Tony Graffiti presents Keep Graffiti Real, Smoke Crack, Sign On… a graffiti exhibition at Green Street Arts. The exhibition launches on 14 October and will run through to 23 October.
Digbeth is Good says there’ll be…
…a house band, DJ Boogie Dave, Drop Beats Not Bombs along side DJ Rosko, as well as Emjay Ladie, DJ Punk N Ska with Justin Bond from Boogie Down Brum playing early rave and britpop.
…and I’m inclined to believe them.
I could never draw much more than a stick man on an Etch-a-Sketch but as part of The Big Draw, mac have been inviting people to show off their knob-twizzling skills and produce Etch-a-Sketch artwork for Re:sketch.
And the creativity hasn’t been restricted to the classic etch-a-sketch picture, as artists have been actively encouraged to paint and take apart their red framed tablets to create something new.
All of the artworks will be displayed in a public exhibition between 1-16 October and the deadline for submissions is 5pm, 27 September 2011, so there’s still time to get etching. For details on how to get involved, contact learning@macarts.co.uk.
Painter Carolyn Blake‘s latest exhibition Sense of Place/ Sense of Space is currently on display at Cornwall Street Chambers until 25 February 2011.
Curated by Jessica Farnham, the exhibition looks for new ways of rendering the everyday experience, from time spent traveling to work to working in the garden or sightseeing; each situation is imagined according to the artist’s own vision.
This booklet/ poster has also been produced to accompany the exhibition, which is an interesting read…
Trans-essence is a group show by artists Lou Reed-Daunter, Caroline Pigden and Michelle Allen which opens at Solihull Gallery on 18 October, and running until 13 November.
The exhibition includes video, painting, sculpture and photography, and explores how the complex feelings of departure and sadness although initially intense are rarely permanent. The works are personal to the artists and offer an expression of their individual experiences of loss.
The opening night invites guests to meet the artists for a drink between 6.15pm – 7.30pm, and again for the Artist Talk and guided tour which will be held on Thursday 21 October from 6.15pm – 7.30pm.
Academic Stewart Brown has produced an extensive set of prints in which he adopts and twists the words which constantly surround him, while combining this with his experiences of African buses, Caribbean carnival and postmodern Birmingham.
I live in Letterland, an illuminated Babel, beautiful, unsayable, meaningless, profound.
His current exhibition Babel is on display at The Drum until 30 November, with an Artist’s Talk on 28 October at 6pm, whereby he will present his work and critical studies of famous Jamaican and African literature.
If you are interested in purchasing any of his prints, contact Stewart on 0121 414 5127 or S.Brown@bham.ac.uk
Art of Ideas is a group exhibition curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price, entitled ‘The Witching Hour’, which will be taking place in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Waterhall Gallery from 11 – 14 November.
The four day exhibition will explore darkness and the uncanny, featuring photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and animation, from over 20 artists based in or hailing from the West Midlands.
The Art of Ideas publication is designed to encourage more people to start collecting contemporary art in the city and region. With its supernatural theme, The Witching Hour exhibition offers an opportunity for people who are interested in collecting art – whether individuals, businesses or arts institutions – to see and acquire works by leading and emerging artists from the West Midlands.
- Matt Price
Exhibiting artists include both internationally renowned names along with emerging talent, including: Hurvin Anderson, Richard Billingham, Graham Chorlton, Faye Claridge, Ravi Deepres, Tessa Farmer, Brian Griffin, Roger Hiorns, Harminder Singh Judge, Chris Keenan, Idris Khan, Karin Kihlberg / Reuben Henry, David Miller, Sally Payen, Juneau Projects, Ged Quinn, David Rowan, Liz Rowe, George Shaw, Toby de Silva, Gillian Wearing and Stuart Whipps.
Leading contemporary video artist Bill Viola is currently exhibiting ‘The Fall into Paradise’ at The Public, which runs until 17 October.
Viola’s video installations – submersive environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound – employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.
The ten minute film was also created as part of a series to be featured in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, which premieres at Symphony Hall Birmingham on Thursday 23 September.
If you fancy popping down to see exhibition, it’s open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm and is free to visit.
For more information about all events and exhibitions at The Public visit www.thepublic.com or call the box office on 0121 533 7161
I’m not usually one to pander to titles with an obscure mix of upper- and lower-case letters in them, but for this I’ll make an exception.
hobbypopMUSEUM is a new solo exhibition at Eastside Projects by the Düsseldorf- and London-based artist group of the same name formed by Sophie von Hellermann, Christian Jendreiko, Matthias Lahme, Dietmar Lutz, André Niebur and Marie-Céline Schäfer in 1998.
As a group they have created potent site-specific installations, fusing painting with sound, performance and film. Here’s some more on them:
hobbypopMUSEUM installations can be seen as textures woven out of figures linked together by iconographic and formal criteria. Their arsenal of figures spans histories of painting, drawing, photo, film and sound to words, performance, sculpture and architecture. Which form the figures take, depends on a basic confrontation with the conditions of site and chemistry of the group.
Eschewing the socio-political agenda typically associated with collective artmaking hobbypopMUSEUM stake their identity on the theatrics of fantasised scenarios and the strong narrative trail or journey through their exhibitions and happenings as a long-term ‘fight for ideas’.
The exhibition opens at Eastside Projects on 7 May at 6pm and will run from 8 May to 12 June 2010.
TROVE’s next exhibition Show of Science presents four artists, including a.a.s., Victoria Jenkins, Lee Stowers and Luke Williams, exhibiting in the Jewellery Quarter’s old science museum. Here’s what TROVE have said about it:
All pieces hint at the historic, at first glance there is nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary, though with closer inspection there is something odd about the works. The double take allows this Show of Science to move from a series of simple objects of science to pieces that make you question its use, its reliability as official face and of the make believe.
There’s a preview of the exhibition on Friday 30th April, 6 – 8pm and the exhibition will be open from 30th April – 16th May by appointment. If you want to check it out, contact Charlie or David at TROVE.
(Photo by Pete Ashton)
The Public art gallery in West Bromwich has joined forces with ITV Fixers to present an exhibition of works, including painting, sculpture, photography and short film, by young and up-and-coming artists. Here’s the background:
Fixer Todd Wooton (22) is a young artist. Throughout school and university he has found it almost impossible to get his art seen. So he has become a Fixer to sort it out. With the help of his Young People’s Co-ordinator, Todd has organised for the work of about 17 young aspiring artists to be exhibited at The Public, a community arts space, in West Bromwich. The exhibition will last two weeks from 19th April to 3rd May 2010 and will display pieces by undiscovered Midlands-based artists.
For some more info on Works of Ours at The Public, go to the ITV Fixers website here.
Each month ARC invites regional guest curators to present an exhibition of works at The Vaults in the Jewellery Quarter. TROVE gallery are kicking off ARC’s 2010 programme with a free exhibition at The Vaults on 24th February, 6-8pm for one night only.
The Vaults Bazaar brings together a selection of regional and national artists that TROVE invited to take part in this exhibition. Each offering a different proposal of work, each vault will be different from classic painting through film to performance, a truly bizarre mix.
Artists on show on the 24th will include Jane Ball, Graham Chorlton, Coco DeVille, Caitlin Griffiths, Daniel Lehan, Bigid McLeer, Milk,Two Sugars, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Short and Steve Varndell.
Photographer Jak Flash is embarking on a project to re-illustrate the 22 Major Arcana tarot cards as photographic images for exhibition. Jak explains a little more on his website:
My next project, based around the imagery of the 22 major Arcana Tarot cards, is funded by Birmingham City Council and supported by Birmingham City University Students’ Union. I’m going be creating 22 images for EXHIBITION in Birmingham. The aim is to create a collaborative experience where people interested in being involved with art in Birmingham can come together.
Jak’s looking for models of all shapes and sizes, make-up artists, stylists and costume designers to help with the project too, so if you’re interested in getting involved, drop him a line on info@flashyourjak.com. The shoots are going to be taking place from the end of January till the end of February.
Here’s one of the tarot cards that is set to be turned into a photograph:
For more information on Jak Flash and the project visit his website here, or join the Major Arcana project Facebook group here.
Swimming Without Water is a contemporary art exhibition in Moseley Road Baths, which I think it’s fair to say, is not your usual art venue. New works have been commissioned for the non-gallery space and they will be on show between 18th February and 15th March. Here’s some more info:
The artists, Debbie Akam, Flora Gare, and Tim Skinner, are working to bind their works with this glorious, historic building, to re-enliven it, to repopulate it through an engagement with the building and the audience (both swimmers and non-swimmers from Moseley Road and beyond) through the medium of art.
For profiles of the artists involved you can visit the Swimming Without Water artists page.
Sunday 27 April is the closing day of the Behind Closed Doors exhibition being held at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Over the past two years the organisers of this show have visited in excess of one hundred private art collections within the Birmingham postal district. Now, almost 40 paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints have been brought together to reveal the range and variety of treasures that exist outside the realm of public galleries.
So you can marvel at works by Turner and Picasso, as well as more contemporary artists like Hockney, Rego and Parker, that are usually squirrelled away out of public view.
You never know when the next chance to see these will come around so if you’ve got a spare hour or two this weekend then why not pop down? Admission’s free, if you need any more excuse.
