Merry Xmas One & All

A few Christmases ago I thought it would be a nice touch to hand-make the cards that I send out to friends, and now it's in danger of becoming a bit of a tradition. This year I made a small number of charcoal drawn and acrylic painted cards. Being hand-made, each one is slightly different to the next one. So to wish you a cool Yule and a fantastic 2017 I thought I'd share one of the cards with you.

MERRY XMAS!!!!!!!!

Moon Drawings

I've recently been working with a new material (well, new to me) - resin. I originally bought it for use in a sculpture project but I got curious about how it would work as a drawing or painting material, when used in conjunction with charcoal and acrylic paint. To get a feel of the material I chose a simple theme, the moon, and started a few experimental drawings. The lunar theme came about after chatting to one of my collectors, James Dyer, about his 18 month-old daughter, Darcy, who is obsessed with the moon. Apparently the four important factors in her life are mum, dad, gran and moon - the latter presumably viewed as a person in its own right.

This first piece is called 'Darcy's Moon Ladder', and is a mixture of charcoal and resin on paper. For the lower section of the piece, containing the loose ladder structure, I adopted a more frantic and child-like approach to drawing, which I found quite primal and liberating.

Charcoal and resin are an interesting mix to work with - depending upon the order and how you apply them, it can sometimes work like a drawing, and at times the process can take on a more painterly aspect. The resin lends the charcoal a depth that you wouldn't necessarily get with a traditional charcoal sketch. That isn't immediately obvious in this images so I've included a photo at the bottom of the post that shows a cluster of drawings, where the sheen is more clearly evident. I'm a big fan of very dark (as in not much light) works (a great example being the early prints of someone like of Ana Maria Pacheco) where I, as a viewer, am forced to search out the details - so I am looking forward to pushing this process further, and producing even denser, darker pieces.

Another great thing about working with resin and charcoal on paper is that, until it sets, the resin is continually shifting so it's possible to scrape into it, creating new highlighted areas and textures. Although, because of this temporary state of entropy, you have to keep an eye on, and rework certain areas until the resin dries, as the line work you do is constantly wanting to melt away.

This second piece is the more experimental of the three I'm showing here. It even retains a fragment one of the disintegrated Nitril gloves that I was wearing when I created it - disintegrated because towards the end I'd abandoned drawing with charcoal or brush, and was frantically scraping the charcoaly resin mix with my gloved finger tips. Even before I picked up a charcoal stick or resin brush I screwed up and then unfurled the paper (stapling back together any tears) so as to give myself a nicely creased, non-flat surface to work on. I eventually plan to work on more screwed up pieces that will be rigid from much thicker coatings of resin.

Although simpler, and less worker, I am really happy with this third piece, which retains whole fragments of charcoal sticks that broke up under the heavy-handed drawing process. One of the discoveries that I made, and an effect that I greatly like, is the evidence of the small pieces of charcoal and powdered charcoal trapped in the resin, slowly travelling down the paper.

Stonewall Art Auction & Party

On Thursday night myself and the art journalist, Holly Howe (AKA Hollytorious), had a great time at the Stonewall Season Closing Celebration, held at the Tanner Warehouse on Bermondsey Street, London. The party marked the end of the ten day Stonewall Season festival, which celebrated LGBT life and culture at over 70 events across 15 different cities in England, Scotland and Wales.

I was there because I was one of over fifty artists who had donated work for the live auction, which took place throughout the evening.

 
It was great seeing so many stars turn out to on the night to support the LGBT equality event. In attendance were style guru Gok Wan, drag legend JodieHarsh, Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander, X Factor alum Seann Miley Moore, X Factor’s Saara Aalto, fashion designer Gareth Pugh, Emmerdale’s Alicya Eyo, and choreographer Brian Friedman (admittedly I had to be told who most of these people are as I don't have a TV, and am somewhat out of the celeb spotting loop).

My two highlights of the night were getting to chat to one of my favourite actors, Andrew Scott (probably best known for playing Moriarty in Sherlock, although I'm very much looking forward to seeing him as Hamlet at The Almeida, next year), and discovering a self service, Mister Whippy-style ice cream machine - I had three 99s (would have been more but they ran out of flakes).

Halloween Print Sale

This year I didn't do a print sale during my birthmonth (that's right – whereas most people celebrate their birth-days, I'm a little greedier), so to make amends I'm offering a 20% discount on my Swirly Skulls prints (aww what the hell! - I'll extend it to all my prints on paper), to coincide with my favourite time of year, Halloween. Although, to be honest I should probably have thought of posting this a little earlier, so I'll set the sale period till the end of November.

If you would like one of my screen prints at 20% less than the listed price just check out the range here and drop me a line at wayne@waynechisnall.com

Happy Halloween folks!

Stonewall Season - Charity Auction & Party

From 1-10 November Stonewall will be hosting Stonewall Season, a series of events that celebrate LGBT life, culture and people - culminating in a Closing Celebrating event that includes an art exhibition and charity auction at the Tanner Warehouse on London’s fashionable Bermondsey Street. The theme for the Stonewall Season is #ByMySide.

If anyone would like to come along to the closing celebration, the evening will begin at 7:30pm with a champagne and canapé reception. There will be an exclusive art exhibition comprised of one-off pieces, created exclusively for the night by some much-loved artists including Marc Quinn, Maggi Hambling, Henry Holland, Gareth Pugh and many more. Throughout the evening you can enjoy more drinks, fantastic food, entertainment and music too – including a set from DJ Jodie Harsh.

Each of the bespoke works of art (including my charcoal, acrylic and resin piece, titled 'Together') will be included in a silent auction on the night. I will post more details about this at the start of the Stonewall Season, once the works appear online.

Tickets are limited and available for £149 - book now to avoid disappointment!

For more information and to book tickets online, please visit www.stonewallseason.org.uk or contact the Events team on 020 7593 1875 or events@stonewall.org.uk.  

Alternatively you can click here to book your tickets.

If you can make it to the closing celebration, I look forward to seeing you there. If not, I'll have a little boogie on your behalf.

Stonewall Season Closing Celebration 
Thursday 10th November (7:30pm - 11pm)
Tanner Warehouse
50 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UD

Tentacled Dreadnought

When I was handed one of C.F. Martin and Company's rather lovely Dreadnought acoustic guitars by art collector and guitar aficianado, James Dyer, and instructed to do whatever I wanted to it, I was, at first, a little apprehensive. As much as I love working on bits of old wood and other pre-existing materials, when presented with something so beautifully made, and perfect as it is, it can be a bit daunting when asked to add to it – especially if that addition renders the object in question unfit for its original purpose; although, sometimes it's that meddling with the expected that art uses to help us to question the world we know around us, and which we often take for granted (not that I'm necessarily making any such grand claims in this case).

Another daunting aspect of being given free rein on any project is that there are no boundaries to help focus the mind. So I decided to look to some of my recent work and drew inspiration from a couple of paintings that I had done on pieces of antique wood, salvaged from some of the Victoria and Albert Museum's old packing crates. The piece that I especially drew inspiration from was my Tentacle Touch Teddy painting, which was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum's latest Vamalgam show.

To achieve the effect of the tentacle emerging from inside the guitar I first had to create an additional wooden section that partly filled in the sound hole (on which to paint that section of the tentacle) – thus rendering it pretty much useless as a musical instrument, but hopefully transforming the Dreadnought into an new art piece in itself.

Stonewall Charity Auction – Work In Progress

I'm currently working with a new material (well, new to me), and whenever I get to play with a new technique or material I get quite excited, and often frustrated, as I work out what the materials can do, and how far I can push them. This new material is resin. I originally bought it for use in my sculptural work but for now I'm drawing/painting with it, and am working on a body of charcoal and resin drawings on paper, and charcoal, resin, and acrylic paintings on paper. It's fascinating stuff to work with and, depending upon how you combine or use the two or three materials on the paper, the resulting outcomes are incredibly diverse and often less than predictable. So far I've produced around ten new pieces – but I'll post about them some time soon.

For now I'm working on a piece for a charity auction organised by the leading LGBT equality charity, Stonewall. From 1-10 November Stonewall will be hosting Stonewall Season, a series of events that celebrate LGBT life, culture and people, and it will culminate in a Closing Celebrating event that includes an art exhibition and charity auction.

The theme for the Stonewall Season is #ByMySide. And as you can see, I've cleverly avoided being clever, and drawn two figures holding hands whilst standing side-by-side. I'm not quite sure why the figures ended up looking like skeletal aliens – I think that I was trying to approach the drawings with an economy of line.

As I'm still finding my way with the resin, and to reduce the amount of time I have to spend stretching paper, I'm working on three different versions of the drawing on one piece of paper (and will choose the most interesting one for the auction, once they are all completed). The drawing/painting on the right of the photo is at it's finished stage, as I don't want to over work it, but the other two are works in progress so will probably end up looking very different.

I rarely post images of works-in-progress – not because I don't want to give away any of my processes, but because I feel that a lot of works-in-progress just look like bad art. Maybe it's an ego thing.

Creative Debuts – Artist of The Day

I'd like to say a big thank you to the wonderful team at Creative Debuts for making me their Artist of The Day, and featuring my work right across their social media platforms.

Sun Worshippers #1

Creative Debuts are a London-based group set up to champion emerging artists and designers, and offer a free global platform for creatives to sell, showcase and rent artwork. They have an exhibition space at the Black and White Building, right in the heart of the terribly hip Shoreditch triangle – a venue where I have previously exhibited my artwork.

Mutant Nail Heart

As well as having my own dedicated page on the Creative Debuts' site, and their Tweet shows images of several of my artworks, the group's Facebook page featured my 'Mutant Nail Heart' sculpture, saying this about it -

“Wayne is well known for his sculptures, with "Mutant Nail Heart" being a prime example. This piece is a carved wooden sculpture influenced by the minkisi artefacts of Africa, comprising of carved wooden totems that have had nails and other metal items hammered into them. As a result Chisnall created a similar artwork but that had a powerful presence derived purely from its adornment of carefully selected nails and screws- showing a ritualistic side of everyday life and the physical embodiments of the personal belief systems we all create. 

Check out Wayne's amazing Creative Debuts profile:www.creativedebuts.co.uk/artists/wayne-chisnall
Facebook: Wayne Chisnall's Artwork” 

Kitchen Blue

Check out Creative Debuts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and at their own website.

Hugly and The Missing Carrots

It's been a few months since I last posted about Hugly and Friends, and a lot has happened in that time. To recap, the project started out as a crowd funded venture between myself and two friends, Sam Frith and Ian Hamilton, with the overall aim being to encourage children to engage more in outdoor activities. The initial stage of the project was to produce a children's storybook that also doubled up as a cookbook, whilst providing seeds and instructions for growing one of the ingredients that forms an integral part of the story. I'm happy to say that we met our £8000 target (largely down to the hard work put in by Sam and Ian, whose commitment and infectious enthusiasm for the project pulled in backers from all walks of life) which enabled us to complete the first stage of the project – namely the production of our first book in the Hugly and Friends series, Hugly and the Missing Carrots. (now available through our Hugly and Friends website, and through Amazon).

The characters in this and future books are based upon cartoon creatures that I created, which Sam (who also inks the artwork) and Ian then took as the raw material to build the stories with, and create personalities for. Although Ian and Sam basically created the world of Hugly and Friends, it soon became apparent that something also was needed, which is where the fourth member of our team came in – writer, Gemma Appleton, who took the initial idea/draft and gave it her magic touch.

It took a lot of work to get this first book to the point where it was ready to go to the printers (self publishing a children's book is definitely a learning curve) but we all pulled together, and although I'm sure that later books in the series will be a bit more polished, we are pretty pleased with the way it turned out – and feedback from parents, children, and businesses has been amazing.

As I mentioned earlier, a lot has happened since my last blog post about the project, so I'll fill you in on it – although you might also want to check out Ellie Spanswick's article about our project, as it features conversations with both Sam and Ian, who share their thoughts on the potential negative impacts of too much screen time in their children's lives. Yes, I know, we're all starting to sound like our parents!

Me, admiring the Sweet Peas at River Cottage (photo by Holly Howe).

Right from the start there was support for our project from TV chef/environmental campaigner, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall so it made perfect sense that we would have our book launch at his River Cottage HQ on the Devon Dorset boarder. The event went amazingly, with a band playing, locally produced food and drinks available, and it was attended my nearly 100 adults and children.

Myself, Sam and Ian, at River cottage (photo by Holly Howe).

As well as a fantastic book launch, our project has received an amazing amount of publicity. Vanessa Feltz gave the book an outstanding mention on the 'Gardeners Guilt' section of her BBC Radio 2 show. Sam and Ian, along with Sam's two young daughters, were also interviewed this week on Penny Smith's Talk Radio show. This, plus various newspaper articles, has helped spread the word of what we are trying to do, and now we have our book stocked in places such as The Eden Project in Cornwall, Kew Gardens in London, the Rare Breeds Centre in Kent, and two-star Michelin chef Simon Hulstone's Torquay restaurant, The Elephant. Interest in our project seems to be growing by the day – in fact we have been offered a free stand at tomorrow's Vale of Glamorgan Agricultural Show, by our generous hosts, Philip Vowles and his daughter Gail.

Vanessa Feltz, on her BBC Radio 2 show.

To keep up to date with what's going on with the Hugly and Friends project please feel free to checkout our Facebook page, and to get hold of a copy of 'Hugly and The Missing Carrots' you can either go to our Hugly and Friends website or order it on Amazon.

Venice Account-book Drawings

I've recently relocated my studio and art practice from London to a much bigger space in Shropshire (but fear not, I'm still popping back down to the Capital on a monthly basis, to get my fix of arty partying and the glorious pollution – this fresh country air is just confusing my lungs), and have been spending the greater part of the last month working on renovations to the house and outbuildings, so apologise for the gap since my last post.

As a result of the renovations, and the current lack of a functioning studio, I've not had much in the way of time or space to produce any new artwork – and therefore not much to write about. But today I was making travel plans with the art journalist, Holly Howe, for our trip to next year's Venice Biennale (every two years Holly, myself, and a small group of art insiders schlep over to Venice for the craziness, and parties of the Biennale's opening week) when I remembered an old accounts book that I had found in the streets on my 2015 visit to Venice, when I was over there, taking part in the Rob Pruitt's Art Flea Market, pop-up event. That year, when I returned home to London, I brought the book back with me, and used it as a sketchbook in which I made some fast and playful charcoal and acrylic sketches/paintings. As you might already know from some of my previous work, I have a fondness for scrawling on old books and printed text.

As a creative exercise I like to set aside time to produce a certain amount of drawings, executed without much in the way of forethought, just to see what it throws up. Some of them work, and many of them don't – but either way, it's a good way of getting the creative juices flowing, and of maintaining the enjoyment of one's art practice. So here's a few examples of these loose paintings and charcoal sketches.

I'm not sure why I thought of painting this creature, with its cactus horns, but it probably triggered the thought of the bunny-eared figure below - which now I look at it, reminds me of a kinda steroidal version of the rabbit character from the film Donnie Darko.

To see more of my scrawlings from this found object check out my Oodles of Doodles blog – which I've also been neglecting for far too long.

Collective Art Brewing - Series Six

Last year my Winged Torpedo ink drawing was chosen to be one of the designs that appeared in 'Series 5', the range of art labels that adorn a limited run (albeit a run in the thousands) of beer bottles from Collective Arts Brewing.

This year I'm happy to announce that out of the 2000+ submissions to Series 6 my Spidey Pods design was selected to be one of the 68 new labels. It is number twelve in the series. This new label is based upon one of my signed, limited edition, screen print designs, details of which can be viewed here.

And as a way of celebrating selection to Series 6, I'll be offering a half price sale on all of my currently available prints on paper, for the next 30 days. If you are interested in any of them then simply email me at waynechisnall@yahoo.co.uk with the code 'SPIDEY-BREW' and I'll get back to you.

Now, remember to drink responsibly - and if you can't be sensible, then do what I do, and drink loads of water and scoff a big alcohol-absorbing pasty before you go to bed.

Featured in University of Northampton Prospectus 2016

Having left college in the late-80s and gone straight into a four year job as a technical illustrator for a Japanese company, followed by another four years working as a magazine illustrator, I didn't end up going to university until I was a mature student (well, technically mature). And I'm thankful that I did take that time out before re-entering education, because I'm pretty sure that if I had of gone straight from college to university, instead of being the working hard and playing hard twenty seven year old that In was, I fear that I'd just have been the party-hard nineteen year old, and totally wasted my time at uni.

I got a lot out of my time studying at University of Northampton, so when I was asked if I would like to be featured in their 2016 prospectus I was more than happy to say yes. One of the bonuses of saying yes was that the university sent the very talented photographer, Paul Michael Hughes, round to my studio to set up a shoot, and Paul very generously said that I could use the photos for my own art publicity purposes; a prime example of which is those used in this recent article on me and my studio for Artfinder - Work It! A look inside our artists' studios....

Friday Night at The Museum

I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone that I spoke to on Friday evening, and for their compliments about the work that I was exhibiting at the Victoria and Albert Museum's latest monthly Friday Late view.

For this Friday Late, Baroque to the Future, I had five of my sculptures on display in the V&A's Sculpture Gallery, at the foot of the National Art Library staircase. They ranged in size from my Orifice Tower sculpture, which stands at two metres tall, right down to my Spider Box piece at around twenty five centimetres tall. It seemed a fitting venue in which display these works as the vast majority of the materials from which the sculptures are constructed, originally came from old frames, backboards, and sections of antique packing crates, that the V&A had thrown out.

This last photo was taken my one of my V&A colleagues, Peter Kelleher, who was documenting the evening's proceedings.

Baroque To The Future ( V&A Friday Late)

It's been seventeen years since I first moved to London in 1999; the same year that the Victoria and Albert Museum started its Friday Late views, on the last Friday of every month – a series of ever-changing, curated programmes of live performances, cutting-edge fashion, film, installations, debates, special guests and DJs, with bars, food, and late-night exhibition openings.

So it seems quite apt that my last London exhibition before I leave the Capital next month (and re-locate my practice to a much larger studio space up in Shropshire) should be at this month's Friday Late, Baroque to the Future - the theme being Europe, Baroque and the Future. Not that this will be my last London exhibition; just the last one before I move studio.

Taking place this Friday, Baroque to the Future will be on from 6:30-10:00pm, and my sculptures will be installed at the bottom of the National Art Library staircase, inside the museum's Sculpture Gallery. Orifice Tower and Sleeping Beauty Box will be among some of the pieces that I will be showing, as well as salvaged sections (now in a temporary display structure) from my cabinet of curiosities sculpture, The City, which was unfortunately destroyed back in 2011, when it was lent to a Trove exhibition in Birmingham. But once I relocate to the new studio I am finally going to have the time to work on a new, and hopefully bigger, version.

Baroque to the Future

The Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL

Friday 29 April

18.30 – 22.00

April's Friday Late invites Amy Grimehouse with Late Night Library Club to explore the Europe 1600-1815 Galleries, and celebrate the influence of European culture as the possibility of Brexit looms.

Listen in on courtly gossip, participate in Versailles dance-offs, and marvel in encyclopaedic knowledge of power and revolution in Europe.

Drop by and singalong to Napoleonic pop songs and enter the V&A's very own Eurovision song contest. Nil point?

RCA Secret 2016 Reveal

The Royal College of Art has gone for a slightly different format this year with regards to its annual RCA Secret postcard exhibition. Instead of the usual one day sale, it's now decided to stretch it over a few days. The Dubai version of the exhibition took place last month (16-19 March 2016) during Art Dubai, at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, but the London one, at the college's Gulbenkian Galleries in Kensington Gore, is still on (ending 15th April - collection day 16th April).

Although the exhibition doesn't end for a few days yet I think that it's probably okay if I now reveal which pieces were mine – partly because I've already been contacted by the three art collectors (two from London, and one from Dubai) who each bought one of my 'postcards', and because when the show does finally end, I'll be sunning myself on an island in the Maldives, so won't want to be messing about with social media and updating blog posts etc (selfish, I know).

For those of you who don't know about the RCA Secret, it is a show of around 2000 original postcard-sized artworks by 'internationally acclaimed artists, designers, cultural icons, alumni, and up-and-coming graduates', exhibited between two venues – the Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College of Art, Kensington, London and 500EAD in Dubai, with all the proceeds going to the RCA Fund, providing scholarships and bursaries for students. And the secret part of it, I hear you ask? Well, each postcard is exhibited anonymously, with the creator only being revealed once the card has been bought by its collector.

Every year the college throws a thank you party for the contributing artists. This year's was on Friday, just gone, and all I'll say is that their generosity with the refreshments meant that, for me, the following day was pretty much a write off. In this photo, taken by one Mister Adam Stone (now the proud owner of one more of my RCA Secret postcards), shows me looking at one of the two pieces that are still on show at the London leg of the RCA Secret. The show allows for sculptural postcard entries, although I may have taken it a bit far this year, as the piece had to be laid on its back, so that it didn't stick up in front of the row of cards above it.

You can't see from the photos, but each of the pieces that I made for this year's shows has a mirror inside the top box section, viewable through the carved orifice section at the front of the box. So when you look inside, you see an eye staring back at you - but not always the eye that you might be expecting!

RCA Secret 2016
Royal College of Art, Kensington
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU

Exhibition
8–15 April, 11am – 6pm

Late opening
13 and 15 April, until 8pm

Sale
10 April, 8am – 6pm
11–15 April, 11am – 6pm

COLLECTION DAY 16 April, 9am – 5pm
Free admission

Artfinder Studio Video Interview

Being a visual language, I normally find that it's best to let art speak for itself. So when Artfinder asked me if I'd like to be their guinea pig, and be the first artist to take part in their new series of informal, videoed, artists' studio interviews, I was a bit wary - but then thought, 'ah, what the hell!'



Like many people, I tend to cringe whenever I see or hear a recording of my self, so when I first watched the video it was through the gaps between the fingers of both of my hands, which were firmly grasping my face. Apart from a few exceptions, most artists are visually articulate but not always verbally – unfortunately, I now realise that I'm clearly not one of those exceptions. I would like to blame it on the fact that the piece had to be edited down to just three minutes – but no, it's just me not being able to think faster than my mouth.

Incidentally, the opening still shot of me was taken by the talented photographer, Paul Michael Hughes, for a feature about yours truely, that will be appearing the new University of Northampton prospectus - which comes out 6th April.

Unseen at The Festival of the Unseen

Unfortunately, because of an unexpected (as they're rarely planned) trip to Accident and Emergency on the day that I was supposed to drop off my artwork to the Hundred Years Gallery, I was unable to actually take part in DARK: Festival of The Unseen, which opened on Thursday in Shoreditch/Hoxton (just north of Hoxton Train Station and the Geffrye Museum). But I did manage to make it to the opening night and catch-up with a great bunch of friends and fellow artists.

So, maybe by not exhibiting in the show, the absence of my work is in keeping with the unseen element of the exhibition. See... it all makes sense now.

The show runs till this Sunday, with art, live music, poetry readings, and performances – so do pop along if you're looking for something fun and engaging to do this Easter Bank Holiday.

DARK: Festival of the Unseen (Thurs Opening 7:30-10:00PM)

Okay, this is a bit of a rushed blog post on my part, as I've only just found that I'm now actually free, after all, to take part in DARK: Festival of The Unseen which opens tonight at the Hundred Years Gallery in Shoreditch/Hoxton (just north of Hoxton Train Station and the Geffrye Museum). This group art exhibition opens at 7:30pm tomorrow night (Thursday 24th March), and I've not even managed to deliver my entry, 'Jarred', to the gallery yet. I'm hoping to get it there and have it hung by 6:30pm – so no rush or anything!

So please excuse my laziness but here's all the exhibition info that you'll need - painstakingly lifted direct from the gallery's own website:


DARK: Festival of the Unseen - Return of the DRON is the third exhibition organised by Jill Rock in collaboration with Hundred Years Gallery.

Following the success of previous exhibitions, DrONUltImARAtio 2012 and WHITEOUT 2014, DARK is an exhibition featuring the work of 20 artists, and a programme of improvised music, performance and poetry over the Easter Weekend March 25th to 28th. The title is there to be interpreted individually by participants and visitors alike. The fascination in this exhibition is that diversity is at its core, embracing fears and joys, dark and light the symmetries and asymmetries of life. Central to the show is the Dron, an icosidodecahedron, mirrored internally with unaccountable acoustics which becomes Plato’s Cave, an ergasterion for improvised music and poetry. The exhibition of visual work runs alongside the programme of live events .

Participating artists: Anna Burel, Nicky Scott Francis, Jaime Valtierra, Curtis Radclyffe, Joanne Roberts, Martin Lau, Mary Lemley, Jason Gibilaro, Noel Macken, M. Profil, Peter Woodcock, Max Reeves, Helen Elwes, Jolanta Jagiello, Mervyn Diese, Rita Says, Phil Baird, Gudrun Sigridur Harraldsdottir, Elizabet Chojak-Mysko, Li Williams, James White, Maria Lusitano, Neville Sattentau, Jill Rock.

Sound piece by Montse Gallego

OPENING – Thursday March 24th 7:30 - 10:00pm

BLAKE NIGHT – Friday 7 – 9.30pm -an evening of poetry inspired by William Blake by The Blake Congregation, solo flute by Nicky Heinen, celtic harp & songs by Sheila Moylan.

PERFORMANCE – Saturday 7-10:30pm : The Re-Awakening Of James Joyce’s Night-time novel, The Wake, The Sandman Returns to Meet where Term’s Begin, a collaboration between poet and performer Grassy Noel, artist, performer and musician Giles Leaman, improvising ensemble  KMAT, dancer Sofia Figueiredo, and film-maker Mervyn Diese. Piano recital by Gabriel Keen.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON – 4- 6.30pm, RabelaisDADA with Robert Robertson, electronic music by Cos Chapman with dancer Svenja Buhl, open conversation amongst the participants and visitors chaired by Jill Rock, and a closing performance by Mervyn Diese.

Hundred Years Gallery
13 Pearson St.
London E2 8JD 

+44 (0)20 3602 7973

Creative Debuts – Showcase XIII

A few weekends ago, at an artists seminar held in the basement of the Hilton hotel in Piccadilly, London, I met some interesting chaps who had set up a platform called Creative Debuts. Not only is Creative Debuts an online gallery, set up to debut emerging artists and designers, but it also has a physical space, The Black and White Building, in the heart of Shoreditch (probably the hippest spot on the planet right now). This gallery is Creative Debuts' vehicle for showcasing artists through month-long exhibitions – all of which open on the first Thursday of every month as part of Whitechapel Gallery's First Thursdays.

After joining Creative Debuts, and uploading some images of my work onto my own Creative Debuts page I was pleased to be invited to be part of the next exhibition, Showcase XIII, which opens Thursday 3rd March (7-10:30 PM).

Five of my pieces were selected for the show – one of my oldest sculptures, Baby Kit (from the late 90s), and four recent paintings from my Taster Menu series; a series which was originally created for a four day pop-up event at the A Plus A Gallery, during the opening week of last year's Venice Biennale. Even though these two groups of works were created decades apart, they are rather neatly tied together by the fact that they all feature doll parts.

Happy Valentine's Day Folks

To all you lovers and lovelorn alike, I wish you a very happy Valentine's Day.

To commemorate this over-commercialised day here are three of my small heart-shaped sculptures, Nail Heart, Mutant Nail heart, and Nail-less Heart – all carved from wood and, in the cases of the first two, pierced with rusty nails, screws, and other metal implements.

They are from a small series of artworks which are sort of a spin-off from my Nail Box sculpture, which is itself inspired by, and indebted to, the Minkisi totems of the Congo and surrounding regions.

Nail Heart, photographed by photographer, Rosie Mayell.