Indian Summer
It's been a glorious end to the summer for many of our featured artists, and a busy start to the autumn too, with exhibitions and art fairs here, there and everywhere.
Where to start? How about Moniker Art Fair? This year's Moniker kicked off last night at The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, featuring new work by Mark McClure, Frea Buckler, and countless others (including a fantastic Digital Playground by Maser). Mark's showing a selection of new mosaics, wall sculptures and a large piece that moves from a geometric mosaic floor into a dynamic explosion of 3D forms. It's a great looking stand, showcasing Mark's penchant for reclaimed wood, concrete and finely tuned colour palettes. This year's Moniker runs 'til the end of the weekend (Sunday 9 October) – you can find out more here.
'Pylons #1' by Mark McClure – wood and concrete mosaic (40 x 40cm)
You can also see Frea Buckler's work at Moniker, as Jealous present her 'Blink' screen print, a collaboration with Smithson Gallery. Frea will also be showing a series of new screen prints on Smithson's stand at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea (20–23 October). As for 'further reading', there's a great interview with Frea on the Smithson website, here. Frea's been working with first year students in the printmaking department at UWE in Bristol, and it's a new term for Josie Molloy too, who works as a print technician at LCC. Josie's been experimenting with new colour palettes over the summer and, having recently moved into a new studio space, we look forward to seeing how her work evolves over the coming months.
Frea Buckler's 'Blink' screenprint, on the Jealous Gallery stand at Moniker Art Fair
Josie isn't the only artist settling into new digs… Yann Brien moved his printmaking operations to the Thames Barrier Print Studio, while Sophie Smallhorn and Kate Gibb are sharing brand new lodgings. Two fantastic artists in one space... Kate's Touching Elbows buddy William Edmonds recently tied the knot – congratulations! Supermundane played a key role in proceedings, wearing (I kid you not) ceremonial robes designed by Will and his Nous Vous chums Jay Cover and Nicolas Burrows. On the subject of Supermundane, the venerable Mr Lowe has just opened a one-man show at Unlimited in Brighton. We'll be reporting on the show in more detail when our mince pies have been sated by all those hard lines and psychedelic colour combos. If you fancy checking it out – and we heartily recommend that you do – you can find all the relevant info here.
Supermundane working on an interior mural for his 'Super Super' exhibition at Unlimited
Chris James and Sam Kerr have both been beavering away on new commissions, in London and Devon respectively, while over in Cork Nouna continues her ongoing experiments with colours, forms and layering… If you don't follow Nounua's Instagram account, please do – you won't be disappointed. Fresh from her collaboration with Jenny McCabe, Bonnie Craig ran a successful workshop at the recent Art Market York and soon she'll be working with Jenny again, on an installation for the Light Up Lancaster festival. Fiona Grady's always got something on the front-burner… Last weekend we saw 'Light Intersections' (pictured below) at hARTslane, her collaboration with Tony Blackmore for the Drawing Connections group show 'On Our Way To Where'. Fiona also has work in 'STEAM ahead' – a group show at South Square Gallery in Bradford ('til 30 October). We're looking forward to checking it out later this month...
'Light Intersections' by Fiona Grady and Tony Blackmore, installation view at Hartslane, New Cross
Charlie Patterson's been busy with some cracking murals, including a vast blue and white concoction for The Conran Shop at Selfridges (part of their London Design Festival programme) and a red/white affair for Publicis London. Charlie also popped up at last weekend's Graphic Art Fair – a vibrant two day extravaganza at Protein Studios with plasticine modelling workshops, live painting, tombola, an art raffle in aid of Refuge UK, DJ sets, and tons of fantastic work by Charlie, Supermundane, Will Edmonds, Nous Vous, Jimmy Turrell, Marcus Walters, Camille Walala, Crispin Finn, Rude, Wilfred Wood, Ian Stevenson, South East Print Studio and many more. Hats off to They Made This and everybody involved in organising a cracking weekend.
Detail of Charlie Patterson's Conran Shop mural, on the lower ground floor at Selfridges
Knowing this lot, there's tons of other stuff coming up too... To find out what, where and when, stay tuned to Look Up's various channels – including this 'ere blog, as well as our Instagram and Twitter profiles – and check out all of our artists' websites for more info and images.