Created in Birmingham

The last one was good. Lots to see and lots to do, so go discover on The Event website. Or read on for some blurb:

Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum is delighted to announce it will be hosting The Event’s third bi-annual visual art festival from 21 – 30 October 2011 from their galleries, studio spaces and empty buildings in various locations in and around Eastside, Birmingham’s creative quarter in Digbeth.

Groups presenting works in The Event 2011 are: AAS, An Endless Supply, Companis, Crowd 6, Eastside Projects, Grand Union, The Lombard Method, SLICE and TROVE.

Trove‘s latest project, initiated by curator Charlie Levine during a summer spent in Paris, features an exchange of postcards between 17 artists across the world.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s method of documenting travels via postcards sent home, Levine commissioned 17 artists to instead design a postcard.

These were then printed and packs of the final 16 postcards distributed to all the artists involved with each other’s addresses. During the month of August a postcard exchange project took place. Cards were altered, added to, written upon and cut up and sent around the world.

Contributing artists include; Darren Banks, Ana Benlloch, Tom Butler, Martyn Cross, Vicky Cull, Anna Francis, Jo Gane, Caitlin Griffiths, Gabo Guzzo, Elizabeth Hingley and Tomonaga Tokuyama, Lulu Horsfield, Calum F Kerr, Hayley Lock, Kira O’Reilly, Samantha Voong and Emmett Walsh.

Paris Correspondence School opens at Trove with a preview on 21 Jan at 6-8pm. The exhibition can then be visited until 28 January by appointment.

April was a busy month by the looks of things. The 4am Project took the opportunity of the fourth day of the fourth month to take an early morning photowalk, there was a look at what could be expected from the MAC reopening, International Dance Festival Birmingham got into gear and all sorts of events popped up in the CiB Shop.

The CiB Shop window was jazzed up with the help of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Art Detection Services set up their workshop in store and Shady Bird popped by to play a set. In other CiB news, CiBmail was launched.

The Rainbow announced their plans for developments and expansion both upstairs and below, we said goodbye to more independent record shops and sampad celebrated their 20th anniversary.

Trove showed some science, we had a nosey at CBSO’s summer programme and some behind the scenes footage from The Electric showed up.

Not My Type brought together “a veritable who’s who of Brum talent” (to quote myself) and, in other illustration-related news, the Love To Print crowd released Patterns #1.

Other things to look back on and go ‘oh yeah, I remember that’ include Such Tweet Sorrow, BAP’s document on Birmingham’s Creative Capital, the Big Culture Blog and a call for “more of the Simon Rattle effect”. Also, In Our Backyard looked interesting and Chris Bates made a video for Munchbreak’s Television:

Au & Ag opens with a preview at Trove on 16 December, showcasing work by Vicky Cull and Justine Moss, in association with Brilliantly Birmingham and Museum of Lost Heritage.

Focusing on gold (Au) and silver (Ag), Cull’s work takes on silver, responding in particular to its ‘noble’ connotations with queens, armoury, medals etc. While Moss works with gold,  creating chandelier sculptures from gold jewellery.

The exhibition will be open by appointment between 13th and 22nd December 2010. For further information, read more on Trove’s website.

After exhibiting his photography at Hereford Photography Festival in 2004, Wang Qingsong has been invited back for the first UK screening of his video work. TROVE will be presenting his two films, 123456 Cuts and Ironman.

123456 Cuts and Ironman show remarkable restraint in terms of cast and scale of production. They demonstrate the more personal, more bodily, effects of excess: the bloody deconstruction of living flesh into meat and pulp.

The preview is on tonight (12 November) at 6-8pm, and is open 13 November at 6-8pm at TROVE Newhall Square, 144 Newhall Street.

AIRTIME is an event taking place on Wednesday 20 October, hosted by a-n The Artists Information Company on behalf of Air in partnership New Art Gallery Walsall and DACS.

Held at New Art Gallery Walsall, AIRTIME is open to practicing visual and applied artists in the West Midlands who are looking for advice on professional matters such as insurance, promotion and funding, along with developing networks and collaborations with like-minded people.

This is a chance to gain information and tips from artists, arts organisations and other experts, including Hencilla Canworth Insurance Brokers, representatives from AIR, a-n, Companis, Coventry Artspace, Craftspace, DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society), NAN,  New Art Gallery Walsall, Rhubarb Rhubarb, Trove, Walsall City Council Creative Development Team and other arts organisations from the region.

The events are busy and fast-paced, so make sure you have in mind the kind of information you want to get out of this unique opportunity. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served-basis, with some reserved especially for final year and graduating design students, so pre-booking is essential.

RSVP your name and address to airevents@a-n.co.uk with AIRTIME Walsall in subject box.

TROVE is the gallery that Charlie Levine and David Miller direct, currently located at The Old Science Museum in Jewellery Quarter.

The Terminal Bar is the latest exhibition and it launched the other side of the weekend. Here are some pics and here’s a short interview with guest curator Morgan Quaintance:

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)

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.

• stereographic » We are X
  Yet another 10th birthday – Sam and George from Stereographic are celebrating double figures
• 2009 in review: Art – The Observer
  Ikon supplies the only non-London shows on the list. Good work
• Brumcast 142 ‘Festival Strength’
  I had a Brumcast binge on the way to Cornwall the other day (if CiB’s been quiet it’s cos I’ve been away) and it was all good stuff – I reckon the newer format of regular, shorter shows is working well. Here’s the latest installment
• The Sickly Trickle « More Canals than Venice
  “From Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th TROVE present The Sickly Trickle, a solo exhibition of works from Bristol based artist Zoe Williams at the site of the Old Science Museum, 144 Newhall Street”
• What is the community? |
  Friction Arts’ Lee Griffiths had his goat got by community consultations, the idea of giving people what you think they want and the cult of youth. Nice to see someone with a point of view and also worth reading in the light of his later post

From 12-14 November, Jo Gane will be exhibiting at The Old Science Museum, 144 Newhall Street:

Critically commenting on the traditional British landscape and our continuing search for an authentic and historical representation of it, Coventry based photographer Jo Gane questions the mythologies and values placed upon specific historical sites across Britain. Adopting the traditional wet plate collodion process for her work, the artist goes in search of relics and objects found within the customary British landscape, specifically sighting out those that hold some evidence of historic authenticity

Jo will also be in the gallery on Thursday 12th Nov from 2-6pm creating some of her glass plate negatives.

I’d not come across TROVE before:

TROVE is an arts organisation that uses Birmingham city as its gallery space. Often happening in unused spaces, in the back of vans or in gardens, TROVE brings to Birmingham some of the best emerging art talent from across the world as well as representing some local emerging Birmingham artists