Gallery SuperStore

Foundation Rocks an exhibition by Shucks One

2011-12-06T09:40:00.001-08:00

Foundation Rocks by Shucks One

SHUCKS ONE PRESENTS FOUNDATIONROCKS

FEATURING WALL PAPER

JONAS RANSON

DALSTON SUPERSTORE Exhibitionruns:

Wednesday 30^thNov – 8^th Jan

DalstonSuperstore, 117 Kingsland High Street E8 2PB

ShucksOne

Artist, Radio DJ, Youthworker, Experienced freelancejournalist specialising in hiphop music and culture.

UKartist Shucks One presents a unique visual art exhibition celebrating thethemes of consciousness, positive attributes and important figures in ClassicUK and US Hiphop culture, discussing its wider implications on modern culture.

Throughpainted pieces Shucks One has developed a way of expressing and contextualisingthe history of modern day street music and art.

Using avariety of objects as canvasses, such as furniture, clothing, masks and foundwood, Shucks One creates a sketchbook, a mix tape way of exhibiting work, goingback to the core ethics of street music and art. Using bold colours, patternreminiscent of tribal fabric prints and ancient symbols Shucks One discussesthemes of cultural heritage.

“The term ‘old school’ is often banded around without anyreal understanding of the underlying themes. With this series of works I intendto explore messages and concepts, not just from hip-hop, but human history aswell. It is part history lesson, part hip hop project.”

Foundation Rocks combines a series of portraits,illustrations and sculpture, capturingthe original hip hop mantras of ‘peace, love, and unity; knowledge, wisdom andunderstanding’, presenting a challenge to the dominating themes of violence,negativity and corporatism which resonate throughout hip-hop today. The projectis the artists’ search to rediscover these foundation principles by retracingthe history of UK hip hop music and the individuals making it. It is an attemptto cement the originators of UK hip hop as icons for British music fans, whoare often more familiar with the originators in the US.

The exhibition is avisual interpretation of interviews Shucks One conducted with hip hop pioneersof the 1980s, whose music influenced a whole generation of young men and womenin the UK. The works addresses issues of history, identity and religion.

Shucks One will be donating a percentage of any salesmade from the exhibition and will also be holding a raffle on the night of theprivate view to raise money for the charity WAYout.

WAYout Charity provides arts and media trainingto disadvantaged and street youth in Sierra Leone. In 2010 we worked with over600 young people who explored subjects as diverse as street life, HIV andteenage

pregnancy, using music, comedy,soap opera and documentary. Their films have reached audiences in excess of35,000 people. Users now tell us they want a base. A place where they canwrite, rehearse,

learn, edit, shoot, show theirwork or just exchange ideas and support each other. The Hub/ arts centre is thenatural next step and is what we are currently fundraising for.

WALLPAPER By

JONAS RANSON

Print graduate of the Royal College of Art, Jonas Ranson isan East London based artist originally from Essex. His work falls into two maincategories which encompass the twin strands of both Fine Art Practice andIllustration. Recent activities have included projects as diverse as printedbackdrops for ID Magazine fashion shoots, wallpapers for TENT London, DesignWeek, Christies ‘Multiplied’ Editions fair, Screen print workshops for SommersetHouse Pick Me Up Graphics Art Fair, and design collaborations with head ofmenswear at Versace, designer Martyn Bal. He has also produced fashionillustration for ELLE Magazine, and has worked on various print projects withBerlin based print Gallery RISE BERLIN. Jonas is also co-curator ofLINEAR B, an international group exhibition currently showing at the StephenLawrence Gallery, Greenwich.

Jonas’s work is diverse, drawn equally to abstraction, to theworld of fashion as well as it is to the ideas and symbolism of the occult andits association with the more disreputable forms of popular entertainment.Prints are achieved through treatment in both digital conversion andphotographic silkscreen processes. Both detailed and abstract, the designstrategy is one that combines traditional drawing and digital technique. Bothhis print and Illustration work is an attempt to retain and freely pursue hisown conceptual ambitions artistically, but that the conceptual goals target theintended consequence of the client’s ambition.

JONASRANSON

http://www.jonasranson.com

SHUCKS ONE

http://shuck-el-vision.blogspot.com

http://www.sensei.fm/shows.php?dj=114

http://thekoolskool.blogspot.com

FOUNDATION ROCKS POSTERS AVAILABLE ON EBAY:

http://foundationrocks.blogspot.com/2011/12/limited-ed-shucks-one-uk-artist.html

ALINE 117 an exhibition by ANNA BRUDER

2011-11-24T06:11:00.000-08:00

ALine 117 by Anna Bruder

From Dalston Superstore:

Anna Bruder’s ALine 117 exhibition will take you back to a childlike state of mind by transforming the original interior into

a solely black and white illustrated world.

Thick black marker pen out lines, set against a white backdrop, illustrates Anna’s world of naïve yet humorous and clever representation of domesticity and every day life.

A playful environment is created reminiscent of simplistic youth.

A contemporary pop artist, with touches of the graffiti and graphic image likened to Keith Haring and Jean Paul Basquiat, Bruder utilises her experience and great skill in set design and prop-making to create an enchanting and charismatic world.

ALine 117 is the first exhibition of this series of works from Bruder, her intent is to develop her ‘world’ in any given context, whether it be a gallery, an old bus or a school in Zambia. The 2D monochromatic adventure begins!

About Anna Bruder

Anna Bruder is an artist, Theatre Designer and prop maker who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2004. For over 8 years Anna has worked in the world of theatre, not only practicing as a highly skilled prop maker for London's leading musicals, but also designing and building awe inspiring sets and installations for productions at The Young Vic, travelling productions with the ETO and many more theatre based institutions. This has seen her work alongside some of the best-known directors and designers in the country.

Community and rehabilitation projects have had a large presence in her career so far, working with children, youths with learning disabilities and criminal offenders young and adult. To bring theatre design and opportunities to schools, prisons, and youth groups across the country. Throughout the last ten years Bruder has been building a strong reputation based on her own work, filling spaces large and small with unique installations and other creations that have been exhibited not only in a theatrical context but in both traditional gallery settings and unconventional spaces.

www.annabruder.com

MMU COLLECTIVE, presents KINGDOM

2011-11-24T05:07:00.000-08:00

‘KINGDOM’

MMU presents Kingdom, a collective of artists

Artists: Noel Basualdo, Anna Bruder, Daveen Chi, Joanna Johnson, Tomas Lewis, Jolene

Lin, Alex Noble, Pinky, Moses Powers, Anna Trevelyan, Rai Royal, Scott Webster,

Cordelia Weston, Saskia Wickins, Martin Wollerstam, Emma Gibson

“Welcome to our Kingdom; sit on the throne of my dreams and be my King''.

''I will show you our territory, walk you through our empire and expose our possessions.

This is our kingdom: our realm of action and control. Our beliefs, our obsessions, our

thoughts, our way...”

MMU signifies a higher consciousness of love and enlightenment, adverse to status and

materialistic values. Stay true to yourself, embrace your passions, don't judge and don't

question yourself. Learn from tragedies, accept torment and embrace enchantment. We

open our minds to all new experiences, and to generate our dreams into existence.

MMU stands for an awareness and understanding of bringing artists together with the

vision to amalgamate our passions and fantasies. We believe in alchemy, we believe in

altruism and we believe in making art to teach and to cultivate freedom of expression.

We represent our childhood dreams; finding yourself with open hearts and minds through

new unworldly magical experiences. We are MMU.

Our mission is to bring people together, to nourish their potential and to set themselves

free.

‘Note from the Dalston Superstore curatorial team’

‘Kingdom’ is the debut exhibition from MMU, a collective of artists from many different

backgrounds, ranging from illustration, installation, fashion, photography, sculpture,

painting and styling, collating to produce works under the concept that is Kingdom.

Keeping close to passion, spirituality and optimism, MMU are introducing another way

of looking creatively at the world, raising awareness for an alternative path to future

utopian hopes.

http://mmuunderworld.tumblr.com/

'Kings and Queens'
MARTIN WOLLERSTAM

'Untitled'

SCOTT WEBSTER

TOMAS LEWIS

'Mouth2Mouth'

PINKY LOVE

'Portal To The Unseen'

MOSES POWERS

"A Voyage Beyond Our Kingdom'

MOSES POWERS AND ANNA TREVELYAN

'Flying Castles'

CORDELIA WESTON

'Trust In Me'

ALEX NOBLE

'Elucid'

DAVEEN CHI

'Something Surviving"

SASKIA WICKINS

'Untitled'

EMMA GIBSON

MURALS MURALS MURALS

2010-06-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

The murals keep growing here at the Superstore and we've been lucky enough to have three new major talents creating murals for us, all different, all beautiful in their different styles, mediums and cultural inspirations.

SHUCKS ONE took over the downstairs toilets to create images of New York rent boys passed their sell by date.

MACA YANEZ, is an amazing street artist from Chille and an MA graduate from St.Martins, you can spot her works all around London. She took on the stair well in the bar to create an inspiring tree with hybrid animals, flowers and plants.

The fabulous SOPHIE STEPHENS created an almighty pink cartonn toilet for us full of naughtiness and nudity. She has a huge portfolio of work and credits and I'm sure you will recognise her style and also see a lot more of it soon!

FLESH AND BONE, exhibition by LOUISE RILEY

2010-05-18T04:53:00.000-07:00

An erratic mess of desperate embroidery pulls you into Louise Riley’s intense and compelling compositions, built up by layers of fleshy colors and soft textures.
Drawing back the figurative element of her work becomes apparent to reveal surreal narratives with dream like qualities, subjects caught in waking and slumber, or somewhere in between the two; when waking carries with it the symbolism of that nights adventure.
Bodies sprawl over old mattresses which are the canvas for her skin puncturing needle strokes. Her threads corse through these tattered and patterned back- drops, reminiscent of a retro domesticity.

Louise’s 3D body of work is extensive, but her hand writing and media mainly work within the practices of hand and craft work. Her stitching is like the messy brush strokes of an impressionist painter, mixing colors and directions to create a confused yet realistic palette.
Contrasting her chosen materials which generally lean towards the familiar and domestic, Louise’s concept practice is deeply scientific, but it is the science of nature to which she obsesses; molecules, chemicals and reproductive systems.
These themes resonate through ourselves and through her work to a point of normality, as they are present, we may barley notice them at all, because it is the naturalism and emotion of her work that is apparent. So the contrast becomes a partnership with the familiar.
This gives a depth and organic movement to her work and the characters she portrays.

The melancholy under tone to her work, partnered with her romantic and decorative sensibility results in some of the most unique and breathtaking art you will ever see.

'MILES' (2010)

NICO (2008)

'FAMILY TREE'

'FAMILY TREE' detail.

'CORDELIA'

'FILM STILL'

'MIA'

KATE HARAHAN PHOTOGRAPHY

2010-04-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

April at the Gallery Superstore sees the mysterious prints of Kate Harahan. After salvaging a collection of negatives from an old derelict house, she developed the damaged material and produced a collection of enigmatic images with some prolific content of famous foot ball and boxing matches.
Still unsure as to who was the original photographer her investigative creative process continues.

'Reinterpreting the memories of others looks at visual clues left behind in abandoned houses. It focuses on the idea that by observing images of other peoples' forgotten possessions, it is possible to make our own new memories from this information'.

LUKE EMBDEN MURAL

2010-04-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

To kick off the new murals project at the Superstore, Luke Embden created a psychedelic wall covering using abstract text that looks like the patterns from a new breed of subcultural wild animal.
Keep your eyes peeled for more from the mural project and Luke's distinct hand writing!

The artist at work.

The John Hour 2, The John Hour collective

2010-03-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

The John Hour
03.03.10. - 31.03.10
Emma Gibson, Emily Pugh, Raven Smith

THE JOHN HOUR: Producing a body of work which is whimsical yet sinister; familiar yet alien, the three emerging artists—Emma Gibson, Emily Pugh and Raven Smith—functioning collectively under the moniker, The John Hour, continue to investigate and challenge the universally understood rules for a coherent modern society. With photography, set design and installation as their combined media, the trio rigorously explore personal and universal reactions to the construction of the world we live in. In the second in a series of interrogative exhibitions, society's codes of conduct are examined, as are the values attributed to our individual and collective actions.

JAPED EMULSIFIERS
RAVEN SMITH,

TOWARDS THE LIGHT 2010
EMILY PUGH,
Installation using found books.

Challenged with the intimate, industrial nature of the building, I wanted to create an organic and delicate display that could still be capturing in its eclectic setting. The effect of TOWARDS THE LIGHT is to be simultaneously graceful yet momentarily unsettling for the viewer walking through the stairwell.

Aesthetically, light combined with pattern, tone and line bring hidden life to the book pages transforming their function into a more visual, wondrous experience.

DIE NOW PAY LATER
EMMA GIBSON,
Mixed media installations 2010

Assisted suicide is currently illegal in the UK. Since the suicide act of 1961 it is not illegal to commit suicide although it is forbidden to aid another’s. Helping someone to die carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. The guidelines for prosecution are constantly changing.

The argument between prolonging life and hastening death parallels the struggles between conscience and heart, compassion and indifference.

Will this result in cashing in on despair?

RECYCLE YOUR SOLDIERS
EMMA GIBSON + EMILY PUGH
100% recycled mixed media installation 2010

Every warrior society has, for thousands of years, experienced a "purification ritual" to help returning combatants deal with their "blood guilt" and to reassure them that what they did in combat was "good." These rituals traditionally involve long periods while marching or sailing home, the cool-down, group therapy period.

The introduction of “conditioning” in modern army training, aircraft, technology & the individual replacement system that hampered bonding and ensured that soldiers often arrived and left as strangers, resulted in the denial of this purification ritual and millions of psychiatric casualties, hence the discovery of PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It is often said that "All's fair in love and war," but is this a cultural conspiracy?

'Somewhere Inside' Group show.

2010-03-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

‘SOMEWHERE INSIDE’
Alannah Barker, Leila Peacock, Henry Mackay-Bull, Riva Pearce, Alex Kyriacou
Moses Powers, Alex Noble.
Private View 3rd Feb, 7- 10, Exhibition 4th Feb - 28th Feb
Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High st, e8 2pb

‘Somewhere Inside’ is an exhibition of works that explore themes of the innate, subconscious and hidden sides of our characters that exist inside us all.
Work that seems to connect with something with in, haunting images that make subconscious connections to parts of the human psyche.

Including painting, drawing, photography, film and installation; ‘Somewhere Inside’ is a diverse exhibition from artists who’s work compliments and contrasts each other, much like the processes of the human mind.

Exploring sides of the character we may celebrate or deny, somewhere inside they exist regardless. Similar to the indescribable visions from dreams, that flash familiarity and bewilderment.

These works are a manifestation of the unseen.

'Untitled 1 + 2'

Alannah Barker

'Dud'.

'Spat',

Riva Pearce.

Leila Peacock

'Marylin 2'

'Phat'

'Venus'
Alex Kyriakou

Henry Mackay Bull

NOUVEAU NUDE, The Male Nude Now

2009-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

This exhibition seeks to celebrate and explore the male nude, celebrating those who examine, muse and obsess over this controversial subject.

Exhibiting work from a new generation of home grown and international artists: from Paris duo Exterface intensely stylized nude narratives to Canada’s Mikel Marton, who’s male nude portraits are winning critical acclaim across America and around the world.
Alongside photography, mixed media work and 3D installation will be covers from ground breaking Butt magazine and fanzines including New York’s PinUps and Spunk. Aiding the review of the Male Nude’s place in a commercial and subcultural context.

Male nudity has always been more subversive than it’s female counterpart, falling in and out of popularity through out art history, but always celebrated and developed by the gay and erotic arts.

The ‘gaze’ has shifted from being predominantly on women to men in fashion, film and advertising, and within the last decade the increasing trend for homo eroticism and full frontal male nudity begs the question, what is the place of the male nude in contemporary society? And will it ever develop and evolve into being as common place as a pair of breasts in a newspaper?

As it takes more and more to shock us, what now is the reaction towards the male nude,
and can the more untraditional images and growing trend for alternative visions of beauty be viewed in their own right with out being labelled homo erotic, classicist or pornographic.
(c) curation and text by Alex Noble

THE NEW TESTAMENT (2009)
Origami lilly wreath made from the pages of gay Fanzines
BUTT Magazine, PINUPS, FLIT and SPUNK
Alex Noble + Sarah Hue

Fanzines have existed almost as long as magazines, creating an alternative to the consumerist and commercial interests. Breaking away from the main stream they are publications for sub cultural interests, spanning the worlds of art, music, fashion and fetish. Their most modern evolution and counterpart would be the ‘blog’, where the evidence of this format is most evidently popular and in demand. But unlike a blog they seem to hold something far more sacred, seen by the dedication that is put into the production of the Fanzine.
Often self funded they offer an alternative to the mass produced glossies, they are the voice of the people, the real bible of our time, a new testament for the real world, not just text and images dictated by commerce and trend that are kept afloat by advertising. The publications used for this piece of work celebrate alternative images of male beauty, homosexuality and creative passion.

SPUNK [ARTS] Magazine
Founded by Aaron Tilford in New York, Spunk offers an opportunity for artists to share their work with a wider audience. It is also a forum for artists and art fans to write from their own passions and experiences about different facets of the arts (drawing, painting, film, photography, literature, music, fashion, etc.). The articles either lean toward obscure subject matters or offer fresh perspectives on familiar ones. There is no emphasis placed on 'the new.' Spunk is about new art and new perspectives.
                                                                                                                           www.spunkmag.net
BUTT Magazine
BUTT is a pocket-size, quarterly magazine for out and about homosexuals, founded in 2001, published and printed in The Netherlands, available world-wide.
Butt magazine has reached cult status in alternative gay culture,it has built an individual and irresistible identity through featuring submitted stories, photographs and interviews. It is a finely edited representation of a real and non stereo typical side of gay culture.
                                                                                                         www.buttmagazine.com
PINUPS Magazine
Pinups is a triannual publication from New York, curated by Christopher Schultz. It features one male nude pictorial per issue. There are no words - just an exaggeration of the classic centrefold. Each magazine exists in a book form but can also be taken apart and tiled together to create a large poster image of that issues centre fold.
                                                                                                              www.pinupsmag.com

FLIT Magazine
‘You’ll want to hide Flit from your parents, but share it with your friends. When a person looks at Flit, we want it to feel like he is looking at a friend’s secret scrap book. It feels comfortable because it’s a friend’s creation; but it may also be surprising; a person may even be taken aback by what he discovers within.
Flit should be welcoming, not pretentious. It isn’t perfect, but it is personal and real’
                                                                                                                     www.flitmag.com

EMMA GIBSON
‘A SUPERIOR FORM’ (2009)
Ceramic, glass, wood

“ The personality traits of a man are determined by reading the bumps and fissures in the penis. Based on the concept that the penis is the organ of the male mind and that certain penile areas have localised specific functions or modules. The mind has a set of different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the penis. “
Installation artist, Emma Gibson, deals with intimate psychological themes using explicitly materialistic techniques, giving rise to a physical and mental space that quietly pulls apart everyday notions of self and society. Gibson’s incredibly rich installation work is built from layer upon layer of common social signifiers, periodically interrupted by the sentimental, the horrific or the otherwise wholly peculiar. These elements eerily function together to lure the viewer into an initial sense of familiarity that gets quickly turned in on itself, throwing up questions of sanity, identity, morality and the self. Gibson’s inquisitive and obsessive works have an incredible attention to detail and a pretext of intense thought and research. This is somehow driven through by the small scale she often works too. With such minute activity they seem similar to the workings of a brain. There is a before, a middle and an after with Emma’s work which often brings with it a surreal sense of humour.
www.egibson.co.uk

Ed Relph

Elizabeth Eamer

Alex Noble

THE BILL BOARD CYCLE

The decision was made to represent the main body of photography in the style of bill boards to play on the concepts from the theme of the exhibition. The ‘gaze’ has shifted from being predominantly on women to men in fashion, film and advertising, and within the last decade the increasing trend for homo eroticism and full frontal male nudity begs the question, what is the place of the male nude in contemporary society? And will it ever develop and evolve into being as common place as a pair of breasts in a newspaper? This representation is also a nod to the Pop art of the 1970’s, where advertising, collage and every day objects were utilised to create iconic works of art. Advertising inspired art as art now inspires advertising. As well as great works of art could these images be adverts for commercial brands? The shrewd world of marketing targets and uses different cultural groups for commercial gain and homo eroticism is one of the leading themes in the fashion market.Would you now be shocked to be confronted with one of these images on the street or at a bus stop? They are already in the magazines...

MIKEL MARTON
‘UNTITLED’ (2009)
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com
Canadian photographer Mikel Marton is heralded as one of the most promising faces in male photography. A heavily published commercial and artistic photographer he is represented by the Envoy gallery in New York. Mikel’s work is a modern interpretation of retro and classical male nude portraiture and a sensitive response to the male form. Whether it be a stylized costume piece or an explicit self portrait, his work is always honed in by an intellectual aesthetic and subtle eroticism. He is courageous in his sexually charged self portraits, baring his soul and body for all to see, and in the studies of his subjects he captures a strength and fragility, playing on themes of homo eroticism, mythology and masculinity.
www.mikelmarton.com

EXTERFACE
PICNIC WARRIORS (2009)
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com
Based in Paris, Exterface are French artists Julien and Stephane. Combining bold artistic concepts with carefully selected models, they produce a diverse collection of imagery which feel like poetic glimpses into the psyches of the powerful, masculine and homo erotic characters they create.
Each series of work is produced as a fresco, telling a heavily stylized story set against back drops of saturated light or comic strip rain storms, always featuring a beautiful model in various states of undress. Narrative is important to Exterface and is pushed through by their dual careers as scenario writers and painters, their work has been featured in leading publications and they are fast becoming icons of the gay art scene.

www.exterface.com

ANDREAS LARSSON
BUTT COVER

MOSES POWERS
‘MASK’ (2009)
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com)

Fine Artist Moses Powers was born and lives in London,he studied fine art and the London Metropolitan University where he gained representation by Degree Art, winning a number of awards and having his work published.
He works in the realms of photography and installation, often building elaborate theatrical sets for his images. His work explores themes of memory, schemers, the symbolism of objects and the human psyche. Influenced by mythology and religion he builds surreal and absurd environments for fictional subjects, creating new narratives and images of anachronistic icons.
www.mosespowers.carbonmade.com

MATTHEW BRINDLE
‘CLIMAX A’ (2009)
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com
Matthew Brindle is an internationally published photographer, designer and artist based in London, UK. Represented by ‘Rise’ gallery in Berlin.
“the flash pops. and i see you. struck by lightning. bare. brutal naked."Matthew’s work captures the mood of a generation and subculture, his recent exhibition ‘Skull Boy’ focussed on the many personas Matthew gave himself in public domains growing up in the london club scene, this personality is present in all his work. Giving an ongoing social commentary and documentation of one of todays most individual and expressive photographers. His work develops as his context does, and his artistic personal response is what makes his work so effective.
www.matthewbrindle.co.uk

JENS STOLTZE
‘MICHAEL JACKSON’
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com)

Jens Stoltze graduated from the Royal Danish Art School in the mid-nineties and soon after began his career as an independent photographer working with major Danish and international clients. Stoltze works with great insensitivity and a strong vision of the perfect photo. He is a master of lighting and technique and since 2001 he moved on to fashion photography. His eye for beauty and capturing the true intimate expression with the model or people he photographs are magnificent. During his career as a professional photographer Stoltze has exhibited with several artistic photo stories covering different themes, e.g. including a story of the culture and everyday life in Japan.
In 2005 his passion for creative freedom and expression led him to initiate the international magazine S Magazine.
Stoltze works internationally from his base in Copenhagen and New York.
www.jensstoltze.com

JUSTINO ESTEVES
‘UNTITLED’ (2009)
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com)

French photographer Justino Esteves hails from Normandy and has been living in London for three years where he started his career as a photographer.
As a published photographer his commercial work has a glossy high end aesthetic, unlike his male nude portraiture which lends it’s self to the ‘straight up’ style of photography. This gives an intimate and honest portrayal of his subjects. From humorous to despondent, relaxed to confrontational, his work has a rapacious sexuality.
www.justinoesteves.com

CATHAL O’BRIEN
‘BERLIN STRIP’
(Price upon request at art@dalstonsuperstore.com)
London based photographer Cathal O’Brien studied at St. Martins and his work has appeared in publications like LOVE Magazine and French Vogue. His films have been shown at various Fashion Week events, notably at the ‘TwoSee’ Film Event alongside Bruce LaBruce and at Selfridges department store. Focussing mainly on black and white imagery his work is equally successful in the moving image and in his exploration of colour, using dark opulent tones layered with a grainy mist. You can liken his artistic approach to that of Robert Mapplethorpe, capturing beautiful and intriguing images of friends and lovers. Inspired heavily by music there is an unpretentious and seductive aesthetic to his work, elegant capturing of stolen thoughts and moments.
www.ilovecathal.com

THEO FIRMO

Brazilian born Theo Firmo works across many artistic fields. He studied the sciences of communication, majoring in the Semiotics of Culture and it’s application to video and music. These studies have driven his main body of research to to be about the narrative of speech. His work exhibited here has an irresistible simplicity and innocence that strongly contrasts the subject matter, that could lead to notions of youth and experimentation. The lack of information is almost more informative, arousing and compelling than the full presence of nudity.

OPENING NIGHT

'BEAUTIFUL FREAKS'from RALF OBERGFELL + TONY HORNECKER

2009-10-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

The 'Beautiful Freaks' exhibition was a true force to be reckoned with, a whirl wind of wigs, balloons, peep holes, masturbation, suicide, costumes and voyeurism, offset by a back drop of Ralf Obergfell's portraits of London's most Iconic and contemporary performance artists, caught in their many transvestite and avant garde guises.

Tony Hornecker created a maze of ram shackled hut like boxes in the downstairs, reminiscent of some back alley in Amsterdam, but as if Amsterdam is some district on Mars, home to the Beautiful Freaks housed inside, performing their many wonderful and depraved acts. The audience were invited to watch, but teased with just glimpses of what was happening inside as viewers pushes each other to peer through the tiny pin holes and cracks.

Upstairs Tony built large abstract podiums, in one Ryan Styles perched like a Dolly Parton, bird of paradise, dangling her legs into the crowd and inflating hundreds of red balloons with which she decorated her perch. At the other end of the bar stood a glass box in which Jonny Woo would appear, seeing only himself in his enclosed two way mirror prison, each time he would have created a new character for himself, from 'business man' to cloaked transvestite terrorist. Performing for the masses but also only too himself.

Beautiful Freaks also premiered the launch of London's first 'Trannie Toilet', hosted by Jonny Sizzle, a place to have a cocktail, a gossip, and have a pee under the skirt and through the legs one of London's legendary Trannies!

The culture of night life today, especially in East London, has seen a huge trend for portrait photography, there are many web sites where after a night out, you can instantly see yourself air brushed, saturated and have a social networking profile picture ready to go! As successful, fun and popular this is, it is easy to loose track of the importance of work like Ralf Obergfell's, this show entailed a huge editing process and this photography isn't to satisfy the needs of a web site or trend for a sub cultural vanity. His images are for appreciation of these talented artists of our time, his muses and also his good friends, images that will become historical, and mark a period in time.

LINKS-
TIME OUT
Culture Queens
Playground Magazine
Out Magazine
B East Magazine
Gay Times

'HURT' SCULPTURE AND WALL ART BY MICK BATEMAN

2009-09-10T09:06:00.001-07:00

'Weeping Wall', wood, resin, steel.
'Weeping Wall' Detail
'Assembly', plaster,steel.
'Assembly' detail.
'Surlamer', steel.
'Urban Ghost', wood, steel, resin, lacquer.
'Exhibit A', wood,steel.
'In Place Of Faith', detail.
'In Place Of Faith', wood, rubber, glass, resin, mounted on a light box.
'In Pusruit Of Happiness', metal shell casings, resin, steel, mounted on antique mirror.

“HURT”
SCULPTURE AND WALL ART BY MICK BATEMAN

The world of Mick Bateman is filled with gothic decadence, ordered chaos and a robust delicacy created from decayed objects retrieved from industrial and domestic environments.

Working in a variety of disciplines he captures fragments of history and
reworks them to create new contexts, and give the ‘found’ a more extensive existence and historical importance.

Drawn to rusted and decayed metals, skeletal frame work of buildings and remnants of depression and suffering, he manipulates these elements to create sensitive and unnerving compositions.

“I am fascinated by the skin and the facade - that of a building, an industrial or organic form and the breaking of those protective surfaces through violence or corrosion”

There is a presence of life underpinning his macabre creations, the pieces act as man made incubators, heavily constructed but delicately housing traces of life.
A chandelier adorned with flutes of a blood like fluid and bomb shell casings housing robotic veins illustrate the melancholy weight that anchors his work, making it enigmatic and familiar at the same time.

For more of Mick Bateman's work go to www.mickbateman.co.uk

MYTHS OF THE MUNDANE - BECKY MAYNES

2009-09-10T08:13:00.001-07:00

Le artiste Becky Maynes

MYTHS OF THE MUNDANE
A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION BY BECKY MAYNES

The stagnancy of normality, the intrigue of suburbia and the subversion of the conscious.

Becky Maynes images of the construction of the perfectly landscaped suburbs of Canada, look on first glance like an advert for perfect suburban family living, but on a closer look, the presence of the machinery that builds these habitats becomes like a monstrous mother, giving birth to cold containers, over powering and compartmentalizing our modern lives.
Behind the walls linger ideas of bored house wives, frustrated fathers and adolescent children striving for a difference in their perfectly mundane surroundings.

These images speak volumes even with out the presence of any human form, but juxtaposed against these are a series of life studies, inter cut into the cold yet bright and colorful familiar imagery.
The figurative aspect of the works almost act like nymphs of modernity, darkly ethereal in their modern and natural context, giving an insight into a psyche of repressed desires.

WE SCRATCH ART EXHIBITION

2009-09-10T07:35:00.001-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

DALSTON SUPER STORE PRESENTS
‘WE SCRATCH ART’

Private View: Tuesday 7th July, 7.00 - 11.00,
117 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB

For it’s third exhibition the Dalston Super Store brings to you a sensory fete from two french artists, Kassim Bay and Dino De La Vega

‘THE PIONEERS OF THE SCRATCH ART’

‘We Scratch Art’ are not a duo you can put a label on and put into a box, apart from a light box maybe. The history of their practice stems form graffiti art but has become vast and varied in it’s development; this research has brought them to an interesting head and a scratchadelic body of work.

On surface level the work could easily be read simply as typography, graphic art and a style of graffiti. But on closer inspection the work is a contrast of a delicate process and fragile materials representing imagery of pop and subversive culture. Transcending the usual street based art work and becoming deeper and richer in it’s monochromatic play with light, sight and touch.

The artists have a deep interest in the senses and how they are used, or not used in the cases of the physically challenged.
This lead to the investigation and use of braille in their practice ,which then gave birth to the element of relief in their work and the process of taking away to create something new.

The work serves to stimulate the senses involving sight and touch, and on viewing it you can’t help but feel the presence of each pieces sound track, derived from the context in which the subject is taken.

‘We Scratch Art’ involve many interesting elements into their practice, fundamentally the fame shy artists work is humorous and conceptual, but firstly made to be experienced and enjoyed.

Come and see these mysterious pieces who’s construction process is a top secret, and witness how the work was born from the street but would now be just as suited to some modern urban interior; and don’t expect Graffiti!

REVIEWS-

London Art

Danish Daughters

DIRTY LAUNDRY EXHIBITION

2009-09-10T07:04:00.000-07:00

Tony Hornecker
Libby Shearon
Cathal O'Brien
Moses Powers
Morgan O'Donovan
Erin Petson
Emma Gibson

Shucks AKA Dan Shearon
Invite image - Rai Royal

PRESS RELEASE
‘DIRTY LAUNDRY’

‘The power of orange knickers,
Under my petit coat,
The power of listening to what you don’t want me to know’
(Tori Amos)

For the Dalston Super Stores second exhibition, Alex Noble invites a diverse selection of artists to contribute work derived from the concept ‘Dirty Laundry’. Taken from the phrase, artists exhibit there own personal responses to this concept and idea, culminating in a mentally and visually rich show which seeks to explore what it is that fascinates us all so deeply.

You are invited to rummage through our secrets and desires, question with out answers, and revel in subconscious longings and actions eagerly forgotten.

Installations, films, and printed tea towels will be on display, and work will also be hung on a giant washing line, airing the artists ‘Dirty Laundry’ for viewers to witness in cathartic ecstasy!

Artists include: Emma Gibson, Moses Powers, Erin Petson,
Beth Atkins, Tony Hornecker, Ralf Obergfell, Alessandro Bartolomei,
Morgan O’Donovan, Rai Royal, Cathal O’Brian, Libby Shearon, Becky Maynes,
and many more..............

REVIEWS-

Dazed Digital