Secret Postcard Season

It seems that the trend for secret postcard shows in aid of worthy causes (as popularised by the Royal College of Art's RCA Secret) has been going from strength to strength. Already this year I've done a 'lodda work for charidee' (apologies to those too young to remember, or not British enough to get the Smashie and Nicey reference) and taken part in a few secret postcard exhibitions.

The latest one, that I've just made four large postcard-sized works for is the Oli Bennett Charitable Trust, whose Anonymous Art Fair, this year, takes place on Thursday 18th June. For full details on how to buy a work from the sale click here. As the work on sale is supposed to be anonymous, I can't yet show you what I created, so here's one of my pencil drawn postcards from a previous Oli Bennett show.

This year, for the first time, the Royal College of Art held two RCA Secrets; one at their Dyson exhibition space in Battersea, London, and a second one in Dubai, during Art Dubai, the leading international art fair in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Unfortunately I wasn't able check out RCA Secret Dubai myself but I did manage to lift an image of part of it from the Artslant article by Danna Lorch. Almost the same as going there – right? As the artists invited to take part in this year's RCA Secret were given the usual three postcards for the London show, and just one for the exhibition in Dubai, I'm guessing that the latter was a little smaller. Although, the chap who bought my Dubai piece (a bit of a 3D postcard this year – as you can see) emailed me to say that unlike the London show, where some people camp out days, if not weeks, beforehand, there didn't seem to be much of a queue when he arrived half an hour before the start of the sale. So, maybe if you're one of those RCA Secret regulars, desperate for a piece by one of your favourite artists, you should consider a Dubai holiday next year – one that coincides with Art Dubai. Just a thought!

Like the works that I did for both of this year's RCA Secret shows, the postcard that I made for the Welling School Secret Postcard Show (image below) was also based upon one of the many drawings that I developed to cover the surface of my latest sculpture, Tattooed Tumour Box; a piece that I've been working on for the best part of a year (on and off), and which I finally finished today. As soon as I get some descent photos of it I'll put them up on the blog.

Art Flea Market & The Love Guru of Venice

Photo by A+A Gallery.

For me, the fun and frolics of the Venice Biennale are over as I'm now back in my London studio, working on my next project. But I'd like to thank everyone involved in the Rob Pruitt's Flea Market (the students of the “22nd Course in Curatorial Practices and Contemporary Arts” at The School for Curatorial Studies Venice, curator Tommaso Speretta, everyone from A plus A Gallery, the artists taking part, everyone who came along, and Rob Pruitt himself) for making it such a fun event to be part of.

As is the case with all of the Rob Pruitt's Flea Markets, wherever in the World they happen to take place, each one is its own, unique beast – an amalgam of the various artists taking part, at a particular location and time. This incarnation of the RPFM brought together music, food, performance, parties, interactive events, and artists selling their wares. Amongst the artworks on offer were paintings, books, portraits, bags, sculpture, photographs, badges, and bizarre miscellaneous items. For my part, I was selling prints, paintings, drawings, and screen printed tote bags.

Me next to RPFMV poster. Photo by Holly Howe.

Here's my 'inner-selfie' with one of my favourite characters from the RPFMV - Guru Jimmy, introduced to me by the talented artist, James Ostrer.

Bye, bye Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Venice. Photo by A+A Gallery.

Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Venice
'A plus A Gallery', San Marco 3073
E press@aplusa.it
T 00 39 041 277 04 66
www.aplusa.it

Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Venice – New Work

In a few hours I fly off to Venice for the preview week of the 2015 Venice Biennale. As mentioned in my previous post - I'm taking part in the Rob Pruitt's Flea Market.

And as I also mentioned, I was hoping to produce a set of cotton tote bags, screen printed with an Italian-themed design (my tentacled version of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man) in time for RPFMV.

Well, I'm glad to say that they arrived from the printers in plenty of time, and I'm happy with how they turned out. The colour range for the totes is quite impressive so I've had my design printed up on a set of 17 different coloured bags – including natural, bright red, graphite grey, black, olive green, bottle green, pink, classic red, cornflower blue, cranberry, French navy, Kelly green, lime green, royal blue, purple, sky blue, and white.

In the short time since my last blog post I've been working on a few new drawings and paintings, for sale at RPFMV. So here are a few of them.

So if you happen to be in Venice for the Biennale's preview week, pop along and say hi. And if you'd like to see more of the work that I've created for the event then please feel free to check out my Oodles of Doodles blog.

Rob Pruitt's Flea Market,
Venice 'A plus A Gallery', San Marco 3073
5th - 8th May 2015 (open 12-8pm – free entry)

E press@aplusa.it
T 00 39 041 277 04 66
www.aplusa.it

The project is organized by the students of the “22nd Course in Curatorial Practices and Contemporary Arts” at The School for Curatorial Studies Venice, and curated by Tommaso Speretta.