Tuesday, February 26, 2008

HAMBURG FOR EVER

This was my second trip to do a show in Hamburg (first one was with FKC a few years back) and this time it was so fucking amazing, im still wraping my head around it.
I have just updated WWW.THEPMHQ.COM with pictures so please go and have a butchers.
I was very pleased with the way the show turned out, the amazing parties we seemed to create (i had about 20+ people come out for it from the UK, Netherlands and Germany) and it was just amazing.
Sorry to everyone who emailed me while i was gone, but i am trying to catch up now on the mountain of mails (PS Erosie - too cute man!).
I would like to say a big fucking thank you to all at the Vicious gallery - super cool crew, destined to rule and all top drinkers. I wanna thank the jawdropping TW1 NLS, BBC (absinthe for breakfast is a must, as is brothels for hotels)... Bfree - always a pleasure man! ALWAYS!...Chimp (the tables will be turned and ill be there for you next time!)...Burns (thanks for the help hanging and cooking!) and everyone who came out to party / help (including everyone who made the opening night party bananas (ever been kicked out of your own opening? i have! so many stories....). I wanna thank everyone i met / know in hamburg, all the bars that served me.
I especially wanna thank sam for putting up with me during getting this show ready(and to still be my girlfriend after exlpaining visually what a 'windowlicker' is to Fortress and burns) ...I wanna say a huge thanks to Stefan Marx for being the fucking man and being my helper with the poster! you know we'll party together till we die (PS you must send me the link to your lovely girlfriends work!) im onit about London ;)...Christoph for inviting me, letting me come and show...without him, his cool head, shit wouldnt have happened - thank you truly, and no more stressing from me...Finally, THANK YOU X ETERNITY to Flying fortress for going BEYOND the call of duty and being so nice and helpful it was almost embarressing.....he was the ULTIMATE host and friend and im blown away still...you know you got a 20+ crew for life with your London Lucky star crew

see you in late July!

ST PAULI TILL I DIE!!!! FOR EVER!!!


Home of the Mexican drink...and best wall display / jukebox (25 rolling stones / classic tracks for €2!)

Imagine your ultimate party drinking bar...this is it...if you see me ask me about this place...this place is worth going to hamburg for...the place legends are made...current no.1 drinking den IN THE WORLD

Stefans studio stash...so much stuff!!!

Me and Stefan had a beltoff...his laces / string VS my Hamburg €2 gold / diamante beaut!!! whos the winner? you decide...

from the impromptu party the night before the opening night...we caned over four crates of beer (100+ bottles roughly)....and we were only there for three hours...and i was supposed to paint...did i tell you that Hamburg is THE party town?

The gallery printed up some tees / sweats...they are nearly all sold out (woop!) but hit up vicious gallery if you want one (links on the right)

If i told you the opening night was rammed, youd probably think i was bullshitting....but hopefully photos dont lie, and this kinda shows you...

Heres some shit from the show...tomorrow ill update my website if your interested...

Printed matter Round up pt2

Whilst in Hamburg i was lucky enough to have some great great friends who very kindly gave me some of their great great printed zines / books...and they all blew me away and im very very lucky - THANK YOU!
PS Chimp i will blog the zine when i unpack my suitcase and find it!!!!

Splitting of the Atom by Stefan Marx
Wow...beautiful beautiful BEAUTIFUL book for Stefan Marxs show in Hamburg a few months back, this has so much work it almost makes you wanna give up doing art! its so good!!! If you got the Nieves book...YOU NEED THIS...i dont know where you get it though?!?!!?! Truly, this and the following Stefan book blogged, are perhaps the best things hes ever put out!



Lousy Animals & Friends Colouring Book
Beautifully large on gorgeous paper...this is a colouring in books for big kids that i wish was printed in huge runs so kids could do their thing on Stefans (usual) awesome drawings...so so good.



BURNS
Senior B aka Mr Burns is a one of my favourite Munchen Maestros when it comes to partying and painting...and as well as dropping awesome comic customising of cardboard boxes, producing lovely babies and cooking up a bavarian breakfast to destroy kings (sorry it went cold!)...he also manages to squeeze out great zines of his tighter than a cats asshole handstyles...this zine is awesome for 2 reasons....1) its themed to Johnny Cash 'Ring of fire' (Mr Burns remember)...

...and 2) the zine starts with a few large pieces....

...but over the course of a few pages (and hundreds of fresh handstyles)....they reduce so that the pages are fucking full of his handywork...too good!

Los Fotos by Vicious gallery and Sixfingers
Vicious gallery, who had me over for my show are also presenting a photo exhibition with Six Fingers, and to accompany it, they have brought out this lovely wide format booklet showing off the four artists involved...really good gutter photography, like works famed by Yelland or Boogie...i liked what i saw and glad i copped this...if your free in Hamburg, go to my show pick up a free copy!!!


PINKYVISIONDOTCOM AT LAST!

One of my favourite and very talented friends is Pinky and he has just put online his new website (at last) showing off his goods so
GO CHECK IT OUT! PINKYS AWESOME!

Print roundup 01

You can never get bored of good people doing good things, just mad excited....
1- Marcus Oakleys first book!!!
Monster Children Visual OG Joesph Allens imprint has dropped Marcus Oakleys first book and it looks a stunner!!! Its beautiful man, when two friends have a lovely baby together - congratulations (and if you havent already, look around Joesphs wonderful website showing his other printed creations)
Iz Rock pressings



2-Cafe Royal!!!
Dilly hearts Cafe Royal...and we still give the postman the evil eyes after the post office lost some of Craig Atkinsons work after the last group show...but coming strong hard and looking on top fighting form is this second essential tome....SUPER GUT!
Cafe Royal




Bonus -
Parra did a recent show in Barcelona and theres a small catalogue to go with it for €6 which is a must get really...Vallery

Ouch! My head hurts...

Holy shit...im back in old Londinium after a week from my Hamburg adventures (more later) and it feels good/weird/sad...I sound like i smoke 50 a day, and my body arches HARD...but as well as lucozade and loud Body Count on I Tunes, catching up on great shit is bringing my energy levels to normal, so heres go you beautiful blog reader....
coming back from an AWESOME trip can sometimes be depressing, but when you come back and good stuff is happening in London, it kinda softens the blow...this weeks diary has just got these two added...

Needles & Pens at 96 Gillespie
Anybody familiar with the current American art scene (or fecal face.com, or the american zine scene) will be familiar with this crew/website, if not expect plenty and plenty of amazing mixed media greatness - drawings / prints / sculptures etc...good to see this kind of stuff this side of the pond! opening thursday night

Crystal Vision Night at Jaguarshoes
Theres a lot happening this weekend at Jaguar shoes AND ITS ALL GOOD...properly kicking off this saturday night with Crystal Visions takeover...featuring zines/films and bad boy selecterslike Wolfie and Jiro this shitkicker will be on till 4 am so get the vodka stomach ready...and if you want something more sedate theres a sale on sunday of peoples goods - zines etc...the last one was great (read - i got shitfaced) so check that too!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

OH SHIT...

If asked for what is perhaps the worst page on the web related to Banksy / urban art mainstream interest...id say this piece of shit...OUCH!

PUNK IS HIPPIES!

Chimp gave me the heads up on perhaps one of the best zine blogs online at this moment....PUNK IS HIPPIES!
To me my first taste in zines were the old school skate and punk zines, not limited edition art screen printed zines...old school photocopy jobs, badly stapled that sometimes rubbed inks into your fingers...but shit was the coolest - in both content and appearance...and now PUNK IS HIPPIES is uploading (for you to download) old school punk zines...HOW GOOD IS THAT? TOO GOOD!!!
GET OVER TO PUNK IS HIPPIES NOW CAN FILL YOUR HARDRIVE UP WITH GOODNESS

SheOne shoots and scores...

SheOne, one of the most criminally underrated artists working today (him and the RockGroup with OTwo) has written a very on point piece on the recent Bonhams 'urban art' auction...read itHERE
I think this sale also highlighted the camps of people who are interested in this area of art - those that found it exciting and those who didnt a) know about it or b) care (for the record im a mixture of interested and dont care about it)

Saturday, February 9, 2008

BFREE BOOK

Alright, own up, who didnt send me the memo reading' this week will see your favourite artists dropping awesome books'? Anybody? Well someone screwed up, because this week my favourite artists are indeed dropping awesome books...first we had Maya Hayuks 'just good vibes' and now we have Bfrees collection of favourite black and white drawings. And like Mayas, its TOO GOOD.
Ever since i have known Bfree he has always been the master of the monochrome, and this book looks simply amazing (on a side note - anyone got good replacements for the words 'amazing' and 'awesome'? these are so overused on this blog right now...anyway....).
Limited to 1000 copies you know you need to cop this quick as this is an instant classic, and as the OG that he is, he will get bigger and bigger and if you dont get one now, youll just rue the day later on down the line...anyway, you can get this great great great book HERE (PS while your adding a copy of bfrees book in your shopping basket, look round the site and pick up some badges from FF, Delta, Parra or Erosie?)



Thursday, February 7, 2008

JUST GOOD VIBES...

JUST GOOD VIBES should be renamed JUST GREAT ART.
JUST GOOD VIBES is the first (?) book by one of my favourite artists MAYA HAYUK...and i know i bang on all the time with ' you need this book' but im super serious this time - YOU NEED THIS BOOK!..this book is amazing! but then again it is Maya!
For a few years, since she got on my radar, ive always been a huge fan...from the early donuts on walls, through the pysch characters to her next level radness bright coloured patterns she has always brought the visual heat and to see them all in one handy book really drops your jaws and makes you want to step your game up a million levels...and i havent even started on her photos!
Upper Playground have published this amazing collection of mayas work, and every bookshelf should have this!
CONGRATS MAYA! ITS AWESOME!





Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Vicious Apology

this shitty blog hasnt been updated in a while due to lots of things and i just wanted to say sorry and that it is a sorry state of affairs...but this cloud has a silver lining...the things i have been working on...and one of them is my second solo show MINOR THREAT at Vicious gallery in Hamburg...opening 23rd of this month...so please spread the word and if your in the Hamburg hood..please come down!!!

FOREVER XV

If you read this blog you hopefully know im a big fat geek of things related to the Providence Rhode island scene (paper rad, fort thunder, lightning bolt, brian chippendale etc etc) and there is a fantastic website where you can get the freshest wares straight from ground zero...including orginal paper rodeo issues for $1!!!!
http://www.glaciersofnice.com/foreverxv