Category Archives: Exhibitions

The first show of the Cultivate six week Columbia Road takeover, the King’s Cross paintings, the Silent Stars series…

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The busy week goes on, the first show of the Cultivate six week Columbia Road takeover kicks off at Shipton Street Gallery here in East London this Thursday evening. Every week is a busy week of course, but this one is particularly busy, still coming down from the fun of the fair and we’re off again with the first show of the residency on Shipton Street, a show called Intention, an intimate group show we’ve pulled together. The intention is to kick off the six week take over with a short sharp group show, a mixed media show featuring the paintings of Emma Harvey, the intrigue of James Bell, performance and artwork from Marnie Scarlet, sculpture and assemblage from Mia-Jane Harris, a leaf or two from me, the very painterly photography of artist Sofia Martins and attitude of mixed-media artist Suzie Pindar. Expect cross-pollination, expect busy walls in an intimate space, expect an artist-led art show delivered with the usual Cultivate attitude. We open on Thursday evening, everyone is invited

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INTENTION: Cultivate at Columbia Road – the opening group show at the first show of the six week Cultivate residency at Shipton Street Gallery, Columbia Road, East London (just off the Hackney Road and right by the flower market and such) . Opening night Thursday September 20th (6pm until 9pm) , then Friday September 21st until Sunday 23rd (11am until 6pm). Entry is free, everyone is welcome, no need to get on lists or any of that nonsense, do bring your own drink, we spent all our money on paint. This will be the first of four shows at the gallery from Cultivate over the six week period

And then on Friday, Deptford X starts, I shall be there with 43 more parts of the ongoing year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece left hanging on the streets of Deptford and South London as part of the Fringe at Deptford X over the ten days of the annual art festival

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Meanwhile the Cultivate on-line shop has been updated again, some of the more recent smaller more affordable paintings and pieces, no bread this time, but as the the Cheap Art Manifesto says, you can’t eat it but art will feed you….

here’s some of the recent smaller paintings and pieces from the last few weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And so Unframed? happened, a short sharp two artist show over in Deptford, South London…

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Sean Worrall at Unframed? No Format gallery, Deptford, South London, July 2018

Unframed? happened, a short sharp two artist show over Deptford, South London, at no format gallery, that came together with about a week’s notice, the whole thing is documented over on the Organ pages, a whole load of photos of both my art and the art of Hamish Macaulay, as well as quite a lot of thought about the show, the way it came together, the way it evolved and the whole experience over there in the no format railway arch. I won’t repeat it all here, if you wish to read it all then here’s the link, meanwhile here are a few shots of the work I had in the show

 

If you ever catch me saying something like that, please please please take me out back and have me shot, what a depressing way to talk about your art…

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Love that photos up there, more about it and the end here, but first, did a fellow artist really just tell me that art was “just a business”? Really? Did he really just say that? Really!? How depressing, do artists really think like that? Is “building a business” the only reason to put on an art show? “I’m building a business here” he said, really? Is art “just a business? If you ever catch me saying something like that, please please please take me out back and have me shot, what a depressing way to talk about your art and the shows you put on. I need to get that thought out of my mind. Of course you need to think about the reality of paying bills and eating and the rest but “just”? Really? It wasn’t Hamish by the way, I’m just getting to know Hamish, we were both invited to share the gallery walls by the people over at no format, no one mentioned business, they just extended the invite and offered the space, I didn’t know of Hamish Macaulay or his art until we were both invited to make use of the walls on no format gallery last week, looking forward to seeing what he’s been doing in there later today and them maybe reacting to it in some way. nice to actually some together with a gallery and another artist, makes for a refreshing change, Mr. “art Business” back there really didn’t get that notion, I guess now, thinking about it, his art kind of  reflects his attitude. I wonder when the ideas distilled through punk rock forty-odd years ago will ever filter down to the art world? Is it really just a business?

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Last week “Eleven” was part of an installation under the trees in a wood as part of an outdoor show as part of the Leytonstone Arts Trail, it spent two weeks being explored by foxes and blackbirds, this week the piece, painted on eleven pieces of a broken bed will be heading for a white-walled gallery called no format gallery over in Deptford, the show, Unframed? opens this coming Thursday evening July 26th

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Fresh leaf growth, new layers, starz and that big silver wooden frame that someone dumped on the street in Hackney last week. And when a frame is thrown out then leaves will grow in that unwanted frame. This painting was concluded late last night, I expect it might be on show at no format gallery next week as part of the #Unframed? show ( I didn’t say my work would be unframed, we’re just thinking outside the frame). The painting is acrylic on wood in found frame, 90cm x 65cm.

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Here it Comes Again – acrylic on wood in found frame, 90cm x 65cm. (July 2018)

The week of Unframed? is upon us, Hamish is working on some larger format prints in the space today ahead of Thursday evening’s opening, I shall be going over to see what he’s done and do some work of my own later . meanwhile I shall be hanging some of my recent paintings on the gallery wall and at the same time finding new things to work with and paint on during the week. Expect the year-;long #365ArtDrop18 piece to carry on south of the river during this coming week. Keep an eye on the walls around the area during the week. The idea is to find material that had been thrown out, clean it up, painting on it, and then hanging it back out there on the streets for people to take should they wish to. This particular piece was left hanging on a wall near no format gallery last week

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece left hanging in Deptford…

The excellent photo at the top of the page just arrived from Belgium, a shot taken outside the Stella factory so it seems, a brilliant photo of one of the finders of a #365ArtDrop18 piece with the painting her and her partner found, love this photo. One of the important aspects of this year-long piece of work in 365 parts, 365 paintings on found recycled material, is the photos of the finders with their pieces and tales of where the paintings have got to. This one was painted on a found piece of wood picked up off the street here in Hackney, it was left hanging on a wall somewhere in Shoreditch, East London, earlier this year, and now it has turned up in Belgium, this kind of thing is exactly what I was hoping would happen to the paintings and the #365ArtDrop18 piece, keep sending those photos in or posting them on social media so we can find them and share them.  Art? Just a business? What a sad way to think about it…

Out in the woods in Leytonstone, eleven pieces of a broken bed, next stop Deptford for a show called Unframed?

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Sean Worrall – Eleven (July 2018)

I’m kicking myself for not taking a photograph of the broken bed base as it was when I cane upon it on the street in Hackney, the wooden bed had been smashed up and dumped on the street, I couldn’t resist the wooden struts that were left lying there unbroken on the pavement (other bits of wood from the smashed up bed have become artdrop pieces). Really am kicking myself for not taking a photo of the wreckage on Mare Street, it was one of those days when I head out from the studio in search of something to paint on, my rule is that I can’t come back home until I’ve found something, should have taken a photo of the pieces of wooden bed on the street, I have taken lots of photos of the painting process. The eleven pieces were cleaned up, sanded down and all eleven were painted together, there weren’t painted to fit together, they were all painted at the same time, painted together, all started and finished together, several layers grown on each one over a period of around three weeks…

The thinking was that they would appear in several different situations, all eleven as one piece, Eleven, it is very much one piece of work. Eleven made a debut two weeks ago at Wild, at outdoor installation/sculpture show in the woods at the back of the Quaker Meeting House out in Leytonstone, as part of the 2018 Leytonstone Arts Trail (always a pleasure to be invited to take part in the Arts Trail, this was my fourth year out there in E11). There’s some documentation of Wild and the twenty or so artists who took part this year over on the Organ website. Eleven was left under some trees deep in the woods, left for the foxes to run over,and the Blackbirds to checkout, it sounded brilliant in there for the two weekends that the show was open for.

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Eleven’s next appearance will be over in Deptford, south over the river over there in London SE8 and a and a show at no format gallery (they like is to all be lower-case, don’t get all proofreader on me now). From the floor of a wood and the light through the trees in East London to a white walled formal gallery in South London. It happened like this, the gallery had a last minute week with nothing going on so an invite came our way. I must confess I didn’t know of print-maker Hamish Macaulay until last week when the people at no format extended the invited and suggested we might like to collaborate

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HAMISH MACAULAY and SEAN WORRALL – Unframed? – no format Gallery, Deptford. London, SE8 5JN –  26th – 29th July –   Unframed? will open on Thursday July 26th (6pm until 9pm), and will then run from Friday 27th until Sunday 29th (midday until 6pm)

Unframed? One painter, one print-maker, two artists coming together to share a white-walled gallery space for one week. Hamish Macaulay and Sean Worrall, two artists, invited to takeover Deptford’s no format gallery for one week. The unframed plan is for the two of them to experiment in the space, to spread their work out, to play with installation and hang their work in the space at the start of the week, and then to see how things develop. Who knows what will happen?

The two artists (who didn’t know of each other until last week) will begin the week with the blank walls. Their plan is not to work together but to share the space and to see what develops. They plan to use the space for the first three days of the week, see what happens, and then open the doors to the public on Thursday evening for a formal yet experimental art exhibition.

On Thursday evening Unframed? will open with a “private” very public view (everyone is welcome, just come along). The no format gallery will then be open during the day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The show might stay as it was for the opening on the Thursday night, then again, it might continue to evolve? This is an unframed experiment, who knows?

Unframed? Will also feature work from a small handful selected guest artists, artists invited to show in the space by Sean and Hamish. (guests t.b.c).

Click on an image to enlarge or to run the fractured slideshow and shots of Eleven in the woods over at Wild…

 

 

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.

 

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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