London: Complicit @ Coates & Scarry

July 16, 2015 butterfly

Coates & Scarry are hosting a group exhibition Complicit featuring a collection of artworks by a trio of strong female artists: Kate MccGwire, Juliette Losq, and Jayne Anita-Smith. Each artwork acts as a sensory invitation to explore other worlds and the show as a whole offers a place for unique and unsettling encounters. Returning from Glasstress 2015 Gotika at the 56th Venice Biennale and a recent show at the RWA Bristol with Peter Randall Page, renowned British sculptor Kate MccGwire creates original sculptures through multiple techniques and materials including paper, glass and a variety of bird feathers that are transformed with swirling or concentric forms. An overflowing vase with ondulating waves of feathers, kaleioscopic creations, and unconventoional scultptures challenge the viewer to think about the relationship between human and nature.

Complicit @ Coates & Scarry

Similarly disconcerting qualities can be found within Juliette Losq’s two-dimensional and installation pieces. Highlighting neglected and abandoned semi-urban landscape clearings strewn with rubbish or covered in graffiti, her practice uncovers a beauty and a wildness within these familiar but liminal spaces. The works are devoid of all human figures but traces of their activity are left behind.

For the exhibition, Juliette Losq also created a large shaped installation in the lower ground floor space with intricate painted paper, which is then rolled and torn over. The exhibition space has been transformed into a surreal beautiful and romantic place where the viewer become a protagonist within the scene, and anything could happen.

Smith’s drawings and paintings, meanwhile, depict ambiguous environments populated by strange human figures in overt pain and in suffering. Sometimes these places seem to depict lush forests or aspects of domestic interiors, such as Rococo chandeliers or wall paper patterns formed from curls, drips and washes of ink. Naked and fully clothed figures wearing historical garments emerge from whirling forms derived from memories and found images. Their character and emotional expression are informed by the artist’s reactions to images of suffering in the media. Smith’s works have a heightened feeling of movement. They seem to shift and form new patterns and figures constantly.

Complicit @ Coates & Scarry

View the full set of pics here

Complicit
Until 4 July 2015
8 Duke Street
London SW1Y 6BN

London, Street, streets

London Streets: El Seed @ Shubbak Festival

July 13, 2015 butterfly 1 Comment

For the Shubbak Festival, A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture, Cedar Lewison invited French Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist eL Seed to paint his first UK commission on the wall of Village Underground in London Shoreditch.

We previously seen his work in person back in 2013 in Paris for La Tour 13 ( covered here) and more recently for Le Pont des Arts.

Blending Arabic calligraphy with graffiti techniques, eL Seed has developed a distinctive and striking style, fusing poetry and language with dramatic design to create large-scale works.

El Seed - London
View the full set of pics here

The Shubbak Festival runs until 26 July 2015

London, Street, streets

London Streets: Ana Marietta new mural

July 12, 2015 butterfly

Puerto Rican born, Houston based artist Ana Marietta is currently in London and just finished painting a new mural in Brick Lane featuring her surrealistic animal universe.

Ana Marietta - London Streets

See more pics here

Books, London

London: Nick Walker Book Launch @ Boxpark

July 11, 2015 butterfly

Bristol based artist Nick Walker launched his brand new book “The Art Of Nick Walker” at Box Park in Shoreditch, including customised cover versions. The 152 page hardback retrospective with hundreds of full colour images comprising 20 years of ‘The Art Of Nick Walker’ was initially available at the recent solo exhibition in New York City, but you can also order a copy online from Nick’s website.

View more pics here

streets, Toulouse

Toulouse: 100TAUR new mural for the Dominicans

July 9, 2015 butterfly

A surreal encounter between French graffiti artist 100Taur and the Dominicans: for the celebration of the 800th Anniversary of the Order of Preachers , founded in Toulouse (FR), the Dominicans asked lowbrow artist 100TAUR to create a 100 square meters mural on their convent in Toulouse.

It’s a fusion between two worlds that coexist little: that of a religious order and that of a lowbrow and graffiti artist who created a (sometimes scary) fantasy world. A proof that 100Taur is open to all artistic challenges and encounters.

Surprising as it may seem, it also follows the ongoing collaboration of Dominicans with contemporary artists, like Matisse in 1951 when he created the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence.

For a week, 100Taur has painted a huge portrait of Saint Dominique on the outside wall of the Dominican monastery. The artist studied the iconography of St. Dominique and incorporated many symbols including a lily flower for purity, the Toulouse cross, as well as his signature ‘Slug ‘character, symbol of resilience.

100TAUR - SAINT DOMINIQUE

More than 600 persons came to the inauguration were the mural was officially blessed. ‘St Dominique’ can be seen at the Couvent des Dominicains, Metro Faculte de Pharmacie, in Toulouse.