February News

Firstly, the photographs from Open Studios back in December last year taken by the very lovely Sam Robinson.



















Emily Young's show at the Fine Art Society is on until the end of February and was also marked by the launch of a catalogue to support her exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral.



Joy Richardson has an exhibition at the Orange Tree Theatre which is on until March 21st. The acting strand of Joy's life also gets an airing at the same venue as she is appearing in a new play called Greenwash which is on for the same period as the exhibition.



Alice Alexander's (neé Tait) work is appearing on a number of new book covers including How To Meet A Man After 40 by Shane Watson.



The opening of Altermodern at Tate Britain, and featuring Darren Almond was somewhat tempered by it being on Monday February 2nd, that day that will henceforth be referred to as Snowday. Anyway . . . the critics did manage to see it at some point that week including Laura Cumming for The Observer.



The 20/21 Art Fair is taking place at the Royal College of Art this forthcoming weekend (February 19th - 22nd) and The Art Movement will be showing new work by Cristina Rodriguez.



Jo Ratcliffe has been busy gaining prestigious commissions including working on the windows for the new TopShop store in New York. If you want a glimpse of what she might be doing for the New York store then the windows at the Oxford Circus branch have also just been Ratcliffed.



Lastly - click here to see Pete Gleadall and Smokin Jo talking about they came to name one of their collaborative tracks under the TRNSSTR moniker.

January News

A belated edition of the GWS news blog; we'll be back on track for February.

If you were tuned in to Radio 4 between just after New Year you may have heard Emily Young's appearance on Saturday Live. Inbetween discussions on the ramifications of being a sperm donor, Emily talked about the works that she has made for her exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral and how she arrived at creating the work that she does.



Claudia Carr has work in a forthcoming exhibition at Beverley Knowles Fine Art, just off Golborne Rd. Entitled Grove Women, the show opens on January 28th and runs through until February 28th.



The Royal British Society of Sculptors is hosting an exhibition of Sean Henry's work this month at their salon gallery and their sculpture forecourt on Brompton Road. The Salon Gallery show runs from January 21st until January 31st and the Sculpture Forecourt show runs from January 21st through to April 9th.



The London Art Fair happened between January 14th and 18th at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Mary Grant exhibited works with Jill George Gallery, Rachel Schwalm was showing with Beaux Arts.

Darren Almond has work in the Tate Triennial Show, Altermodern, which opens on February 3rd and runs until April 26th. There's a remarkable lack of information about the triennial on the Tate website - but, other artists in the exhibition include Gustav Metzger, Franz Ackermann amd Tacita Dean.

The December issue of Creative Review that made it's way into subscriber's hands contained a monograph on Kate Gibb. This monthly production for subscribers to the magazine showcases a personal project or body of work.



Our overseas friends are busy this month - while we have taken to hibernation they are up and about. Kate Banazi has some silkscreen prints in an exhibition at Lamington Drive in Melbourne.



Gabriela Trzebinski has work in a group show at Box 13 Artspace in Houston titled, Disturbance of Distance. She is presenting a video installation examinign the struggle against poaching in Africa.

I've been intending to include Katherine Smyth's exhibition in Wellington, NZ for at least the past 2 months and have finally got around to it - admittedly a bit late in the day now. Anyway, back in November last year, Katherine Smyth had an exhibition of new work at the Avid Gallery.

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.