Tag Archive for ‘art’ at scatterdrum

Tag Archive for 'art'

Manchester artist Ben Kelly’s new exhibition “Painting the Blues” @ Manchester City FC Museum …

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on Thursday, February 19, 2009

in 2009, Art Commission, Launch Night, Projects, Show, Sport, art, artist, award, competitions, creative, culture, emerging, exhibition, fans, football, galleries, links, manchester, museum, project, salford and talent

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benkellyartexhib_feb09

Award-winning local artist Ben Kelly had a busy time last week. Sadly, I couldn’t make his Preview Night due to work commitments, but judging by all the feedback and coverage, things went very well indeed.

His exhibition is called “Painting the Blues” and features new work created over the last 12 months. The aim was to capture the highs and lows of Manchester City Football Club. Any City fan knows more than most, the world of football is a hugely unpredictable one, where “emotions change from triumph to despair in the space of ninety minutes”.

Even for a club with Manchester City’s history, the last 12 months have been a rollercoaster, yet Ben was given free rein by City to wander wherever he wanted, with unprecedented access to witness activity behind the scenes aswell as the regular matchday frenzy. One has to congratulate the club for creating the opportunity for an artist to try and capture the season on canvas and as a huge City fan this was pretty much a dream assignment for Ben.

thefinalwhistle

He is certainly an artist on the rise; having won a massive £15,000 in December 2006 in a competition organised by the Lowry and Umbro called “One Love - The Football Art Prize”. He beat 800 other artists from all over the country to scoop the prize when his painting “The Final Whistle” was chosen by a panel of judges, one of whom was Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger (in the news this week with his ‘Angel of the South’ White Horse commission).
stop_benkelly

Next project on the horizon was an exhibition at the prestigious Cheshire gallery Firob & Peacock in Knutsford. This work showcased some of Ben’s landscape paintings; each piece took the viewer by the hand on a beautiful foray into the woods. Featuring forests and icy stillness, this exhibition was full of intense atmospherics, Lowry-esque figures almost lost within impossibly elongated trees. Delicate tints and the occasional dramatic splash of vividity created wonderfully engaging work.

Grab the chance while you can, and see Ben Kelly’s latest work here in Manchester at the City of Manchester Stadium Museum, open now and ending on the 31st March 2009. All work is for sale, though I understand quite a few were snapped up at the Preview.

Which leads me on to the subject of my next post …. “Where can I buy original Art in Manchester and why should I?”. Yes indeedee, coming soon … check back on the blog tomorrow (probably!).

Cultural Snapshot; Obama, Grammy’s and Berlin ….

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gill moore

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

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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:

1) The illustration of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke which is constructed entirely from song titles. Sheer brilliance. It is part of a campaign to promote this year’s Grammy Awards and is the biggest ad campaign yet for America’s premier Music Awards.

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.

A funky Spanish illustrator found via ffffound

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gill moore

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

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blancuchaillustration1

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.

Were the “Best of Manchester Awards” any good? … in fact do Awards mean anything?

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gill moore

on Friday, September 5, 2008

in 2008, Launch Night, Show, art, artist, artists collective, award, blogging, creative, crowds, culture, emerging, event, exhibition, galleries, graphic design, illustration, links, manchester, photography, preview, talent, uk, united kingdom and websites

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There seems to be awards being presented everywhere you look nowadays, so many in fact that it is impossible to keep up with everything.

I am all for being judged by your audience, critics and peers but one has to ask the question how impartial is impartial? Nowadays, I have no time for Awards with heavy sponsorship … step forward the Brits which is owned by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry aka the British Record Industry). It claims it’s aim is to be “supporting young people in music and education” aahhmm … surely it is about keeping British Music in the headlines and rewarding those that have mastered playing the game and who sell lots of records. I am not saying all Brit winners are talentless but it is just that, as far as I can see, the BPI are just handing out awards to those already successful.

More meaningful are those Awards which generate word-of-mouth and are trying to give a helping hand to those talented (often innovative) souls who have not yet cracked it. Here you may find artistic types who possess a huge belief, a love for their chosen field crikey some folk who might even be doing it for fun and not money.

The cynical amongst you will shout that all Awards by their very nature are never unbiased, yes, true I agree but I guess I’m just saying that some have their hearts closer to the right place than others and this is often down to the Judges sitting on the panel and whether there is any kind of hidden agenda to the Awards.

A check on the Judges for the 2nd “Best of Manchester Awards” held at Urbis recently were Peter Saville Graphic Designer and all-round Manchester Design Guru, Miranda Sawyer (writer, broadcaster), Luke Bainbridge (Music Journalist, Editor Observer Music Monthly), there was the head of A&R at Universal Music, with nods to respected bods @ Castlefield Gallery (Manchester) and Blueprint Music Studios and Elvis Jesus head honcho covering the fashion angle. So a pretty eclectic, informed and opinionated group. Things are lookin’ good.

300 entries fought to prove their work illustrated the best creative thinking and innovation in Manchester, things were wittled down to a shortlist of nine covering Art, Fashion and Music. There is an exhibition to accompany the Awards on the 4th Floor at Urbis until the 28th of September. From the work on show I had a couple of personal favourites … none of which turned out to be the eventual winner so there we go - what do I know !! Still I’d like the share them with you anyway

I loved the graphics and ethos of the Red Deer Club “a small label with big ideas” and brainchild of nu-folk fan Duncan Sime.

On the 4th of May last year, UHC a socially-conscious Design Studio and Artists Collective who deal in “the finest blend of art, design and action” took to the streets. Helped by volunteers and “As part of a protest campaign against consumerism and climate change, 88 hoardings were covered with cream coloured ‘hoods’ emblazoned with the message, ‘trees breathe ads suck’.” (Manchester Evening News). UHC will always annoy some, but their work often seems to harness talent, invention and maybe a measure of eccentricity. Surely it’s not only me who applauds their aim to “present those traveling to work with a special gift - a few precious moments of peace and beauty in place of the incessant noise of advertising”. Wonderful illustrations too …

Finally I was rooting (pun not intended) for Paul Hartfleet to win in the Art Category with his Pansy Project. “Paul revisits locations where homophobia has been experienced and plants pansies. These self seeding pansies act as a living memorial to this abuse and operate as an antidote to it; some pansies wither whilst others thrive in car park borders and windswept road verges. Each Pansy’s location is named after the abuse received and the project is now worldwide with its very own website www.thepansyproject.com.

I know it appears I am blinkered, as his project heavily features photography and Paul’s current project features benches! but trust me, take a trip over to his own site and blog and see more of his fantastic work and ideas.

The actual winners were :

ART: Naomi Kashiwagi

MUSIC: Richard Cheetham, High Voltage

FASHION: Simon Buckley, Rags to Bitches

One final little footnote, I discovered a fab little Manchester band playing to the crowds at the Awards called Keith, a little bit Doors/Radiohead/Talking Heads all delivered with the customary Manc twang and swagger.