Doll

Doll
Originally uploaded by CathyL.

Now that we are through the Christmas treacle, thoughts inevitably turn to spring and the unknown treasures that the new year will bring.

Blog Off

God, blogging is sooo bourgeois. I have been reading through a selection of blogs, linking from one to another. It is all just a load of middle class twittery, smart alec, self congratulatory stuff. Why don't you all just stop it and stick to your day jobs.

Independent Art Publishing

Yesterday I went to a symposium at Tate Modern about Independent Art Publishing. It was actually quite good especially the fantastic Michael Bracewell who spoke about the eighties and their importance in fusing mainstream and independent cultures. This was the second time in a few days that I had heard the name Kathy Acker. Bracewell put her forward as someone who has been unjustly forgotten - an eighties embarresment. The day before the artist Esther Planas mentioned her as being the most important influence on her work, especially the book Blood and Guts in High School which she discovered when she first came to London. Esther also pointed out that Tracey Emin's work owes a huge debt to Acker.

Also at the Tate thing were Matthew Higgs (the chair) who showed us a photo of himself at 14 in the same room as Joy Division (very impressive) and the amiable Sina Najafi the editor in chief of the American magazine Cabinet. There is also a Bookworks book called Put about that deals with the same stuff. The cover of the book shows the famous Mark P thing about here's a chord...now start a band. I had always thought that this was in Sniffin' Glue but I can't find it in my Sniffin' Glue book and Put About just credits it to Mark Perry. If anyone has any idea where it was first published I would love to know. I'm particulary intersted because I have quoted it in a piece I've written in the forthcoming Arty: Greatest Hits which will be available soon from Transition and all good shops. The drawing of Twiggy below is from the cover.

Dark Covers

Dark Covers

Playing at the Goth Moth private view was the fantastic Esther Planas with a short set of Dark Covers. These highly individual versions of Beatles songs were sung sitting on a blanket in the corner of the gallery in her very own Nico-esque style.

The show is on until 19th December so check it out.

Goth Moth

Ghost World

Goth Moth has opened at last at Transition and the weeks of preparation have resulted in a kinda creepy domestic gothic. The image shows work by Tobi Deeson (White Dresses - Non Biological), Shane Waltener (Web Doily), Myself (It's Me, I'm Cathy) and Mimei Thompson (Untitled). I think that it's a brilliant show but I suppose I am biased.

The Clash

The Clash

There is a new book out about the Clash by Arty contributor Pat Gilbert
called Fashion is a Passion. Although I haven't read it yet I
have heard bits of it read by Alex Michon (who features heavily in the
book as she made the now iconic clothes that the Clash wore back in the
day). One of these pieces, Joe Strummer's jacket was featured in the
show Sense and Sensibility at Transition.

The Last of E9

The Last of E9

This weekend is the last of E9 at Transition and alongside the work of the artists we have work by children from Lauriston School's Junior Art
Club. They have done a fab job and have made a whole load of different stuff from t-shirts to clay models. There is also an E9 shop where you can buy lotsa E9 stuff. Next Friday (19th November) sees the opening of Goth Moth at the gallery. This is going to be very different from E9 but just as fantastic.

Precinct Deborah

Attack on Precinct Deborah

I have some work in a show on at my studios this weekend. Attack on Precinct Deborah, Deborah House, Retreat Place, London E9. The show is on 30 & 31 October 10-5pm.

This picture is from the private view when the 'Russian folk singer' performed in front of my two paintings of Joe Orton. There were also some people watching but they were less photogenic.

Acting Painting

Art, Art, Art

I went to a whole bunch of shows last weekend in the galleries clustered around the Vyner hub. The main reason I went was to see The Horizon of Expectation at the Empire in Wadeson Street. This show has had some of the most intense publicity ever with emails arriving independently from most of the artists involved. It is basically a show of landscape painting, not I hasten to add the sort of watery landscapes beloved of provincial galleries but cutting edge, Royal Saatchi, landscape paintiing. A lot of the work was very nice - Mimei Thompson, Peter Lamb etc. But I particularly enjoyed Jost Muenster's Campsite and Stripes, they had a nice homemade, humourous left field approach to the subject.

Next on the list was the newly refurbished Vilma Gold which is showing Marc Titchner's 20th Century Man. All very slick and shiny but I just can't ever be bothered to read the text on his pieces so that probably means that I am missing the point.

Further along Vyner Street at Modern Art there were some nice paintings by an American whose name I don't remember and there was no press release to take away so I haven't got any idea who he was. They were of people like Abraham Lincoln and had lots of colourful firework like explosions in the background. They reminded me a little of Alex Gene Morrison's paintings.

Lastly I visited the new (well to me anyway) SSAI Space at 45a Tudor Road. This tiny space (its almost like a cupboard) has a show called Acting Painting whch features a group of small paintings. I really liked Gaston du Pape's cheval paintings (see image above).

enough art for one day

E9

E9
Originally uploaded by CathyL.

Here is one of Tania McCormack's pieces for the E9 show

The Art Zoo Versus E9

So once again its ages since my last post blah blah blah. I think the problem is this new all singing all dancing blogger format. I can't do things that I used to do easily like upload pictures. I am probably being very stupid but thats how it is.

So here in London at the hub of the art world lots of things are happening. This weekend is the number one weekend in the artworld calender (if you are a wanabe corporate/commercial gallery or an unadventurous collector who just likes artfairs rather than real exhibitions) Friday sees the start of the Frieze art fair in Regents Park and Saturday see the start of the Zoo art fair in um Regents Park. The difference is that Zoo is for under 3 year old art organisations (a kind of arbitary figure used so that the Keith Talent Gallery just fits the bill)

Over at the sharp end of the London art scene in the East End, Transition has a new show opening on Friday night - E9. It doesn't contain any 'big' name artists but it is a really fab show about the area that the gallery is in and engages with. This specificity curiously has spawned new work which is beautiful and has a wistful universal appeal. There is also a brilliant publication to accompany it partially funded by The Arts Council and with a new piece of writing by novelist Tony White. You can buy it from the gallery and various local outlets and online at theTransition Website

As soon as I work out how to upload pics I will post some!

I'm Back

Yes just like the Elvis' '68 Comeback Special I am returning from a long Blogging break with a fantastic new entry. My excuses are that I've been on holiday and it's been the summer and well I just haven't gotten around to it.
There is a new show opening tonight at Transition called Hans in Transition. It a self exploritory kind of show by the artist Hans Schriel featuring a series of recent and not so recent paintings that examine issues around gender politics from his very personal viewpoint. One of the paintings has one of my favourite ever art titles - Rabbit Picture on Skis.

Lost Kitten

Its been a very eventful week. On Thursday whilst I was invigilating at Transition someone came in and stole one of Stella Vine's paintings off the wall. I called the police who told me there was little chance of ever finding it and that was that. It seems crazy to me that a piece of art can be stolen and an image of it isn't circulated to specialist painting theft squads around the world, I mean that's what would have happened in the movies. At least The Hackney Gazette, The East London Advertiser and Flash Art have expressed an interest, so you never know.
The stolen painting was 41.5 x 33cm and called Kitten and was of... Kitten, the loveable anarchist from Big Brother. There have of course been numerous conspiracy theories including my favourite which is that Kitten herself got someone to steal it for her.

Stella has issued the following statement about the event:
"I am sad as Kitten was one of my favourite paintings, and also
because it had been promised to a young American couple, who had been
waiting for a painting for some time. I hope that whoever stole it,
stole it because they loved it, and not because of all the hype."

If anyone does see the painting please email or call the gallery

Prozac and Joffe

Prozac and Private Views has been great and you can now buy your own copy of the limited edition signed and numbered catalogue from the Transition web site! You can also still visit the show which is on until 4th July and see among other highlights the Sylvia cooker.

Despite all the extra work involved in putting on this show I have managed to visit some other stuff including Chantal Joffe at The Bloomberg Space. This is a great show. Joffe has painted a series of huge, towering women in her trademark painterly style. Upon entering the space they tower over you, their long architectural legs stretching up and up. Joffe says that it is all about the paint, there is no narrative. I feel that this is disingenuous, if it were so why paint people at all. For me all these women have a story.

Prozac and Private Views

The next show up at Transition is Stella Vine's first solo show - Prozac and Private Views. It is promising to be really special and I have started to put images up on the Transition site. The latest one is called Katie and is of that new feminist icon Katie Price aka Jordan.

Antony Gormley and Morton Bartlett

I wandered into the Antony Gormley show at White Cube the other day because I had a bit of time to kill and was pleasently surprised. Upstairs are some figures made out of little rectangular pieces of metal which are ok but it is the 3d metal scribble that is really nice. The whole space is filled with a twisted piece of metal like a giant doodle which you can enter. The best thing is that it feels really dangerous, the whole thing shudders and vibrates if anyone knocks against it and you constantly have to be aware of what you are doing in case you trip which takes away that art gallery self conscious "I'm looking a art" feeling. It's so nice to be able to touch and engage with a piece of art.

I also wandered into the excellant Bookartbookshop and bought a book about an artist called Morton Bartlett. He spent his whole adult life making perfect half life size children which he made clothes for. He's a kind of Hans Belmer, Henry Darger type. Its a really good book and if you ever see it anywhere I recommend you have a look, it's called Family Found: The Lifetime Obsession of Morton Bartlett by Marion Harris

Heavy Metal Kids

I'm in a show at the James Coleman gallery in September called She's No Angel with a group of other artists including Damian and Delaine Le Bas, Stella Vine and Iris Palmer. We did a group photo for the invite card last week which was really funny, made me feel like I was in a band again! The weird thing is that the name of the show comes from a really obscure song by a really obscure band called The Heavy Metal Kids and they were on Top of the Pops 2 last night singing you've guessed it She's no Angel. The singer of the band was a guy called Gary Holton who went on to act in Auf Wiedersehen Pet before dying of a drugs overdose in the 80s. Another really uninteresting (to you not me) fact is that when I was about sixteen I met Gary Holton in a pub in Guildford (he was in a play at the theatre there) and he was really nice. I've just had a search around on the web and apparently The Heavy Metal Kids are still gigging around today, with a different singer of course. It seems like every band reforms, I think it is a kind of mid life crisis thing where they desperately want to recapture their youth, examples off the top of my head - Stiff Little Fingers, The Pixies etc. etc.

The Libertines

I have a new scarily teenage obsession in my life to fill in the Arsenal less summer months - The Libertines. Pete Doherty is a kind of cross between the self destructiveness of Kurt Kobain and the tunefulness of Beatles era Paul McCartney. Their music is powerful and catchy, think The Jam, The Kinks etc. etc. and best of all they have this real thing about Englishness. Albion, Arcadia, dead war poets and the like mixed up with a smattering of homoerotica. A Potent mix. Their live performances totter on the edge of falling apart and then come back together with all the excitement of that sex and drugs and boys in the band stuff. (I must confess now that I have only seen them live once but it was at The Cafe de Paris and it was brilliant!)
They have a new album due out soon produced by Mick Jones who has said that "a record as good as this only comes along once in a generation". Wow! The downside to all this is that Pete is at the moment holed up in The Priory trying to beat his longstanding on/off drug addiction. You can if you are so inclined follow his progress via his Babyshambles website where he posts rambling acccounts of his state of mind, the minuitae of his treatment and pleas to various fans to come and see him and bring him supplies of stamps! Look out for postings by Heavyhorse.

Transition Update

Wow, its all changed at Blogger. There is all this new profile stuff and they want me to answer weird random questions about spiders and China. Anyway enough of all that, cut to the important stufff. At the moment there is a fab painting show at Transition called Faith . It includes Claire Pestaille's sensationally scary Black Madonna (which needs to be seen in the flesh as it is almost impossible to photograph) and Simon Leahy Clark's fab untitled, bubble gum on linen, abstract.

Next up at the gallery is the long awaited first solo show by Stella Vine - Prozac and Private Views. Things are skipping along nicely preparation wise and I'm putting together a really cute little limited edition catalogue which is hopefully going to be sold by a glamorous 'cigarette girl' at the private view. Read all the latest stuff about the show etc. on Stella's blog .

Painting Rules at The Whitechapel

I saw the new Whitechapel shows Raoul De Keyser and Edge of the Real a couple of weeks ago and was quite dismissive about Raoul. I just thought that his paintings were boring abstracts. This weekend I went back and saw the show again and... I have to admit that I really liked it. It is quiet and reflective and the canvases are refreshingly distressed. The colours are quite beautiful, layered to create chalky backgrounds with semi abstract motifs, quite a few of which are flowers and leaves. I read in the gallery leaflet that he is rated highly by Luc Tuymans and I can really see the connection, that quiet, intense Belgian thing. In the bookshop there is a beautiful book with Tuymans and De Keyser juxtaposed which I would love to own but I couldn't quite justify the high cost. The other show Edge of the Real occupies less than half of the upstairs gallery and is a survey of new British painting. The first time I went I preferred this, the second time I wasn't so sure. The new circular Gary Hume is really horrible and David Rayson's contribution is not the best thing I have seen of his. The highlights are Artlab's intriguing Eight Part Cluster Type, Vicken Parson's quiet, little paintings of corridors and corners (which I think I have seen before at Tate St. Ives) and Michael Raedecker's beautiful stitched painting of a little house with a coloured lighting grid above it (I wonder if this is on its way to The Saatchi Gallery)
I think that overall it is one of The Whitechapel's best shows for a while and of course there is a great cafe and the fab new Artwords bookshop to check out (where you can buy the latest Arty - The books Issue). So well worth a visit


Come On, Play It Again Number 4 - Raoul de Keyser - 2001