Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 in 2009,
Art Commission,
New York Times,
Show,
art,
artist,
artists collective,
creative,
culture,
emerging,
event,
exhibition,
galleries,
illustration,
manchester,
museum,
photography,
preview,
project,
talent and
uk .
The appetite for owning original works of art has grown steadily over recent years. Maybe because it is one way to make a house feel individual in these times of flatpack ubiquity. A well-chosen piece of art can reflect a chink of character of the owner and prompt a smile or moment of pause in the thick of our busy lives. No bad thing at all and not something that often happens with a Billy Bookcase.
I’ve been asked the question a few times this year “Where can I buy affordable original art?”. As I am based in Manchester my answer is somewhat limited but here are the options that I know about in my locality:-
- ArTzu Gallery on Ancoats near the Art Deco Express Building.
- Artland Gallery under the Quaker Meeting House opposite Central Library, Manchester. An exciting new venue which ran a stunning exhibition of Jan Chlebik’s cityscape photography recently, latest exhibition is by New York Times photographer Christoph Bangert (see image above).
- Blyths art gallery central Manchester.
- Castlefield Gallery close to Deansgate Metro Station.
- Colin Jellicoe Portland Street, Manchester.
- Comme Ca Art various spots including upstairs at the prestigious Lowry Hotel, Salford/Manchester border.
- Cornerhouse Projects (downstairs in the bar) close to Oxford Road Station, Manchester.
- Cube Gallery (architectural related work) see upcoming exhibiton from award-winning photographer John Davies.
- Islington Mill, Salford/Manchester border. Growing artists collective with studios and galleries, often special previews & shows.
- The Lowry, Salford/Manchester border. Has occasional exhibitions and work for sale from artists (often local).
- Manchester Craft and Design Centre Favourite spot for emerging work, textiles, painting, photography …. all sorts.
- Mooch Art new venture in Northern Quarter plus online gallery selling mostly local artists; painting and photography.
- Revolve Gallery partnered up with Mooch Art earlier this year, nice gallery space in the Triangle, Manchester City Centre.
- Richard Goodall Gallery Northern Quarter, mostly illustration and photography linked with music promotion and posters, had Leonard Cohen’s work on show last year.
- Waterside Arts Centre (Sale) nice Gallery space featuring local artists all media from painting, photography through to mixed meda and between.
- Wendy Levy Gallery very respected Gallery based in West Didsbury top notch artists represented here including Liam Spencer.
Finally, just in case you find galleries a little intimidating, then you might want to check out a new event on the calender, it’s the Buy Art Fair 24-27 Sept 2009 which enjoyed a very special inaugural launch last year with 3,200 visitors and over 200 artists on display, well staged at the nice, light and airy Urbis, Manchester. Never spend more than the price of a new sofa, prove your skill at spotting new talent, support creativity and art, make your home original and breathtaking and you never know you might make some money on it too!
UPDATE : For an alternative take, check out a great blog run by a New York Gallery owner Ed Winkleman. His blog is a really useful place to pick up terrific candid advice on the art world, the nitty gritty of running a Fine Art gallery and to see how sales are going on the other side of the pond.
Published on Monday, February 9, 2009 in England,
art,
artist,
britain,
british,
classic design,
creative,
culture,
eco,
eco-friendly,
graphic design,
iconic,
illustration,
stamps,
talent and
transport .
How very nice to see great British designs getting some deserving attention. These images are all featured on the current edition of stamps from Royal Mail, you can download a preview pdf from their site. One little tiny thing, it would be useful to have the year also listed but that’s just me nit-picking.
It is hard to argue with any of those choices. My fave would have to be Harry Beck’s London Underground map - what an absolute feat of patience and genius.
I am sure I was reading the other day that the City of London is working on commissioning a new eco-Routemaster bus based very firmly on the original design. Or did I dream that?
Published on Saturday, January 24, 2009 in 2009,
Barack Obama,
Grammy's Typography,
New York Times,
Projects,
White House,
advertising,
art,
artist,
award,
blogs,
creative,
culture,
emerging,
illustration,
photography,
portraits,
talent and
websites .
It has been a visually interesting week. I have browsed through the Obama official photograph taken by Pete Souza (the first taken using a digital camera -a Canon 5D) and the portrait project on his support staff in the New York Times (which for the record I really liked whilst many didn’t, but there you go) taken by Nadav Kander. But for me two great bits of work really stood out these past 7 days:
- 2) An interesting photography project by Simon Hoegsburg called rather bleakly “We Are All Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence”. This is a huge 100m wide photo he has created by combining hundreds of images taken of Berliners (is that a word/not sure!) on the same spot on a bridge over a period of 20 days in 2007. It documents, it fascinates and tells lots of stories. On first viewing I scribbled:
[check out the bikes YEP]
[check out the two people with eye patches .... weird !]
[trendy berlin. great snapshot of city dwellers, only a few people clocked the photographer]
Hoegsburg is based in Denmark but studied in London and he isn’t just a one trick pony. Have a look at his website, there is plenty of other strong work. He even has a series on a cycle trip he took using a heavy Copenhagen city bike which you can hire there for one Danish krone. He took off for Istanbul and went in search of the goodness in people. When so much photography (art in general) can be a little po-faced, I found his work open, fresh, focussed and powerful. One to watch out for.
Published on Sunday, January 18, 2009 in 2009,
Madrid,
Spain,
advice,
art,
artist,
artists collective,
blogs,
creative,
emerging,
graphic design,
illustration,
links,
networking,
talent and
websites .
Sure as butter-side toast just loves a fluffy carpet, I seem incapable of ignoring a good bit of illustration. Having a flick through ffffound the other day I discovered a Spanish illustrator called Blanca Gomez, her website is cosasminimas.com which is Spanish for “tiny things” and her own work matches up to such a beautiful name.
She runs her own blog and is part of a talented worldwide group of creative artists called the Goodfellas Network http://www.goodfellasnetwork.com. She has a healthy and varied amount of commissions already under her belt, both for commercial and editorial clients and has caught the eye of funky online printing outfit moo.com who feature her on their site as a designer to watch. Blanca uses etsy, flickr, moo.com, her own site which has a shop, and the Goodfellas Network. A great example of someone who really knows their market and illustrates how different tools can work in combination to bring prospective buyers to discover your work.
scatterdrum is a personal blog by Gill Moore. Gill is a professional photographer based in Manchester in England.
She works for commercial and editorial clients together with shooting personal projects. This side of her work often includes exhibiting, publishing and working with like-minded collaborators on an environmental theme.
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