Meggs Inner demon at Redbull Studios London

Meeting Meggs - a real pleasure

Bird in the hand 11

Idle hands 11

Flat sheet

Inner demons

This piece wasn't for sale - it was a stencil on the wall,

but it wasn't till I got home I noticed my own shadow

filling in the gaps - fuckn demons coming out and in...

One of the crazy ass props supporting the exhibition

Now this is more an installation than a prop, but check the mag (click to enlarge)

Went to Meggs first UK solo show at the fantastic Redbull studios in London Bridge tonight - courtesy of ZeroCool. Was an awesome show, and a great turn out to see the work and meet the man in person. Top chap, and meeting him to discuss his work was a thorough pleasure. Looking forward to more big things from Meggs over the coming months.

Partook in too much of the sponsors generosity (which is why I'm writing this at 2:30am on a school night, but you get that. Thanks Meggs and thanks ZeroCool Gallery (and damn you vodka and Redbull!!)

Here's what they have to say about Meggs... Australian contemporary artist and member of Melbourne’s infamous Everfresh crew Meggs hit London town for his first ever UK solo show tonight. The exhibition entitled Inner Demons used a combination of Painting, Collage, Print, Film and Installations to explore the darkness which can be found within all of us!

“Inner Demons is an exploration of fears, desires and obstacles which each person faces within themselves. A demon is commonly represented as an undesirable evil, however when personal challenges are overcome these 'demons' can become empowered as a symbol of achievement and self-reflection. Meggs continues his observation of human dualities by combining demonic and human elements in expressive layered canvas works, photographic references and illustrated symbols.”

If you're in the London Bridge area over the next few weeks, do stop in to the studio and check it out. The pics I took tonight really don't do the work justice, so go and see it for yourself.
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Oh those crazy Mexicans...

Been meaning to put these up for a while. Jen & I were in a Mexican restaurant in Angel a while back. Went to the mens and got a surprise: crazy mad Mexican mural on the walls all around the whole bathroom! Bathroom photography is not usually my bag in that if you're not the only one in there you get some pretty damn funny looks from other punters. Anyway, needless to say the shots pic quality is a bit poor, but...

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Detail - Click on pic to enlarge (lol)

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Love that MexPorn: skeletons, sleaze and smiles.

Oh, and the funny thing is that in the ladies they only have one painting - a donkey with a huge cock!
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Francoise Neilly massive portraits in Paris

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Francoise Neilly's massive, colourful portraits are delicious to look at. Even more wonderful – and particularly infuriating to those who have timidly dabbled in painting – is to watch her create them. In a beautiful video posted on her site, she, in her confident, strong hand, wields her painting knife shaped like a miniature garden trowel, and makes painting look easy like cake frosting.

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She paints her vivid, passionate canvases - some as large as 195 x 62 centimeters - from black-and-white photos, further proof of her unfailing ability to interpret light, shadow, hue and tone by applying brilliant colours and daring strokes.

Born in Marseille and brought up near Saint-Tropez, and now living in Paris, Nielly is at home among bold contrast and dazzling light. Check out her work on the site:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/francoise-nielly
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Diego Gravinese process

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A talented painter who goes by the name of Nekomomix, but is also known as Diego Gravinese from Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is a photo essay documenting his process using tracing from projection, under-painting in acrylic and over-painting in oils. Enjoy.

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New Diego Gravinese exhibition

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Daego Gravinese is an artist I started getting into a few years ago. His super-photo-realistic paintings are wonderful. He used to work over the top of them, and juxtapose images together (see No. 20 at the end of this post), but now has moved back to his original style of straight up
photo realism. I have posted these images up from his latest exhibition showing his process.

His website is currently under construction, but you can see more of his work (and his lovely girlfriend Panda on his flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/godiex/

Diego Gravinese - No. 20 (click image to enlarge)

LAB's Bazaart in Bethnal Green

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Forgot to mention an exhibition I went to in March...

LAB (Little Art Book) with Randomcuts presented BAZARRT, a grand handpicked collection of original paintings, stencils, photography, pasting and installations from some of the most prolific and in demand urban and street artists around.

Housed in a massive, 5000 square foot venue in The Yard, Three Colts Lane - the heart of Bethnal Green, the exhibition began on the Thursday night, with bands, djs and live art, and ran through to Sunday evening. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about it until the Friday, so missed the opening.

Featured artists included Adam Mallett, AKINA, AlPs, AsboLuv, Ben Slow, BG Booniece, Blam, BonBon, Busk, Dan Kitchener, Dscreet, Eelus, Elfin, Eve Mulholland, Eyesaw, Fake (print release), Fark FK, Focus (print release), FORS, Gabriel Moreno, Gemma Ward, Grafter, Harry Yeff, Henry Reeve, Hutch, Ika Ooska, Inkfetish, Jilko, Jux, K-Guy, Lady Sew & Sew, Laura Ward, Lucy Tate, Luke Da Duke, Marco Marzocchi, Milo, Mishfit, Oh Death, Oliver Winconek, OTP, Pho, Pure Evil, Random Cuts, Rourke Van Dal (print release), Rugman, Snub, SPQR, Tek 13, The Krah, Vilchez (print release), VST.

A top exhibition, which included very competitively priced artwork compared to what I've been seeing around recently, combined with the opportunity to meet with some of the artist (and if you were really lucky and there at the right time even watch the artist create the work in front of your very eyes).

Looks like it's now set to be an annual event, so keep your eyes peeled around mid March 2010.

I see your face in the clouds

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Out and about the other night I was surprised to see a rather large face staring across the road at us. Not completely proportionate, slightly skewiff (the picture - not me, fool!) there was something strangely attractive yet unattractive about this piece. So why does it look weird?

Here's a little test for you all. Enlarge the image in your browser. Now shield the majority of the face focusing on only one feature at a time. First the left eye, then the right, then the mouth (I realize the mouth is completely off center, but bear with me). Each individual feature is actually really well illustrated for a 2.5m tall aerosol painting on a roller door, but it looks like they're from 3 different subjects, or the same subject source from 3 different angles comped together to make one.

Thoughts?

Mark Rothko at Tate Modern

Untitled, Black on Maroon, Maroon on Orange

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Rothko in his East Hampton studio, 1964
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For something with a little difference from our usual Friday night antics, Ross & I decided to get a dose of culture. We had been meaning to go to the Rothko exhibition for some months, and as it was due to close in about a week, the time seemed right to pull finger.

The exhibition focused on the body of work from his last 8 years, a period in which he was consumed with the strategy of repetition and variation. This quote encapsulates the strategy at the heart of his work throughout that period:

'If a thing is worth doing once, it is worth doing over and over again - exploring it, probing it, demanding by its repetition that the public look at it.'

It was a great show, and fantastic to be a part of it (I tried to pull off a few self portraits in front of the pieces that were my favorites when the security guards were distracted, but without joy).

There was an awesome section of the show where they delved deeply into the techniques Rothko used. This was done by photographing some of his works with ultraviolet light. This technique helps highlight the multi-layered application of his strokes, making the 'invisible' visible. It was fascinating.

My only criticism was the lighting of the show on the whole. I understand these large pieces with subtle colour change and brush work are very hard to light, but out of the 9 rooms of work, only about 2 were lit satisfactorily.

The revolution continues: New art from China at Saatchi Gallery

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Ok, so not street art this time, but got a bit of kulcha in on Sunday. Visited the Saatchi Gallery with the lovely Fiona, and checked out the new art from China exhibition. Some fantastic and creative work from across the ocean, and well worth checking out if you're down Chelsea way.