Category Archives: London

London: Jean-Michel Basquiat ‘Boom for Real’

September 20, 2017 butterfly

Discover the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960—1988), the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene at the Barbican Centre in London from 21 September 2017.

This unprecedented exhibition brings together an outstanding selection of more than 100 works from international museums and private collections. Engage in the explosive creativity of Basquiat who worked with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Blondie, among others. Featuring rare film, photography and archive material, the show captures the spirit of this self-taught artist, poet, DJ and musician whose influence, since his death at 27 in 1988, has been enormous.

Jean-Michel Basquiat – Boom for Real
21 Sep 2017 — 28 Jan 2018
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

London, Street, streets

London: Banksy pays tribute to JM Basquiat

September 17, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

Banksy JMB - Butterfly art News

Ahead of the upcoming Museum show about Jean Michel Basquiat at the Barbican opening this week, elusive artist Banksy painted a series of murals on the adjacent walls leading the museum and released pictures on his Instagram account.

Banksy JMB 065 - Butterfly art News.jpg

The first one depicts JM Basquiat as a graffiti artist with his dog being searched by the Metropolitan Police, while a second one feature people queuing for London Eyes Wheel where the capsules have been replaced by iconic JMB crowns.

Banksy JMB Wheel 01 - Butterfly art News
Banksy JMB Wheel 03 - Butterfly art News
Banksy JMB Wheel 02 - Butterfly art News

Art Fair, London

London: Frieze Sculpture Park

September 11, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

Ahead of the awaited annual international Art Fair in October with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Frieze is launching its first ever summer outdoor exhibition open to the public in The Regent’s Park in London as an exciting teaser .

“It’s fantastic that the free Frieze Sculpture park will open as part of an exceptional summer of culture in the capital, showing that London is open to innovation, creativity, and to visitors from around the world,” London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said in a press release. “I’m delighted that this incredible exhibition will bring new audiences to contemporary art, inspiring Londoners and tourists alike.”

The new and significant works on display this year have been selected and placed by Clare Lilley, director of programs at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. “From the playful to the political, these 23 works explore contemporary sculpture’s material and technical dexterity, together with its social role and reflection on the human condition and our environment,” said Lilley.

Featuring 23 international artists : Magdalena Abakanowicz, Rasheed Araeen, Reza Aramesh, Miquel Barceló, Anthony Caro, John Chamberlain, Tony Cragg, Michael Craig-Martin, Urs Fischer, Gary Hume, KAWS, Takuro Kuwata, Alicja Kwade, Mimmo Paladino, Eduardo Paolozzi, Jaume Plensa, Thomas J Price, Peter Regli, Ugo Rondinone, Sarah Sze, Hank Willis Thomas, Bernar Venet, John Wallbank, Emily Young.

A series of public tours throughout the summer as well as a free Frieze Sculpture Audio Tour app featuring commentary by Lilley will be organized by Frieze programming partner Art Fund.
In addition, the free London Summer Art Map, co-produced by Art Fund, Art on the Underground, Frieze, the Mayor of London, and Sculpture in the City, will be available to guide you through the season of public artwork across the capital, including the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square and Sculpture in the City.

View the full set of pics here

https://vimeo.com/225087314

Frieze Sculpture Park
Until 8 October 2017
Regent Park – London

London, Shows

London: Herakut – ‘Sad but Happy’ Solo Show

September 6, 2017 butterfly

After five years travelling and painting throughout the world , the German duo Herakut is returning to London for a new solo exhibition at Stolenspace entitled ‘Sad but Happy’.

Hera and Akut first came to London in 2010 when they painted their enigmatic character on the walls of the Moniker Art Fair, followed by a solo show in 2012.

Herakut at the Moniker Art Fair in 2010

The public discovered the magical energetic duo with their spraycans with Hera starting the figurative outlines and setting the rhythm like she’s dancing graciously while Akut focusses on photorealistic feature details like the eyes, conveying a myriad of emotions.

Additionally, the incorporation of poignant messages in their works creates a sense of wonder when observing their art. Specifically, their words take you into what seems to be the childlike, pure essence behind Herakut while delivering a punch to the imagery they provide.

What’s more, the recurrent theme of both animal imagery and hildren subjects transport us back to our childhood where innocent imaginary friends were an embraced accompaniment to our creative minds.

On the title for the show ‘Sad But Happy’, the duo stated; ‘It fits every single piece, we think, and fits our style in general. Ambivalence. Schizophrenia even. That’s us. That’s the essence of Herakut.’

This series of new works sees the duo progress with their distinctive and dark style. Depicting children and animals with large emotive eyes, they draw the viewer in to their mysteriously eerie world, making them contemplate the statements scribbled across the canvas and their relationship with the characters in the works.

Their dark use of colour contrasts with the bright and fast use of movement and brush work. Their style welcomes a kind of imperfect perfection, the brushstrokes seeming erratic and fluid but also so beautifully placed.

Their joint creative art process is about storytelling, the creation of imaginary worlds and inspiring their figures with individual characters:

The message on a canvas where two little girls with kitty masks hidden in a cardboard box says ‘She said lets go back to when all was perfect’, while a portrait of a thoughtful little girl mentions ‘ Stop destroying my city says the dragon’.

View the set of pics here

Herakut – Sad but Happy
Stolenspace Gallery
Until 1 October 2017
17 Osborn Street, London UK E1 6TD

London, Shows

London: Ashley Bickerton – Ornamental Hysteria

August 6, 2017 butterfly

NewportStreet Gallery is currently showing a retrospective of works by US artist Ashley Bickerton.

‘Ornamental Hysteria’ spans more than three decades of Bickerton’s career and features 51 works, including a significant display of new and previously unexhibited pieces. It is the artist’s first UK show since 2009 and runs throughout all six spaces at Newport Street Gallery.

Bickerton moved to New York in 1982 and after working as a painting assistant to Jack Goldstein, he emerged as a key figure on the newly exploding East Village art scene. Within the context of the culture of commodification sweeping America he rose to prominence as part of an amorphous movement that was branded ‘Neo-Geometric Conceptualism’. Alongside artists such as Haim Steinbach and Jeff Koons, Bickerton endeavoured to reframe the practice of art production in response to the new, seductive mechanisms of desire at work in society.
Bickerton abandoned New York in 1993, eventually settling in Bali, where he still lives and works.

Throughout his career, Bickerton has challenged what we consider or define a painting
Multidisciplinary artist, Ashley Bickerton uses a variety of medium, from photocollage, digital image, paint and sculpture to create technical assemblages on the themes of opposition and duality: representation and reality, creativity and commodity, nature and artifice, idyll and apocalypse.

The gallery 1 presents a critique of contemporary consumer culture and the commodification of the ‘art object’ via steel and aluminium wall-mounted ‘Culturescapes’ from the ‘Logo’ and ‘Non-Word Word’ series.

The monumental 5 Snake Heads in the Gallery 2 showcasing a five-bodied, technicoloured serpent is a parody of the mythological figure of a self portrait of the artist.

Colourful paintings like ‘Smiling Woman’ based on distorted and retouched photographs, illustrate models, family members and friends with heavy make-up as an overtly satirical and lurid vision of life on a generic Pacific / Caribbean island.