June News

Open Studios came and went in a blur. Thank you to everyone who came, we hope that you had a good time and that we will see you again before Christmas (for those who like to fill in their diaries way in advance the next Open Studios will be on December 6th & 7th). There will be photos of the event posted in the next blog entry - including documentation of the inaugural GWS dog show.



Sarah Graham's work cropped up in Gardens Illustrated's June issue over a 4 page feature. In a canny moment of inter studio professional relationships the photographs for the article were taken by Angelo Plantamura.



One time studio sharers Sarah Stitt and Liza Campbell both have exhibitions this month. Sarah's sabbatical to LA has been broken by her show at Long & Ryle in South Islip Street, SW1 and Liza's new show is a two person exhibition at Galerie Planet near Limoges where she is showing her collages.



Tate to Tate: A Walk Along London's South Bank is the title of Tommy Penton's first publication - out now in all good bookshops or available here, there and everywhere. Many years in the making Tommy's book falls into many categories; travel guide, graphic novel, illustration. The book is essentially one fold out image of the journey from Tate Britain to Tate Modern. Along this journey is the faithful depiction of the architectural sights of the North Bank of the Thames as well as a host of characters that wend their way throughout the book, some going West to East and others East to West so that you can read the book from fron t to back or vice versa. Published by Jonathan Cape on June 5th, Tommy is also preparing for an exhibition of the work together with an edition of hand bound, printed and numbered versions of the book which will be available at a solo exhibition in September (more details nearer the time). To promote the book Tommy appeared on London Live earlier in June talking to Robert Elms - if you scour the internet you can probably still hear it somewhere. On the associated interactive website you can also play a game to win copies of the book.



Part one of David Ben White's exhibition opened on June 5th - part 2 The Atom Page 2 - The Revenge of the Atom opens this week on June 19th at Studio 1.1, 57a Redchurch Street.



It is the end of the academic year and among those preparing for judgment day is Valerie Gladwin Montgomery who has been studying on a Post Foundation course at Kensington and Chelsea College. The end of year show opens this Thursday and runs until June 27th at The Hortensia Art Gallery, SW10.

May News

Summer Open Studios will take place on June 7th & 8th this year. If you haven't been to one these events before please come to this one - and invite all your friends! It is a fantastic opportunity to meet the artists, designers and craftspeople who work from the building and have the chance of buying exclusive, inspirational, one off pieces of art and design directly from the talented people who have made them.



On until the first day of Open Studios is Neal Tait's show, The Dressmaker Who Lived On The Outskirts, at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York. No doubt the reviews will follow and I will be able to post them in the next newsletter.



Already reviewed are some shows that opened in April. Yukako Shibata's show at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation continues until May 22nd, catch it while you can. Her show was reviewed in Time Out.




Catherine Goodman's show at Marlborough Fine Art on Albemarle Street opened on a rain sodden April evening, but was rammed with people none the less. Catherine is showing a series of paintings made of a room in her grandparent's flat where she spent part of her childhood; there are also portraits, and instantly recognisable studio shots showing both the interior of her workspace and the oh-so-glamourous view from the entrance of her studio looking towards the railway lines and tube station. Catherine was profiled in the Times just before her exhibition opened detailing both the works in her exhibition and her role as Artistic Director at the Prince's Drawing School.



Lynn Parotti's joint show with her sister was front page news in the Nassau Guardian.



Seemingly any article on wallpaper is duty bound to mention Fromental; either that, or perhaps more likely, their hand printed and embroidered wallpaper really is way ahead of the competition.



The weekend of May 31st and June 1st is the date for the the Untitled Artists Fair at Chelsea Town Hall on the King's Road. Faye Haskins is taking part in this event and you can download free tickets to the event via this website.



The summer sculpture garden shows are about to kick off. The Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden in Surrey features three GWS artists: Paul Vanstone, David Worthington and Emily Young. The gardens are open from May through to the end of October. David also has work at Newby Hall and Gardens in North Yorkshire, the season for which runs from June until September.



The Justin Hibbs and David Ben White world tour has reached the banks of Lac Leman in Switzerland and they have rested their curatorial work, Working Space, at Galerie Lacy Mackintosh for the period May 16th through to June 28th. This is a reformatting of the show that was at the University of the Arts gallery space on Davies Street, W1 for most of April - where it stops next . . . nobody knows.



Making a welcome return to the UK is another expatriated Great Westerner - Sarah Stitt. Although she is now based in LA, Sarah has a forthcoming show at Long & Ryle, 4 John Islip Street, SW1. Entitled New Work from the New World the show opens on June 3rd and runs until June 27th.



Still Another Place opened on May 1st at The Crypt, St Pancras Parish Church. The exhibition features Simon Dawe, Julie Goldsmith, Rachel Schwalm, Paul Vanstone and Felicity Warbrick and coincides with the church's London Fesitval of Contemporary Church Music. Still Another Place is open until May 29th and is on every day from 10am until 7pm - installation shots below.




The L.A. show, Love Will Bring Us Apart Again, has featured in previous posts - it is now making it's way to shores more familiar (and convenient) by touching down at 133-137 Westbourne Grove (on the corner of Chepstow Rd). The show once again features work by Sean Alexander and opens on Thursday May 22nd. For a special Sean Alexander/Alice Tait scroll down.

Wedding Special!

On April 26th the wedding of Sean Alexander and Alice Tait took place in Broadstairs followed by a reception at the boating lake pavilion in Ramsgate. In the thirteen year history of Great Western Studios this is the first marriage of two people who have met in the studios. For one brief day the Eastern tip of Kent was Great Western Studios on sea; never before have so many Great Western Studios artists gathered in one place without a trace of paint or stone dust about their person.













Award yourself 10 points if you can identify all of the Great Westerners in the above photo. Award yourself an extra 50 points if you can name the non-Great Westerners and work out which group shot they thought that they were in!