Robert West. Everest at Night. 60 x 60 cm. 2013
Location: 35 Stall Street, Bath, BA1 1QG.
Dates : 24th May - 9th June 2013
Robert Wests work Everest at Night has been selected in the FAB Open Art Prize. FAB is a two-week programme of Contemporary Art Exhibitions, Events and Workshops. Its aim is to raise the profile of Contemporary Visual Arts in Bath, and provide opportunities for the public to engage with the very best Emerging Contemporary Artists of today.
The Sunday Times Style Art Room Launch Party
The Sunday Times Style Magazine have launched their Art Room in the Heart of Covent Gardens, to promote and support the best Emerging talent in the Art World. Robert West has been invited to take part in The Sunday Times Style Art Room Exhibition, which showcases 6 Emerging Artists alongside leading Fashion Designers.
Featuring: Robert West | James Thurgood | Dan Pearce | Kymberly O'Carroll-Fitzpatrick | Mako By Me | Pate on Toast
How to use business principles in your creative career
You don't have to be a banker to care about business. We've written about why artists should aim to get paid, and how to set up a creative business. Now, as we see in the new tax year, Thalia Thompson explores ways in which you can use business principles to aid your creativity – not just your bank balance...
Working in the creative industries can mean an escape from the corporate world. But there are lots of business principles that still make sense in a freelance or creative career.
Robert West is an up-and-coming artist who’s comfortable with the balance between creativity and business sense. “Knowing that art is a business does not get in the way of your practice,” he says, “To me the business world does not seep into the studio…Organised business strategy is what takes place outside the studio and is what you need to get your work and yourself known.”
Planning and targets
Whatever you want to achieve, having a plan can help you get there. You can stay flexible of course, but setting yourself concrete targets helps prioritise your workload.
Chartered psychologist Sarah Dale runs the coaching programme Creating Focus. She says “Goals don’t have to be big sticks to beat yourself with. But if you have a picture in your mind (and preferably written down or drawn too) about where you would like to be in a year or five years’ time, this will help inform what you need to do to move in that direction.”
She recommends setting specific targets, “For example, if you are writing a book and you have a goal to finish a first draft by X, get feedback from people by Y and so on, the project is more likely to be realised.”
An annual appraisal
As a freelancer, you might work alone, but as writer and career coach Joanne Mallon says, “You can still have an AGM if you are a company of one. Think about what work you did and where that came from – this gives you clues as to what aspect of your marketing is working, or not, and tells you where best to focus your efforts in the coming year.”
Training
The world never stands still and nor should you. It’s definitely worth investing time or money in training to keep up to date with new developments in your field. If finances are tight, look at on-job experience or trade skills with a friend.
Market research
No business would launch a new product without thoroughly researching the market first. For a creative career in the current economic climate, finding gaps in the market that you can fill is more important than ever.
Samir Ceric from Debut Contemporary works with emerging artists, helping them showcase and sell their work. “Creating art and approaching the marketplace is not so different to launching a brand new business,” he says. “Identifying your target audience, knowing your competition and devising PR and marketing strategies, are all part of an overall strategy a successful creative of the 21st century will need to master”.
Business Development
A busy workload can mean it’s hard to make time to work on career development. As Joanne Mallon says “It’s easy to get so caught up working ‘in’ your business that you forget to work ‘on’ your business… But if you are consistently planting seeds for new work, you have more chance of seeing a consistent harvest”.
Article by Thalia Thompson
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Live Week: 1 - 7 May (Streamed live on this site)
Private view: 3 May ~ 7 - 11pm featuring a live performance from John Walter.
Exhibition: 10 - 26 May
The News is an experimental visual arts project by Vanilla Galleries investigating the effects of 24-hour global news through live and responsive artworks, exhibited in an innovative way using the latest online communication technologies.
This project will take place at Two Queens arts venue in Leicester's Cultural Quarter, but will primarily exist through the online realms of global digital networks. Each participating artist will create improvised artworks for one 6-hour period in response to live online networks (such as Google News, Twitter, Blogs and BBC news).
The production of artwork will be presented on stage and streamed live to our website. Individual artworks will also be submitted onto various online social media forums as the show unfolds. This will take place during seven six-hour periods over the course of one week at different times of the day or night, and respond to events worldwide; integrating with the global online community.
The News was commissioned through a collaborative project between The BBC and The Arts Council titled ʻThe Spaceʼ. This project will include contributions from high-profile organisations such as the BFI, Tate Gallery, Serpentine Gallery and The Southbank Centre.
Upload things based on the news
See here for map http://bit.ly/TWOQUEENSMAP
Two Queens is proud to announce the grand opening of our new artist-led gallery and studio project in Leicester. This event will see the opening of two new exhibitions in our gallery spaces:
Vanilla Galleries presents
Splash Waterfalls:
A SPACE TO CELEBRATE THE BANISHMENT OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART VOID IN LEICESTER'S CULTURAL QUARTER. A BAPTISM OF ENERGY, LIGHT AND SOUND, THE ARENA OF THE GALLERY SPACE PROVIDES A CONTEMPLATIVE ZONE FOR PERFORMANCES, DISCUSSION AND CEREMONIAL ART MAKING. WITH THE ELEMENT OF WATER AS THE THEME FOR THE SHOW, AS A SYMBOL OF OUR EVOLUTIONARY BIRTHING POOL ON PLANET EARTH, WE WANT TO ADDRESS NOTIONS OF CULTURAL REBIRTH, REGENERATION, BAPTISM AND THE RISK INVOLVED IN HIGH BUDGET CULTURAL PROJECTS, AS REPRESENTED BY KEVIN COSTNER'S 1995 EPIC WATERWORLD.
CUSP presents
A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky
Featuring: Kitty Clark, Tintin Cooper, Amy McDonough, Miguel Pachico
9th - 24th March 2012
Examining contemporary folklores and archetypes, this exhibition brings together four artists whose work presents images and narratives which are both of our time and timeless. Referencing classical mythology and folk storytelling traditions alongside Disneyland and the cult of premiership football, these ideas resonate with the shared concerns of our culture, satisfying primitive interests held within the human subconscious.
Exhibitions will run until the 24th of March, opening times: Wed-Fri 12-5pm, Saturday 11-6pm.
TWO QUEENS: 2 Queen Street, Leicester LE1 1QW
After the deaths in Syria of World renowned Journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28 the media took a pause and looked more closely at the under reported conflicts around the World. Colvin often spoke about the need for taking risk, and it was the reporting by her and other journalists like her who went into areas of conflict that helped influence the public and the political machine to sometimes take action, and gave the people in these areas much needed support.
Artists have for along time too been involved in this process of bringing a subject to the forefront of culture and society, Richard Mosse is one such individual. Mosse has for years have been photographing War zones and conflict areas such as Lebanon, the Middle East and most recently The Congo, the Infra Project is perhaps his most recognised work. Mosse is widley known having an exceptional back catalogue, having exhibited his work around the World. His work has aided in transforming often indescribable situations in the Congo into a profound visual perspective. He will be showing the Infra Project at the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool from 30th March - 10th June 2012
"Richard Mosse’s Infra project uses obsolete military surveillance technology, a type of infrared colour film called Kodak Aerochrome, to investigate ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Originally created to detect targets for aerial bombing, Kodak Aerochrome film registered a spectrum of light beyond what the human eye can see, rendering foliage in vivid hues of lavender, crimson and hot pink.
On his journeys in eastern Congo between 2010-11, Mosse photographed rebel groups constantly switching allegiances, fighting nomadically in a jungle war zone plagued by frequent ambushes, massacres, and systematic sexual violence. These narratives urgently need telling but cannot be easily described.
Infra offers a radical rethinking of how to depict a conflict as complex as that of the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The images initiate a dialogue with photography that begins as a meditation on a broken documentary genre, but ends as an elegy for a land touched by tragedy.
Richard Mosse was born in Ireland in 1980. He currently lives and works in New York. He is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York."
All rights reserved to Richard Mosses
I have like so many of my friends have been following Paddy Considines work since I saw him in Dead Mans Shoes and then saw him out do that performance in the brilliant Red Riding Trilogy by Channel Four. The trilogy is based on David Peace's cult noir novels about Yorkshire during the 1970s and 80s exploring murder, greed and corruption. I stumbled across this brilliant Q&A by Rosanna Greenstreet from the Guardian so I thought I'd spread the word.
Paddy Considine, 38, was born in Staffordshire. In 1999, he made his screen debut when his friend, the British film-maker Shane Meadows, cast him in A Room For Romeo Brass. He went on to star in Dead Man's Shoes, which he co-wrote with Meadows. His other films include 24 Hour Party People, In America, Hot Fuzz and The Bourne Ultimatum. His directorial debut, Dog Altogether, won the 2008 Bafta for best short film. His first feature, Tyrannosaur, has won more than 20 awards and is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
What is your earliest memory?
Hanging from a window dressed as Superman, looking at the 20ft drop and feeling anything but super. My big brother Chubby rescued me.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Self-doubt – it's like an illness.
What was your most embarrassing moment?
My hairdo in a film called The Backwoods. I look like I've strolled out of a Confessions movie.
Property aside, what's the most expensive thing you've bought?
A copy of Propeller by Guided By Voices. There were only 500 made.
Where would you like to live?
In my dog's head.
What would your super power be?
I'd like to master some of the basics before I move on to super powers. I can't even put up shelving.
If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
A Tyrannosaurus rex – I'd feed it people. I'd raise it to love only me, then, when it got too big, I'd flog it off to be experimented on. A bit like Project Nim.
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
Geordie Shore. The girls are really wonderful in it.
What is your favourite word?
"Marmalise" – it means to give somebody a good clip around the ear. My mum used to use it if I wound her up, although I never got a hiding. I heard Ozzy Osbourne use it a few years ago, and it immediately brought back memories of my mum.
What is the worst thing anyone's said to you?
A lecturer once told me I could never be a director. I was 16. I believed him.
What does love feel like?
Like being hit in the face by a gigantic slice of humanity pie.
What was the best kiss of your life?
When I first kissed my wife. It lasted for ever. She got home two hours late and her dad (now my father-in-law) thought I was some dirty herbert corrupting his daughter, but we were in love. I didn't corrupt her until some months after.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I wouldn't smoke in my teens. I think it stunted my growth. I was potentially a six-footer.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
The late 70s, to the punk era. I think punk was the most significant explosion of art and expression in the last 30 years. God, that sounds wanky. I'd just go back to the Victorian age and watch the Elephant Man live in some shop window in Stepney.
How do you relax?
I take my copy of Boxing News to the lavatory and lock the door.
What keeps you awake at night?
The thought that I'm being observed by aliens. I saw a UFO and I have this feeling they are coming back. To probe me. They tend to do that.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Just do your shit.
by Rosanna Greenstreet | Rosanna Greenstreet on Twitter
The director award winning photographer Leo Maguire has been given unprecedented access into this community and gives an honest and in-depth study of the lives of Gypsy men and family life. The film is an intimate portrait of two gypsy families the Dohertys and the Butchers. Respect is paramount in the Gypsy community and men settle disputes over the long standing tradition in the community of bare knuckle boxing. The Film also documents a day of drinking that gets out of hand and leads to violent acts.
Gyspy Blood is part of Channel 4's True Stories, which commissions and showcases the best feature-length documentaries. I believe that it is a landmark documentary on the study of Gypsy life, Maguires artistic poise has transferred exceptionally well into motion picture and accompanies the Film with his signature photographic eye. This will be the first of many films which we will be seeing by the new director as he plans to move into directing films as his main career.
After arguably his most acclaimed retrospective Panorama at the Tate Modern this Year to coincide with his 80th Birthday, the documentary Gerhard Richter Painting has been released. Richter’s art work is known around the world by artists, art lovers and collectors alike, though he himself is rather less known as a consequence of his reclusive nature. This in my opinion has helped his career due to the proficiency and exceptional nature of his work, allowing the critics to converse with the work, rather than with him. Corinna Belz’s the filmmaker behind the fly-on-the-wall documentary has spent three years as a passive observer capturing the routine and methodology behind creating his radical and consuming abstract works.
“You get the feeling the paintings are staring at you,” says Corinna Belz, who met the painter while filming his vibrant pixelated stained glass window for the Cologne Cathedral. “There’s a physicality to Richter’s paintings. I wanted the viewer to become immersed in the subtly suspenseful cycle of the process.”
Masters are never born, they are developed and honed by years of disciplined studio practice, continuing to work through triumphs and mistakes in search for the next and the search for the now. This documentary sees a master at work at the height of his powers and is a unique insight into a visionary genius.
Works unfold before your eyes, changing at a moments notice; reflective of the society we inhabit. Each work is complex and compelling not least in their final state, a single work can consume you, in a wall of smeared multi-layered colours and textures that holds your attention and captures the imagination. This documentary in uniquely insightful, compelling and inspirational; I recommend that whom ever you are, you should watch this documentary.
Gerhard Richter Painting Web Site | Buy Gerhard Richter Painting Film Documentary
