Carlsberg don't do Open Houses but ...
if they did it would probably be the Joze Show, take one country house, a lovely garden and number of outbuildings, a professional curator and 17 fantastic artists and you get the Joze Show.
Josie Waldie who has organised the show and reformed advertising guru and born again painter Alan Waldie have opened their fantastic house and garden - Accolds Farm, near Petworth, for the second year. This year is curated by James Gillons of Gillons Art Battersea who has put together some great sculptors, painters and ceramicists for the week long show.
Proceeds from the show are going to the Berkeley Reafforestation Trust, which seeks to help communities throughout the developing world reestablish forest ecology for their areas.
Although the weather on the preview evening had a little to be desired, even in a downpour you could see that the garden is a great setting for the carved wooden sculptures of Si Uwins, and the beautifully observed bronze animals of Carol Orwin.
Inside we were taken with the heavy cast glass sculptures of Heike Brachlow - heavy solid glass cylinders which balance precariously on pointy ends and invite playing with as they move with the slightest touch.
Kitty Shepherd was exhibiting both her handbuild pots with decoration motivs ranging from dyson vacuum cleaners to racing silks (which got her featured in the racing post!) also plaques and a few quite traditional slipware tiles.
Alan Waldie was exhibiting lively paintings from his life in Sussex, dogs and snow covered landscapes. (images top)
Sarah was very taken with the painterly pots of Dylan Bowen who seems to treat his ceramics like a canvas to produce beautifully free decoration.
And 11 more good artists!
The show is only open 2-5 in the afternoon until this Sunday.
I highly recommend a trip out, but print a map out off the internet before you set off or use a gps as it's in the middle of no-where (but easy to get to)
Monday, 8 September 2008
The Joze Show08
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Maker of the Week - Syann Van Niftrik
Syann Van Niftrik
Jewellery in various materials, not bling, not Asprey's, simply different.
1 Money spent on travel is never wasted, it’s such a great escape.
2 One favourite living craft maker?
TASSO MATTAR. For his joy in living and making, his generosity in commitment to the creative community. AND Tamiko
3 One favourite historical artist?
Alexander Calder for his philosophical and physical sense of balance
4 One favourite historical maker?
ANONYMOUS: I am overcome with respect when I see such care and devotion, purely for the pleasure of the ‘doing’……..no kudos.
5 When and where did you first want to do what you do?
I’ve no idea, I’ve always made things.
6 Do you work best on your own or in collaboration?
On my own, I’m quite secretive. However, I am beginning to feel I’d like to have a go at collaboration.
7 What was the last art/craft/design thing you purchased? What one product/item do you really covet?
I last bought a wall tile from Jonathan Garratt…I’ve seen it at his pottery for years, always loved it and bought it last week. I covet one of those antique rectangular Japanese laquer trays with the makers cartouche. Both these objects are simple, beautifully proportioned and made with integrity.
8 Last best read?
Two; ‘Silk’ by Alessndro Baricco and ‘Howard Hodgkin’ writers on Hodgkin
9 How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
The times I tried I got it all wrong and had to recycle the piece.
10 Who would you say buys your work?
People with a sense of personal adventure.
11 How do you set about starting a new project?
Finding the time to make the thing clamouring loudest in my head.
12 What do you have on your pinboard?
Layers and layers of cuttings, cards, sticks, photos, bits of bark, rusty metal, bills and DUST.
13 Where and what is your studio?
A room at the end of the house with Radio 4, Radio 3 ….when no ones at home, in silence.
14 What is your favourite website?
The internet exhausts me, I avoid it, but now and then, I’ve been sent to fantastic sites which I no longer remember how to find.
15 Do you have a good work/life balance? Are you able to switch off from art work?
I think I’m balanced, I haven’t found the OFF switch, and I’m not sure I know where the ON button is either.
16 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
normality
17 Would you rather be doing something else?
Yes, sing.
18 Do you think art and craft has any real importance?
Why should it not have importance? It is undeniably a part of life, communication and basic culture.
19 Are their other fields that you'd like to apply some facet of your work into?
Disaffected sections of the community, but I’m not sure I’d know how.
20 Guilty secret?
Yes but in my book, a secret is a secret
21 Can anything be 'art'?
Only if it’s made from true spirit, even if it is a joke.
22 What do you think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design?
Good taste.
23 If you could exhibit in any gallery which would it be?
Guggenheim New York because it lends itself to ‘the journey’ and it is so perfectly imperfect.
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
Brighton Art Fair - Readers offer.
Many of you will know that the founders and some of the writers of this blog organise the Brighton Art Fair and MADE08 - Brighton's Design and Craft Fair.
We would like you to come and can offer readers (well the first 25 to email me) a 241 ticket to the show which starts on Friday 19 September. Just send your name and postal address to me on 241@brightonartfair.co.uk quoting MADEUK.
The show looks like it will be a good one. We have over 100 artists exhibiting representing a wide variety of subjects and styles. Please do have a good look at our website to see all the artists attending - Brighton Art Fair is a show where artists sell work direct to the public - its a good place to learn about art from the artists themselves.
Below is a small preview of some of the artists.
Ali Yanya - depicting crowd scenes in obscure spaces
Sasha Bowles returns with her figurative and narrative paintings.
Penny Green's - figurative ceramics which echo and reinterpret literary and cultural ideas
Rhoda Baker - 2D paperscapes with complex and intricate structures that seemingly evolve and change before your eyes.
Paul Debois - stunning large scale pinhole photos of landscapes and trees. (image at the top of the page)
Friday, 5 September 2008
Hazy and Lazy at Toylife
American artists, husband and wife duo, Snaggs & Arbito are currently showing new work at the ToyLife designer toy shop and gallery, Brighton, UK.
Their show “Hazy & Lazy” was used to launch Arbito’s first Hand sculpted, cast & painted figure : The Cosmic Hobo.
Snaggs is a felt artist, making stitched, well, anything!!
Toylife may be a tiny hop but it is always bursting at the seams with a bright psychedelic rainbow . Perfect for the weather we have been having, it is the most colourful spot in Brighton.
http://toylife.co.uk/
http://arbito.com/
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Peter Carreras - Sussex printmaker donates his work to support Sussex Heritage Trust
Click Here to Read More..
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Artist of the Week - STEVE McPHERSON
Steve McPherson
Is an artist and lecturer living and working in the South East. He has bibliophilic tendencies, cartographic inclinations and is obsessive/compulsive regarding the collecting of found marine objects that lay wave worn and washed up upon the beaches near his home. His works include sculpture - installation, bookworks and experimental wall hung works.
When and where did you first want to do what you do?
Apparently being 7 and colour blind stops you from becoming a RAF pilot. The only other alternative was an artist (with help from others when it comes to choosing coloured paints and pencils etc).
What place in the world has inspired you?
The small beach where I collect most of the objects I use, and which I spent hours playing as a child and wandering and watching the ships on the endless horizon as an adult.This cove is not particularly popular and you wouldn't spend a hot summer visiting it - but it has a bleak beauty of its own and its currents attract a wealth of lost objects and memories from the miles of adjoining coast..
What one product/item do you really covet?
My collection of scarce books by the American diarist and photographer Peter Beard . Beard was the first artist I came across who used diaries and journals in a similar way to my own. His work adventurer life is a constant source of intrigue and inspiration, and luckily by chance I met him in NY and he was as charming as the many articles about him suggest he is.
Last best read?
'Fahrenheit 451' Ray Bradbury
How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
I have always tried to make work regardless of the fashions of the market place, and feel that my work appeals on many levels to many different people and also suits equally varied locations of display.
Where and what is your studio?
At home where ever there is space. I do work alone but my tolerant wife and I discuss ideas and solutions. I like to listen to a vast array of styles of music and of course good old Radio 4, equally silence is welcomed but rare.
Surprising activity?
Surprising to most people who know me is the fact that I design and make jewelry for the design company 'The Black Rabbit'
Guilty secret?
At the end of a hot summer beach day - A Pint of good gin with tonic, loads of ice and half a fresh lime squeezed and dropped into it.
Can anything be 'art'?
Anything can be art - whether it is successful in its communication of its intentions is another thing - and whether its good or not is purely subjective, and of less importance.
