Sebastiaan Breemer – Hales Gallery

All in the eyes

At the Hales Gallery in East London in the Tea Building to be exact, there is a small but perfectly formed exhibition by Dutch artist Sebastiaan Breemer called Egmont Re-Visited which teams photography with really intricate dot work in white to create shading and contours on the photographic paper.

Faded beauty

The photographs are a mixture of old shots from Breemer’s family collection and his Brasilian wife’s, some new and some very old. Each image has it’s  own emotion which is then textured with the white paint work to bring an even more emotive feel, then finally a few coloured spots.

It is only on for a month until March 5th and it does not feature any of his coloured photos but well worth the trip to the Hales Gallery

Things i’ve seen….

Wondering around London on my bike taking in a few things as I go….

London Faberge egg hunt is underway, I’ve seen loads but cannot be bovd to post all of them, if I spot a nice one, I’ll be sure to share… and maybe take home

St. James Park Egg

Some people feel deep shame for eating McDonalds and will not admit it… I am sometimes one, but I have come out to bigger things. I eat a double cheeseburger from time to time… and what?

Anyway liked this just off Brick Lane… not easy to spot but funny and a bit cute I think… call me crazy ya’l. I think it amused me as it is a comment on society, so many kids in the UK are reared on the golden arch and here is a baby ‘Donalds!

Happy meal anyone?

Street art doesn’t need to be beautiful in an artistic way, it can be simple, it can be words and it can be something that makes society look at it’s self or just raises a lil smile

One Love

National Portrait Gallery – Feb 2012

Lucian Freud at the National Portrait was very good indeed, clearly an interesting chap. Something that I had never appreciated before but that becomes very apparent when you see the body of work first hand is the piercing eyes.

Both Girl with Beret and Boy Smoking display very beautiful  and clear eyes, my favourite in the entire display is the Boy Smoking, quite stunning and modern looking even though it was created 60 years ago.

Girl with beret

Another thing you will notice is the number of self portraits Freud created, what I noticed on everyone of his self portraits was the darkness of his eyes everytime, in stark contrast to the majority of the paitings of his subjects.

Freud - self portrait

The exhibition stretches from his early work through his changes of styles to a far more harsh representation of those who sat for him.

Freud - self portrait

In addition there is a brilliant portraits from 1960 – 1990 featuring this brilliant piece from a certain Andy Warhol of Mick Jagger

ol big lips

Song Dong – Barbican Centre

One man's waste....

I’ll admit it, going to see Song Dong’s ‘Waste Not’ I was a little sceptical as to whether this was an art installation or if it was a bit of a stunt . Once I arrived and saw the enormity, the variety and also the triviality of the pieces included. The triviality is the part that gave such emotion and beauty to the collection of very everyday items such as pans, empty drinks bottles, shoes, cutlery and pens.

On entering Song Dong tells how the story of China in the 50’s and 60’s, his family relationships and of how his mother’s attitudes to material waste combined to create an art installation which is the story of his mother’s life.

Is another woman's treasure

I would suggest you visit The Barbican Curve to to see the scale of the collection, which is not the entire collection as there is another one in China as well. The story of how and why this came together is quite poignant and actually gives this huge collection of bits and bobs a rather beautiful feel.

If you can not make it then read more here…

Featured Artist::: Alice Pasquini aka AliCé

It’s nice to discover a new artist int it…

Sister wall

The Italian lady who resides on Rome but has formally lived in the UK, in London. Her art has a very feminine and emotive feel to them than many pieces you see on the London streets do not display. The look in the eyes of the characters seem to tell a story and one which the viewer can draw their own conclusions to. There are a few pieces from AliCé in London but they are not easy to find… Check out Blackhall Street in Shoreditch…. they might still be there

The look of youth

Hoodie

Bull-Fairy

Any ideas where this is in London?

Pretty barking

Pablo Delgado – Making a little noise

Money for nothing and tricks for free

I’ve spotted a few mini piece of street art around East London this year but did not know until a little while ago who was responsible, it is a certain Mexican chap called Pablo Delgado.

Lady in red

Delgado is a Whitechapel resident and his pictures kind of depict scenes from the oldest profession in the world, and have a sort of innocent sleaze about them, the best kind in my mind. They are actually a commentary on the gentrification of East London and how everyone in the city is geared towards selling themselves and making cash money in the year of the London Olympics.

'I want to be like those pretty ladies when i grow up'

Fat slags

Ps. I don’t like the idea of London 2012… I might have mentioned tha

 

Mickey Big Hands Love Peace Fuck Wild Faggot

Mickey Big Hands

Love Peace Fuck

Wild Faggot

 

Little Dragon

Little Dragon… Liking this at the moment… playing this week in London and sods law that I can not make it…

Playing again in Feb so will get myself down there.

Got a bit of a feeling of Roisin Murphy about at some parts…. The one women I would definitely fall for!

I ❤ Roisin

Also featuring on the inside cover of Dazed’s 20th anniversary edition

 

Is this a new Banksy? And more to the point does anyone really care?

A comment on Materialism? #artforall ahem!

Don’t get me wrong…. I am not a Banksy hater (I even sold a Banksy for 1p in a previous life) but he also isn’t the most popular with some people such as Robbo and many people think he just ripped Blek le Rat. While the film he released called Exit Through the Gift Shop featuring Thierry Guetta was interesting and nicely put together, it also cheapened the Street Art idea because Mister Brainwash managed to put on this frankly ridiculously huge exhibition and sell pieces for thousands of $$ without actually really being an artist.  It also gave a poor impression of the American art buying public who were just mindlessly bidding for pieces, some of which they had barely seen let alone tried to understand the piece.

I am not for one minute claiming to be an art aficianado, far from it, I just like pretty things and I like what I like, just merely posing the question…. Is Banksy relevant and credible anymore?

Spotted at foreignstudents.com