jan 2012. It highlighted five years research by Waste of the World into where our donated clothes go; something that most of us are totally in the dark about.

It was curated by Dr Lucy Norris, whose research the textile recycling industry lead her to put on the show with artist Clare Patey. It was produced arts organisation Holy Mountain.

In the first room the journey began with a pile donated clothes. What most people do not realise is that stock charity shops cannot sell is sold on to commercial textile wholesalers. What they do not know is that, unwittingly, they are funding an unethical business. Also disturbing is that the ‘charity’ bags that are posted though your letterbox are often from commercial enterprises posing as charities. 

Oxfam does recognise this and is looking into ways to combat this issue.

A tax that would be levied on clothes being taken over seas is surpassed by cutting or ‘maiming’ the clothes, deeming them un-wearable. They are crushed down onto pallets and driven over the boarders into Bangladesh and India. The loop-hole means that the traders can make huge profits on these unwanted clothes.

Most of the workers in the factories are migrant workers. In the last room of the exhibition there was a video interview with a woman who worked in a mill in India. Her life was a rented room, living with her husband and numerous children, and her work was sifting through clothes, sorting them into colours. She really wanted to travel, especially to America. She had never met Westerners and, she believed them to be very beautiful and also rich - in order to be able to throw away their clothes. She believed them to care a lot about what they looked like.

The ironic thing, or perhaps one ironic thing, was that she herself was beautiful, and her clothes were gorgeous and colourful and she seemed, despite everything, to be smiling. What was clear was that on both sides of the coin we are ignorant. We know very little about what happens to our unwanted clothes even charitable organisations know very little themselves, and even more hidden is the working conditions and the lives of the people who recycle them.

More information:

http://www.wornclothing.co.uk/events/everything-must-go/press-release/

Follow the journey of waste clothes from the UK in these videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/WasteoftheWorld

Almost 100 pieces were attached to walls and street furniture in random places outside the gallery. Spotting them was half the fun. Work from Raymond Salvatore Harmon, Lewis Bannister, Sean Worrall, Julieta Hernández Adame and Jo T Colvert were among them. Everything was yours for the price of nothing, although a hug was welcomed. Make sure you check out their facebook page for more events like this, they seem to happen sporadically.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cultivate-Vyner-Street/260577023973282

And little yarn bomb appeared on a lamp post!

A major theme to this show is the portrayal of the human form such as Jonathan Baldock’s Henry Moore-inspired felt sculptures and Sarah Gillham‘s arrangements of delicate ornaments, antique mirrors, floral fabrics and items from a ladies’ boudoir.

Arranged in seamless affinity with the surroundings, the delicate miniature sculptures of Annie Attridge are inspired by 18th century porcelain that would have adorned the marble mantlepieces in houses such as this one.

Used paper cups are the canvas of choice for Paul Westcombe who started illustrating them to relieve the boredom of night shifts as a car park attendant. His detailed cartoons delve into a sci-fi world of death and destruction. Similarly Mindy Lee uses paper plates. What looks like the leftovers of a tea party are on closer inspection religious deities, appearing out of a jumble of acrylic paint and mixed media, such as iced gems. Set on a long table, the installation alludes to the Last Supper.

Anthea Hamilton (Leg Chair 2010), Jonathan Baldock Reclining Figure (2010)

Jonathan Baldock

Sarah Gillham I think I might be drowning (2009), fabric, mirrors, collage, bell jar & glass salt cellars

Annie Attridge, porcelain scupltures

Mindy Lee, individual paper plates from Have your cake and eat it (2010)

Paul Westcombe, series In the morning, in the shower, I saw the shit run down your leg (2010)

Eri Itoi, drawings

Neither artist is known for taking themselves too seriously; this exhibition is a gentle pastiche, without being disgustingly ironic either. From Picasso to Gilbert and George, Matisse to Freud, and a hilarious Dali rework they’ve got them all. And you can get your coat dry cleaned while you wait.

Jasper Joffe: “I like to multitask, so the dry cleaning element of our Tate Modern is really handy.”

Jasper Guerilla Girls Currin

Harry Basquiat

Jasper Mondrian, Jasper Noland and Harry Olitski

 Thanks to Marek Borysiewicz, www.bor2bcreative.com, for the photos.

 Till 3^rd of January 2011

Unit 24 gallery

www.unit24.info

24 Great Guildford Street (behind Tate Modern)

SE1 0ED London

Admission Free

 After a year spent staging pop up events in temporary locations,  the Lava Collective  have a gallery of  their own. Following the success of the Ashes 57 show in October, Kingly Court is going to be their first permanent art space. They’ll be selling originals and prints from an international network of artists. Their be a base from which to co-ordinate a new series of pop up shows in vacant shops throughout the Soho area.

The grand opening of the LAVA Gallery is on Saturday 4th December. Barefoot Wine have kindly offered to sponsor the occasion, so stop by anytime from 2pm onwards to enjoy a glass or two.The opening show will feature artwork by; Ashes 57, Bruno 9li, Jo Peel, Stik, Neck Face, Swoon, Vhils, Cleon Peterson and Kill Pixie.

LAVA Gallery, 1.11 Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London, W1B 5PW
Open Daily, 11am-7pm. Sunday: 12pm-6pm
Grand Opening: Saturday, 4th December 2pm onward

Shout out to artists: The Lava Gallery is taking submissions from artists who wish to have their work shown. If you want your work to be considered, please send pictures & info to: artsleuth@hotmail.com

Location THE RESIDENCE
229 Victoria Park Road, E9 7HD
London, United Kingdom

Created by:
www.residence-gallery.com, and Alex Chappel

More info
Decima & The Residence present a show of portraits of Art Pops and Art Pops hero Richard Martin (1954-2010), by Richard himself and by Art Pops.

Featuring many art pops work depicting other art pops including Richard’s son Lewis Martin, Harry Pye, Ian Wright, Jason Gibilaro, Jackson Ferguson, Oliver Dungey, Ingrid Z, Alex Chappel, Geraldine Ryan, Gabriella, Simon Ould and poems from Steve Micalef.

PLEASE GET THERE QUITE EARLY – to… catch Steve Micalef’s wonderful poems about Richard – Unfortunately the gallery has recently been the victim of an irritated neighbour complaining about noise – so please don’t assume that this event will over-run, as has become typical of the gallery….

One of Richard’s greatest quotes was about a Decima show at The Residence back in May – making the venue all the more appropriate:

“dear art pops ON SUNDAY 30-5-10 3-6pm decima arts present a high art and high tea afternoon at the exclusive RESIDENCE ART GALLERY 229 VICTORIA PARK RD E9 7HD where the finest quality tea and cakes will be served in this magnifent new gallery see www.residence-gallery.com I of course shall be there dress code : decorum and panache this gallery could be described as the guggenheim gallery of London’s east end : andre breton style surrealism meets hollywood glamour meets 21C futurism and street art chique – this is the place to be seen- be prepared for the typically scintillating mix of decima style high and low culture and conversation -this could be the new Gertrude Stein / AndyWarhol/Sid James art salon and a dynamo for the cutting edge – hope you can make it”- www.artpopsartpops.blogspot.com cheers richard !

www.residence-gallery.com

Richard’s Art Pops lives on at www.privateviews.co.uk

Last week saw the work of Ksenia Maximova, the Russian supermodel turned artist, portraits by Daniel Whiteson – designer and artist, and the inventive work of mixed-media artist Susan Hippe. All along with the incredibly talented fine art of Adele Stephenson and much, much more.

Sophia Burns.

Ksenia Maximova.

Will Kendrick, Circle Painting, 50 x 50 cm. www.willkendrick.co.uk

Dan Maynard. www.danmaynard.com

Marie F Turner. www.mariefturner.com

Daniel Whiteson.

Susan Hippe, mixed media. www.absoluteart.com/susanhippe

Andrew Liu.

João Donato. www.jonassaneceramics.blogspot.com

Adele Stephenson. www.throughtheglassdarkly.co.uk

The Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair 2010

Week One 01-03 October:
Painting, Sculpture, Time Based Media
Preview evening: Thursday 30th Sept 6.30-9pm
Open hours: Friday: 1-7pm Sat & Sun: 12-6pm

Week Two 08-10 October:
Photography, Illustration, Graphics, Printmaking
Preview evening: Thursday 7th Oct. 6.30-9pm
Open hours: Friday: 1-7pm Sat & Sun: 12-6pm

Week Three 15-17 October:
Fashion, Textiles, Jewellery
Preview evening: Thursday 14th Oct 6.30-9pm
Friday: 1-7pm (Friday – Fashion Show 2pm and 5pm)
Sat & Sun: 12-6pm

Week Four 22-24 October:
Design Products, Furniture, Ceramics, Glass
Preview evening: Thursday 21st Oct 6.30-9pm
Friday: 1-7pm Sat & Sun: 12-6pm

Anthony Gormley, 2010

The Save Area10 Campaign is to try to stop Southwark Council’s plans to close the much loved arts organisation, Area10, Eagle Wharf, Peckham. Area10 has specialised in bring ambitious and worthwhile events and projects based in Fine Arts, Perforative Arts, Circus, and Theatre for the last eight years, and is the bed rock of South East London’s artistic community. Please see www.savearea10.org for details and testimonials. Noteworthy supporters include Anthony Gormley, Gavin Turk, South London Gallery, Cedar Lewisohn (Curator of Rude Britannia at Tate Britain) and Matthew Stone, as news continues travel, more and more people in all areas of the world are coming forward to show the support and solidarity for the importance of Area10 within our Culture.

**Save Area10 Picket Party**Saturday 10th July**10pm – 3am**

 A party where all visitors, instead of paying, will be bringing signs, banners, slogans and placards supporting and celebrating the Save Area10 Campaign and the importance of Independent Arts in London. Dancing all night whilst protesting. 

Acts to play in kind are: Girl Unit b2b Mr Charisma (Night Slugs)/ Off Modern Djs/ My Panda Shall Fly / Legendary Children / Dollop Djs / Blaise Bellville / Throwing Snow & Amenta / Chairman Kato / Young Montana? / LuckyPDF Djs / Pat And Trevor Djs / Jeraine / Rough Trade Djs

Save Area10 Party Facebook Event

Supporters

Bob and Roberta Smith, who have donated their ʻMake Art, Not Warʼ placard to help inspire others to make supportive banners.

South London Gallery

Matthew Stone (Artist/Shaman)

Cedar Lewisohn (Curator of Rude Britannia at Tate Britain)

Melanie Jackson (Head of Sculpture at Slade School of Art)

Matt Franks (Head of Sculpture at Camberwell College of Art)

House of Fairy Tales

Kate Morross (designer)

Hannah Barry Gallery

www.savearea10.org

Save Area10 Facebook Group

Next time you happen to be in Kennington you should find time to have a glance at the paintings in the small bay window of number 6 Windmill Row, a sleepy village-like row of shops just off Kennington Road. Here is the home and studio of Elizabeth Cope, the Irish-born artist.

This month it’s her daughter Phoebe Cope who has taken residency, working on new paintings – mostly large-scale oil works – with an intense palette of bright colours. Her work is classically and art historically minded, scenes taken from Italian houses and London monuments, also figurative works and some sculptures. You can track an obvious influence from Matisse’s work and those who followed him, combined with a folk-like semblance. 

She evolves what starts as realistic landscapes in several ways, sometimes by creating highly detailed, colourful and patterned versions – a craft-like side to her work which brings out beautiful and imaginative elements. More of a surrealist edge comes into play in some of the works – objects, faces, house interiors and parts of other landscapes are fused into the overall space creating a mythical narrative between the parts. In the above paintings they are taken from Classical history and Shakespearian stories (‘Journeys’ as Phoebe refers them).

Recently she has had sitters for portraits, locals who pop by, part of what seems to be a bit of a South London community of like-minded people including a local politician and a journalist from a London paper. A piece she is working on, an enormous canvas rolled up in the corner of the room, is in the process of becoming a life-sized group portrait of her friends which will hopefully will be on show for her open evening coming up next week on the 22 June. 

6 WINDMILL ROW, KENNINGTON, LONDON SE11 5DW

 tube: Kennington, Vauxhall bus: 3,59,159, (opposite Pizza Express)

Open Daily

www.phoebecope.com

www.elizabethcope.com

+44 (0)20 7735 2085

But the fun has just started, coming up over the next few weeks there are some real showstoppers.

Art Festivals:

Concrete and Glass, 13th-27th May 2010

The return of this most excellent of East End art festivals. This year artists include: Alexander Baynes, Alice Anderson, Ben Long, Brass Art Collective, Charlotte Warner Thomas, Claire Morgan, Clarisse D’Arcimole, Lilah Fowler, Matt Clark, Oliver Beer, Paul Westcombe, Robert Montgomery, Suki, Chan, Tamsin Snow, Thomas Lindvig, Tim Head, Tim Phillips, Tyson Howard

A panel of art experts will select a “winner” who will be offered a solo show at the following year’s festival. This year’s panellists include John Kieffer, Creative Director Sound & Music, Paul Hobson, Director of the Contemporary Art Society, and Sabine Unamun, of the Arts Council, as well as other representatives from the world of arts and music – names to be confirmed.

The art exhibitions will be presented in collaboration with 20 Hoxton Square Projects and the Sound Art & Music performances will take place at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.

For an idea see here for review and images of the last show. It was fantastic. Look out for a review on this coming shortly.

Free entry Hoxton Square

disPLACEment Festival – 8^th-15^th May

Across various venues in Southwark in a week of events by Arts 4 Human Rights charity – including visual artworks and installations, theatre, live performances, music, films, talks with experts, and schools and community workshops – through which they aim to highlight human rights issues.

Free entry Southwark area

Art Openings – Opening nights – early May :

Grabbing the headlines is Stuart Pearson Wright’s new exhibition at Riflemaker. Little to do with him being the brilliantly humorous artist he is, the press have got wind that a certain someone will be appearing in a short film directed by Wright. Oh yes! None other than Keira Knightly! Perhaps Riflemaker needs to think about investing in a red carpet…

‘I Remember You’ – OPENING – 5 May  (Paintings) – Saturday 26 June 2010 Riflemaker – 79 Beak Street, W1

Maze: a film installation by Stuart Pearson Wright, (the one with Kiera) Private view Wednesday 26th May, 6 – 9pm, 1 Berwick Street, London W1F 0DR, Exhibition continues until Wednesday 9th June Mon – Fri 11am – 6pm, Sat 12pm – 6pm

The Young Unknowns: those rebels from yesteryear are putting on a new show. The 6^th Salon de Collage. It’s all a little hush hush, but for those up for a little adventure see more at www.theyoungunknowns.co.uk.
Opening night 6 May

Subway Gallery – ‘Rock is my life’:

Totally by coincidence more original punk culture at this exhibition where Marc Zermati, founder of the first independent punk rock label in ’73 will open his files and boxes and display a range of rare posters, original drawings and lithographs.
Opening night 6 May
Till 29 May 2010

Charles Mason: Is showing his quirky sculptures (cum office furniture de-constructed) wall drawings and photographs at Nettie Horn
Opening night 6 May. Till 20 June 2010

Young Art 2010- Opening 11^th May – A competition for find the best in Young Art, taken by schools and children in hospitals around the country is now going to be on exhibition at The Royal College of Art only till the 13th of May so get down there sharpish!

Photo – gallery layout: Ben Westoby
Courtesy White Cube, London and Galerie Gebr. Lehmann , Berlin | Dresden

Eberhard Havekost
Gast 2, B10
2010
Oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 51 3/16 in. (200 x 130 cm)
© the artist
Photo: Werner Lieberknecht
Courtesy White Cube, London and Galerie Gebr. Lehmann , Berlin | Dresden

Eberhard Havekost
Gast 4, B10
2010
Oil on canvas (9 canvases)
Polyptych, each: 78 3/4 x 51 3/16 in. (200 x 130 cm)
© the artist
Photo: Werner Lieberknecht
Courtesy White Cube, London and Galerie Gebr. Lehmann , Berlin | Dresden

Having got dates wrong Art Sleuth ended up at the White Cube last Thursday. Knowing there would be free beers without fail it was the obvious decision for a thirsty art lover. 

The Hoxton branch is showing Eberhard Havekost’s new work, a painter that is known for his Doig-like approach to painting. He starts with a photo and deconstructs the image so that it takes on a more compressed, stylistic result. Unlike Peter Doig his paintings tend to be stunted, usually fixed close-ups  – such as on an edge of a building or a skewed image of a wing of an aeroplane. Because of this they have little of the sense of drama that Doig’s paintings have. Instead they concentrate on form and line, using shadow or light to bring out static composition more than movement or atmosphere.

Havakost’s exhibition consists mainly of a series of paintings of a fir tree. ‘Gast’ or Guest considers how you would look at a tree at night, the ‘distortedness’ that comes from night photography – the flash of the camera showing up as red outlines in some of the works – and the idea of haunting and memory. The use of toned down pastel shades, the conversion of object to line and composition are part of his style; these paintings are placid, detail filtered out, like the image has become ‘over-saturated’. 

Similarly other paintings that are exhibited intermittently between the series of the nine ‘Gast’ works are simple, negative spaces. Rainbow colours – almost like ink blotted out in water. Also a wonky view of a corridor, compressed and redefined in oranges and reds. 

Havekost’s work is not the easiest to like – perhaps. With so much of contemporary art being forward-looking in its content, or ‘shouty’, or about the spectacle, his paintings seem a little introspective and a touch banal. They are about form and composition and toned down atmosphere. Yet once you accept this, they begin to work their meditative charm.

(And perhaps because the White Cube has not made its name by exhibitions like this, we entered on the back foot….)

‘Guest’, White Cube Hoxton Square, London
26 March – 1 May 2010

 One tenth of a huge private collection focusing on contemporary and emerging art is being exhibited in the 176 project space, an old Methodist church in Chalk Farm. It is the first time even this much of the collection has been on show, over two hundred works out of two thousand collected by Anita Zabludowicz, a founding supporter of The Zoo Art Fair. If you haven’t got to it yet it is a must see, so get down there sharpish.

The quirky, decorative interior, and powerful stone pillar entrance lends a theatrical glamour, a perfect setting for the ‘salon style hang’ chosen by the curator Anna-Catharina Gebbers . A refreshing departure from the concrete white cube which, you could say, is becoming a bit of a ‘Noughties’ phenomenon.

There are some classic pieces and many works by impressive artists that have not yet become the superstars they hopefully will. Plus the odd name dropper – e.g. that photograph of Tracy Emin arranging money to go where, perhaps, it shouldn’t. The great mixture in content, style and curatorial freedom encourages the viewer to find their own random connections and associations between works. The shear scale of pieces allows you to trace trends in the UK and international art scene over last decade. Death, transience and religion seemed  to reoccur in many of the pieces, the depiction of the human skull for instance has become a popular icon, from paintings such as Skull by Tomery Dodge in the back hall, Nathan Mabry’s weird bronze skulls with animal masks, and a white motorbike helmet cut into a skull shape by Mike Nelson, to mention just a few of its uses in thei exhibition. (Perhaps with the late Alexander McQueen’s iconic scarf and old Damien Hirst with his diamond skull – it is have become a growing symbol of the last decade.)

One of the most impressive rooms is the double height space behind the main hall; showing a suspension of DIY tools from ceiling to floor, Five Tools in a Straight Line, Grayham Hudson, and a totally retro 80′s neon/black and white patterned structure, Dollar City, (which would not look of place in the Three Men and a Little Baby’s penthouse even though it was made in 2008) by Gosha Ostretsov. And the more earthy work by Nicole Wermers, Untitled Bench – incorporating purple slate, golden quartzite and mixed glacier with sand and acrylic.

Look out for Colin Chilag and David Quan’s immense pencil drawn comic strip (interspersed with pockets of detailed miniature paintings) debating the existence of God through hypothetical Where’s Wally conundrums.

On until the 9^th of May. Free. Visitor’s tours on Sunday at 3pm, with talks by the artist’s – see website for dates.

http://www.projectspace176.com/

Apartment no. 21 of the Clearlake Hotel, 18/20 Prince of Wales Terrace, Kensington, London W8 5PQ.

If you’re around Redchurch Street anytime soon have a look in Kaleid Editions, an artist led bookshop which encorages artists to produce a one off printed book as part of their practice. It also exhibits  on site and has Owen Bullett‘s incredible sculptures there at the moment, plus the re-imagined landscape paintings of Louise Bristow.

And while I’m writing just to let you know that there was a wicked set of openings last week down in Redchurch St. But with Art Sleuth’s camera broken there was little that could be done to cover it…try Artwars Project Space right next door to Kaleid Editions for the  group show Hot Boredom (not covered on their website) which still should be going. Thanks to Martin Sexton and co we have a mixed media show with a sense of humour – ingenious what a broom that magically stands upright by itself and a candle can create. An excellent find. Also includes spoof 1970′s film documenting the end of the world in 2020 with aliens landing on Mayan ruins.

N.Chamberlain, Danny Rolph, Mixed media on triplewall, 105 x 100 cm, 2009

Ramsay MacDonald, Danny Rolph, Mixed media on triplewall, 150 x 210 cm, 2009

PMQ 12, Danny Rolph, 2009, Pencil on paper. 28 x 38 cm

Images courtesy the artist, Danny Rolph, and Poppy Sebire Gallery.

Danny Rolph creates striking multi layered collage paintings using a top layer of triplewall – an industrial plastic roofing material made of clear perspex strips – stuck over a base canvas. He paints over and under and on both sides of each layer, often using cuttings from newspapers or consumer items and varying types of paint. Four of his large peices are exhibited at Poppy Sebire‘s latest exhibition and some smaller canvas paintings and drawings.

His main works are less about a meaning and more about the act of ‘doing’. He said in an interview (see link) he performs a ‘non deliberate act of painting’ using materials for the sake of themselves, an aesthetic experiment rather than to convey a purposeful message. Although it is an abstract way of ‘doing’ the finished product is almost a contradiction to this in its’ sharp composition and graphic design style outcome. There are consistencies with his work and other contemporary painters such as Fiona Rae and Jamie Gili not least in form and the use of luminous bright colours.

An interesting side effect is that a photo of the work looks very different to the real thing, the reduction of detail giving a polished feel. The rawness of the actual works reference that time warn Modern Art underpinning, the use of the banal object, going back to artists like Kurt Schwitters. Here a building material is being used, in part, to create what is essentially a fine art painting. The lines of the triplewall prevent total clarity of the layers and patterns underneath. Although the viewer is being exposed to each layer, they are also being held back from seeing ‘the whole picture’. Printed material from an everyday existence, some or perhaps all personal, are stuck between the layers, partially visible. Flyers from old exhibitions, an old photo of himself, pages from The Power Rangers colouring-in books, newspaper cuttings of transport, bits of vinyl records are combined to create a scrap book effect, an embalmed time capsule. Without a clear message or purpose he has created what is a jumbled woven fabric of art and information, the random paper items and paint forms giving an individual make up, a sort of DNA, for each painting.

Exhibition on till the 20th of February
www.poppysebire.com

Perhaps because of the London Art Fair there are some short term free entry exhibitions to be taken advantage of around London this weekend. 

On Friday the 15th Jan 2010  there is Swan Song – a one night only exhibition curated by Rowena Chiu who was also responsible the brilliant  Concrete and Glass exhibition in the Shoreditch Town Hall basement 2009. (see old post). It’s at St Anne’s House,  W1D 3EF, from 6pm with afterparty. The building is soon to be torn down so it is a real one off.

And having their preview tomorrow too is Detox at 16 Hoxton Square, where the Concrete Allotment Projects are putting on a ‘pop up’ group show exploring the facination with detoxification.
From: Thursday to Sunday, 16 January – 6 February, from 12-6pm (Sat 10am-6pm)

A more permanent group show open 21st of January to the 14th of March is Shudder  a group exhibition in The Drawing Rooms, showing powerful and varied animation from eight artists.

A cutting edge attitude to their selection of artists has done Lazarides proud and a testament to this is their excellent group show Grifters exhibiting the Outsider artists at Rathbone Place on till the 16th of Jan.

As an exhibition running alongside street sculptures and paintings put up around London in December, it is a mixture of installation, taxidermy, street art, painting and photography with a witty, fashionable and a distinctly urban feel.

Highlights include Mark Jenkins, The Metro Newspaper’s flavour of the month, who has produced a chilling horror/The Matrix movie style moment in sculpture with eerily real looking bodies mummified in cling-film pods suspended from the ceiling. Invader has created a Dan Flavin space invader light show and Emma Tooth has given the Madonna and Child a Croydon Town make-over.

Door With Tits by Charlie Isoe is a tongue-in-cheek Surrealist installation – a testament to a tortured writer perhaps. Behind a door with fake boobs guarded by a porcelain jaguar with it’s face smashed in, is a chair and desk with typewriter rigged up to a shotgun directly over it – pull the string tied to the trigger in-case of writer’s block.  He seems to be going through a Francis Bacon phase with his dark and moody canvases upstairs.

David Choe is displaying two huge paintings in his typical street art style – combining oil, house paint, spray paint and ink to create a multi layered quilt of pattern and images.

Do not forget to pay attention to the corridors of the two floor exhibition where a large and intricate black and white wall piece has been created by Lucy McLauchlan.

There are many more artists besides, one not to miss!

Contemporary art where you least expect it is what is so great about London, and the little known gallery in the crypt of St Pancras Church which opens for (so short you could easily miss them) group exhibitions is a perfect example.

Magic Carpet is 14 artists’ work based around the theme of Time Travel. Walking among gravestones and bits of broken masonry you can’t help but see references to transience appearing in the works in front of you.

Most of the art is small and spread out quite thinly over the impressive space, a shame as it would have been good to see a bit more from each artist. Near the entrance, Luna Paiva’s manipulated photograph of a woman plucking a bird, perfectly set into a scene of rich and dark  ‘baroque realism’ (if that exists) instantly catches the eye. As does the red velvetine skull skewered on a hat stand in the vault next door by David. A. Smith.

Some basic installations from Michael Murphy are displayed and David Cochrane has exhibited some thoughtful works, a video of a moving ‘still’ of a riverbank projected onto a wall and another using easily found objects. Several painters are exhibiting, including the part figurative part dissembled portrait paintings by Jill Mulleady and Lindsey Bull’s burry visions of a psychedelic world.

For more work by the artists mentioned see here:

http://www.lunapaiva.com/

www.davidasmithart.co.uk

www.jillmulleady.com

www.dacochrane.com

www.michaelthomasmurphy.co.uk

http://www.lindseybull.com/

Covering practically every inch of the rabbit warren like space that is the Shoreditch Town Hall basement, the East End Arts Club put on a varied exhibition displaying a huge array of street art, graphic design led art and work from illustrators.

Including Dan Kirchener’s and Jane Grosvener’s stylised paintings, the manipulated images of Julien Deghy and Kevin Green and Ned Scott’s wooden wall sculptures, sketches and plans. Also Ting Ting Cheng’s astute modern adaptations of traditional paintings; still life fruit and veg with a difference – a Louis Vitton banana and Nike cucumber – and Posh spice playing the role of Queen Victoria in a regal scene attended by Boris Johnson and Simon Cowell.

In a corner by the bar was spotted Amy Hye Jung Shin’s conceptual forest of stitched faces and doll sculptures that had a certain Ernesto David about them.

Dark winding corridors and pokey rooms were perfect for creating enclosed spaces for artists such as Elod Beregszaszi who has lit up his paper creations in UV light. Just from folding and cutting single pieces of plain A4 without any wastage he has made hundreds of patterns and models (photo to come). Taking advantage of the site too were the Kuntists who had created an Emporium of humorous bad-taste. Telling it how is really is Jordan, Peter Andre, Amy Winehouse, Gary Glitter and Nick Griffin were among the condemned in over-painted photos, cartoon paintings and newspaper front pages.

Look out for the next event at http://www.eastendartsclub.co.uk/

Recently Art Sleuth was invited along to the grand opening of a permanent site specific work called Full Circle for Art on the Underground created for the new Piccadilly line concourse as part of the extension to the King Cross St Pancras Underground station. The excitement built as we walked through the open barriers and travelled down two long and shiny new elevators. Eventually we came to the piece itself.
It was a grey wall – with a semi-circular grey panel arranged on top of it.

In fact it was such a similar colour grey to the rest of the station and situated exactly where you might find a wall that if there had not been a crowd of people around it you could have been mistaken in thinking that it was the work of an over-zealous architect using up the few remaining grey panels with a bit of flair. Or perhaps more likely you could walk past it, being cut up by a slow moving tourist cursing the tube you just missed without giving it a second glance. The most excellently named Knut Henrik Henriksen has created an artwork which according to the leaflet is “incognito, yet elegantly obvious”. It will be less elegant in a few years when the heartless general public have stuck bits on chewing gum down the sides of it.

The leaflet also has an example of a previous work by Knut Henrik Henriksen. The aptly named Architectural Doubts is a partition in a hall making one room into two. Surely this is what you would employ a builder to do if you wished to divide a room? You too would be having ‘architectural doubts’ if it was divided by a wall of what looks like laminate flooring. With no door. A case of The Emperors’ New Clothes or work by a genius?

If you are going to see any show out there right now then this is it. Knowing that the artists are offenders gives this exhibition both a unique and hard-hitting edge, but the quality of work shown and the spectrum of ambience from witty to meditative to exceedingly dark makes Art by Offenders a real success.

The eclectic mix of 140 exhibits picked from 6000 entries, as you would expect, has thrown up some incredibly talented artists including the winner ‘Michael’ in the Five pieces showing the scope of his ability and style. Also Joe Barnard’s Elephant painted collage and John Clowes conceptual square formations and the sketches by Anon (see photo Rat Race)

One of the most emotionally driven paintings of the exhibition has to be Yours Sincerely, the Tabloid Press. Depicting a point of view you wouldn’t normally consider; the treatment of a young man and his family by the press once convicted in what obviously was a high profile case. The sky is black and thunderous and ‘ticks and leeches’ is written on the bloody red wall.  Depicting a stomach-turning moment the evil cartoon figures resembling Otto Dix like characters crowd around the young man, sneering and drooling, business cards, microphones and cameras thrust towards him.

Then there’s the humorous work Bug Life, by Patrick John Raggs who collected and framed insects that happen to have made their way into his cell. There is ‘Santa’ – Who came for Xmas and ‘Sid’ – who liked porridge.

The Last Duff is a monumental piece by Steve Langford and Steve Chamberlain, enormous in size this surrealist and symbolic scene remade from Da Vinci’s Last Supper is a fight between god and the devil, the condemned man in the electric chair while the families look on and prison life goes on around him.

Some has a solid message. Like being wrongly convicted, such as the sculpture The Three Wise Judge Masters by Peter Thomas depicting three judges, hands over eyes, ears and mouth respectively. The desperation for freedom; Noel Parker’s One Off a beautifully painted portrait of a man with arms out stretched near the shoreline of a beach. Or just pure anger and desperation like Recession, three black and blood red abstract paintings by Danny Morgan. However escapism plays a big part in the exhibition too, prisoners with imagination.

The poignant thing about this exhibition is that like most (good) art it reaches into the minds of the artists, but in this case it could be someone who is doing time for a serious crime. You get mixed feelings and you wade into a grey area that throws up questions. Should you eliminate the history of the artist from the work in front of you? How would you feel if the work on show was by a criminal who had harmed you in some way? Yet Art by Offenders and the scheme behind it run by the Koestler Trust which was founded in 1962 by writer Aurthur Kostler, a political detainee himself, is one of the best examples of art therapy you could possibly get, and has produced an exceptional exhibition.

All the paintings are for sale at very reasonable prices, from around £50 to £200.

Free and open till 8pm every night at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre. Till the 6th of December 2009.