February News

The London Art Fair came and went last month - Great Western Studios artists that I saw at the fair but missed off last months preview included Estelle Thompson at Purdy Hicks and Jan Coutts on Quantum Contemporary's stand.

Emily Young filled the role of featured artist of the fair with her monumental piece howl sited outside the venue and according to the Islington Gazette, the local chatterati are clamouring for the work to be permanently sited there.



The White Cube press department swung into full action last month to promote the show of Darren Almond's work at their Hoxton Square site. With the might of the gallery behind him the press was wide and far-reaching. Breathe deeply . . . there were articles in . . . Art Review, Time Out, the Independent, Vogue, Evening Standard and a very favourable review by Adrian Searle in the Guardian.













The concurrent show at Parasol Unit on Wharf Road is on until March 30th. Alongside the exhibitions there are no less than 3 catalogues/monologues on Darren hitting the bookshelves. Terminus is available from Amazon, and the other 2 are available from White Cube and Parasol respectively.

Jeremy Dickinson has an exhibition of New Paintings opening at Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo. The show runs from March 8th until April 5th.



In lands not quite so far away Olivia Musgrave currently has a show with Jorgensen Art in Dublin. The show opened on February 12th and runs until March 1st.



Laura Green was triumphant in the Artsway Open exhibition coming away as the winner with the promise of a solo show there later this year. She has also been shortlisted for the Guasch Coranty International Painting Prize in Barcelona.



Brickett Davda's work is still the darling of the interior stylists - their bud range was first designed back in 1998 and still crops up in glossy magazines with amazing frequency.





The Untitled Gallery are once again featuring Faye Haskins' work in a show at the Adam Street Members Club, which lies just off Strand. Don't pick me up on this, I'm right, the road is Strand not the Strand - check out wikipedia if you don't believe me. Anyway . . . although the show featuring Faye's work is already up and in full swing the private view is on February 19th.

The private view for Rachel Schwalm's inaugural show at Beaux Arts on Cork Street took place at the end of January - textile/design wonderwoman Neisha Crosland bringing a dash of celebrity to the proceedings. Rachel's show is up until February 23rd and has an accompanying catalogue.



Sophie Smallhorn's work for the new offices of Body and Soul in Clerkenwell is featured (and bastardized for their graphic design inspiration) in this months onoffice magazine. A niche publication - but a niche that occasionally comes up trumps.



At the city out post of Jake Miller's East End Approach Gallery is a group painting show which includes a number of Neal Tait works.



Lastly, David Ben White is taking part in a 3 man show titled Planetarium at APT gallery in Deptford. The show opens on March 6th and runs until March 26th.

January News

The New Year news starts with a further look back at Open Studios - Sam Robinson, studio archivist extraordinaire, took the pictures below.















Not documented in quite the same way was the Great Western Studios carol sing-a-long held in December. It was quite a night - I don't suppose many other staff Christmas parties could boast being serenaded by Jonny Borrell, the bassist from the Libertines and Bronagh Gallagher from the Commitments - this isn't to say that they outshone the resident studio choral talent, which was both broad and largely unexpected.

The London Art Fair Opens later this week at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The show will include work by Rachel Schwalm on the Beaux Arts stand, Cristina Rodriguez on the Art Movement stand and David Worthington on the Crane Kalman stand.



Outside the fair will stand Howl, a new piece by Emily Young, who is represented inside the fair by the Fine Art Society.



Rachel Schwalm also has a solo show with Beaux Arts opening at the end of January in their Cork Street gallery. The show opens on January 30th and runs until February 23rd.

Darren Almond has two major solo shows opening on the same night this week. At Parasol Unit his show, Fire Under Snow, runs from January 18th through to March 30th. His show at White Cube, in Hoxton Square, is titled Moons of Iapetus Ocean, and runs from the same date until February 23rd.





A slew of reviews will no doubt follow and will appear here in the next newsletter - in the meantime, ahead of the pack, you can read about his White Cube show, courtesy of The Times, here, and a short entry from the Guardian Guide below.



A group show at Tate Britain, as part of the Art Now programme, will feature work by Katy Moran. Titled Art Now: Strange Solution the exhibition opens on February 1st and runs until April 13th.






Purdy Hicks Gallery has work by Estelle Thompson in their current group show, Tipping Point, alongside paintings by Estelle are works by Agnes Martin and Barry Thompson among others.



Giles Phelps and Chris Burridge, aka Slipmode, have been very busy boys. They have been working with Albion Brand Comnmunications on a multi-client project for 3, Skype and Hutchinson which featured on 600 still advertising sites across the country together with some animated sites as well.



They have also been working on a 20 minute documentary film about, local superstar photographer, Jürgen Teller for Specialten.



Faye Haskins has a solo show with the Untitled Gallery at the Adam Street Club which runs from February 4th until March 2nd.



Finally, Blue Curry, is in a group show (setups, situations, solutions) at Popopstudios in the Bahamas until February 10th . . . if you happen to be in the area.