Brighton Art & Design Guide - Boxbird

Boxbird Gallery & Studios
Art and Design Map



Artist Graham Carter and curator Alice Teague opened Boxbird in August 2008, after years of dreaming about opening their own art gallery to sell Graham’s work as well as work from all the talented illustrators and artists they knew and loved.

Alice and Graham moved to Brighton four years ago in search of a more vibrant arts scene. After a few years of living in Brighton the dream of a Boxbird seemed to really fit the town so they took a chance and went for it.



The space is a lovingly converted from a mechanics garage. Before Boxbird, it housed the Jewellery workshop Brass Monkeys but it needed a lot of work to make it into a smart gallery -
it has lovely big windows which allows great natural light into the gallery.

Boxbird have ignored the obvious Lane/North Laine locations for galleries in Brighton (because of space/cost considerations) and have ventured a little further afield and found themselves in an amazing street in Hove - St Johns Road was once the service buildings for Adelaide Crescent and the properties are all lovely old coach houses. Many other occupants are car mechanics who thought they were a bit mad opening an art gallery! but nestled among the grease monkeys are musicians, painters and graphic designers – Alice says St johns road is Hove’s best kept secret!


"The street is a brilliant community all of its own, it buzzes with activity during the week and at the weekends becomes a cut through for local residents – we get children, dogs, bikes and all sorts in the gallery on a Saturday!"

Being out of town enabled them to secure a large enough premises for Graham to have his own silkscreen equipment which has completely changed the way in which he can work and the scale too.


Before opening Boxbird Alice worked as the event manager for local children’s charity Rockinghorse for three years. She had also been working with Graham and other illustrators and artists on putting together and promoting the award winning Show Below for the Brighton Fringe Festival.

Graham has been illustrating for 10 years and has worked with some excellent clients including Orange, Saatch&Saatchi, Bupa and Monster.com. Graham is also one of the founding members of the celebrated illustration collective Peepshow. Graham is known in Brighton for his printmaking and he currently exhibits across the uk.




"We are just trying to create somewhere that people enjoy visiting and enjoy viewing art in. It is a working gallery so it’s often covered in paint and half finished prints which is what gives it its personality and energy.

Graham and I don’t enjoy the pretentious side of art and believe that buying art should be fun and get you excited. We don’t let people leave with a piece that they are never fully happy with and certainly don’t do the pushy sales bit!"


A combination of their skills and knowledge is what makes Boxbird so exciting and refreshing. Alice's organisational skills and passion for beautiful things and Graham’s talent makes Boxbird unique and somewhere people love coming to shop!

Customers are encouraged to see the equipment and they can often watch artists printing which helps them to understand the quality of the printing and the processes, time and effort that goes into each design.



Boxbird specialises in limited edition prints by emerging illustrators and printmakers. They have an eclectic selection of work offering something for everyone.


We have a massive variety of customers and no particular pattern to what they will buy! A large percentage seem to be artists themselves which is really nice. Because the work we sell is affordable it doesn’t alienate any age or income group. We had a bunch of art students come in last week and most of them took a goody away with them! We also have a lot of customers in New York which gives me great delight every time an order pops in! 



Boxbird currently represent 15 artists (including Graham) and in May will be adding a further 15 to that with a film based print exhibition CinemaScope. The show will introduce some emerging and graduate artists who will exhibit alongside Boxbird artists and invited artists such as Graham Rawle, Jon Burgerman and Jon Link (Modern Toss)

Graham Carter - Printmaker & illustrator
Zara Wood – Illustrator & Printmaker
Stuart Tolley – Art Director
Fiona Hewitt – Illustrator & Dumpling Dynasty creator
Ben Newman – Printmaker
Sam Chivers – Printmaker & Illustrator
Sallly Elford – Illustrator
Ruth Green – Printmaker
Ruth Munro – Illustrator
Anna Kyriacou – Fine Artist


Exhibitions 2009
March - Battersea Affordable Art Fair

May - Cinemascope as part of Brighton Fringe Festival - 35 artists producing new prints based on film.

June - illustrator Zara Wood is exhibiting a solo show of new prints and originals, inspired by her trip to the New York Natural History Museum and full of lots of lovely new characters.

July - Sam Chivers, printmaker extraordinaire is launching a solo show ‘Micromacro’.
"Sam is the kind of artist every gallery loves to represent because he is so excited about doing the show, and I think will really make use of all the space!!"

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Valentines show at Castor and Pollux

Al heighton joined us last year as one of our print makers. Al's work sits between a child's and and an adults world, often with mixed messages peppered with wit, and a little bit of romance.
His blog makes an interesting read too. http://alheighton.blogspot.com/http://www.alanheighton.co.uk/images/about_txt.png

See all of Al's prints here http://www.castorandpollux.co.uk/category/artists/al-heighton/

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Artist of the Week - SAM CHIVERS

Sam Chivers

At the moment I make Screenprints and collage. I constantly draw in my sketchbook.
I like the infinite possibilities working digitally affords, coupled with the limitations that screenprint imposes, I see it as a challenge to get as much mileage out of each layer as possible. I'm forced to accept a level of serendipity in the print process.
Presently I'm fascinated by Tantric art, and various forms of symbolism.
I like balancing appropriated imagery with drawings and vectors.


One favourite living artist?
I didn't really get Neasden Control Centre's work when I first saw it, but it really planted itself in my head early on and over the years I've become a total fan.
NCCs work ties together various disciplines like graphic design, animation, installation etc whilst all the time retaining this brut edge to everything. It dances on an indistinguishable knife edge between order and chaos, but all the way through there's this seam of humour and enthusiasm.

When and where did you first want to do what you do?
I've always been busy with drawing, if I was having a bit of a rubbish time, drawing would make me invisible. When I was about 12 I got into 2000ad in a big way and that set me off on an altogether more serious trajectory. All I wanted to do was illustrate Judge Dredd (something I still intend to do), Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog or Slaine. Then I started getting into European stuff like Moebius and Enki Bilal. Later I ended up making comics of my own, self publishing a small Zine/Comic called 'Apocalypso'
Then I made a comic called 'Headcase' that was more of a picture story - (there's an online version here

What place in the world has inspired you?
My dad has lived in the south of France since the late 70's, so from an early age my sister and I would be packed off every summer for our yearly visit. That place has always been an intense influence. His village is sandwiched between vineyards to the south and the more mountainous regions to the north, compared to where I grew up (Portsmouth) it's pretty isolated, and with the exception of odd gunshots here and there of Chassuers shooting wild pigs it's pretty quiet. It's a very beautiful place, and that combined with not being able to speak the language too well has given it added potency.


Do you work best on your own or in collaboration?
I'm a total control freak when it comes to my work so I probably wouldn't be any good at collaborations, I'd give it a go though depending on who it was with...


At age 15 who influenced your style?
When I was fifteen Simon Bisley was the biggest influence on my work wheather I liked it or not, that was back in the days when it was cool to paint comic pages in full colour, I can't imagine the amount of time that guy spent illustrating Slaine: The Horned God, but it was worth every minute. At art collage in the early nineties doing comics was akin to blasphemy - the lecturers equated it with fantasy art (which I guess it sort of is) but that just made me more determined As Bisley did quite painterly stuff I could practice my Bisley skills easily avoiding the idiot lecturer's fantasy art detectors.

Last best read?
Iain Sinclair's London: City of disappearances


How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
I practice illustration pretty much full time, between the hours of 9 to 5 I'll bend my vision as far as I have to. Out of hours when I do my self initiated work I won't bend at all.

How do you set about starting a new project?
I have a list of pictures I want to make in my head, most of them are drawn out in my sketchbook, some of them have been queuing for years, others get lucky and jump into existence ahead of their time.

What is your favourite website?
htttp://www.fecalface.com is one of my favourites, it's well laid out and they always have a good selection interviews.


What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
hubbabubba

Do you think art and craft has any real importance?
I agree with what Alan Moore says about Art, in that he equates any artistic expression as an act of magic 'the use of words, images, and actions to affect people and the way they think'.I think art can be a tool to understand the universe and one's place in it, so yes, it is important. Sometimes though, people just want a nice picture to put on their wall.

Can anything be 'art'?
Put anything it into the right context and it's case could be argued for. I think it's all about language, and the viewers emotional response to it, or the viewers ability to decode it. I think that's why some conceptualist stuff gets criticised sometimes, because only a tiny percentage of people are either well read enough in art history or can be bothered to to decode what they're being presented with. Whether it's any good or not is an entirely different question.


What do think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design?
Lazy stencilling, heavy reliance on Photoshop filters, badly executed plagarism. The Chapman brothers seem to have a fairly successful offensive against good taste and decency, they made my mum ''want to get a f**king machine gun and shoot it all to hell!" If Alan Moore is correct then those two are a pair of Aleister Crowleys.

One favourite historical maker.
Marcel Duchamp - I like his good humoured approach to everything, he wasn't too serious yet he's credited with giving birth to conceptualism. But nobody really knew who he was.

Most underated artist?
Victor Savelkoul. - Savelkoul's drawings are beautiful, he even did a series in blue biro and they're outstanding, in a similar way to Neasden Control Centre he dances on a knife edge between order and chaos, you can't work out what was planned and what was a happy accident.

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Artist of the Week - Andy Lovell

Andy Lovell artist/printmaker

Observational drawing and painting are the foundation of my work imprinting a memory of place and form that inevitably informs the final printed image.

I use monotyping and silkscreen printing to interprete my initial drawings and paintings exploring the layering of texture and colour which are at the heart of my work.

1 Money spent on the highest quality art materials is never wasted
Investing so much time, emotion and thought into the image making itself, it would be madness to use anything less than the best that you can afford to create the final work.


2 One favourite living craft maker?
Cath Derksema, a fabulous Australian textile designer who creates wonderfully bold and colourful designs all hand printed in her workshop. Her approach is experimental and full of energy.

3 One favourite historical artist?
Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman who was a Dutch typographer and printer and was killed by the Gestapo in 1945. He created very simple strong prints using wooden type and rollers amongst other things. A lesson in concise experimental dynamic printmaking.
YouWorkForThem | Monographs: H.N. Werkman

4 What was the last art/craft/design thing you purchased?
I've just bought a singer sewing machinist's chair off ebay for my studio. It has a cast iron base and bent plywood seat and back and is a beautiful combination of function and design.


5What one product/item do you really covet?
I would love to own a Harry Rochat etching press, I love the design, the shape of the wheel evokes that sensuous Man Ray photo.

6 At age 15 who influenced your style? Was there any individual who very much helped you on your way?
At 15 I didn't know what I wanted to do, my school was hopeless with "artists", if you didn't want to be a doctor, a lawyer or a city broker they didn't want to know.
Fortunately my art teacher Bob Brown was/is an extraordinary man who infused me with his enthusiasm for art, life and garlic and has become a lifelong friend and mentor.

7 How do you set about starting a new project?
I'm learning to commit to paper without questioning too much, allowing the image to emerge based on the emotion evoked by the subject.
There's is always something unexpected that comes out of a session that excites and inspires one onwards into battle.


8 Surprising activity?
Seville marmalade making

9 Do you have a good work/life balance?
This is very hard to get this right in my experience and very hard especially for the poor partner who has to put up with all the artistic angst that goes with it all!

10 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
Hope


11 Would you rather be doing something else?
Absolutely not, to be able to make your own images that then people want to take home and put on their wall is supremely satisfying.
Making "Art" viable financially is the much harder part of the equation though I can see with a ton of self belief and hard work this too can work.

12 What do think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design?
Cheap framing, over decoration, dingbats

13 Most underated artist?
Definitely not underrated by those that know his work but should be far more widely seen is Charles Shearer a fabulous printmaker drawer/painter whose work can be viewed on Emma Mason's website
Charles's work is poetic and lyrical and technically brilliant.

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Mibo

Clacket Lane Tote Bag

Mibo is a small design firm run by Madeline Rogers who was our next door neighbour when we worked from a lovely mews in Hove. Madeline gave up her day job as an Art Director for Film and Video to found Mibo and her designs found immediate resonance being quickly taken up by Habitat, Heals and the Conran Shop.

Chicken Stock Linen Cushion (Screenprint)

Mibo produces a large range of products that fit with the retro/scandi flavour that's huge at the moment however Mibo keeps it fresh and exciting. Mibo started out with lighting/printed lampshades but now covers everything including wallpaper, tiles, lighting, cushions and bags.

Clacket Lane Large Shade

Mibo isn't too grand to sell to the likes of us and has an good online shop where new products and old favourites can be bought direct from the studio.

Selsey Grey Wallpaper

Shanklin Blue Tile Tattoos

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Etsy Site of the Week - Skinnylaminx

Skinnylaminx is the etsy shop of Cape Town based designer, illustrator and writer Heather Moore.( Skinny La Minx is the name of her siamese cat.)
She also writes an interesting blog about design and her obsessions.


Heather is selling her screenprinted tea-towels, aprons from the etsy site. These prints are based on Heather's collections of vintage mugs, spoons as well as natural themes - seedheads, birds etc.


These products are also incredibly good value, Tea-towels at $11 and the aprons at $25 plus postage from South Africa - but still incedible value for a designer handmade product!

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