The b-uncut blog

EYES ON THE CROWD: March Madness

// March 30th, 2010 // View Comments // Eyes on the Crowd

We return this month to feature work on sanity’s fringes. We have selected five artists from b-uncut that conjure a potent intensity in their work.

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If Van Gogh was alive, he would obviously be a member of b-uncut and we may have selected the self-portrait he painted after he lobbed off a chunk of his ear but still he would have had stiff competition! Images can transport us, even for a moment we can lose ourselves in an artist’s vision. There’s nothing like an image taking you on that trip into unknown realms and imprisoning you with its voodoo. Time to walk through the city gates and hitch a ride on our crazy train. It’s March Madness!!
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Spanish artist Milan Rubio was born in Madrid. Drawing everywhere was an early obsession. He studied animation and illustration and his work appears in national and international magazines. He is always finding new ways to express the inner beauty of the human body. His paintings follow one statement: Think fast, paint faster. He captures warm earth colors from his Mediterranean roots and represents the human figure in a modern, neo-cubist style. His graphic work is about power and boldness. He is a young emerging artist with group exhibitions in Madrid, London, Bologna and New York.

Chinese artist DongSheng Guan has exhibited in Russia and China. Now in the middle stage of his artistic career he concentrates in three areas: watercolor painting, contemporary paintings and digital art. In his ‘Spring Light‘ series Guan has pumped a glass-wall voyeurism onto imagery that is prolific on the internet. The visual language of these playboy pastries could be likened to Chuck Close but not their conception. Guan takes animalistic control of the viewer and lures them helplessly into the unsettling position of a peeping Tom.

Italian Rita Carioti developed a passion for art when she was 14 years old. She has worked as a professional photographer for architecture, publicity, portraits, scenery and photo-journalism. She photographs numerous famous characters from the art and performance industries and many of her photos are published in daily papers, books, catalogues, brochures and reviews. Rita is currently a teacher at the Photographic Studio of Arezzo where she lives and works. She loves to search for and express humanity’s internal landscapes. Her works dynamically probe our conditions. Her conceptual imagery is direct and exposes our frailest notions.

Born in what was Yugoslavia and now living in Spain, painter Mirjana Lucic’s art is raw. She is a graduate in Philosophy and Literature and a post-graduate Painter. Her drawings and paintings are the result of a constant search for the inexplicable in and above our own selves. In her paintings you’ll notice tense connections grasping as they are torn from one another. Tied systems that battle and repel but co-exist. Their savage harmony is tactile and commanding as well as deftly engrossing.

French artist Herbot specialises in photomontage. He was born and grew up in a harbor city… Square shaped, rectangular and surrounded by the sea. “When I was little I couldn’t draw well, so I had fun cutting out pictures and assembling the pieces together, I didn’t know it yet but I was making photo-montage…” His photo-montage has advanced and his work is now incisive, funny and a bit mad.

Alice’s Adventures in Low Brow: David Nicolato

// March 5th, 2010 // View Comments // b-inspired

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I picked up Camille Rose Garcia’s new version of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” the other day. The drawings are exquisite and Ms. Garcia’s ominous take on my favorite story is more than fitting. To me, this story has always had a somewhat foreboding quality.
I felt a little bewildered, however, by the deluge of  ”Doe Eyes”.  Every character in the book has those despondent, inanimate, “Low Brow” eyes, the kind one sees in almost every contemporary Pop Surrealistic image today.

While Ms. Garcia’s style befits Carroll’s premise of a dissected Utopia, I am enamored by those lifeless eyes, almost to the point of distraction.  The images sometimes overpower the story instead of illuminating it. Carroll’s words are like captions for her paintings.

I have been looking for a connection between Alice and “Low Brow” for many years now and congratulations to Ms. Garcia for being allowed to interpret this amazing story in her own anomalous style. She is a talented and consummate artist and an aspiration of mine.  Since Carroll provides little description of these characters in his text, perhaps this makes them the most open for interpretation, thus the most open for discussion.

This is our first ever guest blog written by David Nicolato and sourced from the Blog Pool group at b-uncut.net. Any member at b-uncut can go to the group and suggest their own entries for our public blog.

b-loud: Daniele Villa: Expect the Unexpected

// March 3rd, 2010 // View Comments // b-loud

Hands, glue and scissors are the three things which make this artist so fabulous.

Daniele Villa, 36 years old, is an Italian collages’ artist based in Rome and member, such as founder, of the “Citrullo International”. This independent film production company, focused on documentaries,  animations, books and cinema allows him to experience several forms of art. Creativity and technical skills are the main ingredient of his works, mixed with an accurate use of colours, forms and different materials. As Max Ernst, one of his favourite artists, said: “Si ce sont les plumes qui font le plumage ce n’est pas la colle qui fait le collage”, If it’s not the feather that makes a plumage, then it’s not the glue that makes a collage.

Read on to find out more about this amazing artist!

b-Loud:

‘We Love 77′ Launch Party: Sardine & Tobleroni

// March 2nd, 2010 // View Comments // b-scene

Sardine & Tobleroni present 77 paintings of 77 different bands that epitomise PUNK in their Conceptual Art Brut style. Launch night was a charming reunion. Lot’s of fun; I’ve now got the chance to win Sardine’s 77 leather jacket with a £2 raffle ticket. Or was it £3, beers were only £1.50.

The casual affair had its ceremonies. Paintings were at a special price of £1977 till 10.30pm, no less than Don Letts on the decks, custom punk cocktails and an appropriately ragged speech by the artists. Nothing vicious happened like their last exhibition in Manchester where a fight broke out. It could be the mellowing effect of having two female curators or nostalgia has tipped the edge over la revolution.

The paintings are like record sleeves resonating a past activist romance. The cultural phenomena that spawned this work is a distant memory but from the crowded turnout there are still those carrying the punk torch.

There is a definite revolution in the presentation of their work. The ‘Launch Party’ far removed from the pretentious private view syndrome (PPVS) of East London. As the night moved into the latter half, spirits were high and the music playing to their kin, the paintings,  gave rise to an enjoyable atmosphere. PPVS couldn’t have suited the work and their solution created a noteworthy vision that is a refreshing undertaking for any gallery.

Photographs by Eduardo Barreiro.

‘EYES ON THE CROWD’ @b-uncut: ISSUE 1: Figurative February

// February 26th, 2010 // View Comments // Eyes on the Crowd

At the end of each month we will select a small number of artists to feature in our new publication, Eyes on the Crowd. These artists will also receive an invitation to sell their work in our curated gallery. This months theme is the figure and after much deliberation and debate here is the selection…

Click on the artists below to see more of their work:

Yael Zaken
Dmitriy Kedrin
Stephen Sheffield
John Sauve
Kurt La Quaglia

Boom Boom Boom, Shake the Room

// February 16th, 2010 // View Comments // b-scene

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I walked right past the Faile and Bast exhibition thinking it was a trendy retro arcade. They have boom-bastically-re-booted in a new collaborative project named ‘The Faile and Bast Deluxx Fluxx Arcade’.

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There’s a weighty neon surge from the front window. It gives a fly style to the amusement inside. Crossing the threshold is like entering a personal Faile and Bast dimension. Their 80′s inspired work has exploded over every surface including their custom video games. You are immersed in arcade nostalgia and bespoke tokens are on sale from a classic, note-swallowing dispenser.
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As you walk through the corridor of Space Invader sounds you reach a staircase where a quasar glow expands from below. Take the staircase and teleport into the 2nd graphic drenching dimension. Now it’s hyper dunking waiting to greet you. Without the first floor warm up I think my brain would have hemorrhaged fluorescence down here! A UV brilliance envelops you. The haunts of 80′s populist culture have been injected with dayglow. There are two vivid fußball tables continuing the visitor interaction, wall to wall posters, spray-painted floor tiles and an 80′s rave mannequin in the corner. It is off the hook.

Their über cool collaboration has created something magically saturating.

If you can make it to Greek Street by the 27th March, Lazarides also have a ten year retrospective of FAILE’s work just round the corner at their Rathbone Place gallery. This will give you a better idea of how they made it to this point and is also full of layers, fun and mania. Faile and Bast have brought a rare treat to London and I hope they continue this explosive approach to exhibiting. Possibly over the canals of Amsterdam or fluttering through Time Square.

The 1′s and 0′s of Art

// December 30th, 2009 // View Comments // b-scene

Decode : Digital Design Sensations

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 8th December ’09 – 11th April ‘10

Being a designer and an art lover, when I heard about Decode at the V&A I knew I had to go, Jane from b-uncut’s team tagged along. These are our highlights from the show and some quotes from show brochure.

“Digital technologies are providing new tools for artists and designers. Innovative, often interactive, displays use generative software, animation and other responsive technologies to instill a ‘live’ element into contemporary artworks. Some works exist in a state of perpetual evolution; others are altered by the behavior of the spectator.”

On first entering The Porter Gallery you are thrown into darkness, the only light provided comes from Daan Roosegaarde’s Dune. At first you feel reluctant to touch but this is just the start to a truly interactive art experience. The plant like lights react to touch, running through them with your hands out is not only rewarded with a light show but they also create sound.

“From designs that draw on the barest fundamentals of code – the 1s and 0s of computational language made by a single programmer – to art that encompasses a global collective of online creativity, many of the exhibits here defy traditional design categories. They blur the boundaries between practices, between programming and performance, creator and participant.”

Artists using pure code have created some stunning visuals, from coded kaleidoscopes to wire frame music videos from radiohead by James Frost. Robert Hogin’s Flight404 is a sneak peak to the interactive wonder of Decode. Flight404 reacts to sound and creates beautiful ‘space’ like graphics. It takes awhile to get used to interacting with the art but once we had warmed up there was no stopping us.

Fabrica’s Exquisite Clock is a series of screens showing user taken images of numbers to create the ever changing clock. Now being warmed up we took the chance to download the iPhone app and start being apart of the art. Taking images of ourselves as different numbers we uploaded and waited. About 1min later we’re part of the art as we flash by on the seconds screens, how cool is it to become part of the art?? The online version still uses images of Jane, don’t know whats happened to mine! You can even add your own numbers via the website.

“Decode looks at three current themes within digital design. Code shows how computer code – whether bespoke and tailored, or hacked and shared – has become a new design tool. Interactivity presents works that respond to our physical presence. Network charts or reworks the traces we leave behind”

Mehmet Akten’s Body Paint & Ross Phillips Videogrid really sum up the interactivity of the whole show. Body Paint does exactly what is says on the tin, back lit you see your shadow on the huge screen, when you move your arms splashes of colour appear, the quicker you move the more intense the colour, this ended up with us looking like loony’s jumping around in front of the screen!

The Videogrid again does as it sounds, a huge projection of 25  5 second videos. Simply press which screen you’d like to record over and volia you are again a part of the art. I took this as a challenge to get myself and the slightly reluctant Jane on every screen, I think we got on about 8 of them! A great immersive installation that plays on the viewers vanity!

“Digital technologies allows for a wide range of reciprocal relationships between the work and the viewer. Both can respond, react and interact instantly. Digital works often use a combination of technologies – sensors, cameras, tracking – together with feedback and coding. Many of the works at Decode respond to gesture, tracing the presence of the viewer and translating this back into the work. They frequently incorporate images of the viewer. The pieces are immersive and the lines between design, interaction, play and performance are deliberately blurred.”

Decode gets a big thumbs up from me, it was a fantastic multi sensory art show, a must see for anyone interested in anything digital. Any art installation that can take the boring 1s & 0s of code and show them to be creative is worth a visit. The interactivity of Decode really shows that code and art can become one and push the boundaries of digital art. Imagine what will Decode will look like in 10 years……………

Feed Me Art

// November 26th, 2009 // View Comments // b-scene

Picture yourself having dinner in an artist’s studio, being served fine wine and music, while casually eating a piece of yourself. Nope, this is not Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, it’s Art. When Sonjia invited me to her studio for an “Art Dinner”, I didn’t quite know what to expect. But this twenty-something artist either knows the wonders of Marketing and PR or is just a brilliant artist with a brilliant project. The concept is simple: book a dinner with her, either at hers where she will cook for you or a place of your choice. Get to know each other around a nice table, and as the conversation and wine do their magic, she paints a portrait of you to be served as dessert.

As the conversation evolves, the portrait becomes more and more resemblant.  Not the aesthetic details mind you, more in the colours and shapes she manipulates to create a personality. And all of a sudden it strikes you “that’s me!”. So depending on how adventurous or twisted you are, you either continue by saying “I’d like to eat me please” or “thanks, I’d like to take me home, and watch me.” What made this experience even more interesting on a personal level is when I later thought about the choice I made to eat it vs keeping it…

Sonjia isn’t the only artist to start her own eat me/watch me club. The NY artist Will Cotton recently put on a show at a Chelsea Gallery with the same premise. Famous for his art of fabulous confections on fabulous women and his candy landscapes, Mary Boone’s favorite pasticciere brought the concept full circle creating some truly visually delicious and actually edible art. He baked and the lucky invitees (collectors, critics and friends ate). Beautiful baked goods served by beautiful women.   Here are some pictures of what can be done with art and food