Thursday, January 22, 2009

Batteries not included...

Looks like a killer show from some from some Dilly Amigos..

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

2009

This year you will see more zines and good shit from the Dilly imprint, and to kick off the new year heres a sneaky peak at the first zine of '09....the artist is still a secret, but the zine is a rare look at his sketchbooks from 2003 - 2008, and its gonna be awesome! Its off to the printers this week, so it should be back with me in a week or two - stay tuned!

Dreambags

keep an eye on dreambags this year- they have some real big shows happening, and thisone looks like a must not miss...

The Joyful bewilderment of buying artwork...

In this age of the financial 'credit crunch' everyone is after a bargain, and over at the Joyful Bewilderment blog they are offering all the works from the super great Rough Trade show...theres some big names at low prices (god i sound like a furniture advert)...so check it out if you want a bargain!
TJB

double take

Is this photo real? if so, the bearded dude from Justice looks like a prime Weird Al Yankovic...

OZ

As usual Australia is somewhere i want to be...especially Schwipes Dont Come gallery...here are two recent shows that I think looked good...
Todd James
Pictures nicked from Supertouch








Big A Little A
Pictures nicked from Rockers NYC Blog






Sunday, January 18, 2009

TRASH 5

Latest issue of the always great Trash online zine has dropped and features Dilly faves Joe83 & TVRBO among others....
DOWNLOAD HERE

Saturday, January 17, 2009

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE....GIRL SKATEBOARDS

WOW...nearly everyone i know is looking forward to Spike Jonzes take on the Classic where the wild things are film...and it looks like our first true glimpse of the monsters are coming out on Spike Jonzes Girl skateboards....

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

HAHAHA

David Cerny, a Czech artist is causing a bit of a stir in Brussels as he is installing his latest commissioned artwork at the European court building....the problem with it? He has created a giant model kit of European countries, and each piece is a country, and each piece/country is represented by stereotypes...so Bulgaria is represented by a toilet (a Turkish toilet in fact...), England isn't even on there - as we are seen to be staunch critics to Europe, Romania is a Dracula theme park, France is shut down due to strike action and the Netherlands seem to be sinking under a flood with only Islamic towers above the water....needless to say everyones going apeshit in Brussels and i think its great... MORE HERE

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

NEW REGULAR COLUMN - BOOK PICKS

Part of my new years resolution was for this Blog, and to make it better...to post more regularly and to add new columns...and VOILA! Here is the first of them!
BOOK PICKS!
I am a printed matter nerd - books, zines, magazines... i fucking love em...and im guessing if your on this blog you might like zines, art, books etc as well...so what this column will be is a showcase and glimpse into peoples personal art book libraries, a look and celebration of art books they love, and why.
There will be two Picks - one is a personal favourite book that might be rare, that you might have to hunt around to get a copy...and the second pick is a book that is highly reccomended and that you should be able to get quite easily (with links provided)...make sense? I hope so! I also hope you like it and if you feel inclined please leave in the comments sections about anything you'd like to see on this blog and/or your own book picks...OK for the first one, i picked the closest book nerd at hand - ME!

Pick One - Classic
Andromedary SR1
by Hans Stempel & Martin Stempel with illustrations by Heinz Edelmann.
1970.

This is my mums book (although now its 'found' its way onto my shelves), and i've been looking at it since i was a kid (and some might see some subliminal / not too subliminal references in my work because of this early influence). My mum also had Norman Mailers 'The faith of Graffiti' (aka watching your name go by)...so my mum is mad cool, and absorbing these books from the age of around 6 has had a steep impact on me.
Many people will compare this with The Yellow Submarine, and with good reason....Heinz Edelmann...one of the most visually important and distinctive late sixties illustrators (along with Glaser, Peelleart, Aldridge and crumb - to name a few), who did the illustations here, and also The Yellow subamrine. Candy coloured rainbows, Spatz shoes, awesome animals, Art Deco influence...all his trademarks (and through influence the cannon of sixties illustrators) are here and dripping with coloured paint.
printed in a mix of full colour and black and white, these large pages instantly take you on the best space pyschedelic trip you will encounter this side of 2001. Every page is amazing, striking, beautiful and fantastical. One of those books that taken me on a mind trip for twenty odd years, and i have a feeling it will never be too far from my side (hopefully) for the next twenty years.





Robert Crumb Sketchbook Volume 1 (1964 to mid 65)
Available here

I think there were 9 volumes of sketchbooks released, and each are essential, not just for Robert Crumb fans, but also for fans of great illustration. I add volume one as a representation of all nine, and i also had to put this here as they are fastly dissapearing and therefore the prices (if you can grab them) are increasing, so if you can get any, get them now!
Robert Crumb is one of the greatest illustrators of our time, and part of his success is due to his constant sketching...im talking everyday day...for him, it is not just a job, or even a passion, but a neccesity...and all nine volumes show Crumbs style evolving and its interesting to see major characters and themes shine out...this volume shows his fascination with women, automobiles and it shows his first renderings of Fritz the Cat.
I think that Crumb is a great artist to study for all inspiring illustrators as he shows how easy and difficult it is to construct something complex or beautiful with what is essentially black lines...so basic - white paper, black lines...awesome. Also, going back to the point of his constant drawing...its inspiring and crazy to see so many books with so much width of themes, complexities of images (from detailed pieces to minimal sketches) and style...to see someone evolve so much and to create so much work...and then you read the covers and see that it all happened over such a short period of time...all because he was always drawing




ZINE ROUNDUP

These have a Bristol theme...

1.THE UNIVERSAL
I believe its an edition of 50
by Egs, Pinky & R.Maurice
Pinky hooked me up with this cool zine that was made in conjunction with The Universal exhibition in Bristol by Pinky, Egs & R.Maurice (who some of you might know by his other alias Gassius...). Its a small zine that i loved, but it didnt half make me sick with envy that i missed the show.
If you know any of these artists, then you know what to expect - full on factor 12 mind warping neu age pysch...this zine is loose and fun, and it perfectly suits each artists styles...heres hoping there'll be more shows and zines!





2. THE END
edition of 50
by BLC (Black Lung Crew)
Recently i got an email from a dude called 'Ed' in Bristol.
He asked me if i wanted a copy of his zine...needless to say the answer was an instant YES...and this is the result...another reason to show that UK photography zines are in rude rude health.
A nicely printed black and white collection of abstract and minimal everyday images - people, patterns etc...it is great. Not much is known other than i got sent it by a dude called Ed, it is marked by BLC...but i do wanna see more!

PIGXOTE

Harmony Korine...Love him or hate him, however you feel - i Love him...and Nieves has dropped a new book of his - a collection of his photographs of television pictures...if you like this you should cop the latest issue of Purple too as there is a very good free zine of similar work...and if you like Harmony, you dont need me to tell you that you need his new book of zines - but if you do need me to tell you...go get it!
HARMONY X NIEVES

FUCK YEAH MESSE!

THIS HAS GOT ME EXCITED! I LOVE ME A BIT OF MESSE...

SOME RELATED MESSE GOODNESS...


Lucky Joe

Lucky motherfucker, Joe Allen is working with one of my heroes Todd James on two shows in Australia, but also, hes just posted a short interview up over on SlamxHype with him

Jag Bags

DreamBagJaguarShoes and its sister site The Old Shoreditch station is holding two shows showcasing two Dilly favourites, and two names high on the 'ones to watch out for' list...Rhys Coren and the Nous Vous collective.
If you are about,then be at the Old Shoreditch Station 15th January (7pm+) for the Rhys Coren opening (which should be a right royal pissup)..and then Dreambags Thursday 22nd January for Nous Vous' opening.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

RIP Ron

2008 is now dead, big business art will crumble with the credit crunch, its time for the real talent to storm the barricades - as Supertouch blog perfectly summed up 'hair metal is dead, its time for punk'... the new year festivites are over, the hungovers survived (and i hope you all had a good time)...so now its time for 2009 and the focus on making it the best year ever!!! The Dilly is back and will be in rude health and i have some awesome things lined up to balance out the silence on the zine front...i've been planning and plotting - waiting so that now things will be regular and better rather than my 2008 track record of starting and stopping shit due to being BROKE...anyway...i was geared up and pysched to hitting up this blog HARD tonight but sadness took over and i dont feel like blogging now as news has reached me that the great and now late Ron Asheton is dead.
There are some bands or musicians you can take or leave,but for me the stooges are a band i passionatly LOVE to death, and so the passing of the maker of many of my all time favourite riffs is dead...well to me its a very very shit day...
OK so the weirdness was quite forgettable but with their recent reformation it was nice to see them getting their just time in the limelight (the other stooges, not iggy - hes always been around)...and so i would have loved to have seen the stooges more times live as were still a phenomenal force live and i personally would have loved to have seen if he could top 'no fun' or 'i wanna be your dog'...he probably wouldnt have but at least there was a chance...
Also dont forget he was part of the awesome Destroy all monsters, which are well well well worth looking up if you get a chance (and get the pictureboox book 'Geisha this')..a greatly overlooked art collective that would be huge if they were a current group.
RIP Ron Asheton
PS normal arty farty blogging tomorrow