Old Hackney

I've been adding lots of pictures to my flickr pages and I came across a whole bunch of old photos of Hackney that I took around 1994 not long after I moved to the area. I really like this one in particular which shows one of the towers of the New Kingshold Estate before it was demolished and the whole area became a lot more lofty.

London Art Fair

The London Art Fair opened this evening. I have only been a couple of times before but am always amazed by just how many galleries there are selling MOR art to the masses. The best bit is the Art Projects section which includes curated group and solo exhibitions by younger galleries. Included amongst these is Shoreditch's Contemporary Art Projects who are doing their Start Your Collection thing. This means that all the work is £250 or less and there is some really great stuff. I particularly liked Benjamin Senior's framed gouache and Sharon McPhee's little twin paintings. Also look out for four of my Afro series which I have had framed especially for the occasion.

Elvis and Switzerland

I have been travelling a bit in the last couple of months and have been to the US and Switzerland. The US trip was mainly organised around my long-time dream of visiting Graceland which was everything that I hoped it would be and more. I also took in Sun Studios, other bits of Memphis, Mississippi and Alabama and was in the Peabody Hotel, Memphis for the election which was very exciting. Pictures from the trip are here don't miss the beautiful image of the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich that I sampled at Graceland's rockabilly diner (Elvis' favourite snack for those of you who aren't up on this kind of thing). 

I went to Switzerland over Christmas and managed to avoid skiing for ten days. Lots of snow and amazing mountains though - pictures here. I wonder if Elvis ever went skiing?

New Year New Show

Too Much is Not Enough has just opened at Transition. Jessica Lack in the Guardian Guide is quite right, the excesses of celebrity culture is a little hackneyed as a subject but there is a good reason for doing it which I can't go into now. The show looks great and includes fab work by Jessica Voorsanger, Sarah Doyle, Gavin Toye, Kim L Pace and of course me. My contribution is The Inevitable End of a Love Goddess, a series of paintings about Jayne Mansfield, who really is the ultimate icon of celebrity excess. 

The Image Duplicator
Michael Bartlett & Cathy Lomax

gASP Gallery, Portsmouth

Mon 29 Sep – Sat 25 Oct 2008
Preview. Friday 3 Oct 6.30-8.30pm


Somewhere between painterly genetic engineering and uncanny gothic experiment, The Image Duplicator features two artists who have worked in isolation to produce a series of collaborative portraits.

‘What do you know about my image duplicator?’ snarls a mad scientist in one of Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings, seemingly commenting on the inability of many painters to connect with contemporary culture, and the guarded paranoia they have about their technique. The Image Duplicator seeks to demystify and inject a new narrative into this mix. It understands that to maintain its status in contemporary art, exciting painting can no longer exist as merely a singular work on a wall it must instead be understood thorough its relationship to the world around it.

The Image Duplicator features paintings of five sets of identical twins. Each of the artists has painted one of the twins from each set on identically sized supports. The two halves of the twin partnerships will be united for the first time at the exhibition. Both the project’s conception and its means of production look at the very nature of collaborative partnerships. Including a mirroring of ‘intent’ and the importance of the artist’s hand as that of the supreme creator.

The Image Duplicator develops and continues interests that both artists have regarding ideas around the public and private gaze and working in series. Cathy Lomax’s Mary paintings consisted of eight paintings of Mary Bell, the source material for which was a faded newspaper photograph which was reworked and reconfigured over and over to produce a set of similar but different paintings; the non-mechanical reproduction of a image in an age of endless digital reproduction. Mike Bartlett’s ongoing series of paintings depicting contemporary art exhibitions, show him looking at us looking at the influential works of the day. More recently his WW2 Spain (Lost) series features paintings of a set of non-identical twins, sourced from found photographs from pre war Berlin.

Alongside the exhibition at gasp a set of small paintings of the twins will also be shown at Aspex Gallery’s ARC Resource Space. The artists will be giving at talk at Aspex on 16 October. Please contact Aspex for more information.

There will be a limited edition Image Duplicator publication to accompany the exhibitions with essays by Fran Richardson and Alex Michon.


Aspex Gallery Artists Talk: Thur 16 Oct 6.30
gASP Critical Group Discussion: Thur 23 Oct 6.30


gASP Gallery: Art Space Portsmouth, 27 Brougham Rd, Portsmouth, PO5 4PA Open by appointment t:07929 607581 e:michael.bartlett17@ntlworld.com www.artspace.co.uk
Aspex Gallery ARC Resource Space: The Vulcan Building, Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth, e: info@aspex.org.uk t: 023 9277 8080 www.aspex.org.uk

Contact Mike Bartlett for more information and images 07929 607581 / michael.bartlett17@ntlworld.com

Folkestone Triennial and L'Etranger at The Lees Lift

This weekend why not take a trip down to Folkestone to catch the fantastic Folkestone Triennial. I highly recommend the works by Tacita Dean, Heather and Ivan Morison, Tracey Emin and David Batchelor (and probably lots of others which I didn't manage to see).

While you're there don't forget to take a trip on the historic Lees Lift where incidentally me and Alex Michon are showing a new work as part of Club Shepway's Folkestone Fringe programme. It's called L'Etranger and I have pasted some more details about it below.



L'Etranger
Paranoid pulp fiction drives out fact

Cathy Lomax and Alex Michon

Lees Lift, Folkestone
6 & 7 September 2008

A dishevelled young stranger arrives at a coastal town. His clothes are strange and his face is unshaven. ‘Who is he’, ‘why is he here?’ Suspicion builds and the whispering becomes feverish: ‘I hear he had to leave’, ‘her husband was after him’, ‘he’s on the run’. Speculation about the man’s history increases and ‘heartbreak’ ‘violence’, and ‘murder’ are evoked. In the absence of evidence a conclusion is reached… Silently the man disappears.


*********************************************************************


L'Etranger is about difference. It’s about fear of the unfamiliar, and the isolation of the outsider. It’s about how we make assumptions and invent our own stories. It’s about repeated fictions becoming fact. It’s about finding a scapegoat and getting away with it. It’s about disappearing and leaving questions unanswered.

But above all, at this time of political unease, intrigue and economic uncertainty L'Etranger warns against the danger of moral certitude.


With many thanks to Peter Grimes, Young Adam and The Outsider

John Moores 2008

The participants in the John Moores painting prize 2008 have just been announced and as usual it is not without controversy. There is a fantastic debate about it on Jonathan Jones' Guardian Blog. I especially like Comment No. 1241425 from Welshnia - where the integrity of the judges is questioned. Despite all of this there are some good people - especially pleased to see Eleanor Moreton getting a turn (the image above is Eleanor Moreton's Visitor from 2007).

Carny Town

Carny Town has just finished at the Portman Gallery in east London. It was a really fun show - one of the highlights was Alex Michon's slowed down film of Billy Fury. You can read more on my Telegraph Blog in the post titled I say, I say, I say.

Seaside Stories

It is the last weekend of That's Entertainment, Transition Gallery's offsite show at the Whitstable Biennale. For those of you that can't make it to the seaside there is a bit of seaside fun in the city, with Fan Fair at the Transition HQ. Works in Fan Fair include a string of smutty hankies, a condemned helter skelter and an Madame Sosostris, an interactive fortune telling experience. So if you want to find out what you future holds head along to Transition, oh and pick up a copy of the new Arty which has a set of artist designed tarot cards by Stella Vine, Marcus Oakley, Lady Lucy, Alex Michon and lots of others. 

I am still writing for the Telegraph online and they have redesigned their pages. My posts can now be found here 

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I went to see Tim Walker's lovely show at The Design Museum yesterday. I loved the pastel kittens but my favourite pic was The Lamp Tree. You can read more on my Telegraph blog. To read more Telegraph visual arts posts click here.

Telegraph Arts Blog

I have started writing a blog for the Telegraph which will be updated a couple of times a week.
It will have stuff about Garageland, Transition, Arty and my own artwork. Here is the first post

Vanity Case

At:
Lost in Beauty
117 Regents Park Road, Primrose Hill, London NW1

23 April–1 June 2008


Cathy Lomax’s Vanity Case features a cornucopia of new paintings inspired by the pages of fashion magazines. Each image is a subjective selection that replays and subverts notions of an art historical gaze.

The girls, isolated and cut from their original commercial intentions, are free to take on another existence - the mise en scene, made-up world of paintings. This reconfiguration is further enhanced by Lomax’s romantically girly titles such as Hellcat, Bolero or Broderie Anglaise. The titles provide a sub-text that reveals the contemporary imperative of painting’s ability to make up its own stories.

These girls move in and out of time, from the pages of Vogue to the pages of romantic fiction but their function is always underpinned by the artist’s commitment to painting. The drips and swirls are there to remind us that the picture we are looking at is not a substitute for a photograph but a hand-made object where the artist is not just art director but total creator.

Vanity Case is the first exhibition at London's newest beauty emporium - Lost in Beauty

Garageland 5
Subversive Beauty

There is a new issue of that 'cultural trash mag', the magnificent Garageland magazine.

This one is all about beauty, a theme suggested by the new show at Transition, The Golden Fluffer

Its on sale now at all the usual places or you can get it through the Transition site... oh and we do a really good subscription deal

Frieze Week

Every Year the week of the Frieze art fair just gets busier and busier - everybody opens or has just opened a new show.
I am really looking forward to seeing The Painting of Modern Life at The Hayward and Mama Anderson at Camden Arts Centre, I am not lookingforward to seeing Frieze (I always find it a bit depressing and uninspiring)

So in common with everyone else I have lots of work in a whole lot of different places...

Girlsworld - The Grey Area, Brighton
6 - 21 October
pv Friday 5 October 7-9pm
Solo show at the small but perfectly formed Grey Area in Brighton (very handily located close to the station) The main part of the show is taken up by my Mary Bell paintings

The Free Art Fair - Seymour Place, London
8 - 14 October
opening party 8 October 6-9pm
An art fair where everything is free. As well as my work there is a chance to pick up work by Chantal Joffe, Harry Pye, Matthew Collings etc.

The Future Can Wait - Atlantis Gallery, London
10 - 14 October
pv Tuesday 9 October 6-9pm
Huge group show curated by Zavier Ellis and Simon Rumley, loads of good artists - go here instead of Frieze!

Blanc Noir - Transition Gallery, London
13 Oct - 18 Nov
pv Friday 12 Oct 6-9pm
Transition does Black History Month! A mix of black and white artists look at how black culture has entered into the mainstream. This will be a fab mix of work and includes my new hot off the press Afro paintings

Garageland, Painting and Translating


There is a new issue of Garageland arriving today. It has been guest edited by Emma Talbot and looks at the way that painters translate the world around them to produce their work. Contributors include Dexter Dalwood, Stella Vine, Rosa Loy and Peter Doig.

Its a really good issue both to look at and to read and will be on sale at Transition from this afternoon and probably from the end of next week at our other stockists which now include Borders. Oh and you can also buy it online here. There will be a launch and a last chance to see the aclaimed The Craft on Sunday 22 April between 2 and 4pm at Transition.

Whitechapel Salon - Painting

If you fancy a bit of a debate about painting I will be chairing a Whitechapel Salon session at the Whitechapel Gallery on April 26th with Emma Talbot. I went to the last one, which was about Aesthetics, and it was a really nice event - the Whitechapel bar has an intimate atmosphere that works really well for this kind of thing.

David Bailey Took My Picture


Just in case my friend Alex hasn't shown you yet, there is a photo of me in the new 'London' issue of GQ Style taken by David Bailey. It is a great issue with contributions from writers such as Iain Sinclair, Simon Reynolds and Michael Bracewell and is definitely worth checking out.

The section of the magazine that I appear in is called 'Young Meteors' and also includes Patrick Wolf and Theo Walcott. My photo (it is a spread and I only show half of it here) is of people from the art world and includes Tom Morton (pictured), Stella Vine and Charles Avery.

The Craft

Emma Talbot and Cathie Pilkington's The Craft opened on Friday night at Transition.

The gallery has been magically transformed form a white cube into a cosy, slightly creepy clubhouse full of strange collections of objects and massive paintings filled with vacuous models and flourescent shapes.

The whole thing is fantastic and I recommend you see it asap.

The Whiteness of the Whale

The Whiteness of the Whale opened last night at Transition. The show is curated by Nadia Hebson and inspired by Herman Melville's Moby Dick. The opening kicked off with a '24 hour' tag reading of the book. Nadia took the first slot and read to an empty gallery, as things went along the gallery filled and the reading became less audible. The 15 minute section I read included a description of a painting called Black Sea which is also the name of one of Nadia's paintings in the show. Other readers included Sarah Doyle, Russell Herron, Mimei Thompson, Roy Exley, Alex Michon, Olly Beck and Rachel Potts.

Guardian Art Blog

Arty Romance seems to be getting lots of attention (well it is almost valentine's day). The lovely Stella Vine (one of the issue's contributors) kindly did a mail out to her list about it and I got lots of press enquiries from places which were quite new to me + the Guardian asked me to an art blog about 'why romance is dead but we still love it, and how art, from Barbara Cartland novels to Oscar Wilde, proves it'. Well of course I jumped at the chance although in retrospect I don't think I quite wrote what they asked for - read it here - oh and be warned there is a very scary photo of Barbara Cartland (not my choice). So here is one of her when she was a young socialite which is a little easier on the eye.