The White Noise Review

So last night was the opening of Black Rat Press’ White Noise show. Most of the work was from Lucas Price/Cyclops, Asha Zero and Brian Adam Douglas/Elbowtoe, but there was work from Blek le Rat, Nick Walker, Matt Small, and D*face as well.

Cake by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ
Cake by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ
Self Portrait by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ
Self Portrait by Brian Adam Douglas. Photo by RJ

For Brian Adam Douglas, the show was a chance to introduce a whole new direction in his work: collage. These collage pieces are amazingly detailed and I can’t wait to see how the work progresses. For now though, there is at least one collage which had a crowd of people around it all night. Douglas’ self-portrait, pictured on the left, may be the perfection of collage. His other collages were good, though I prefer his older work to most of them, but his self portrait is probably the best piece I’ve ever seen by Douglas. The video below from JetSet Graffiti features Douglas/Elbowtoe and talks a bit about his collage work at the end.

Detailed. Photo by RJ
Detailed. Photo by RJ

More after the jump…

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Dirty Laundry Review

Thursday night was the opening of Herakut’s new London show “Dirty Laundry“.

In short, this is one of the best shows of the year. Adam Neate has plenty of work to blow people away, and group shows like White Noise (last night at Black Rat) have some great variety, but all of these shows have a piece or two that just aren’t that great. The general consensus Thursday though was that people would be happy to have any of the pieces. There wasn’t a single piece that people looked at and said, “well, maybe that’s not for me.” Even the weaker pieces for this show would be highlights at almost any group show. Continue reading “Dirty Laundry Review”

Asbestos Boxing Club

Sorry for not posting this earlier, but if you’re in Belfast, Asbestos has a show going on based on portraits of men he met at the local boxing club.

White Noise 2(night)

Black Rat Press’ group show White Noise opens tonight (in a few minutes actually), and as usual, I’ll be twittering live.

The show has work from a very diverse group of artits, from Matt Small to Blek le Rat.

Just a reminder for those who are a bit confused when I say I’ll be twittering the show: Twitter is a “micro-blogging” site, and when I go to openings, I post comments and photos live at http://twitter.com/vandalog. That means that even if you can’t be at the opening you’ll be among the first to see images and hear about it.

Herakut’s Dirty Laundry Show

A few weeks ago I mentioned the new Herakut show “Dirty Laundry” opening this week in Covent Garden. Herakut is the duo of Hera and Akut, and their very unluckly pairing has led to some really great work. I’ll plan on twittering the private opening tomorrow, along with photos, so keep an eye on my twitter. The show opens to the public on Friday.

Here’s a little preview image:

Dirty Laundry by Herakut. Photo from campbarbossa.com
Dirty Laundry by Herakut. Photo from campbarbossa.com

Romanywg has some more photos of the show up already on his flickr here.

Urban Angel’s 2

Urban Angel Two Show Flyer

This December, Urban Angel will be having their second show in a physical space (their new gallery to be precise). “2” is going to to to have 11 artists, including two of Campbarbossa’s artists (Case and Holly Thoburn). I’m looking forward to seeing Urban Angel’s new gallery, the idea of an art lounge sounds great. I spent some time helping out at the Corked Show this summer, which was by all accounts a huge success. Hopefully “2” is just as good.

Black Rat Press: White Noise 2

Amy Winehouse by Luc Price
Amy Winehouse by Lucas Price

This Friday is the invite-only opening of the new show at The Black Rat Press. White Noise (2) is a group show with six artists: D*Face, Nick Walker, Blek Le Rat, Lucas Price, Asha Zero, Matt Small and Brian Adam Douglas. The show opens to the public on Saturday.

I’m looking forward to this show for a few reasons:

1. The Lucas Price works are great, and they really need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

2. Asha Zero is showing in the UK for the first time (I think). I’m not really into collage pieces right now, but his technical skills are amazing. His pieces look like collages, but they are entirely hand-painted.

3. The Brian Douglas Adams collages can be amazing.

MuTATE Britain Review

Friday was public opening night for the sickest show in London. MuTATE Britain, the opening show for the new Behind The Shutters gallery, was an idea five weeks ago, and now it’s a four or five story tall hodgepodge of (usually good) art. The list of artists would be too long to list here, but here are a few: Mutoid Waste Company, Part2ism, Pure Evil, Snub23, Dr. D, The Krah, Dotmasters, and many many many more.

I twittered photos and a few comments live from the show for a few hours, but I’m sure I didn’t see half the work. Romanywg actually ran out of space on his memory card.

All photos by WallKandy, who has a great set of images on his flickr.

Entering Cordy House, the first room is full of sculptures that are a mesh between man/animal and machine. Sure, it’s been done before, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t still sick. The walls of this room are covered in work by some of the most talented artists that I can’t name, plus some amazing stuff by the Best Ever crew, who also did this piece on Leake Street. Watch your head in this room. There’s literally an anvil hanging from the ceiling.

Continue reading “MuTATE Britain Review”