Tom Blackford at Blackall Studio

Had a great night last night at the opening of Tom Blackford's 'Imaginary friends' solo show. It was a dark show but good fun. As usual for Shoreditch openings the gallery was full of Hoxton brats taking advantage of the free Tiger beer and wine, but why not... Thanks Blackall Studios for the invite (and all the free beer).

Click on image to enlarge 

Couldn't get back far enough to get all of this one in.

Click on image to enlarge 

Click on image to enlarge  

Click on image to enlarge  

Click on image to enlarge  

Twisted! Click on image to enlarge 

Macabre. Click on image to enlarge  

Dark! Click on image to enlarge  

The wall in the entrance of the gallery

Back wall of the studio (approx 4m x 2m).

I really liked this piece but the photo just doesn't do it justice.

.

Spectacular piece near Curtain Road

Came across this on thursday evo on my way down to a gig in Holywell Lane. It was just off Curtain Road. A spectacularly large piece, well worth checking out if you're down that way.
.

EVOL at Pictures On Walls

We went to the POW exhibition weekend on Sunday. Great show including new work from Banksy, Mighty Mo, Cept, Zach Shrey, Bill Barminski, Victor Van Gaasbeek, and of course, the ever fantastic Berliner EVOL, who has been doing some work in London recently.

POW sign outside the gallery

 Evol installation (detail)

 Evol installation (detail)

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

Evol installation (detail) 

To give it scale Jen jumped in

The exhibition is on at POW, 46-48 Commercial Street, London E1 untill 23 Dec, so check it out if you're in the area. Loads of great artwork, prints and street art books on sale too.

.

David Walker at Rook & Raven Gallery

Went to the opening of the first solo show by David Walker - Brides on fire -  at the end of last month. Some stunning paintings at the show, and a great turn out. We would have loved to buy one of the large works, but a bit outside our budget (and our flat is too small to do it the justice it deserves. We ended up buying a print of one of the paintings instead, which we love, and got a couple of hand painted masks from David too.

This wall piece was awesome - not for sale though 

(click on image to enlarge) 

This is the piece we bought a print of - Bride 1 

Love this wall - sorry about the focus 

(click on image to enlarge) 

Detail  (click on image to enlarge)

Detail  (click on image to enlarge) 

This piece was slightly grotesque 

(click on image to enlarge) 

The installation in the foyer made from dead cans 

shadow from the installation

shadow from the installation 

 Art buyers at the opening

Looking down to the lower (print) level 

 Art buyers/punters at the opening - full house! 

Art buyers at the opening 

Art buyers at the opening 

Art buyers at the opening

The only B&W in the room full of colour - stunning 

.

Oh come all ye hackers at KK Outlet

Took a couple of friends to an awesome exhibition opening at KK Outlet just next to Hoxton Square last night.

Love it

Here's the low-down from KK Outlet: The bad Christmas jumper is as much a seasonal staple as dry turkey and brussel sprouts. However Andrew Salomone and his hacked knitting machine are here to change all that.

Salomone has developed an electronic hack, which means he can use a Brother KH930 knitting machine like a desktop printer to transform any design into a unique hand made Christmas jumper.

Hack-knitters weapon of choice - the Brother KH930 

The snowflake (the formula for this exact snowflake appears
along the bottom 

Just wrong 

Um, and wrong... 

I think this one was titled 'one less'

In an homage to the king of patterned knitted jumpers, Salomone created a design featuring Bill Cosby wearing a jumper of Bill Cosby, wearing a jumper of Bill Cosby. The final garment was featured on Good Morning America and presented to Mr Cosby himself.

Throughout December KK Outlet will showcase a collection of alternative Christmas jumpers made by hand on Salomone’s hacked knitting machine. Designs supplied by Anthony Burrill, Siggi Eggertsson, Nous Vous, Genevieve Gaukler and features a knitted version of the Slayer Christmas Lightorama

Slayer xmas lightorama - in a dark room and illuminated 
with on-board blue lighting strips as per the video, 
accompanied by the vid/track on loop on the facing wall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFjI7gT1FvI

Want to see your own design transformed into a Christmas jumper, to keep for yourself or give as a gift to your nearest & dearest? No problem. For 10 days Salomone will be working in the KK Outlet gallery creating customized jumpers from open submission designs. Send your artwork to manchester@kkoutlet.com stating what European size you would like to final jumper to be. Each jumper costs £70.

The design spec due to the machine restrictions is as follows:

Designs to be no more than 200 pixels wide and no more than 600 pixels long. Each design is restricted to two colors per row. Designs to supplied in high res tiff format. All final designs will be converted into knitting patterns by Andrew Salomone.

.

Dale Grimshaw - Semi-detached opening

(click on image to enlarge) 

Went to the opening of the Dale Grimshaw show Semi-detached at Signal Gallery in Shoreditch on 6th Nov. Wonderful start to a night of first thursday madness with the usual suspects. Got to meet up with Dale and have a complimentary print signed by him while we chatted.

 (click on image to enlarge) 

 (click on image to enlarge) 

 (click on image to enlarge) 

 Natalie gets her print signed

I admire Dales print as he signs it for me 

The exhibition was pretty dark, covering his early years growing up with an abusive father, but the art was spectacular, and Dale is a real skillsman. Much thanks to Dale, Signal and firstthursdays.
.