Affordable Art Fair-London 2011

Benjamin Buckley

XZWY, 2010

Giclee print

Jotta

AFFORDABLE ART FAIR

Going to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park this weekend was such a treat. Already at the opening you were shown a room full of emerging artists, (recent graduates) curated by JOTTA. Jotta is founded in partnership with the University of the Arts London to inspire and enable collaboration in art and design.

I could not be more stunned by Benjamin Buckley's Japanese inspired pieces. What could be more timely than XZWY this week after what has happened in Japan?

Benjamin Buckley

Japan City Cloud, 2010

Jotta

Steven Marshall

Enamel on glass and board

Mark Jason Gallery

Mark Jason from Mark Jason Gallery kindly organized tickets for us and as before I think his stand is very well put together. My girlfriend is still considering to buy this Steven Marshall piece.

Rafa Torre

Door A (of 3 doors... B and C)

Stand Arte Gallery

RAFA TORRE

What a wonderful guy I was so glad he was there to talk to us about his pieces! How I wish him the best of luck in the world of Art!

Rafa Torre

Dioramma Mamma

Stand Arte Gallery

This is my favorite piece! A real ARTECO piece. I am thinking the Brain in association with mother Earth and how it should be sheltered and taken care of.

Rafa Torre said he has gotten many interpretations and one of them was "A cauliflower inside a Cheese board with a dome..." Oh, well we had a laugh. But, had I had the opportunity, I would have bought this photography tech immediately.

Ellen Bell

Parley Games, 2010

Four Square Fine Arts

Close up:

Text from Scrabble word Guide published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1974

A wonderful intimate piece, describing the differences and equalities between a Woman and a Man.

Clair Portington

Kumiho

James Freeman Gallery

Clair Portington

Kumiho

This precious and intricate sculpture is made by Clair Portington who also works with Earthenware at the V&A so she knows her craft. Kumiho is based on a Korean folk tale, where the Fox that lives a thousand years turns into a Kumiho, a beautiful girl set out to seduce men... and eat their liver!

Fiona Morley

Woolf Gallery

This piece was not shown exhibited but hidden in the back room and only brought out when I asked about the artist (I remember them showing her work in New York). He said he was hiding it since she had just had a baby and he was worried she would not produce anything for a while. When we left he packed it up again and hid it. So it is true! That it is good to have a dealer because sometimes the best things are hidden for the right collector to come along.

Josh Chalon

Ribbon

Woolf Gallery

Another piece at the fun Woolf Gallery. This one is quite brilliant, at first you only see hanging threads and you wonder what it is all about. I took a picture and this is what came out. I got so excited that others started mingling around the piece as well.

Mo Hongie

Village in Menlian Country, Yunnan

I am realizing that there is a great trend in art to mix journalistic pictures with art. This is a wonderful description of a family.

Billy & Hells

"Hulnan"

Orren Gallery

Nick Bodimeade's

St. Anne's Gallery

Momoko Suzuki

Drawing Installation

Jotta

Momoko Suzuki

...in action

Momoko Suzuki, does performative drawings. She said she had not had time to finish enough pieces for the fair so she kept working on it here. With her incredible charm and intense work I believe we will see a lot more of her in the future.

Kathy Mueller-Moser

Luisa

Wanrooij Fine Art

And yes I felt it... "Everything under Control". This Art Fair had a a lot of Humor and a also a great Champagne bar so life is not bad at all... no not bad at all!

This Fair had "EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL"

With Love

Kristin

In the days of the comet

Charles Avery

BRITISH ART SHOW 7

In the days of the comet

HAYWARD GALLERY

In a brutalist building at the Southbank Center is the Hayward Gallery. With it's rather unwelcoming structure it's quite a reward to walk inside and see what the curators Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton has put together. 39 artists is shown here, chosen based on their significant contribution to contemporary art in the last five years.

Charles Avery (top picture), has been working since 2004 with drawings, sculptures and writings about an imaginary Island. The central character is Hunter, who is searching for philosophical truth in a Country where it is elusive.  In this piece it is Hunter's would-be sweetheart, "Miss Miss turns her cheek upwards as though to receive a kiss from her absent suitor, and is covertly observed by a one-armed snake". I would have loved to see the rest of Avery's imaginary world and will keep my eyes and ears open for a Solo show.

Bernadette

Duncan Campbell

Duncan Campbell is a documentary maker, tasking complicated figures in the History, cuts past footage, adds his own and scripted voiceovers.

This film is about the young Bernadette Devlin who was fighting for the rights of the people of Northern Ireland in the 70's. 

"Get the British Army out of this Country"

Bernadette

Mick Peter

Mick Peter misrepresents everyday objects and reminds me a little of Claes Oldenburg. Here with two Architects drafting tables folded and disheveled as a piece from the past.

The Hours

Christian Marclay

What I was the most excited about was having the opportunity to see "The Hours" by Christian Marclay. A video with cuts from seemingly thousands of movies to represent 24 hours. You watch the artfully crafted piece in real time and you wish you would not have to leave. So many movie memories and so many surprises. The soundtrack adds to the excitement as well. I can't believe how time consuming this must have been. I hope I will have a chance to see this at another "time" as well.

The Folding House (2010)

Spartacus Chetwynd

Spartacus Chetwynd has made a tree - house sculpture that is also used for her performance workshop the 24th of March. She uses ideas from architectural buildings, origami and solar panels to sort of express a free energy in art.

User Group Disco

Elizabeth Price

Lots of video arts at this exhibit and another one is Elizabeth Price'a "User Group Disco". With pumping music by A-ha like "Take on me", you are going through a sort of philosophical universe. 

The way I am seeing this piece is that it's a brilliant criticism on consumerism. Products we think we need is flying around in the universe, disposed off, with nowhere to land. You as the viewer are sort of watching in a short of dancing mood... like it is cool. Ah, the irony of us people!

Tonight, is all about new Gallery openings and I am loading up to welcome new impressions and to share them with you, of course!!

With Love

Kristin

Gratitude - For Being a Woman!

Happy Holliday (1999)

AGNES MARTIN

(1912-2004)

Tate Modern

"I want people, when they look at my paintings to have the same feelings they experience when they look at a Landscape.... But it's really about the feeling of beauty and freedom."

      -Agnes Martin (1993)

Gratitude (2001)

Congratulations Women today is our day. 

I am using the opportunity to dwell on the significant female artist Agnes Martin. She was a Canadian/American Artist. Minimalist/Abstract expressionist.

There are "Artist Rooms" at the Tate Modern at the moment, dedicated to specific Artists. 

In one of the rooms you can see all of these Agnes Martin paintings hanging silently together or should I say calmly loud? There is something about people that speak softer and lower... they sometimes bring a lot of strength and confidence with them, you have to stop up and listen.

I feel that Agnes Martin makes a mark on Art History by her female touch on minimalism. Her shimmering light colors and simple lines actually manifest themselves as bold and brave.

Untitled #3 (1995)

Untitled #4 (2002)

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled #5 (1994)

Faraway Love (1999)

Untitled#5 (1991)

I Love the whole world (1999)

These are great pieces for contemplation, for thoughts of the future and for .... loving the whole world!

With Love 

Kristin

Sunflower Seeds

Ai Weiwei

Tate Modern

It took me a while to go to Tate Britain to see the "Sunflower Seeds". I guess I was slightly worried that I would be disappointed, that it would strike me as too simple. Last summer before our wedding we were given a box set signed by Ai Weiwei called "Becoming" with 147 photos of the process of building the Bejing airport. Pictures that I treasure highly, every single photo has a beautiful composition. I did not want to loose this feeling. 

"The Sunflower Seeds" at the Tate Modern is a minimalist piece, stripped down to its most bare features, something that can be difficult to have an emotional feeling about. 

But, like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (the architect) said "LESS IS MORE".... and like here it comes true.

When you begin to watch the film behind the porcelain seeds you find that you begin to live with the piece and sense the importance today, and the significance Sunflower Seeds has had in Chinese history and culture.

Ai Weiwei based his porcelain production in Jungdezhen, a town that previously made porcelain for the Emperors court. Here he employed 1600 men and women to be part of the 25 stages that porcelain has. The whole town had some sort of involvement in the process or at least new of someone who did. Ai Weiwei says at the end of the film that he actually wishes he could come up with another project to do there, especially since the people were so sweet and grateful for the jobs.

"Sunflowers supported the whole revolution, spiritually and in material ways" 

To Ai Weiwei LIFE IS ART, politics and exchange. The act of individual voicing their opinions and communicating with one another is of great importance to Ai. He is passionate about speaking directly with people and sharing his artistic and political life through film, audio, text and images.

            Tate Modern

Ai Weiwei's political messages was too much though for the Chinese government who reacted last fall with tearing down his studio in Shanghai. 

The good thing about people like Ai Weiwei is that they will keep their smily brave face on and continue working. Ai said that he looked at the demolition as an Art Performance. Admirable!

With Love

Kristin