Alias Arts

I don’t know what it is about my luck and the Lazarides gallery. The last three times I’ve been the gallery has been 1). closed (website opening times now amended), 2). first floor closed on a two floor exhibition and 3). on this, my most recent visit, the top two floors were closed on a four floor exhibition. Lesson learnt – call before I visit!

So I’d like to show you some photos of the Grifter’s exhibition (especially as the street work accompanying the show has been excellent) but pretty much all I took was this one of Invader’s excellent neon installation. 

Invader at the Lazarides gallery

All is not lost, however, as the ever magnificent Wallkandy has captured all the main action inside and out.

In other news Art Of The State is up from last months number 10 to number 4 in the ‘Top 25 UK Arts & Culture Blogs’ list compiled by Manchester’s Museums consortium’s creativetourist.com site. Which is nice. The calculations involved sound very scientific – using Google’s InLinks and Postrank amongst other measures. The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones now occupies my previous number 10 spot. Eat my dust Mr Jones.

Rest assured when I’m at number 39 next month you won’t hear a thing about it!

Following on from his recent curation of the ‘Other Side’ show at the Mile End Arts Pavilion Stik has a solo show in the same venue. Featuring multiple instances of his trademark Stik figure he takes its very basic form and uses it to create a variety of situations. In fact as the majority of the Stik figures are held along a wire that runs the length of the building the figures can be moved along to create new interractions as the exhibition progresses. Outside look out for a further figure on the top of the hill and another in the middle of the lake.

Solo show by Stik at the Mile End Art Pavilion, Clinton Road (off Grove Road), E35bh (near Mile End tube on the Central line).
Open 12-6pm December 5th to to December 20th (except Mondays) 2009

In some ways the Mutate Britain show ‘One Foot In The Grove’ resembles a twisted offspring of the main room of the Imperial War Museum. Recent additions since it re-opened last week include a customised full size plane to sit alongside the already installed helicopter and a mechanised triceratops courtesy of Wreckage. Mutate have added to their extensive rosta of some of the best artists out there, had some of the walls reworked and added masses of new works to create an extensive and thought provoking show. Here’s some of the new pieces – just a selection mind – to whet your appetite. It’s a great place to visit too if you’re looking to buy some original art or a limited edition print in time for Christmas.    

Mutate Britain ‘One Foot In The Grove’. Open from December 4th every Fri, Sat and Sun until December 20th. Also open every Wednesday in December from 6pm. Check here for the most up to date opening times.

Cot bed by Pete Dunne and Giles Walker

‘Boys Stab Vest, Age 14, Walworth Academy’. This chilling piece is by War Boutique

‘In Dog We Trust’ by Jolly Good (those are real dollar bills)

Tristan Schoonraad ’7′

Dotmasters go to town decorating the newly installed ‘jaguar’ plane by Same Heggerty

Triceratops by Wreckage

Larry by Lyle Doghead makes a reappearance in front of new work by Elate

Chopper paint job by Bleach

Sweaty Paul (Rust Inc)

Fresh new work from Shok-1 in Borough, South London (just by the Tube station). Money, Fame and Power looming ominously over the streets.

Shok-1, Borough

Shok-1, Money

Shok-1 Fame

Shok-1 Power

On a nearby wall there’s further work from Shok-1 in another twist on his negative / biological style

Just when we thought street art was dead the buildings of the city are once again adorned with work worthy of getting on a tube just to go and have a look at. There’s plenty of it too courtesy of artists involved in the Lazarides ‘Grifters’ exhibition which opens in Rathbone Place later this week. Lazinc.com and Wallkandy‘s Flickr stream are the places to watch to find out locations and see the best pictures of the artists in action. On Tuesday I took a copy of Laz’s published locations and set off around town in the freezing weather to see what I could find. Pictures below:

Paul Insect in Southwick Mews, Paddington

Vhils in Oval Road, Camden

Invader in Charlotte Road, Shoreditch

Mode 2 in Rathbone Place, off Oxford Street

Charlie Isoe, Kean Road, Holborn

With thanks to Stik for sending the above picture through. Classic I think you will agree! It was taken at the ‘Other Side’ show which is on until 29th November in the Arts Pavilion, Mile End Park just a very short walk from Mile End Tube station (Central Line). During the run of the show artists have been coming in and creating works for display with some giving demonstrations of their techniques as they go along. Stik himself is also present - curating, organising and painting all day long and thanks to him the list of artists on show is growing longer by the day. Check out some of the work on display below or go along in person.

The Other Side at the Arts Pavilion, Mile End Park

Elate

Layered cork based graffiti by Scabbage (detail)

Teddy Baden

Zomby

Run

Paranoiak Smile

Stik’s work in progress

Stik has his own show in the same location in December

The Lock Up opened last Friday and is rammed full of quality pieces from some the best artists around at the moment. I’ve got to say that for me Goldie probably stole the show. His Showgirl pieces (pictured below) are absolutely stunning in the flesh. That said the bar has been raised all over the show with many of the artists turning in fine pieces of work for a really well put together collection. The accompanying catalogue is a very neat little addition too, including full colour pictures of the main pieces on display and accompanied by write ups on all the featured artists.

THE LOCK UP – eddielock.co.uk with Nick Walker / Goldie / Jef Aerosol / Eelus / Mau Mau / Inkie / Beejoir / Jamie Reid / K-Guy / David Whittaker / Ben Moore / Pam Glew / RYCA / Stedhead / Prole / Fin Dac / Spanna

Eastcastle House, 27-28 Eastcastle Street, London, W1W 8DH (until Thursday 10th December 2009)

The Lock Up (K-Guy on left). Acrylic, aerosol and screen print on deep edge wooden box

Beejoir ‘LV Child’. Solid bronze sculpture with gold leaf applied logos

Goldie ‘The Showgirl 2′ (left) and ‘Dark Diva’ right. Spray paint & multi layer stencils, Montana Gold and sericol on canvas

Eelus ‘Nesting’ – spray paint, acrylic, glow in the dark paint, 24ct gold leaf on wooden frame

Mau Mau – detail from ‘Plenty More ‘Fish In The Supermarket’. Spray paint and acrylic on canvas.

Nick Walker ‘The Empire’s State’. Spray paint & stencil on canvas

Jef Aerosol – detail from ‘Ian Brown’. Spray paint and stencil on canvas.

K-Guy – detail from Take Me To The Hospital work for The Prodigy

Don ‘Prisoner In Your Own Palace’. Spray paint and stencil on wood

Vandalog‘s The Thousands (see this earlier blog post) finishes its run on Sunday November 22nd. Here’s a few flicks from the show to give you an idea of how it finally shaped up: 

The main hall featuring works from Swoon, Faile, Adam Neate and more

Judith Supine and others in a side chamber

Know Hope (bottom right) and Roa (more of which later)

More work in the side chamber including Hera (middle)

Some Cept, Sweet Toof, Dscreet etc.

Photos from Howbaoutno and Nolionsinengland occupy two central stands

Inkfetish piece outside the show

Burning Candy on the building’s exterior in Holywell Lane

Roa’s blind revealed two images of the same animal (above and below)

Taking its cue from Seattle as the start of a truly global protest movement ‘Signs of Revolt’ gathers together artists contributions which have informed, recorded and rallied demonstrations worldwide. It has to be said that its an exhibition where you probably already know whether you are interested in it or not. For those who have ‘been there’ in whatever capacity its a mixture of “ah, I remember that” interspersed with new causes, new protests to become familar with. For others its a case of ‘oh no, what are they protesting about now“?

The image of Carlo Giuliani’s bloodied face surrounded by heavy boots never diminishes in its hurt. There’s a fair amount of what is often termed ‘police porn’ – images of riot cops squaring up to and beating demonstrators. These only serve to outrage the viewer to take action against injustice. If you take the time to look around this exhibition you can appropriate many of the ideas presented and turn them into your own. And that’s the point – reinterpret and readjust the images to make them relevant to your concerns, get involved! I’d recommend picking up the free informative booklet ‘Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance & Social Movements Since Seattle’. It’s a nicely constructed document which extends the purpose of the exhibition well beyond the walls of the space it is presented in.

In short, don’t be a spectator – take part.  

Signs of Revolt: 14th to 22nd November 2009, Shop 14 Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL.

Features Reclaim The Streets, Jonathan Barnbrook & Pedro Inhoue, Noel Douglas, Kennardphillips, Indymedia, Space Hijackers, Campf For Climate Action, Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, War Boutique, Reel News, The Billboard Liberation Front and many more.  

kennardphillips

Noel Douglas

Pedro Inhoue

Millions marched but they never listened

An old ‘un but a still a good ‘un

As I’ve mentioned before the daily street art blog of Vandalog has fast become essential reading for anyone who wants to see the best street art work from around the world. Full of infectious enthusiasm it is constantly updated with writer RJ’s views on the scene. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this relentless output would be enough to keep any man busy all day but somehow RJ has also had the time to pull together a show ‘The Thousands’ and a book to accompany it (available from Drago publishing). Opening this week it promises a fresh new wall from the Burning Candy crew along with indoor artworks from private collectors of Banksy, Swoon, Faile, Kaws, Nick Walker and Judith Supine to name but a few. Street art walks around the local area are also being arranged at 1pm each day which should be a great introduction for anyone unfamiliar with Shoreditch. In addition to this top street art Flickr’ites nolionsinengland and howaboutno will be showing around 50 of their photographs of work in situ to accompany the exhibition. It’s shaping up to be great show for anyone in London next week.

The Thousands is at Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, London, EC2A.

Open: Wednesday November 18th 6-10pm, Thursday 11-9pm, Friday 11-5pm, Saturday and Sunday 11-7pm

View the show flyer here: