Calling For Entries

Applications are now open for Brighton Art Fair and MADE12 - Brighton's Design and Craft Fair.


Brighton Art Fair will take place between 20th and 23rd September 2012.
Artists interested in exhibiting should download the application form for information and apply online here

 
MADE12 will take place between 22nd and 25th November 2012
Artists interested in exhibiting should download the application form for information and apply online here

(photo by Steve Speller)

The deadline for applications for both shows is 31st March 2012


The Palace Art & Craft Fair will take place17 – 19 May, 2013 with the application form ready after May 2012. Artists and makers interested in exhibiting should register your email here


All our shows are aimed primarily at artists wishing to communicate directly with the public and art buyers. We don't have a 'house style' but want to present the best show we can, featuring a wide variety of art and craft by innovative and original artists and makers who are passionate about their art.

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Tonight at Castor & Pollux

Tonight from 6pm, Castor & Pollux are hosting an exhibition of rare and new print work from artist and illustrator, Lo Cole.
You are welcome to visit Brighton's favourite beach front gallery for a drink, some sunshine, and bold, colourful, graphic artwork.

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Coming up - Paul Catherall at Castor & Pollux

In addition to the many delights Brighton's art festival has to offer, Castor & Pollux are showing Paul Catherall as their festival exhibition this year.


Catherall’s architectural prints draw from 20th Century poster design and focus on structures that are part of the urban environment with a clean and sharp palette inspired by commercial art of the 1950’s and 1960’s Catherall depicts various well-known landmarks from London, New York and Brighton.



Catherall identifies the established and continually developing skylines of his locations, treated equally in measure. Catherall displays an expert eye for composition and colour; and great draughtsmanship, achieving ultimately a delicate balance between classic commercial design and contemporary urban landscape. His linocuts have become synonymous with Transport for London and Tate Modern.

The private view takes place this Friday from 6-9 pm. You can see more information at www.castorandpollux.co.uk including the Brighton Print Paul has done especially for the exhibition.

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Julie Doucet prints at Castor and Pollux

Along side Mike's pot party, down on the seafront we are getting ready to hang Julie Doucet's lino print illustrations.

Opening on the 23 April, this small, but perfectly formed group of prints were made as illustrations for ‘Chroniques de New York’ by Jean-Francois Jouanne.

Born in 1965 in Montréal, Julie Doucet was educated at a girl Catholic school. Then she began Fine Arts studies, first at the CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal (the equivalent of junior college), later at the Université du Québec à Montréal, where she completed a degree in printing arts. During her studies Julie Doucet took interest into drawing comics, and eventually devoted herself completely to that funny art form. Her comic book, Dirty Plotte began life as a photocopied fanzine. In it Doucet would document in french and in english her day to day life, her dreams, angsts, fantasies. The series was first published in 1991 by Drawn & Quarterly, in the comic book form. Shortly afterwards she won the prestigious Harvey Award for Best New Talent. She left for New York city, where she spent a year related in ’My New York Diary’ In the 1990s, she abandoned the medium of comic books and went back to printing. Woodcuts, linocuts, silkscreen printing, followed by an abundant production of artist’s books. She took part in many group exhibitions and, finally, in 2006 she had her own solo exhibition of her print work at the galerie B-312. Julie Doucet now writes and makes collages. Mostly.

You can see the prints that will be on show here.
http://www.castorandpollux.co.uk/2010/03/print-exhibition-julie-doucet-23-april/

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Paul Davis at Castor and Pollux

A ’snippetist’ He says he is fascinated by everything, all of the time, and produces at least 300 drawings a month. ‘I am interested in the construction of images but that part of picture making isn’t as important as the message. Not in my work, anyway.’
Based in London, working as an illustrator for clients which include Creative Review, Time out and Dazed and confused, Paul Davis is showing a selection of his algorithm drawings on sketchbook and found paper, two of which are being produced as 4 colour limited edition screenprints.



To celebrate the opening of the exhibition of Paul Davis drawings Castor and Pollux have published a pair of limited edition four colour silkscreen prints, which will be available from Friday. Limited to 50 of each, they will be signed and numbered by Paul. Each print is 297 x 420mm. They will be available at a very special Brighton Festival price of £120 a pair or singly at £70). (The regular published price from 25th May will be £180 a pair, £95 each.) Prices include VAT. Contact april@castorandpollux.co.uk or come down to the gallery.

They will be available in the gallery from 22 May until 20 June, and online in the very near future!
The private view is this Friday (22nd) so contact april@castorandpollux.co.uk or 01273 773776 if you would like to come along.

www.castorandpollux.co.uk
http://www.copyrightdavis.com/

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Opening on Friday- Andrew Mockett at Castor and Pollux

Local to Brighton, Andrew Mockett is an artist who has worked as a printmaker and textile designer for many international clients including Givenchy and Paul Smith.

In addition to his prints, we will also have handmade books,
silk scarves, cards, card sculptures and wrapping paper.

Friday 27th March, 6 - 8pm.
Cocktails will be served. Please email april@castorandpollux.co.uk for more information.

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Guerrilla Art Market-Brighton Media Centre- this weekend

A Christmas market bringing together Brighton's best with East London's brightest artists; selling their wares at wholesale prices.
December 6th and 7th, the Brighton Media Centre, 15-17 Middle St, next door to the Hop poles.

Featuring: PinkyVision, Lula Mai, MujuWorld, Call Of The Wild, Gassius, Req One, Sinna1, Bella Clarke, The Osh, Sri, Lonny, La Dilly, Cloudy, Snub23, Anna Kyriacou, Belle Star, Cameron Watt, Hazel Welch, Hizze Fletcher, Jaguar Shoes,Jasmine & Corduroy, Mark Hooley, Russel Maurice, Vanessa Jones.

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Rob Ryan at Castor and Pollux- Private view 12th September

Papercuts and prints by



Please join us for drinks and a preview of our September exhibition, featuring limited edition prints and large papercuts by Mister Rob Ryan.
*Friday 12th September, 6-9pm*

and showing from 13th September - 20th October, daily 10-5



Swirling, intricate bells, birds, trees and stars fill the prints and paper cuts of silhouetted lovers surrounded by floating poetry. Rob Ryan shares his romantic thoughts with us at Castor and Pollux with an exhibition of screen prints, printed tiles and paper cuts. 'My work operates on an openly emotional level, and it's quite sentimental, which I don't think is a bad thing.'
You may not have visited Ryantown before, but you may recognise the work of Mister Rob through his many creative collaborations with Vogue, Paul Smith and Liberty.

Here are tales and poems to rival the darkest of Grimm's fairy-tales 'The actual germ of an idea is just a moment of thinking, maybe that's how things are, or how they should be, or how I want them to be.'

Rob Ryan's world is filled with dark as well as light, where love, hate, loss, pain, fear and death are to be found. All of which are very beautiful.



The simple and straightforward subjects of Robert Ryan's work are in marked contrast to the deceptively sophisticated manner in which they are made; painstakingly hand-cut with the smallest scalpels from the most delicate of papers.



Castor & Pollux is on the beach, halfway between the piers Opposite the bottom of Middle St
165 King's Road Arches, Lower Prom, Brighton Tel: 01273 773776
www.castorandpollux.co.uk

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Jeremyville at Castor and Pollux from Friday

After some trouble getting an image up I have succeeded! Go to www.castorandpollux.co.uk for an idea of what else will be in the show!!



Jeremyville is an artist, product designer, animator and human. He wrote and produced the first book in the world on designer toys called Vinyl Will Kill, published by IdN, interviewing people like Fafi, Sarah from Colette, Baseman, Biskup, Pete Fowler, Jason Siu, Kinsey and Kozik.

His latest book is called 'Jeremyville Sessions', featuring collaborations with Geoff McFetridge, Miss Van, Devilrobots, STRANGEco, Lego, Converse, MTV and Adidas. His art has been published in design books by IdN, Die Gestalten Verlag, All Rights Reserved, Victionary, MTV, Magma Books, Kidrobot, Faesthetic, Laurence King, Taschen and Pictoplasma.

Jeremyville has worked with clients such as Converse, Rossignol, Colette, Coca Cola, MTV, Kidrobot, Refill, Graniph in Japan, Adio Shoes, STRANGEco, Wooster Collective, Super Rad Toys, Play Imaginative, sketchel, Adidas, Tiger Beer and Tiger Translate, Artoyz in Paris, Domestic Vinyl in Paris, Corbis, Thunderdog, Red Bull, Pop Cling, 55DSL and Beck.

He has appeared in magazines such as Swindle, Vapors, xlr8r, Wallpaper, Dazed and Confused, Nylon, Monster Children, Oyster, Computer Arts UK, Fused UK, Yen, IdN, Territory, Juxtapoz, The Drama, Beautiful Decay, 119, Xfuns, T World Journal, and Faesthetic.

Jeremyville splits his time between studios in Sydney Australia and New York City. He collects rare t-shirts, sneakers, toys and denim, and has a Converse x Jeremyville shoe released in late 2008.

The exciting news for us at Caspo is that we are have published a Brighton inspired print by Jeremy and the 50 signed editions are on sale with us from Friday along with other goodies all the way from Australia.

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Brighton Open Houses - 64 Stanford Avenue

It's Open House season in Brighton and we went to the Private View of the newest Open House - and a probable contender for the best exhibition during this years festival - SixtyFour is in a large beautiful Victorian House on Stanford Avenue high above Brighton overlooking the town and the back gardens of Fiveways.

Many of the artists have come from 6 Clifton Street which isn't opening this year but there are a few additions.



Rob Peel is showing his 'mixed process' works which he also calls 'praints' a combination of monoprints and paintings Robs unique process. This lovely prints are semi-abstract landscapes of Sussex and Cornwall - especially West Penwith. Summoning the spirit of the place rather than straight landscapes.

Work is packed into the house and garden - all is worth seeing even though I didn't take pictures of everything.


Victor Stuart Graham's driftwood boats in the bathroom.

Peter Layton's glass.




Rhoda Baker's intricate white teselated card pictures - minimalist, repetitive forms constructed from layered and constructed card shapes, play with light and shadow, and look fantatic on this dark wall.

Judy Dwyer's 'Dangerous Dolls and dogs' are both engaging, and very slightly sinister

Also exhibiting
Hannah Bedford Beautiful Silver Jewellery
Chris Cain - Recycled metal sculptures
Helen Cann - Acrylic Paintings
Mary Gillett - Etchings and paintings of landscapes - Dartmoor and West Country
Lis Lawrence - Paintings of Sussex
Bernard Lodge - Woodcuts
Philip Lyddon - Small scale pots and ceramic figures
Catriona Muir - Textiles
Anabel Munn - Delicate domestic ceramics - expresso cups, vases etc
Kathie Murphy - Resin jewellery
Kate Osborne - Watercolour pictures
Bob Read - Oil Pastels
Judy Stevens - Lareg colour Lino-cuts
Kerry Stokes - Woven Screens and furnishings
John Weaver - Lovely modern simple furniture.
and John Wiltshire - Watercolours and Oil Paintings

I know this sounds like a hell of a lot of artists but the house doesn't feel unduly rammed just a lot to see and worth taking some time to view it all.

(Top Tip for visiting Open Houses if choosing just a few to see choose houses with a long list of artists as there will be more chance you will like something - visiting the house of a single artist can be embarassing if the work just doesn't strike a chord with you)

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Remembering Loppy

Visitors to The Dragonfly House, 48 Ditchling Rise, Brighton - winner for the past two years of Best Open House in the Artists' Open Houses Festival - may well remember Loppy the pet rabbit in the garden, always a big hit with the children. Sadly, Loppy passed away last year, but a memorial has been unveiled - a wooden automaton by Helen Sinden, best known for her wooden heart boxes. Turn the handle and Loppy dives into view and a cloud (his ghost? his dream?) rotates. There also a peep hole where a carrot is hidden! Go on, have a go - you know you want to.

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Brighton Art Fair 2007

The art fair is over now for another year but it did put me out of blogging action for a few weeks recovering from organising the show, helping Sarah print and exhibit, and then catching up with all the jobs we put on the back burner. The fog is clearing somewhat although we are now into the build-up to the Brighton Craft Fair.

Brighton Art Fair was extremely well received this year, both the public and the artists felt it was the best yet in terms of the range quality and selection of artists. some of the visitors said it was their favorite art fair because it is friendly, the quality is consistently good but with about 150 artists the size isn't too overpowering.

Artists reported that more money than every before was spent at the fair, with visitors prepared to spend more on a single picture than in previous years. For us the organisers it does sometimes feel like throwing a large party - we want all the visitors and the exhibitors to enjoy themselves and the sales to be equally spread throughout the exhibitors, inevitably it isn't ever going to happen and so some exhibitors didn't sell well on the day - but we've heard that for some sales have been impressive in the weeks after the show.


Maxine Sutton's stand
Sarah's and Tessa's space (with a man modeling a Brighton Art Fair goody bag)

The results of the Road Roller printing

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Road Roller Printing - Pics

Despite very blustery weather and a very doubtful looking start (heavy rain) 6 BAF artists met at the pavilion gardens to print specially commissioned lino-cuts for the lobby of Brighton Art Fair.


Brenda Hartill, Jane Sampson, Helen Brown , Ann D'arcy Hughes , Hugh Ribbans and Bernard Lodge all cut a 90cmx90cm lino block over the summer and we printed (some of) them today.
We were using a road roller as the blocks are too large to fit in a press and although the sun shone most of the day the conditions were not made easy by very strong squalls twirling our paper, pushing dusts leaves and stones onto the block and at one point turning our canopy into a kite.

The blocks though were great and some of the results outstanding despite the working conditions.

We got some spectators and Fred Pipes sent me this video he edited on U-tube


Jane Sampson keeps the 'blanket ' in position as the roller slowly applies pressure


Bernard Lodge and Jane begin to peel the print from the block


The print 'Harpies' revealed


Lino blocks ready to ink (ann D'arcy Hughes' the universe)


Brenda Hartill's finished print.

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