Art News: London

This is an art review I wrote for "Art News : London," a website I recently launched and head.

Photo I, Photo You is curated by Iara Boubnova and presents works by leading Russian and Eastern European artists who invite viewers to reconsider what they think they know through a series of mixed media works. The show is based on Boubnova’s research. The artists are clearly inspired by their origin and lead us to reconsider what is presented. It’s tough stuff to contemplate to be sure, nonetheless worthwhile. Among the highlights are celebrated Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov’s randomly overlapped imagery and Albanian artist Anri Sala’s squawking and symmetrical super 16 film, Long Sorrow.

Photo I, Photo You runs from Thursday the 28th of January until Sunday the 28th of March. Calvert22 is located at 22 Calvert Avenue (E2 7JP). Visit www.calvert22.org for more information.

"Art News : London" is written by a cohort of master's students studying Art Business (2010) at the Sotheby's Institute of Art in London and offers fresh and candid views on the London art scene including reviews about recent exhibitions, auction results, and international news. Check it out at : www.artnewslondon.com

Art News: London

Showcase - London

Today (Wednesday February 17) I will be participating in Showcase - London.  Showcase is an exhibition in East London that presents a rich variety of emerging artists work.


Things kick off at five thirty and go on until just after eleven. It's a one night affair only!
Your chance to view art, interact with the creators, share thoughts, network and indeed buy very reasonably priced pieces (or at least pick up details for future reference). The one night only nature makes going to Showcase almost like heading out to a gig, it is something a little different to the usual stuffiness of a more formal gallery, things are relaxed, you can make a noise, you don’t have to politely creep around... But it is very much a gallery situation though, don’t get the wrong idea, plenty of time and space to view without interruption or intrusion. A gallery with a nice big bar, music, and something like twenty-five or so artists with a selection of work to check out. 
I hope you will stop by and say hello if you are in London.


1 Dray Walk, Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL (just opposite Rough Trade Records)


xx Sydney

Showcase - London

wisdom

I stumbled upon this book today called Wisdom by photographer Andrew Zuckerman (created with the cooperation of Archbishop Desmond Tutu).  It is a beautiful book of photographs and interviews of people from Robert Redford to Jane Goodall to Nelson Mandela. It comes with a fantastic DVD that includes the full interviews from some truly amazing humans.  It was inspired by the idea that one of the greatest gifts that one generation can pass down to another is the wisdom it has gained from experience. I wanted to share this fantastic trailer with you so you can hear some wise words. Find out more at wisdombook.org

wisdom

you wrote that?

Well, the Oscar nominations are out—and now you are regretting not ever finishing that screenplay ... "My name could've been on that list," you think.  "I could have been runner up to Avatar and Inglorious Bastards. Damn."

If only you'd finished the script. Oh, and then found somebody who liked it. Also: got it made. And: discovered it actually turned out well....if only!

Here to get you on your way to next year's Oscars—or 2016's Oscars—is Circalit, a new website now in beta that's gathering screenwriters throughout the land...near and far...The website brings a social-networking component to your quest for UTA representation and Hollywood fame and glory. Simply sign up for a free account, post your logline and script and watch the praise roll in ... and look at you now! Building a fanbase, receiving feedback, and becoming a part of ever-growing network of writers, critics and industry professionals...!

Of course, every party (virtual or real) is only as good as the people who show up—and they've partnered with Script Factory (with ties to Disney, Sony and Fox), who will read the best-rated script each month. So we're not sure Spielberg is refreshing his Circalit home page every three seconds just yet, but his second assistant's second assistant might be.

And you two are tight.

you wrote that?

eco Olympics

London 2012 Olympics are just two years away and I just found out that the Olympic Stadium being built will be made of recycled guns and knives! Yep, you heard it, confiscated weapons from the Metropolitan Police Department are being melted down into scrap metal and used to help build the stadium.  A combo recycling and anti-weapons program! Awesome!

But, wait! London doesn't have anything on this month's XXI Winter Games in Vancouver...
Get this: recycled metals from the circuit boards of old computers and cell phones have been melted down and cast into the Olympic medals! No two medals will be the same...how cool is that?!
Check out this video to hear more about the designers of these unique Olympic medals.

eco Olympics

An Ode on A Typeface

...a bearded Lady Gaga Poker Face parody? Yes, please. A song about a typeface is probably the nerdiest you can get while still remaining somewhat universally charming. It's actually quite well done...except for the unconvincing party scene...but seriously hilarious and one of the dudes looks like the lovechild of Chuck Bass of Gossip Girl and Harry Potter.

An Ode on A Typeface

The Online Mixtape

Listen up! Put that boombox away. 2010 is here, and so is a new website which allows you to create, share, and listen to some sweet playlists: 8tracks
You can listen to the creations of others or create your own single 30-minute mix (no shorter) from your own musical library or from the extensive tunes of the site. Add a cover photo for that final touch and ta-da, your digital mixtape!

The Online Mixtape

fantastic february

The world is a place of moral confusion.

Economic collapses. Natural disasters. Lady Gaga's wierd, but totally awesome head thing at the Grammys.

However, this time of year, the calendar says you should be concerned with two of my favorite things: chocolate and booze.

First was the Super Bowl (Go Saints). Next up, that greeting card holiday on the 14th. Then one of those patriotic holidays where we reflect on the American Presidents' momentous achievements and astonishing, ongoing screw-ups. And finally, the most outrageous holiday of the year...the birth anniversary of Sydney Anne Townsend (moi).  

To make sure you you will be able to get through all four, I present to you a recipe for a A Whiskey-soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake.  It's exactly how it sounds: a delicious, boozy, fudge-filled 86-proof chocolate cake.  I found it in a New York Times article a few years ago and it has never failed me.  Ever.  Here it goes: 



Time: About 1 1/2 hours, plus cooling

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan

2 cups all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup instant espresso powder

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup bourbon, rye or other whiskey, more for sprinkling

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish (optional).

1. Grease and flour a 10-cup-capacity Bundt pan (or two 8- or 9-inch loaf pans). Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In microwave oven or double boiler over simmering water, melt chocolate. Let cool.
2. Put espresso and cocoa powders in a 2-cup (or larger) glass measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to come up to the 1 cup measuring line. Mix until powders dissolve. Add whiskey and salt; let cool.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, baking soda and melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. On low speed, beat in a third of the whiskey mixture. When liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat additions, ending with whiskey mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for Bundt pan (loaf pans will take less time, start checking them after 55 minutes).
5. Transfer cake to a rack. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey. Let cool before serving, garnished with confectioners’ sugar if you like.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings.


The outcome: a rich, dense and very chocolaty cake, with a spicy, peppery, burnt caramel tang from the rye...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Enjoy!

fantastic february

Hirst is moving on...

Our friend Damien Hirst will be starring in ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’
Yes, that is a real title. “It’s a story of a ship, called the ‘Unbelievable,’ that sank 2,000 years ago,” Hirst said. “It was carrying a lot of treasures, sculptures, jewels and things like that, to create a palace. And it sank and was lost forever.” Though this prehistoric Titanic is pure fiction, Hirst will treat it as reality. He plans to stage the discovery of the ship, send divers to recover its many treasures, photograph the process and then make paintings based on the photographs. Sculptures will be based on famous works from art history, including Michelangelo’s “Rebellious Slave” at the Louvre in Paris. 
For Hirst, the Era of Formaldehyde (two decades, to be precise, starting with the Charles Saatchi-commissioned shark in 1991) is declared dead in the water, according to a Bloomberg interview with the artist on the eve of his latest Gagosian exhibition. That show, aptly titled End of Era, includes a pickled bull’s head with gilded horns and blinged-out wunderkabinet filled with 27,888 manufactured diamonds (shown below), which he said would be "great in a museum or Jay-Z's house" ... gotta love it. 

Hirst is moving on...

Tom Shannon: The Painter and the Pendulum

Tom Shannon talks about his work and its' relationship with physics.  Amazing.

Tom Shannon: The Painter and the Pendulum

tea time

Although a loyal coffee addict, London has made me a bit more fond of tea. The longer I'm here, the more often I find myself drinking it! When I saw this funny submarine tea infuser I had to share. I adore it! 

tea time

what if filmmakers directed the super bowl?

The Super Bowl is Sunday, which means nothing in London.  But if you are in the Good Ol' USA, you may be busy deciding whether you're Team Saints or Team Colts. I'm agnostic, but I’ll watch...if only to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ad in HD! Throughout the rest of the game I’ll kick back with some beers and daydream about what the Super Bowl would look like if film auteurs directed it, thanks to this video from Slate... 
Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson — gang’s all here!

what if filmmakers directed the super bowl?

Zero Art

Yesterday I went to see the Sotheby's Preview for the Contemporary Art Evening Auction on February 10th. The preview was great and comprises a sensational array of works, which epitomise the major advancements of recent Art History, including the most outstanding collection of Zero art ever presented for sale!!


The first 49 lots consist of Property from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, one of the most prestigious European collections. The couple have collected around 600 works, concentrating on a movement set up in the 1950s which sought to abandon the art of the past, and by extension the sins of the past generation which brought fascism and world war, and start from scratch. Their 1963 manifesto statement read: "Zero is stillness: Zero is the beginning." 
The movement began in April 1957 with a series of exhibitions around the studios of Heinz Mack and Otto Piene in Duesseldorf, Germany, and eventually went on to become one of the most significant collaborative movements and incorporated the work of Klein, Fontana, Manzoni and others.
Zero brought together protagonists of pioneering contemporary artistic movements from across Europe, including Nouveau réalisme and Arte Povera. The ideology of the Zero group was voiced through its own eponymous magazine, which was published between 1958 and 1961 and included influential texts by Piene, Mack and Klein. 
Art in America wrote a great article about the movement and their ideologies last June (2009), which you can read HERE 


This sale includes unmatched paragons of Zero art such as the extraordinary, three-metre wide F 88 by Yves Klein and the most stunning Pietre and Metalli works by Lucio Fontana ever to appear at auction, in addition to many other highlights. Check out the E-Catalogue!

Zero Art

surf plug

A big shout out to Mike of Surf Plug for featuring me as a photographer!

Surf Plug is definitely the website you want to check out to stay "plugged" into the surf culture and lifestyle, especially in Southern California.  They wanted to create a "portal where people can read, learn, review, rate, and write about everything related to coastal living and the perks that come with it.  Whether your a pro surfer, body boarder, body surfer, skim boarder, wake surfer, or a beginner, we all have to start somewhere and that place is Surf Plug."  And they're definitely succeeding in doing that.


So definitely take a look at the site ... and "plug into the lifestyle"

surf plug