Mixed Christmas Show: Cambridge Contemporary Art

Gloriole

I was delighted once again to have been invited to show a couple of new pieces in Cambridge Contemporary Art's Mixed Christmas Show, including a new series of works entitled Gloriole, (the piece above being one from the series). It is a gold-leaf piece and comes in a 50cm x 50cm ash box frame. There will be more on this series in a future post. The show opens today. To make enquiries about this piece or others of mine at the gallery, contact Cambridge Contemporary Art (details below), or myself directly, (josephscissorhands@yahoo.co.uk or 07930 209587).

The gallery would also like to invite you to celebrate the festive season, and join them for drinks whilst viewing the Christmas Show on Wednesday 7th December between 5-8pm. Last year was great fun with carol singers and flash-mob dancers, so again contact the gallery for further details if you would like to attend.


Mixed Christmas Show
until 24th December 2016
Cambridge Contemporary Art
6 Trinity Street 
Cambridge
01223 324222
http://www.cambridgegallery.co.uk/contact/

A Josef Frank-Inspired Commission: Outcome

So I was recently commissioned by a cllient of the Rowley Gallery to create a 1m squared Butterfly Ball which took as its inspiration the colours from this fabulous Josef Frank fabric entitled - Citrus Garden. I was also asked to include butterflies from maps of areas that held special memories to the recipient. The following are pictures of the finished artwork which I was really happy with. Can't wait for the Josef Frank exhibition early next year.

If you would like to commission something similar then contact me directly, or via the galleries that show my work here.

Eileen Agar: Butterflies Through Other Eyes #24

Eileen Agar: Butterfly Bush (1971)

Another butterfly inspired gem from Ms Agar.

Eileen Agar: Butterflies Through Other Eyes #23

Eileen Agar: Butterfly Bride 1938

Antony Gormley: Fit

Over to Bermondsey to catch Antony Gormley: Fit at White Cube.

The show is a really enjoyable mix of figurative and architectural sculptures. The architecturally inspired pieces were huge and completed in an interesting variety of media. They interact with, and impose on the spaces they occupy so well. The surface textures of certain works were intriguing - from the streaky rust of the large iron pieces, to the gnarled knots of wood captured and sealed forever into large concrete slabs. They were very reminiscent of the Brutalist concrete architecture of the Southbank centre.

The figure is of course central to Gormley's practice, and it was represented in a variety of ways. Reduced to it's most fragile, skeletal and very vulnerable in some pieces, and then in others complex, solid, structural blocks. I was glad to see one of his older, more naturalistic lead figures in amongst the newer geometric block figures.

Sleeping Field (2015-2016), above, was another vast installation of various cubistic figures in a variety of poses riffing on his earlier terracotta Field (1991). It consists of 500 iron figures in various languid poses representing refugees and the sense of belonging. Passage (2016), below, was the most intriguing of the figurative pieces though. It is a 12m long human-shaped steel tunnel which the viewer walks into. It encloses you like a cocoon the further you walk into it, and at the deepest end you are enclosed in a void of near blackness. It is slightly disorientating - like going into a sensory deprivation tank - but strangely comforting as well. The light effects experienced as you return to the entrance of the installation and emerge once again into the light of the gallery are fantastic (bottom).

Antony Gormley: Fit
until 6th November
White Cube Bermondsey
144-152 Bermondsey Street
London
SE1

A Josef Frank-Inspired Commission

I have just been commissioned to create one of my 1 metre squared Butterfly Balls (here), based on the colours in this fabulous Josef Frank textile swatch for a client. The design is called Citrus Garden and I am currently trying to colour match to the swatch before I start cutting and arranging.

Coincidently Frank is a textile artist/furniture designer whose fantastic work I only discovered earlier this year whilst researching artists and designers for my Butterflies Through Other Eyes posts, and Frank and his wonderful designs will feature in a future edition of Butterflies Through Other Eyes.

I love his bold sense of colour, quirky designs, and also his obvious love of butterflies which feature frequently in his designs. Above is a different colourway of the same Citrus Garden design. I shall share the finished result of the commission in a later post. There will also be a Josef Frank retrospective at the Fashion and Textile Museum in January which I am really looking forward to visiting.

Happy Hallowe'en

Joseph Plateau (1801-1883) - Phenakistoscope

The Winter Show: Cambridge Contemporary Art

I was delighted to be invited to exhibit work at Cambridge Contemporary Art's Winter Show which starts tomorrow and continues until 20th November. Up for sale will be one of my lovely dress pieces - Pequeña Princesa Roja. It is one of a trio - including black and white versions - created from the same dress pattern, and based on the Infanta figure from Velazquez's famous Las Meninas painting. The black version was sold last month.

I have also had requests for a smaller version of the 1m square Interstice pieces that I create, (above), and on display at CCA's Winter Show will be a 50cm x 50cm version in silver leaf (below). All artworks are hand-cut and come in ash box frames. Contact CCA or myself for further information about availability.

The Winter Show
until 20th November 
Cambridge Contemporary Art
6 Trinity Street
Cambridge 
www.cambridge gallery.co.uk

The Boldness Of Calder: Jewellery By Alexander Calder

A great exhibition of the unique pieces of jewellery created by sculptor Alexander Calder this.

Calder (1898-1976), renowned for his mobile sculptures, actually began to make jewellery as a child for his sisters dolls using copper wire. He then carried on creating jewellery to make money during the war, and even after he found fame as a sculptor. His jewellery pieces were exhibited in galleries as early as 1929.

Calder was very 'hands on', not only designing each piece himself, but making all of them  too by cutting and hammering them into shape using relatively simple materials such as brass, silver wire and ebony. He rejected approaches by companies such as Tiffany's who wanted him to create exclusive editions for them, in favour of making one off pieces specifically for friends and as personal gifts.

Calder had a small select client base of forward thinking, strong women such as Peggy Guggenhiem, and Georgia O'Keeffe. It is statement jewellery, as bold and striking as their extrovert personalities, definately not for the timid.

No, these aren't the refined techniques and outcomes of the haute jewellery created by the likes of say Lalique, or Schlumberger. They are more immediate and raw, and the better, and more striking for it. They are completely unique and have a very different, very sculptural aesthetic. 

 
There is something very primal about Calder's choice of shapes which are reduced to the basic geometries of spirals, squares and oblongs. They seem to have more in common with the jewellery pieces of much earlier, primitive cultures than 20th century jewellery. Surprisingly this is the first UK show devoted to Calder's jewellery and it is well worth a visit before it closes.

photographs with the models are courtesy of Alexander English

The Boldness of Calder: Jewellery By Alexander Calder
until 5th November
Louisa Guinness Gallery
45 Conduit Street
London