Mixing Paint and Pansies at Transition

It is going to be a busy weekend at Transition. On Saturday 11th November Paul Harfleet is bringing his Pansy Project to the gallery. He will be here between 2&4pm with pansies to give to people who want to mark sites of homophobic abuse. The project really seems to have captured imaginations, there is something funny yet moving about it. Feel free to come along

On Sunday 12th November between 1&5pm Sigrid Holmwood, whose show has been up for a couple of weeks, will be doing a paint making performance in sixteenth century clothes. It is all part of her fascination with re-enactment and later in the afternoon at 3pm she will be talking to Ruth Goodman from The Tudor Group. You will also be able to see Sigrid's hovel (based on a pigsty) that she has built in the corner of the gallery and from which she will be doing her paint mixing. Do not miss - it will be fascinating.

I will post images from both performances when I get them

Nicole Wermers Earring



This is the earring as mentioned below - pre installation

Laura Owens, Nicole Wermers + lots of Others

As I mentioned in my previous post I have been out and about over the last week or so and have seen loads of art. My favourite things are Laura Owens at Camden Arts Centre, Pat O'Connor at Ashwin Street and Pierre Klossowski at the Whitechapel Gallery. I have also seen Hans Holbein and The Turner Prize at Tate Britain (and that silly Steam Roller thing that everybody is going on about on their blogs), Valesquez at The National Gallery (I thought there was going to be more in it) and Carsten Holler's slides at Tate Modern.

The Camden Arts Centre is a particularly strong candidate for public institution of the month. Laura Owens' show (who I have never been absolutely sure about) is stangely alluring. There is an annoying air of cleverness and fashion about her mish mash of styles and subject matter but there is something about the work which just makes you like it despite yourself. I can't easily talk about any of ther individual works because they are all untitled but there is one huge one with trees and butterflies (I have managed to find an image of it - above) which is really beautiful. Also at Camden is Edwina Ashton who has done a drawn on wallpaper and potted plants installation which is nice and almost my favourite piece - an installation by Nicole Wermers which is a giant earring (flamingo pink and pearly white) pierced onto the side of the gallery.

Oh and remember if you do go to Camden or any of the other galleries you can buy a copy of the new fab Garageland Nature as recommended by Steve Smith on his Golgonooza blog

Garageland, The Nature Issue

The new Garageland is now out and I have spent the last week touring all of the London galleries and art bookshops delivering magazines. The theme this time around is Nature and in particular man's relationship with the natural world.

So if you have any interest in nature and the most exciting new art and art practitioners I advise you to get down to one of our many stockists (not all in London) or buy a copy online. We also do a really great subscription deal - 3 issues for £10 and if you subscribe before the end of November 2006 you might just win a copy of insanely kitsch Alfred Hitchcock, The Master of Suspense by Kees Moerbeek.

Oriole

A new show has just opened at Transition - it is the second in the Supernature series and is Annabel Dover's Oriole: The Birds of the British Isles. The show features a papier mache tree full of cute plaster birds. The birds have a distinctive folk art look to them, they could almost be part of some elaborate rural ritual. Annabel is particularly interested in the folklore which grows up around the birds and has made a series of vivd ink drawings which highlight various bird myths. The whole thing is accompanied by the plaintive song of the nightingale (the nightingale sings to attract a mate, the better the song the better the mate). The Oriole in the shows title is an amazing looking golden coloured bird that stops off in East Anglia enroute from America. Apprently one of the ultimate audio experiences is to hear the Oriole singing at the same time as the Nightingale, this is something which happens very rarely because the Oriole generally arrives when the nightingale has finished its courting.

Vacuous Vyner

In this week's Time Out Sarah Kent reviews Vyner Street. Almost inevitably the review annoyed me, it is so easy for her to bluster over the whole of the London contemporary art scene call it vacuous and compare it to the eighties before the stock market crash. This is not the art scene I recognise where we struggle to afford to put on shows by really interesting artists. All those spaces should be applauded I thought. And then this afternoon I had to go to Vyner Street for the first time for ages and I think she is just about right. Although there are good individual pieces of work, overall the street has a really nasty air, a kind of how dare you come into this gallery, who do you think you are attitude about it.

So my advice this weekend is to have a quick look at Vyner Street but then come over to the spaces where the real excitement is. At Transition it is the last week of Laura White's fabulous 'Into the Cold Light', a magical installation of discarded electrical goods and phosphorescent sea creatures, whilst upstairs from us is MOT which has a really interesting sounding Casper David Friedrich show on, oh and then there is Cell + Flaca and it looks like there is something going on in Ada Street and so many others.

Publish and be Damned

Transition Editions took part in Publish and be Damned in Shoreditch yesterday. It was the third time for me and there seemed to be more participants than ever. All the ususal suspects were there Tangent, Sarah Doyle, Rachel Cattle, The High Horse, Interlude and Pin Up. The archive will now be at Canal on Vyner for the next few weeks.

The Guardian

I was in the Guardian on Monday, I wasn't going to tell anyone as it was tucked away in the office hours section and its a bit rubbish but what the hell.

Before that I spent a fab birthday weekend at the gorgeous Gravetye Manor pretending I was an aristocrat and then a Sunday morning carbooting at Greatstone.

Also have just had this Saatchi associated blog pointed out to me - I think that Cedar is trying to do a Russell Herron type thing but without the wit. A teeny mention for Rosy Wilde and Vignettes on this entry check out Saturday.

Russell Herron Was There

I urge everyone to check out Russell Herron's blog which documents artworld happenings and openings. It is amazing that he manages to get to so many things I am in absolute awe. I am particulary drawing attention to it now because of course my show - Vignettes has just opened and Russell has done a fab write up

Little Mary

Rosy Wilde

Vignettes opened at Rosy Wilde on Tuesday. It was a really great private view, lots of people and Stella organised trays of gorgeous Patisserie Valerie canopes which gave the whole occasion a touch of class. I'm really pleased with the way the show looks and if anyone hasn't seen it or the space it is on until 29th July, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 12-6pm. Rosy Wilde is at 79 Wardour Street (above the Anne Summers shop - entrance in Tisbury Court), London W1

Vignettes
Cathy Lomax

Sad stories of beauty, exploitation and prestige



Rosy Wilde 79 Wardour Street, Soho, London


4th -29th July Thurs, Fri & Sat 12-6pm
Private View Tuesday 4th July 6-8pm


"The women that I always wanted to look like. Sweet little Mary Bell, forever faded in inky newsprint and reproduced again and again. Marina Duchess of Kent, mid century Beatonesque icon, now slipping out of relevance. The Royal Sisterhood, bound by duty. Impossibly beautiful ballerinas

My vignettes are groups of characters fading in and out of history, in and out of my consciousness. These little snippets are brief scenes from a bigger picture, tiny clues that when pieced together make a story. The women inside the paintings are freed from association and regrouped. They cluster together, receding or rising from the frame.

The romance of popular culture is a powerful thing."

Goodbye to the Old, Hello to the New

The recycled weeds have been packed away and the Paperworld show is over. But hey ho life goes on and this week we are installing Things We Lost in the Fire, a beautiful looking show curated by Gordon Dalton. The show opens on Friday evening so why not watch Germany v Argentina and then come along to Transition.

This image is of one of Merlin James's strangely atmospheric paintings

Vignettes

I have a show opening on 4th July at the new Rosy Wilde which is above the Ann Summers shop in Wardour Street. The show is called Vignettes and features a series of paintings which contain either groups of disperate characters or bits of people slipping out of frame.

This painting - Peeress - features the moment from the 1930s coronation where the Peeresses all raise their coronets.

Thumbs Down for an
There is a review for the last show at Transition - Baroque My World in the new June issue of an magazine. Following on from the reviews in Metro and BBC Collective it isn't exactly good but as they say all press is good! So I will refrain from any anti-an talk because it just isn't worth it and just say thank you for the mention. Incidently one of the artists that comes off well is the fab Petros Chrisostomou whose Bigwig illustrates both the an piece and this post.

What would really cheer me up now is for someone, somewhere to come and review our current show - Paperworld which is going down very well with the everyday gallery goers and really deserves a bit of attention.

Paperworld

Paperworld opened at Transition this weekend and the initial feedback is really good. On Saturday a coach party of Serpentine Gallery patrons decended upon us and although I wasn't there the very capable Sarah Doyle gave them a little talk about the show.

Sarah has been fantastic in the run up to the show and as well as designing the flyer at a moments notice made a window display and a huge Paperworld sign for the back of the 'faux shop'. The most impressive thing however was that she had no fear when I needed to assemble an IKEA cabinet and showed me how to do the whole thing (the trick is to look really carefully at what the men with closed eyes are doing in the instruction drawings)

One of the big hits of the show is Leo Fitzmaurice (Julia Peyton Jones underlined his name on the press release she took away with her) with his modernist town plans, cigarette packet football shirts and rolled holiday brochures. You can read more about him in his profile in the current Garageland magazine.

As well as artworks the show also includes a curated selection of artist made publications including many from the artists participating in the show. I will describe them more in a future post.

The picture above shows the end of the private view and includes Russell Herron, Karen D'Amico and Arabella Lee

Garageland Baroque

The new issue of Garageland has arrived. It's even here in time for its own launch which will be at Transition Gallery this Sunday between 4 and 7pm (7 May) . It looks fab even if I do say so myself and is themed around the Baroque. There are numerous highlights including a fantastically crazy painting of Chantelle by Stella Vine and a short story by Paul Gorman whose new book 'The Look: Adventures in Pop and Rock Fashion' is launched this week.

You can even buy a copy online

Good and Bad

The last few weeks have not been good (mainly because my laptop got stolen and of course hardly anything was backed up) but despite lots of little disasters there have been good things happening. Transition is now settled in to its new home in Regents Studios E8 and our first show here has been great. The private view was massively busy and there has been lots of press - I have put links in at the bottom of the Baroque My World home page. You can read the entertaining account of this private view and many others on Russell Herron's blog

Lots Of Art in Chicago

If anyone reading this lives in Chicago they must immediately go along to Art Chicago www.artchicago.com (it is on until tomorrow) because Rosy Wilde are there and there is some fab stuff on show.

Also in Chicago are The Clapham Art Gallery who are at the NOVA Art Fair at the City Suites Hotel, 933. West Belmont, Chicago. They have a good selection of artists on show including some of my Alleyoops series.

Becks Futures at The ICA

Very good this year. I like loads of it but my absolute (surprise) favourite is Seb Patane. His was the first work I saw as entered the lower gallery. It consists of a large monitor on the floor, a set of proper, big speakers, a large drawing of a mountain (which has some kind of occult connection – one of the themes of the moment) and one of his Victorian photos with ink blot type drawing obscuring part of it. The video and the soundtrack are the big hits for me. The video shows two men wearing old fashioned, Tyrolean mountain climbing gear against a white background. One of them is leaning on the other and neither of their faces is visible. Although it is ostensively a series of still images they occasionally wobble and sway with the physical effort of leaning and supporting. There is an impression of painful endurance about their performance. To accompany this there is a loud soundtrack of what I would ignorantly describe as mindless dance music but which I have since been told (thank you Russell) was Hardcore. For some reason this whole thing is ridiculously moving.

I also liked Daniel Sinsel a lot, his delicacy and precision is really gorgeous and I love the idea of painting on an eggshell.

So in agreement with all the other reviews I’ve read Beck’s Futures knocks the Tate Triennial into a cocked hat.

Oh and Seb has a solo show at Bureau in Salford until April 29th