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.

July News

Firstly the promised photographs of summer Open Studios.





and . . . the inaugural GWS dog show - dogs seem to be somewhat absent, but rest assured they were there somewhere.




Bourne Fine Art in Edinburgh is hosting an exhibition of new work by Emily Young to coincide with the Festival. The show opens on August 1 st and runs until September 6th and is accompanied by a catalogue. Bourne Fine Art's specialism is Scottish Art, so to hand this prestigious slot in their calendar to a non-Caledonian, is something of a coup - unless Emily fabricated that part of her cv in order to get the show.



Summer is traditionally silly season for news stories - you can scroll to the end of this blog entry to get the Great Western Studios equivalent. Elsewhere it seems to be book season. I have already blogged about Tommy Penton's Tate to Tate publication - if you haven't bought one of these already can I encourage you to do so - it's brilliant.



Tamar Zaig - costume designer to the stars - is currently in the middle of designing costumes for Baghdad Express, a short film funded by the UK Film Council and Film London. The story is based around an Iraqi girl who works in her Dad's cafe on the Edgware Road and has to decide between family and a career in fashion.



Alice Alexander née Tait is ex-of-the-studios but hasn't yet been written out of the history. Her prolific illustration skills have recently been utilised on the cover of Arthur Potts Dawson's cookbook - Acorn House the cookbook. Alice was working on this while she was still at the studios so it is essentially a studio product.



Sean Henry also has 2 publications out in the near future. We are approaching the 1 year anniversary of his installation Couple at Newbiggin in Northumberland so in order to mark this a book is being published which charts the progress of the work from conception and sketch through creation and installation to reaction and situation. The book includes an essay by Mark Lawson. Separately a monograph on Sean is being published by Scala in August this tome runs to 160 pages in total and will be available to order through Amazon. The text is written by Tom Flynn promises 4 major chapters on Sean's work: technique and scale, colour and realism, theatricality, and location and environment.



Blue Curry has been pretty busy. He has finished his first year doing his MA at Goldsmiths so has had an end of year exhibition there to mark this. He has also had 3 pieces of work selected for NE4 - the fourth national exhibition at the National Gallery of the Bahamas.



He has also been selected to form part of the cultural envoy selected by the government of the Bahamas to attend Carifesta which is being held in Guyana in August in preparation for the Bahamas being the next host of the event. As if that wasn't enough his work has also been written about in the academic journal Small Axe - it's not online yet but should be soon.

Edward Underwood can add Kunsthalle Basel to his cv thanks to 2 of his pieces being included in the group show Word Event which opened at the end of June and is on until September 28th. Not one to shout about his successes himself - it falls to me to do so in his stead.



From an artist who hides his light under a bushel to one who . . . . Lynn Parotti is always seeking out new avenues for her work and has just returned from exhibiting at the Henley Festival; she also has three pieces of work in NE4 the same show that Blue Curry has work in (see above).



The Sean Alexander/Apart Gallery world wide tour's next destination is Berlin. The Stark building is playing host to a version of the exhibition that has already made its home in LA (twice) and London from July 18th to 21st - coinciding with Berlin Fashion Week. As Sean's work has sold out in the previous incarnations of the show, Berlin will feature new work.



Laura Green didn't win but she was a finalist in the Guasch Corranty International Painting Prize Exhibition.



Thompson's Gallery in Marylebone is spreading out into staging photography shows and included in their inaugural show of photographic images are works by Angelo Plantamura. The exhibition opens on July 15th and runs until July 27th.



Lastly - as promised - a picture of Gordon Langley in fancy dress (of a kind).

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.