ICE ice baby.

Somerset House

Rockefeller Skaters VI, oil on canvas, 2006

Tomorrow Somerset House ice rink opens, signalling the moment it becomes socially acceptable to start celebrating Christmas. So apart from being locked away and banished to the Courtauld library, I was able to enjoy its oppressive atmosphere and painful silence slightly more given the melodic warbles of "Santa Claus is coming to town" coming from the celebrity soiree outside. Here's a fuzzy painting brimming with Christmas cheer by Bill Jacklin. 

EAST Wing X

As a part of the East Wing X exhibition at the Courtauld, installation artist Gabriel Dawe is residing in the grand staircase this week. Donning what can only be described as a giant needle, Dawe has managed to weave a tangible rainbow out of mere cotton: if only there were a pot of gold at the end of it.

Please take the time to have a look at the East Wing X exhibition taking place from January in and around the Courtauld and Somerset house. As a self funded exhibition by Courtauld students, the team are working really hard to gain as much publicity and support as possible. http://eastwingx.wordpress.com/

In his own words...

NINA Murdoch: Shedding Light

 Prawle Point W-E, egg tempera on gesso panel, 2011, 122 x 198 cm./ 48 x 78 in. 

“Corridors, steps, wedges of light and otherworldly colour, Nina Murdoch’s paintings evoke an uninhabited but haunting world in which the sun and moon seem to rise and set in chambers indoors.”
- Andrew Lambirth
 

ANOTHER one of my recent ventures was interning at Marlborough Fine Art in September. In amongst allocating works for restoration, researching exhibition schedules and scouring art catalogues I was given the chance to design and manage the advertising for Marlborough’s now current exhibition Nina Murdoch: Shedding Light. Murdoch's invigorating exploration of light and space excels through her technical ability in egg tempera (a widely neglected medium in my opinion, saturated in Renaissance connotations). The projections of ethereal light imbue her work with an element of ambiguity and unfamiliarity which make them completely compelling. Exhibiting at Marlborough Fine Art until the 26th its definitely worth a LOOK.

MUCH has happened.

Paolozzi, Marilyn, Plaster sculpture (1994)

HELLO! Safe to say there has been a plethora of things that I have been quietly listing at the back of my mind since I last posted those many moons ago! Summer is over and it is now dark at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. What happened?

Thankfully today I am surrounded by the bright white walls of Sims Reed gallery which has brightened up an otherwise very gloomy day. It’s a gem! The wonderful directors Lucy and Lyndsey have left it in my capable (?!) hands while they have jetted to New York for the annual prints fair. 

I am manning the Eduardo Paolozzi ‘Invention of the Impossible’ exhibition. Arching back to his 60’s show on Tottenham Court Road, Paolozzi’s prints are a contrived confection of computers and commercialism. Technology on acid. Juxtaposed against a clutter of white plaster casts from found objects, prints and plaster work together to articulate the tension between the eccentricity and contrivances of commercialism, and modesty and purity personal entities.