Friday 29 July 2016

The P.V. of Life of Pye (Part 2) exhibition takes place on Thursday 4th of August

Above image: "Weird Nightmare Triptych" by Harry Pye and Rowland Smith. Part 2 of The Life of Pye show takes place at Studio One Gallery, 7–9 Wandsworth Plain, London SW18 1ES. Over the last 12 months various artistic collaborations have taken place.
Above Images are taken from a series of drawings by Harry Pye that have had a makeover courtesy of Luke Gottelier.
Above: A small selection of the Bryan Ferry album sleeves that Adrian R Shaw has enhanced.
Mikey Georgeson, 'Harry in the Kitchen at Nettleton Road Studios (September 2016)' Mikey says: “With liminal stealth New Cross Gate has crept into my creative imagination. All roads seem to lead there starting from when I played a concert in the labyrinthine shadows of The Venue to meeting artist Harry Pye in the haven of the Nettleton Road studios.”
The first 42 people to visit the show can help themselves to a free postcard of Mikey's photo. Studio One is really simple to get to, if you don't mind taking the train. Take any train to Clapham Junction, then take the number 87 bus towards Wandsworth – get off at the last stop, and the gallery is right there, on the other side of the road.

Charlie Day and Tori Day at Studio One

Above: I was first through the doors last night at the p.v. of "Disjecta Membra"
Above: "You need hands" explains Charlie
Above:Eva
Above: Meg
Above: In the garden with Tori
'A good two person show is like a good marriage. Concerns and values run alongside each other, giving support and strength, an everyday reminder of what matters.' – Gus Watcham, 2016.

Thursday 21 July 2016

Let Us Unite

Just over 9 months ago Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of The Labour Party. In that time The Labour Party put anti austerity on the National agenda, got two thirds of party members to vote "Remain", won several by-elections and increased their majority, patched things up with the Fire Brigade Union, forced The Conservatives to do a U-turn on their dodgy Prisons deal in Saudi Arabia, made the government reverse their plans to make over 4 billion pounds cuts to welfare, and won 4 Mayoral elections. And, thousands of new people have become members. These achievements came about through those on the left of the party and those on the right of the party and those in the middle all working together.
Today Jeremy Corbyn made the following statement... "I say to Labour MPs quite simply this - I’ve been in Parliament a very long time. I’ve seen lots of leaders. I’ve seen them come and I’ve seen them go. There is a huge amount of talent on the Labour benches. We are part of but not the entirety of the Labour party and the Labour movement. And I hope that those that may not agree with me politically, may not even like me personally - I find that hard to believe, but there are some people apparently who don’t like me - I hold out the hand of friendship to them all, because come September when this election is done and dusted, there will still be a Tory Government in office, there will still be grotesque levels of inequality in our society, there will still be whole parts of this country that are left-behind Britain. It’s the job, it’s the duty, it’s the responsibility of every Labour MP to get behind the party at that point and put it there against the Tories about the different, fairer kind of Britain that we can build together. I appeal to them to work together to put that case forward, because we owe it to the people that founded this party, that support this party, the half-million who give their money and their time to help this party survive and strengthen and grow. I hope they will recognise that and come on board."

Tuesday 19 July 2016

Free Designer Greeting Cards for the first 42 visitors to The Life of Pye (Part 2) show

Artists Erica Macarthur and Harry Pye have collaborated on making unique greeting cards that will be given away free to the first 42 people who come at visit Studio One gallery on the 4th of August.
Cards like the one above will no doubt prove perfect for dozens of different occasions and will one day be worth thousands of pounds.
Nice! More details about the exhibition....
P.V. is on from 6pm till 9pm on the first Thursday of August at Studio One Gallery, 7 Wandsworth Plain SW18 Everyone welcome.

Monday 18 July 2016

Rip It Off Me: (A Tribute to Richard Hamilton)

(Image above: The Godfather of Pop Art Mr Richard Hamilton carrying "Epiphany" originally made in 1964 ) and below a new version painted by Paul Hamilton last week.
A while back I curated a group show about Pop Art at The A Side B Side Gallery. I always felt that one of the best contributions in the show was by my friend Paul Hamilton (who writes for The Idler magazine and runs Smoking Ant records). The show was called London, New York, Paris, Munich - Everyone's Talking About Pop Music and Paul Hamilton's work was based on Richard Hamilton's sleeve for record released by The Beatles in 1968 (often called The White Album).
A month ago or so I told Paul about an art show at Studio One Gallery (opening on the 4th of August) which features me collaborating with different artists. I really wanted his 'Beatles Be My Bag (Hamilton Covers Hamilton Cover)' to get a second airing. I asked if he liked the idea of working together on making a shrine to Richard Hamilton. We swapped a few e-mails - I suggested I bought a large canvas and that we painted Richard Hamilton taking his "Slip It To Me Badge" for a walk my plan was that we'd exhibit that next to Paul's bag and add a new Beatles collage (inspired by the one you got with The White Album). Paul had other ideas and suggested we should make a new version of the collage replacing John, Paul, George and Ringo's heads with our own and asked "What about his 'dirty protest' IRA portrait? Remaking that but with Nigel Farage as the prisoner in his little world of shit?" More e-mails were swapped. Paul wanted me to find or make him a circular canvas and at one stage thought the best thing would be to buy a pin cushion. I started experimenting with re makes of the Slip It To Me badge on cardboard.
I made some tiny ones like the image above a few big ones. I was interested in the idea of making 42 circular paintings on cardboard and then getting a badge made of the best one. Paul responded by saying we should make just one really good painting and make a badge of that. He came up with the idea of a painting that copied the Slip It To Me text faithfully and then roughly painting a letter "R" over the the letters S and L and the world "Off" crudely written over the word "to". I felt straight away that it would be better to just have a badge saying "Rip It Off Me". As if by magic (whilst walking in Camberwell) we then found a gigantic piece of cardboard in the street and so Paul was able to paint what he saw as a "a cool-and-aggressive comment on sex and creativity." To my complete surprise, rather than just painting the text, Paul instead insisted on doing a 13 layer painting of different coloured dots. He liked the idea that it would look nothing like the original until it was shrunk down into a badge - it was clear his mind was made up.
I focused on making a Beatles collage that was a response to the original one you get if you buy The White Album.
And then I found a photo of Richard Hamilton carrying a large version of his Slip It To Me Badge and asked my talented and kind photographer friend Alex Wojcik if she would photo Paul and I recreating the pose. Luckily she said yes and took these fab photos...
(Above: Paul Hamilton as Richard Hamilton)
(Above: Harry Pye as Richard Hamilton) If you want to see "Harry and Paul's Shrine to Richard Hamilton" and for your chance to get your hands on a "Rip Me Off Badge" please come to "Life of Pye Part 2" at Studio One
The show also features artistic collaborations made by Pye and Gordon Beswick, Emma Coleman, Buffy Cook, Adrian R. Shaw, Rowland Smith and many others. Find out more about Paul Hamilton's music projects and Smoking Ant records by visiting: smokingantrecords.com and/or facebook.com/SmokingAntRecords

Thursday 7 July 2016

Nine Lives exhibition at Mainstream Gallery

Nine Lives exhibition at The Mainstream Gallery in Kent features the work of Barney Bubbles, Mel Cole Russell Herron, Phil King, Cathy Lomax, Erica Macarthur, David Shrigley, Julian Wakeling, and Roeland Zijlstra.
Above Images by Julian Wakeling.
Above Image by Mel Cole.
Above Image: "Zola" by Russell Herron.
Above Image: "Quack" by David Shrigley.
Above image: Untitled by Roeland Zijlstra.
Above Image: "Do It Yourself" by Barney Bubbles
Above Image by Cathy Lomx.
Above Image by Erica Macarthur.
Above Image by Phil King. The Nine Lives exhibition will run from the first of September until the 30 November 2016.