Tag Archives: Art

The Columbia Road takeover goes on, meanwhile pure has nothing to do with clean or the Brian Jonestown Massacre and who cares about artists disagreeing about the temperament of artists? More shows this Friday and through the weekend…

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Paintings at Shipton Street Gallery 

Part three of the on-going six week Columbia Road takeover kicks in this weekend with Maybe I Didn’t See It First, But I’m The One Who Wants It Worse at Shipton Street Gallery here in East London, meanwhile on Friday evening there’s an opening up in Clapton, just beyond the other end of Hackney, at Angus Hughes Gallery, more detail on the other side of that piece of record company paperwork there…

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“Who Cares?”,A piece quickly painted this morning, painted on an old bit of paperwork from the last century when I was silly enough to sign the Brian Jonestown Massacre back when I was stupidly running a record label and caring more about other people’s music than I did about my own art. Just delivered the piece to the Angus Hughes Gallery up in Clapton, East London where Paul Sakoilsky and Cederic Christie have show called Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean where the two artists are disagreeing about the temperament of artists. The two of them have invited a number of artists to respond, the show opens tomorrow night… Who cares? Who cares about artists? Who cares if artists care? Why should anyone care? Who cares if two artists are arguing? Who cares what artists think?

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‘PURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CLEAN’, Cedric Christie & Paul Sakoilsky are creating an exhibition based around a conversation Paul had at a…. “For the exhibition at Angus-Hughes Gallery, Paul Sakoilsky & Cedric Christie are disagreeing about the temperament of artists in this present time. What does it mean to be permanent and what it means to be in flux. The pros and cons of these positions. Cedric says ‘You’re permanent when you’re dead, you don’t move a lot.’ And Paul would like to know where he is going to be tomorrow. Both of these positions hold a particular energy in which work is made – an inquiring as to whether one is at the end or the beginning. The exhibition is based around that statement”, A number of artists have been invited to respond… the show opens on Friday evening, Friday October 12th at Angus-Hughes Gallery, 26 Lower Clapton Road, London, E5 0PD The show is open Thursday to Sunday 12-6pm, or by appointment, there’s a Kunst Clown Performance happening on 19th October 6-8 pm. and an artist talk 4pm and Finissage 5-7pm Sunday 28th Oct. Anton once threaten to shoot me, he made the threat on stage at SxSW, so far he hasn’t carried out the threat. The last time I painted a heart, it was for the cover of the BJM single, I don’t think I’ve painted a heart in this century, although others insist that’s all I ever paint. More details of Pure Has Nothing To Do With Clean via the Facebook event page

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James Bell on the plinth at Shipton Street 

Meanwhile the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover goes on this weekend at Shipton Street Gallery, with Part Three and a slight evolving of the work on the walls, a final chance to see those Emma Harvey Riot Grrrl paintings as well as a last look at some of the recent star paintings of mine before we complete change things over for Part four and the final two weeks of the residency down there by the flower market, part four opens on Thursday evening, Thursday October 18th. The Sundays have been brilliant down there, all kinds of interesting people dropping in as they head to the flower market, we’ve been letting it spontaneously flow, we love a space that attracts more than just the already aware art crowd, we’ve had some great conversations down on Shipton Street. Every gallery or space you work in brings different people and different tales, i must you about Mrs Thatcher’s old butler who came in last week..

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I Saw It First, I Want It Worse, halfway through the Columbia Road takeover, different hats and…

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Wearing several hats this week, most of them have paint on, I try not to get paint on anything other than the thing I’m actually painting. My curating hat is being worn quite a bit at the moment with the Cultivate Columbia Road takeover and a six week residency that we;re currently in the middle of, a residency at East London’s Shipton Street Gallery that runs until the end of October. There’s been two shows at the space so far, both documented on the Organ webpages and the busy Cultivate website – there’s plenty of words and images and thoughts on the other artists and their art over there on those pages, we’ve had some exciting art on the walls as well as impressive performance and installation, Emma Harvey‘s Riot Grrrl painting are looking good on the wall right now alongside Jessica Scott‘s pieces and James Bell’s slice of luxury. I rather like wearing my curator’s hat, there’s as much of a buzz to be had in showing other people’s art or discovering new exciting artists as their is in showing my own work. we must be getting close to curating something like two-hundred shows or events now, exhibitions and such that have featured the work of well over a thousand artists by now – it can sometimes be tense, stressful, frustrating, and Joshua Compston‘s thing about feeling like an aircraft carrier that people just land on, use for a bit until they’ve got what they want and then fly off without so much as a thank you does ring true – wouldn’t it be wonderful if artists actually worked together and supported each other just a little more, putting on art shows can be a thankless task. Putting on art shows can be brilliant as well though, especially when a show works and people are engaged, when people come in and react to the art or the artists tat we’ve invited to be part of it all. Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all…

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Hang on, stop, today isn’t the day to go into it all, the second Columbia Road takeover show is happening right now, a show called I Saw it First, I Want it Worse (yes that show title did come from a Seven Year Bitch lyric), the current show along with the first one and the art and the other artists involved is all documented on the Cultivate pages and the Organ pages. here’s a taste or two of my art and the fresh stargrowth and the leaves and the the new layers and the notions of the Cheap Art Manifesto and the daily paintings and the beautiful old till and such – the gallery was once a greengrocers shop called Sylvester’s, back in the 60’s, I’m having lots of interesting conversations with people who lived in the area back then who can remember it, that might be something to revisit in the space later in the year… For now then, a taste of what I’ve been doing with my art in the space so far, there’s more to come before it all ends on October 29th, I do love painting, I much prefer my painting hat… Oh and by the way, just updated the on-line shop again, do please have a look, I’m going to need to buy a new hat before the cold weather kicks in…

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

The ongoing notion of a smaller painting brought to a completed conclusion on every single day…

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Daily Conclusion 423 (59/365/2018 – Feb 28th). On recycled cardboard

The notion of a smaller painting brought to a completed conclusion on every day started back on January 1st 2017, not a painting started and finished on the same day, just one of the many paintings that tend to be happening and evolving in the studio at all the same time brought to a completed conclusion (right now there’s around twenty half finished smaller paintings as well as several much larger ones here in the studio). The notion was originally to end on December 31st, somehow it didn’t, it was originally a year long challenge I set myself, I rather enjoyed the discipline of having to do it though, so until it stops being a positive thing and starts to become a burden then on the notion will go on. I need to draw or paint every day, a day is not complete until paint has touched canvas (or wood or vinyl or…). 

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Daily Conclusion 408 (44/365/2018 – Feb 13th). On a recycled piece of fridge

And I do rather like the mass-production pop art aspect of it all, I do like the idea of producing so much work that there’s very little monetary value in any of it, that a piece of art can be on sale for little more than you’d pay for a much-loved CD or a cake and cup of coffee or a couple of pints, I kind of like that people can enjoy buying a small piece of art without it being about money and the value and the big price ticket, I like that some of them can be left on the street for people to take or that the pieces can be on sale (of course paint costs money and bills need to be paid so if you do see a piece you like and it isn’t in the shop, then do please ask, I may still have it here in the studio).  Today I am mostly working on a big canvas piece that will hopefully be part of a solo show of larger work later this year….

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Daily Concluded paintings, Jan 2018

 

 

 

Bridges over the Thames, Chip shop walls, abandoned tube stations…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 49/365, a leaf left hanging on The Strand, London,

Bridges over the Thames, Chip shop walls, abandoned tube stations, the year-long #365ArtDrop18 piece of work goes on, there been 53 of the 365 paintings left out for people to take now, there would have been quite a few more but the weather so far this year really hasn’t been favourable in terms of leaving art hanging on walls.  Last week pieces were left down by the Thames, indeed a piece left on a bridge over the Thames. pieces were left all over town…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 53/365, a leaf left hanging by a bridge over the River Thames, London,

Pieces were left on The Strand, outside the old and now abandoned Aldwych tube station (or Strand station as it says on the front of the now bricked up building).  A piece left hanging on the wall of an East London chip shop was soon claimed by a little girl in red boots (almost as soon as I hung it, she got her dad to get it down for her). The interaction is a big part of the piece of work of course, the use of the hashtag and the hope that we hear about where this year’s pieces have got to is a very big part of the year-long piece, the photos of people with their pieces and such…..

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#365ArtDrop18 – 46/365, a leaf left hanging in East London, and quickly claimed…

We know that of the 53 pieces left hanging in London so far, that pieces have been found and taken to Belgium, Portugal, Germany, as well as various parts of the United Kingdom.   Alas this time, people are telling us they’ve found them via private message or by leaving comments under photos we’ve posted on social media, or by sending in very bad photos of just the piece of work and with no real context, I thought this was the selfie generation? Come on, let’s see you with the piece,  or go hold by a sign for your town or at least your cat, where have those pieces gone? Tell us the stories…

Click on an images to enlarge or ot run the slide show of some of the recent pieces left…