December News

The scent of mulled cider has finally left the corridors - a week and a half after Open Studios. Thank you very much to everyone who came to the event - we hope that you had a good time. There will be photographs of Open Studios posted on the January blog, in the meantime here is the piece that The Hill wrote about it.



The yet-to-be-officially-titled Great Western Choir performed at the end of both Saturday and Sunday - pushing through its extensive repertoire of 5 songs (though we did add a rendition of Happy Birthday on the Sunday). We collected money for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability at the end of the performances and on our front desk over the weekend and managed to raise just over £480. Thank you to everyone who donated money. The choir also performed at the Copra community centre a week later and will be back next year with a less seasonally inclined cannon of songs.

Two new web ventures have been started by people in the studios in the past 2 months. Lisa Jones has opened an online store for her cards and Kate Gibb has started selling limited editions of prints via her blog.



Sheena Barnes has organised an exhibition of work by Great Western Studio artists which is currently on show at Gallery 118, at the junction of Chepstow Road and Westbourne Grove. The exhibition continues until December 22nd.



The new edition of Art World magazine includes pieces on Katy Moran and Darren Almond. Katy is featured because of her show at MIMA.



The piece on Darren features an interview and survey of his work.



Turps Banana - the magazine that should have the tagline "made by painters for painters" features a conversation between David Ben White and Justin Hibbs in the current issue.



David also has work in a group show at Vinespace which runs until December 21st.

Lynn Parotti and Paul Vanstone's joint show at Imperial Wharf opened last week and is due to run until the end of January 2009.



The denizens of Stoke Newington will be setting their eyes on snaffling up last minute Christmas presents this weekend at the Xmas Art Exposure. The event opens on Friday and continues on Saturday and Sunday and will feature works by Melissa Hunt, Julie Goldsmith and Liza Campbell.



For a limited period you can wash your hair from a Sophie Smallhorn designed bottle of shampoo. Alongside Tom Dixon, John Pawson and Brad Lochore, she has designed a bottle to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Holborn salon.



The Yamake show that Apart Gallery put on last month - I'm still none the wiser to what a Yamake is - resulted in Sean Alexander winning the best in show award. The plan is for the show to travel to Nokia stores worldwide in 2009.

Claudia Carr has work in the Browse and Darby Christmas Show which is on until December 23rd.



Lastly, congratulations to David Worthington who has been nominated for the 2008 Jerwood Sculpture Prize.

November News

November brings a bumper list of studio news; exhibitions at the studios, exhibitions outside the studios and press.

Firstly, Open Studios is taking place on December 6th & 7th from 12-6pm on both days.



This Open Studios marks a milestone in the history of Great Western Studios as it will be the last Christmas Open Studios to be held in the building. In July 2009 we will be moving from our current building to 65 Alfred Road a mere stone's throw from the Lost Goods Building. This exciting news means that we will have the opportunity to create a more permanent base for artists and creative businesses to work from in Westminster.

Please come and support the artists at our Open Studios - there will be plenty of exciting, individual and beautiful things to look at and buy, there will be free mulled cider to keep you warm, there will be delicious food available in the café, there will be an exhibition on the 14 year history of the studios and . . . if you happen to time your visit right there will be entertainment by the Great Western Choir!

Before Open Studios, Josephine Kabula is curating an exhibition of work by studio artists to take place on Wednesday November 19th from 11 to 9.30 in the gallery space at the studios. The exhibition will feature work by Natalie Baker, Mat Sant, Maibe and Josephine herself.



The following week the gallery space is once again being put to work hosting an exhibtion of photographs by Phil Shepherd. The exhibition runs from Tuesday November 25 to Thursday November 27th.



Away from the studios and happening this weekend is The Homeworks Christmas Sale in which Jemima Cotter is participating with her Canny Capers. The sale takes place at the 20th Century Theatre on Westbourne Grove and is open on Saturday November 15th from 10-5 and, if you're quick off the blocks, is also open tonight (Friday) until 9pm.



If you are due normally get your Open Studios invite in the post then you will note our lovely Jo Ratcliffe designed envelopes. If you haven't seen Jo's work before then try and get hold of a copy of December's Vogue as she is all over it with a series of specially designed and created fonts. Click on the image below to see the scale and beauty of what she has produced.



Adrian Palengat and his Apart Gallery are back in West London with a take over of 133-137 Westbourne Grove for November 20th -23rd. The exhibition, House of Yamake, features the customisation of something called a Yamake (correct me if I'm wrong). According to the website it is based on Nokia's Yamake Game philosophy: Play, Make and Share. To be honest I'm none the wiser, but come next week and seeing it in the flesh I might be. Yamake customisers include Sean Alexander, Jo Ratcliffe, Tommy Penton and Jay Burridge.



Katy Moran has an exhibition of new works at the recently opened MIMA - Middlesborough Insitute of Modern Art. The press release for the exhibition says that Katy is "rapidly becoming one of the most talked about painters of her generation". The show at MIMA is her first exhibition in a public gallery in the UK, and will feature some old works alongside new paintings.



Reinforcing the gallery's opinion was an article in Time Out at the end of October in which she was named as one of their most exciting artists under the age of 40.



Salisbury Cathedral is the location of an exhibition of new work by Emily Young titled Angel Heads: Seven and a half heads for seven and a half centuries. The temporary installation of these works marks the Cathedral's 750 year anniversary and the pieces are made of the same stone (Purbeck marble) as the Cathedral. If you want to see these 7 1/2 stone archangels then they are in and around the Cathedral from November 20th until February 9th next year.



Running from December 8th to December 22nd is a joint two-person show featuring Lynn Parotti and Paul Vanstone. There work is being shown at Unit 6, Imperial Wharf in Fulham and is titled The Force That Through The Green Fuse Drives The Flower. The Dylan Thomas poem from which the title is taken is one that both Lynn & Paul see as resonating with their work.



Outside of the UK, three Great Western Artists have exhibitions this month. At Sies and Höke Galerie in Düsseldorf Neal Tait is having a solo show. The exhibition runs from November 14th to December 12th.



Jeremy Dickinson has a show, Fishbowl Histories, at the Sara Meltzer Gallery in New York. His show opened on November 13th and runs through until December 20th.



Lastly, Darren Almond has a solo show, Nail to Nail, at David Patton Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition runs from November 22nd to December 20th.

October News

This years pre-Christmas Open Studios will be held on December 6th & 7th. As with previous Open Studios events, we will be open between 12 and 6pm on both of these days. Open Studios provides a fantastic opportunity to meet artists, designers and craftspeople and view and buy work directly from them. If you are looking for inspirational, unique and beautiful Christmas presents then Open Studios is the place for you! There will be a warming drink (probably mulled cider) on the door for you, the café will be open for delicious lunches and hot drinks and . . . there may well be entertainment by the Great Western Studios choir! If you do not already receive an invitation please drop us an e-mail via the website and we will make sure that you are on our mailing list.





Barely a month goes by without an Art Fair in London - but this month the big one (and it's satellite events) hits London - Frieze. This is the sixth year of the Frieze Art Fair - if you are visiting keep your eyes peeled for Great Western Studios' artists - you may well spot Darren Almond, Katy Moran, Neal Tait and Jeremy Dickinson.

Frieze follows hot on the heels of the London Art Fair which took place at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea between October 2nd & 6th. Studio artists represented at the fair included Rachel Schwalm, Sarah Stitt, Olivia Musgrave and Emily Young.

Coinciding with Frieze are a number of new exhibitions in the Capital. Ex-GWS-er Toby Ziegler has his second solo show at Simon Lee Gallery on Berkeley Street running from October 15th - November 23rd.



Sean Henry has a show of new work at Osborne Samuel Gallery running from October 29th to November 22nd. A monograph on Sean is also now available from all good bookstores and here.




Love Will Bring Us Apart Again (part 4) - this time the Apart team have hit Las Vegas. Sean Alexander once again has a starring role in the Apart proceedings.



While Sean is seeking entertainment, and trying to make a buck or two, in Sin City his wife, Alice Tait, has realised the error of her ways and returned to Great Western Studios after a brief sojourn working from NW10. To complement her drift back to W9 her work is also gracing the pages of local magazine Grove - pedants will argue that Grove also covers NW10 - in a double local whammy her illustration is of the new Carter and Bond store on Westbourne Park Road.



The August issue of Grove magazine featured work by Jo Ratcliffe in its illustration round up.



Back in July I blogged about Tamar Zaig's involvement in the film Baghdad Express - the film has just been chosen to be shown at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival on October 27th. If you want to book tickets to see the film you can do so here.



Douglas Abercrombie has work in two successive shows at Poussin Gallery in SE1. The current show, Ten Great Works from the Sixties and Seventies, features one of Douglas's paintings alongside such luminaries as Anthony Caro , John Hoyland and Bridget Riley - the exhibition continues until October 25th. Following this exhibition the gallery are staging a solo show of his work from November 13th to December 20th covering all stages of his immensely productive 50 year career.



Lastly, Sarah Graham has a show at the Sims Reed Gallery in the Economist Building, SW1 which opens on October 21st and runs until November 14th.

September News

Like swallows migrating to North Africa, Great Western Studios is once again home to artists returning to their roosts.

Roger, the unofficial studio mascot, made an appearance in the Sunday Telegraph magazine courtesy of Alice Alexander née Tait.



Though the caption might explain why walking past studio 6, let alone entering it, is something of a risky pastime.

I've blogged to death about the ever expanding Tate to Tate Tommy Penton project, but . . . the exhibition that he had was really good, attracted a galaxy of GWS residents and featured in the London press.





A couple of nights before Tommy's show was Kate Gibb's joint show with James Brown at the Ada Street Gallery . She's also been hitting the press with a commission for the Guardian Guide.



A piece for Creative Review



and an article on her work in the Japanese magazine plus eighty one.



If the past month seems to have been the apex of Tommy and Kate activity then this forthcoming month might be the same for Jan Coutts. She has a solo show with Quantum Art on Cork Street from September 16th-20th and she has work at Art London (October 1st - 6th).



Brickett Davda's work is being stocked by Toast again this season; which is handy as Toast appeared in the shortlist for Elle Decoration's British Design Awards; highlighting Jo's ceramics as one of the products that earned them their nomination.



Laura Green's exhibition at ArtSway opens on September 20th and runs until November 16th - the exhibition is the result of her winning the ArtSway Open last year.



Pete Gleadall and Tom Stephan's Phreekn release made it to number 1 in the Buzz Chart.



The Kensal Rise glitterati (if this isn't an oxymoron) were out in force for Liza Campbell's show at 118 College Road. Somebody was taking photographs to document the proceedings so I will try to unearth the evidence for next month's newsletter.



David Ben White's slot in Sideshow, a project at Gallery Primo Alonso on Hackney Road is this week - September 18th-21st.



Also occurring this weekend is Decorex, the interior design tradeshow. Fromental will be taking a stand at the show and to highlight the possibilities that their handmade wallpaper presents they have been working on a collaborative piece with William Warbrick.



The classic American walnut tallboy that Will has created showcases the gold leafed chinoiserie wallpaper of Fromental's new collection.

Lastly . . . there is a side project to this blog. Behind Closed Doors is a Q & A structure directed at Great Western Studios artists for those who want to know more about the people based at the studios (and also those who have since moved away from the building). It is updated with 3 new artists every week - you can access it here.

August News

While the art world may take August off, Pete Gleadall (our resident non visual art based artist) has been hard at work. His track As You Like It with Smokin' Jo under the banner of TRNSSTR was released earlier in the summer and his new track with DJ Tom Stephan, Phreekn, is out on August 21st - it's number 19 in the Buzz Chart. You can read a review of As You Like It here, and you can check it out on Beatport. Keep checking the Beatport site for Phreekn when it is released.



The September issue of Vogue has managed to upturn my perception of a certain Great Western Studios artist. Hidden on the last page of the magazine was a piece of work by Paul Vanstone. I've always known Paul as a sculptor and stone carver, further evidenced by his near constant coating of a layer of stone dust - but here he is exposed as a painter.



The art world returns from its summer sojourn in late August/early September. Coinciding with this is an exhibition by Kate Gibb and James Brown at the Ada Street Gallery, E8. The exhibition opens on August 26th and runs until the 31st. Kate screenprints (pull) and James makes linocuts (press) - hence the title of their show Press and Pull.



The Tommy Penton quest for world domination takes another step forward in September with the exhibiton and sale of the hand printed, hand bound, slipcased version of his book. The exhibition takes place at the Menier Chocolate Factory space in SE1 and runs from September 1st to September 31st. Limited to a signed edition of 250 (10 of which are limited further by being leather bound and tooled) the exhibition is a chance to grab this high demand book. Alongside the book the exhibition will also feature other painted works by Tommy. The softback book already has its own website so it is only fitting that the handmade books do too.




Anthony Meier Gallery in San Francisco is holding a solo show of Katy Moran paintings from September 5th to October 3rd.



Julie Goldsmith has work in a show entitled Start Your Collection which is being held at Contemporary Art Projects on Rivington Street in the East End and runs until September 21st.



David Ben White has work in a forthcoming show at Primo Alonso, curated by Nick Kaplony, Sideshow opens on September 5th and runs until September 30th.



Lastly, heads up, on a solo exhibition for Jan Coutts at Quantum Art on Cork Street which runs from September 16th - 20th. There will be more information about this in the next blog.