Category Archives: Exhibitions

The ongoing notion of a smaller painting concluded on every day of the year in 2017…

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157/365 – Fresh Leaf Growth, June 6th Fresh growth, new layers, leaves and the ongoing notion of a smaller painting brought to a completed conclusion on every single day of 2017. On day 157, a 157th piece, acrylic, marker pen, brushwork, spray paint, varnish on the cover of a found hardback book…

The ongoing notion of a smaller painting brought to a completed conclusion on every day of the year in 2017. I imagine the pieces that haven’t already been sold or left hanging as #43ArtDrop pieces, will be on sale at very reasonable prices at this Sunday’s Art Car Boot fair over in Vauthall, London, E11.

 

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And so Interact happened, a Cultivate takeover of Coate Studios and two big rooms just off the Hackney Road…

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INTERACT, Cultivate at Coate Studio, June 2017

And so Interact happened, a Cultivate takeover of Coate Studios and an art show in the two big rooms of the space just off the Hackney Road, London E2. Twenty-eight painters, performers, sculptors, textile artists, print makers, wallpaper printers and more and show pulled together by myself and co-cultivator Emma Harvey.  There’s a collection of thoughts, words and a lot more photos of the work of the other artists as well as the crowds from the opening night over on the Organ pages – Sir Ian McKellen eating a pasty, a giant yellow emoticon and a whole lot of art, paint, interaction and more…  there’s also lot of photos of the work of all twenty-eight artists over on the Cultivate website – Interact, a flavour of the work of all twenty-eight artists, gallery shots without all the people and the pastry eating… There’s plenty of thought in terms of the show, the curation, the way it worked, the art of the other artists and more via those two reviews, I expect there will be more though on the Cultivate website over the next few days and weeks. I think we can say the show went well, exciting art, lots of people, excellent performance and well, more on the Cultivate pages if you want to explore.

This page is about my art, about what I’m doing as an artist rather than a curator or writer or any of those things done under the Cultivate or Organ banners, and so here, on this page, are my three parts as an artist taking part in the Interact show – an installation consisting of some of the ongoing daily paintings, the big Where The Buddleia Grows canvas piece and the piece painted to grow inside the recently found gold frame….

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SEAN WORRALL  And if a Frame is Thrown Out Then Leaves Will Grow. Acrylic on MDF in found frame (£200)

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SEAN WORRALL  Where The Buddleia Grows, Acrylic, spray paint, stitching (£200)

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SEAN WORRALL The notion of a painting concluded everyday Various prices upon request (£5 to £40_

More photos, mostly of the three pieces of mine in the show, click on an image to enlarge or run the slideshow….

 

 

And Then There Were Three… The 18th piece painted…

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And then there were three… Fresh growth, new leaves. Three fresh pieces, three canvas pieces painted in the cold fresh air of January in Hackney. Each canvas 15cm x 15cm, acrylic, brushwork, spray paint and Herb Robert .

The ongoing notion of a painting brought to a finished state every day of the year during 2017 went on today with “Two Leaves, Thorny Ones” and some fresh leaf growth on a small square canvas. Acrylic, spray paint, brush work, gold paint, glitter paint, varnish on canvas 15cm x 15cm x 1cm. The 18th painting of 2017.

18/365 “Two leaves, Thorny Ones” – The notion of a painting brought to a finished state every day of the year during 2017. Fresh leaf growth on a small square canvas. Acrylic, spray paint, brush work, marker pen, gold paint, varnish on canvas 15cm x 15cm x 1cm. The 18th painting of 2017.

The most recent, the 18th of the year on the 18th day of the year, “Two Leaves, Thorny Ones”, an affordable piece of art brought to a finished state and added to the Cultivate on-line shop  every day of the year, will this go on?

 

 

Meanwhile, the third in a series of Cultivate shows at BSMT Space comes up on February 9th.

“Another gathering of pro-active artists and another maximalist exercise in cross-pollination. A room alive with contemporary painters, so-called street artists, performers, print makers and more…. Watch this space…. Opening on Thursday evening and then a short sharp shock of a show through the weekend and closing on Sunday, no messing about, just artists, walls, people and….

Once more this is about taking art and artists out of those comfortable little boxes that the London art scene appears to need, mixing things up, messing with the rules, nothing fragile –

Last time Emma Harvey and Sean Worrall invited a wallpaper printer (currently hanging in the V&A), alongside a street artist currently painting East London walls, a London dress-maker currently raging against London Fashion week, a contemporary painter currently exploring the view found through a circle, a performance artist freshly returned from her LA performance next to a pro-active artist still questioning the destruction of the mining communities, this time…. well we’re working on it… ”

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Debased, three weeks on, the aircraft carrier is docked, time for some painting…

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Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats (detail) (2016 - Acrylic on canvas 120cm x 150cm)

Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats (detail) (2016 – Acrylic on canvas 120cm x 150cm)

October 17th 2016, the sun is out, the leaves are glorious, the Eleven O’clock pigeon is sitting by the door, the Debased show was three weeks ago now, the Debased group show marked five pretty intense years of Cultivate events and five non-stop years of organising, herding, promoting, occasionally fighting, five years of talking about other people’s art, promoting other artists (a thankless pursuit on the whole, artists always seem to demand more and whatever you do it is never  enough). Five years of making things happen, battling space owners, galleries, landlords, councils and more. Debased was a great show, trumpets were blown, the performance art was intense, emotionally so – beautiful. I though the fifteen (or was it sixteen?) artists on the wall provided a collective body of strong engaging exciting art, it felt like a damn good show, a well put together show (see, more trumpet blowing, it was a good hang). I wasn’t that happy with my own art in the Debased show, slightly depressing to have to spend five days in that basement looking at it, art debased indeed, thankfully the other artists compensated for that and overall Debased felt good enough to call for that blowing of trumpets and celebrating of circles and bananas and colour and cut out.  Debased felt good, it feels like a good point to stop and take a much needed breath to two.

A part of the #43ArtDrop found and a photo posted by the finder

A part of this Summer’s #43ArtDrop found and a photo posted by the finder

And so three weeks on from Debased and deliberately not booking any more shows or taking part in shows or actively trying (too hard) to find spaces, I’m politely turning down invites and resisting temptations both is terms of Cultivate and my own art. Of course the studio here is bursting with paintings, and yes, the occasional invite from an artist or two that doesn’t involve me running the whole damn show and being the one who has to do all the barking and fighting and pissing off of people might be nice – and people do get pissed off, they do take it for granted and tell you however much you’ve done for them it really isn’t enough – they block you, “unfriend” you, curators ban you, artists treat you like an aircraft carrier,  and yes, to quote the late Joshua Compston once more, land on you and then use you to take off from again with never a second though for the notion that some of the favour might be returned and that it might be about a little more than just taking taking all the time.  We reckon over the last five or so years there’s been around about a thousand or so artists taking part in our many many shows and events, not that many return invites though – – asked one artist we had championed again and again for details of a new art space she had found that she was putting a show on at, it looked like an exciting space, she point blank refused to share the information and pretty much made it clear she didn’t need us anymore now that the bigger curators were showing her work, not sure how that has worked out for her, really do hope it is working, still championing her art via the pages of Organ and such, but it is a shame to see how these things flow again and again.

And so for the first times in at least five years there are no Cultivate shows coming up, no venues to organise, no publicity to be done or posters to make, no artists to chase and listen to or deal with while they tell me they can’t get to the hang on time because their big black dog has eaten their homework and no finances to juggle, for the first time in far more than five years I’m not scheduled to be taking part in any group shows, there are no solo shows booked, there’s not a single thing in the diary . A breath is being taken, some much time and space to just paint is being explored and I rather like the beautiful fact that there are no forthcoming events and no artists to deal with and no shows to occupy my mind… The aircraft carrier is in dry dock…

#43, under the bridge

#43,  a 43 minute show under a bridge (Feb 2016)

So, Debased happened, a beautifully intense show….

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sw_biggoldleaf4Well that was a beautifully intense four or five days. Emma Harvey and I have been doing this Cultivate gallery thing for over five years now, we put on over 150 shows, evens and such, we’ve shown the art of well over a thousand artists, it has been almost defiant, it has been exciting, the art of sharing,  making things happen, taking over spaces and bring them to live. Last weekend we put on a Cultivate group show called Debased over at BSMT Space in Dalston, London N16.  There’s a great big article over on the Organ pages, a review packed with thought, word, image and to some extent frustration. I thought it was a very special show, intense, emotional, rewarding, very hard work…. Anyway, please do read about it and explore it all over on the Organ pages. There’s some images of the work I showed further down the page here, the art of the other artists we invited and the performances of Amy Kingsmill and Marnie Scarlet are over on the Organ pages along with the trumpet blowing and… and well thank you everyone, thanks to all who came, all who took part and all who followed the events on line and such. .

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Click on an image to enlarge or to run the slide show…

head over to the Organ page for the art of the others involved

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A gathering of some recent growth, fresh pieces, new layers, leaves, thorns, things growing…

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debased_sept2016A gathering of some recent growth, fresh pieces, new layers, leaves, thorns, things growing in found frames, some recent art drops, and such …

And so, next Thursday 22nd September, the Cultivate long weekend takeover over at BSMT Space (Dalston, London N16) starts, a show once again curated by myself and Emma Harvey, more mixing up of things

.  “This is about taking art and artists out of those comfortable little boxes that the London art scene appears to need, mixing things up, messing with the rules – a wallpaper printer (currently hanging in the V&A), alongside a street artist currently painting East London walls, a London dress-maker currently raging against London Fashion week, a contemporary painter currently exploring the view found through a circle, a performance artist freshly returned from her LA performance next to a pro-active artist still questioning the destruction of the mining communities”…Expect lots more information about the artists and the show to appear over on the Cultivate blog pages in the next few days as we lead in to the show

Click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show….

Displacement? Words? Another show…. art…. blah blah… this… that…

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Displacement then. Displacement? Words? Another show…. art…. blah blah… this… that… words? What’s words worth?…. there goes the neighbourhood…. beer…paint…. rust…. people…. words… friends…old friends, new friends…. foes, toes, stepping on toes, artists, egos… words…i did write a whole load of words and post a whole load of photos from the opening night, the artists, the glorious space and more over on the ever busy Organ pages (yeah yeah yeah, writing about shows I’m taking part in, well the self-appointed art media aren’t exactly on the case are they?)

Here’s the Organ review or the words or whatever you wish to call it…

Displacement? Words? Another show…. art…. blah blah… this… that… words? What’s words worth?…. there goes the neighbourhood…. beer…paint…. rust…. people…. words… friends…old friends, new friends…. foes, toes, stepping on toes, artists, egos… words…

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

I was on the way to the show yesterday morning, off along the road, painting under arm, off to hang it in there with the paintings, all beautiful rust and the industrial marks and the hard graft, sweat and iron filings and the twists of the metalwork workshop on the old street of caves under the railway arches. London’s caves full of car mechanics and taxi repair spaces, (a street without an actual coffee shop!). Bumped in to an artist friend as I walked to the show painting under arm, a fellow artist who also ran one of the many do-it-yourself gallery spaces that added so much to the fabric of the wreckage around here for a good few years when no one else much cared. His gallery has closed down now of course, pushed out a year or so ago so the space could be taken for another block of expensive unwelcoming not-for-the-likes-of-you flats that are only eleven minutes from Liverpool Street and a step away from ten types of coffee, the gym and some artisan bread. His original gallery long gone and that very morning given two week’s notice to get out of his studio. They, whoever they are, can make more money out of it if they convert it to, who knows what? Displacement? There goes the neighbourhood, he looked a little depressed… two weeks…. toes…. said he’d probably have to give up on London…

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

 

Clair Street has been well documented here on these Organ pages in the last few days, weeks and months , East London over the last few years (last twenty nine and bit years since the first Organ actually). Last night an art show opened on Clare Street, a group show and a gathering in one of the under threat industrial spaces, a beautiful space for a show. A show curated by one of the artists who regularly paints and exhibits in the area, this time it was Skeleton Cardboard’s turn to pull together a show… Oh look, words words words…. Last night a week-long show opened, a whole load of art and artists came together, painters, street artists, you know the score, lots of people came along, a good time was had, colour abound in the industrial beauty and crashed Range Rovers and the rust and the welding gear….a big crowd gathered, people smiled, paint was sprayed, photos were posted, images were liked, art was sold, somebody on some cooler-than-us street art blog will probably describe it all as being “the bomb”, people were probably “smashing it”… Another show happened, tempting to say there’s always another show…. but is there? Is there another show? Vyner Street was ghostly last night when we walked passed on the way to Clare Street, it all died so quickly? First Thursday? There goes the Neighbourhood? Displacement? Words? Caves? Artisan bread and only eleven minutes from Liverpool Street? Come and live around here, ten different types of coffee and a fancy loaf of bread?

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

Dispacement, East London, July 2016

 

So an energetic art show happened on a street who’s days are numbered, under the shadow of a new building imposed… words? Energy? Reviews? What’s words worth? What’s Wordsworth? A whole load of artists came together, it was as much about the what happened outside on the street as what was on the walls inside… words? Gere’s the photos, enjoy the photos…. the who needs words? What price coffee? See you at the next one? Is there a next one? (SW)

Click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show and the art and the colour of the industry, this is mostly my part, for the art of everyone else head over to the Organ pages