London Shows this week!

hey guys...another of my apologies for being so shit and slack on the updating of this lil piece of shit blog...but it has been bank holiday recently and i took a little time off, plus London has had lots going on in terms of shows that you should check out!!!
Theres the Chapman brothers Hell.2 at the white cube which looks amazing (again) and Pyscho buildings at the Hayward looks like it could be interesting (CTHULU!!!). On the streetart kinda tip theres of course the Tate show which you should see in the flesh for a sense of scale and colour (the Os Gemeos colours really burn brightly)...then theres Pinky who has his show at Old Shoreditch Cafe which is classic Pinky- pyschadelic wig out texts, skulls and papercuts...oh and check out good boy Word to Mothers solo show at Stolen Space....but for me the best show in London (although all the previous are rad) is at Nog gallery.....
Nog has undergone a transformation recently setting it up as one of the premier spots in old London town. It started with Marcus Oakleys show (for IZ rock - yes yes J. Allen!), but since then they have redone downstairs for this KILLER show.
Its curated by the lovely and awesome Rich Jacobs (a DUDE), with upstairs being a full on amazing art show, and downstairs perhaps the BEST SKATE HISTORY LESSON SEEN IN LONDON....
So upstairs. For me, i was mad excited to see some of these artists in the flesh (via their art) after fanning out on the web for far too long, yet no-one in London actually showing their work...until now!!! great great new work by NECKFACE, TAYLOR MCKIMENS, HISHAM BHAROOCHA, RICH JACOBS and MATT LEINES to name but a few!!!! So literally, already this show has killed it. Its Over...and youve only just arrived!!!! so check out upstairs, but then go downstairs for the killer KO visual punch...


Downstairs...its very rare that i get awestruck...but my god, downstairs is fucking amazing. It is wall to wall, ceiling to floor, stuffed with zines, flyers (black flag, misfits), books and misc bits and bobs...i could literally be there for hours...serious, i think this is one of my favourite shows of the last few years, but i think just because it connects to so many things and styles that i love.
It is an exploration of the zine culutre of skateboarding so you get early Templeton, Yelland, Johanson, Gonzales zines...you get rad flyers for shows you dreamed of attending...its just so fucking good.
Its all from the personal collection of Rich Jacobs who lovingly put this together, and if you are in London YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS SHOW...if not though, it looks like there might be a book on the horizon (like a mix of Fucked up and photocopied with Dysfunctional)...and also, as i helped with the set up - you should see what they couldnt fit in!!! SO GOOD






Early Ed Templeton Zines!!!

SAMUEL GOD DAMN FRANCOIS

The name Samuel Francois appears a lot on this blog, and if you know me personally, i have probably bored you to death with talk of how awesome this guy is...but hey, hes fucking amazing, and his new show has dropped, and what a surprise - ITS AMAZING...again!...GLLTN has the scoop - head there for more pictures!

Printed matter Round up June pt1

Venom 4 by THE SERPS
Australia is one of the worlds hotspots when it comes to music, art & fashion...and one of the crews going hardest over there has to be the legendary SERPS crew. If your not up on the SERPS (note: they are so good I have to write their name in full on caps...) then this is the perfect jumpoff for the uninitiated - VENOM 4.
This zine is a paper museum dedicated to the SERPS crew, cataloging all their zines, tees and various artifacts (including their great mixcd series ROLLCALL...), all this and they have time and spaceto show a small selection from their mountain of photographs taken over their many many adventures (painting, partying and cockfighting).
On top of this they even have a great recipe in there...in fact its one of the best recipes ive read for a loooong time (in regards to Onions - 'man the fuck up. Cut them up posh spice -super thin strips") and id love to see them drop a full on cookery book!!!
Serious, The SERPS rule, i love them, and every zine that they (regularly) drop is an instant smile maker, and if you wanna be down with the SERPS then head here and here
PS VENOM 4 is winner of zine cover of 08 so far...





4 Men on year 9 camp by The Serps
Just above ive just talked (or typed) about THE SERPS and mentioned that they regularly drop zines...lo and behold! their latest great installment drops - 4 men on year 9 camp...an outback adventure.
Whats inside is a travel diary of their camping expedition to the wilds of Australia (or according to the cover, Alice Springs..) and it makes for a great mix of good photography and funny personal moments. Theres not much really more to say apart from that its fantastic and you should get it!
As a little side note, my mate Kris from Brick Lanes NOG space i think is trying to get the Serps zines in, so keep your eye out in Brick Lane if you wanna get a copy!!!




Evidence of Bilocation
The Lower East Side Studio in Vancouver kindly sent me this beautiful catalogue to accompany their recent series of exhibitions at their space, featuring favourites like Joseph hart, Mark DeLong and the Chapuisat brothers...but i guess it was gonna be hot when my pal Mike Swaney is one of the curators!
What they have done is to play on the theory of Doppelgangers, matching a canadian artist with an artist in the same field from around the globe....with the fields represented being Mixed Media, Drawing and Installation.
The catalogue, artists picked and work shown is all fantastic, and as a catalogue it hits the right spot in that it makes me wish i could have witnessed the show first hand! Nice!





Candian Idyll
A beautifully presented collection of images from a new Canadian photographer Matthew Koudys. I really liked the work shown (a mix of personal shots and snowy landscapes perfectly complemented by the photocopy process), and I cant wait to see more from this photographer! check his stuff out here

AlexOne

AlexOne has dropped another great looking show, this time at Galerie LJ Beauborg...Nice one Alexone! Shit looks awesome!

RIP RAUSCHENBURG

Milton Ernst Rauschenberg; October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008

Printed matter Round up pt3

Again, i have been blessed by you readers, and especially those creating fine fine publications...to those who sent the following to me - THANK YOU!!!

REBEL BY SAMUEL FRANCOIS
Samuel Francois is one talented guy, not only is he one of my favourite artists, but he is also one hell of a curator...as witnessed here with a publication featuring various artists such as Nano4814, Joe83, Stefan Marx, Aurelien Arbet, Jeremie Egry and Olivier Kosta-Thefaine (aka Stak to those that dont know...). All the work is a response to the them of REBEL, and every artist has responded with truly fantastic work. Such a fucking good publication.
I dont know you would go about copping a copy but you could try the publishers here...





HUMAN FIVE
This is the catalogue for their farewell show in Barcelona, and as expected, its fucking rowdy (i.e great). Each of the three is amazing on ther own, but together they're just straight up jaw dropping. Again, as with REBEL, i dont know how you would get a copy, but perhaps try the gallery (and again, as with REBEL - you wanna try!)- Galeria Victor Saavedra




Stephen Eichorn
Eichorn is a talent working in America that deserves to be huge, and this small publication helps show why...its a catalogue to his show 'Tristes Tropiques' at Bucket Rider gallery in Chicago. Intense, beautiful, super detailed collages of flowers and foliage thrown back together to create new abstract pieces...for the collage heads out there, its as detailed and amazing as it comes..great.
To get a copy, try Stephen Eichorn



Browner-Knowle issue2
YES! The latest comic but one of my favourite comic artists working on the underground scene at the moment - west country don Paul Ashely Brown! Again, in issue two, this is a collection of great observations of everyday peoples lives. Funny, sad...its got it all without coming across as cheap or explotative...just the kind of work that knocks all the other comics you've read recently out the water, as it has what they lack - depth. Memorable, but for all the right reasons, get one by emailing paulashleybrown@googlemail.com



Porridge Wogs by Cedar Lewishon
Porridge Wogs is a small zine showcasing some of Cedar's artistic friends - Astrid Sourkova, Andrew Gilbert and Rabiya Choudry. Its always nice to see new work by artists you didnt know but my favourite part of this zine is the interview with Andrew Gilbert. Andrew's work in the zine is based on the Zulu tribes and the English occupation of Africa. In the interview, Andrew is highly read up on this period and gives a fascinating read that was more insightful and fascinating than the history channel (which is one of my favourite tv channels!)...for example, did you know that if a zulu warrior killed in battle, his soul would not be clean until he had sex with a woman? no? now you do thanks to Andrew Gilbert....Cheers!



Exquisite Corpse
Dave the Chimp, fotologs most loved/hated, has blessed us with a new series of zines taking fun to well known artists...before he used to do DANG with Kabe, where he invited artists he knew/liked, to get super stoned and doodle on a giant piece of paper...the results were classic ...and now he is bringing out Exquisite Corpse...a fresh take on something we all used to play.
When you were a kid you would fold a piece of paper five times, then someone would draw the head, then fold it so it couldnt be seen, then someone drew the upperbody, then fold it so it couldnt be seen etc etc until at the end you unfolded it and there was a really weird, funny new character born??? well thats what hes done here, but instead of playground kids...this zine has people like Will Barras and Alex one! (The fun part is trying to dissect who did what...)

SWEET

GREAT

I fear this might be a boys thing, as all i can remember of my playground days was drawing superheroes and monsters, while the girls drew ponies, picnics and rainbows...but this superdude, Dave Devries, hes gone and started to collected kids drawings of monsters and superheroes in pen, then paints them up....so so so good

WAR PEN

Doze Green and Rostarr have a show coming up at the Leonard St gallery, entitled WAR PEN from the 30 May to the 28th of June.
Personally not a big fan of Doze, but i do like me a bit of Rostarr, so im looking forward to catching this...

MARCUS TAKES THE BIG APPLE!

Dilly good friend Marcus Oakley has a show coming up in NYC...'Pictorial Aural:Visual interpretations of Music' at Gallery Hanahou (611 Broadway, Suite 730 NYC) from May 22 - June 25 2008.
All blog readers in or around NY, you really really should go and check it out...the opening is may 22nd 6-9pm....AND on the 23rd, 11am, Marcus will also be holding a talk and workshop, entitled "What Does Sound Look Like?" at the gallery (hanahou). The talk will include a discussion and Q&A, plus an interactive workshop in which participants will be encouraged to use visual mediums to explore what sound looks like to them. (This event is free of charge, but please RSVP info@galleryhanahou.com to attend.)
GO ON MARCUS!
PS before he goes off, dont forget he'll be djing with me on friday at the old shoreditch station! see the dingle dongle flyer below

Gallery Hanahou

I LOVE BRISTOL

I just spent an awesome weekend chilling in the awesome city of Bristol, chugging West country Cider by the Arnolfini and generally just falling in love with the place...but now there is another reason why that city is great, and a perfect excuse for me to return - Rhys Coren has gone got an art space with someone called Hannah..if your lucky enough to be Bristol in the next few months - check it out!
"Rhys & Hannah Present is a consistentworking collaboration, initiating one-off shows that make use oftemporary sites. The collaboration was founded by Bristol based artistsRhys Coren and Hannah James. We are both recent graduates from TheUniversity of West of England Fine Art Degree, and both individuallyselected for New Contemporaries 2007, a nationally touring show of theyear’s most promising talent from Art schools across the country. Theopportunity has arisen to further the potential and ambition for Rhys& Hannah Present within an old commercial space in Broadmead at theheart of Bristol’s city centre. This space is available to us for atemporary period of 6months. This will result in a drastic increase inpotential to further the audience and develop an exhibition program, aswell as have opportunities for undergraduate internships andsubisidised graduate studio space, both with the potential to show inthe space."

HERES THEIR BLOG

BLUNREAL

Italian street artist BLU ha dropped his new animation that really is incredible...these animations arent added in postproduction to static shots of blank walls...no..they were all hand painted on walls (remember 24 frames a second! that means paint a picture, white it out, paint it again, white it out etc etc and do that 24 times for one second of footage)...he is famous for his large murals but it seems that BLU is also dropping jaws with his animation

DINGLE DONGLE STRIKES!!!

NEXT FRIDAY...DINGLE DONGLE STRIKES AGAIN!!! Everybody is invited!!!! The usual summit of djs is attending including me and the flyers artist - Marcus Oakley...expect the usual mayhem of garage rock, classic hip hop (epmd etc), disco, punk, fleetwood mac, metal and everything that shakes your buns of steel...so its gonna be a good one! And hopefully there wont be a mass bar brawl like last time!!!

MP3 BONUS!
As we're on about music with this post, heres a remix im currently loving in the sun...perfect ipod music...and before you say anything, remixing M.I.A is about as underground and hip as remixing Justice, I know I know...but fuck it, if its good...its good, and heres the excellents Holy Fuck's take on things...HOLY FUCK VS M.I.A

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUBAQUATICA

Subaquatica is one of Europes coolest spaces, and it is about to celebrate its fifth birthday with an exhibition of postcards from artists they have worked with over their history. The postcards are from the city where the artist is based, and judging from the flyer, they have Eltono, Bfree, Boris Hoppek...urm and me!...postcards are going on sale for like €25...so if your in Madrid and wanna cop some cheap work - go celebrate Subaquaticas birthday and check out the show!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUBAQUATICA!!!

DOIG

Went and checked out the awesome Peter Doig exhibition at the Tate Britain yesterday - if your in London, I highly reccomend it...if however you cant get to see it, check out a virtual tour HERE

YES!

Truly one of my favourite MCs EVER seems to have a much deserved documentary about to drop...looks like a straight to DVD job...

Helmut Smits

A few posts back i posted an image of a fake islamic militant kidnapping video installation...and in the comments Erosie helpfully left more information about the amazing artist behind it - Helmut Smits.
Helmut Smits is amazing...the concepts and ideas behind his works are brilliant - funny, subversive, intelligent, clever satirical...everything that i like and also qualities that seem to be lacking in most conceptual works shown in london nowadays.
If you want to see some good good art (and hopefully thats why come to this shitty blog), i cant reccomend this guys work enough...so in a week when London and the world are getting their knickers in a twist over Banksy's cctv tree at that Cans festival...check out something an alternative...HELMUT SMITS
THANKS EROSIE!!!

COOL GEOFF