Tuesday, July 14, 2009

July News

To kick off with, the promised photographs from this summers Open Studios - the last at the Lost Goods Building. Our photographer this year - on his first professional assignment - was Theo Russell, studio assistant to Angelo Plantamura.











One item that I missed out of last months newsletter was mention of a show co-curated by Sanja Sakic in Little Venice which featured paintings by Emma Woollard alongside sculptures and a film by Sanja. The show was called Siteshow and was on over the weekend of June 12th and 13th.





Melissa Hunt has written a chapter for a book that has been put together by Amanda Doughty titled Bangles and Bracelets and available here. Melissa's chapter is the step to step demonstration of making a tap and die bangle with drilled stone - if that floats your boat.



The Times featured a small mention of the studios and also of Emily Young on July 14th. Emily is having a small relocation sale, of sorts. If you want to have a look the best thing to do is . . . do as the article suggests and arrange an appointment through the Fine Art Society.



It being the end of the academic year it also means that it is Graduation show season. Laura Jacobs had her show at St Martins at the end of June and Blue Curry's graduation show at Goldsmiths was at the start of July.





James Bigham's show, The London Bus Project, is on at the Barbican Library Gallery from August 4th until August 26th. The show features drawings made by James that map his experience of the journey.



Thornhill in Southampton is the site of David Worthington's first public outdoors work. Called We Come In Peace, standing 6.5m high and made of Glass Reinforced Plastic, David's piece is in part a comment on the nature of Public Art itself, with the artwork being an equable alien invader; air dropped into an environment with an agenda that has been set by someone else.



Galerie Xippas in Athens is hosting shows by 2 Great Western Studios artists simultaneously: Darren Almond and Jeremy Dickinson. In gallery spaces that are side by side, the shows are on now and run until the middle of September.





SkyArts will, starting from August, be broadcasting a 5 minute documentary film about Pip Hackett and her working space. I don't have the exact starting date or link but if you browse SkyArts I'm sure you will be able to find it.



Alice Tait had 3 minutes of fame on Channel 4 at the beginning of July by being one of 4 featured artists in the 3 minute wonder slot - Art Against The Odds, following entrants to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The programme can be seen again here - and features a very nice shot of the post slots and weighing scales at Great Western Studios - though to be honest I should have tidied up the notice board.



Backbone of the studios, nutritionist, cook, psychological coach, and all round good egg Steve Williams is adding another bow to his arrow with his position as co-founder of The Flicker Club. In its opening season Flicker Club has put together a schedule of monthly screenings on the last Thursday of every month from July to December at the Lexi Cinema in Kensal Rise. This season all the films are based on short stories, the programme opens with The Birds (an adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier novella) on July 30th. The Flicker Club's unique stance is that they will have a reading of an extract from the books before each of the screenings, keep an eye on their website to find out who they have enlisted to do each of these.



Studio Emigre, Kate Banazi, continues to wow the Southern Hemisphere. Her latest exposure is a solo show at the Lamington Drive Gallery in Melbourne - the show opens on July 23rd and runs until August 15th.



Lastly, Amy Sharrocks presented her work Walbrook on June 19th. She, and a cast of people, mapped the route of the a lost river that ran from Islington through the City of London. The participants were asked to dress in blue and were linked to each other so that they moved as one - there's a write up by the Independent here.