Picasso and Modern British Art, Tate Britain, London

From February 15th until July 15th 2012 Tate Britain in London is showing an impressive exhibition entilted Picasso and Modern British Art.

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), born in Spain, was one of the leading modern art artists. Together with Georges Braque he was a co-founder of the style in art known as cubism. Picasso and Modern British Art for the first time looks at the relationship between Picasso and modern British artists. It focuses on the influence which Picasso‘s art had over seven leading British artists from the different generations: Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney. The exhibition in Tate Britain features 150 art works, almost half of which are by Pablo Picasso. It presents his paintings collected and exhibitied in Britain between the First World War and the time after the Second World War. Impressive collection of Picasso‘s works includes his designs made in London in 1919 and also such remarkable paintings as The Three Dancers (1925) or Weeping Woman (1937).

The aim of the exhibition is to reveal the contribution of the British writers, collectors or artists to the understanding of Picasso’s art. It also allows the viewer understand how Britain responded to Picasso’s work, how did he arrive in Britain and affected British art and ideology. Presenting Picasso’s works of art shown alongside the British art inspired by him allows for the constant comparison, when visiting the exhibition. At the same time, viewers can admire tremendous skill of the one of the most prominent artist of all time.

article published:

http://www.artinfo.pl/?pid=events&sp=relation&id=16863&lng=1

La Mania London Fashion Week

The polish fashion brand La Mania, presented its autumn/winter collection 2012/2013 for the first time abroad during the London Fashion week. The inauguration took place in the noble space of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, under the auspices of the Polish Cultural Institute and the Polish Embassy in London. La Mania, the polish luxurious clothing brand launched in 2010 by Joanna Przetakiewicz, who is a protege of Karl Lagerfeld. The goal of the brand is to create elegant and at the same time sexy fashion for modern women of all age- said Joanna Przetakiewicz at the event. The brand launched in London together with the Galerie Gmurzynska, which presented sculptures and paintings of the contemporary art artist- Marco Perego. Fairy music for the event has been prepared by the famous polish composer, winner of the Oscar prize for the music to the film Finding Neverland, Jan Kaczmarek, who was present at the event. Stylists, models and celebrities, such as the polish singer Tatiana Okupnik and also the polish ex-president Mr. Aleksander Kwasniewski attended that flamboyant event. The displayed clothes were either simple and elegant or flashy and colourful. The space has been arranged in a way to present mannequins alongside the contemporary art pieces, such as paintings of gnomes from the Snow White story. Connecting fashion and art created the unique, magical atmosphere of a fairy tale.

article published: http://www.eventsandtrends.com/index.php?menuid=13&content=1805

Agata Olek "I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone", Tony's Gallery, London

Agata Oleksiak, known as Olek, was born in 1978 in Ruda Slaska, in Poland. She subsequently studied cultural studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Currently she lives and works in New York. Olek is known for covering different objects, indoors and on the streets, with colorful crocheted yarn. Her art makes streets more engaging and joyful, for example in December 2010 she covered with crochet Wall Street Bull in New York. Olek exhibited worldwide in countries such as USA, Brazil, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Italy etc.

On the 26^th of January 2012 Tony’s Gallery presented a preview of the first Olek’s exhibition in the UK entitled ‘I do not expect to be a mother but I do expect to die alone.’ For the purposes of the exhibition the gallery’s top floor has been completely covered with crochet. The space is also filled with different kinds of furniture, items and even participating performer- all covered with crochet.

Artist said that she finds her inspiration in thing like films, home in Poland and her text messages. The source of inspiration for the London exhibition was also the city itself. Olek said that she found some of the furniture featured in the exhibition on the streets and sidewalks in London.

It is difficult to say what is more impressive- Olek’s original idea for the form of expression itself or the laborious work and effort that she has to put into crocheting. On the face, colourful, joyful and in a way crazy exhibition room covered in crochet, when looked at more closely, reveals boundaries between reality and fiction and artist's private life. It looks like a beautiful metaphor of the reality, which adds more colour and inspiration into everyday life. It is a great that Olek now has a chance to share her fantastic idea and work with the viewers in the United Kingdom.

Exhibition will be open until March 23^rd 2012 in

Tony’s Gallery

68 Sclater Street, London,

E1 6HR London

info@tonysgallery.com

www.tonysgallery.com

Opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 11am – 7pm

Nearest tube: Shoreditch High Street

Article published in Polish:
http://www.artinfo.pl/?pid=events&sp=relation&id=16656&lng=1

Damien Hirst “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” exhibition in Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street, London.

Damien Hirst is an internationally renowned artist, who started to be recognised on the British art scene in 1990s as a member of a group known as Young British Artists. Known for his controversial art works inspired by death, or for his diamond skull, Damien Hirst continues to dominate British and international art world. 

Larry Gagosian, one of the leading art dealers in the world, decided to hold the worldwide exhibition of twenty five years of spot paintings by Damien Hirst. It is the first time Gagosian Gallery is exhibiting single art work of a single artist throughout its eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva and Hong Kong. Worldwide exhibition include more than 300 paintings, most of which are being lent by private collectors and public institutions. 

Damien Hirst’s spot paintings comprise of colourful spots on differently shaped boards. As artists said himself ‘I was always a colorist, I have always had a phenomenal love of color (…) So that’s where the spot paintings came from.’ He created his first spot painting in 1986 while being a student at Goldmisth College in London. It is estimated that today there is about 1000 spot paintings of various sizes, which are made mainly by artist's assistants. Owner of Gagosian Gallery, Larry Gagosian, said that Hirst's spot paitings have already entered the popular culture.  

Opening of the worldwide exhibition “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” took place on the 12th of January 2012. Gagosian Gallery on Britannia Street in London exhibited numerous spot paintings ranging from small spot paintings to monumental work, created on different shapes of boards, where rarely single colour is repeated. Paintings are of different dimensions, however what they have in common is that the spaces between the spots are usually equal. As artists said himself, superficially these paintings seem to be happy, however in fact it is very hard to focus on them and one can loose his boundaries while looking at these hallucinogenic canvases.

It may seem that there are limited possibilities of what an artist can do with the spots and that the exhibition may give an impression of mechanical reproduction of a single idea without underlying purpose or meaning. On the other hand, when looking at the range of the paintings, one can understand the determination with which they are made and appreciate the hallucinogenic effect which they produce. Also, the fact that spot paintings became an instantly recognisable mark of an artist himself, and that they were appreciated enough to be exhibited in all Gagosian Galleries around the globe, seems to suggest that Damien Hirst is perhaps the leading artist in the contemporary art world.

Article published:
http://www.artinfo.pl/?pid=events&sp=relation&id=16655&lng=1


http://www.eventsandtrends.com/index.php?menuid=27&content=1800

Miss World 2011

Miss World 2011

Miss World 2011 and the celebration of 60 years of Miss World competition took place on Sunday the 6th of November 2011 in Earls Court, London, the city where it all began 60 years ago. Miss World competition debuted during the festival of Britain on the south bank of the river Thames in 1951. The aim was to find the most beautiful woman in the world. The first winner was Kiki Hakansson, from Sweden. Since then, the competition has become extremely popular and has aided in building positive links between participating countries. Throughout history, it is one of the few international events that has not been disturbed by any other global affairs or events. Another goal of the Miss World’s pageant is to contribute to charitable projects. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars through its charity programme called Beauty with Purpose. There were one hundred and thirteen countries that took part in the Miss World 2011. Over half of this year‘s representatives are in full time educational programmes and speak three or more languages. This is just one aspect that reflects how bright and talented they are. The live show in Earls Court was hosted by the USA TV star Jason Cook and the presenter of Good Morning China, Angela Chow. The show broadcasted live in one hundred and fifty countries around the world, attracting more than one billion viewers. Diversity, the winner of 2009 Britain’s Got Talent show, kicked off this years show with a bang. Then all contestants walked out in extravagant dresses and the prejudging marks were revealed. These marks reflected the previous stages of the competition where contestants faced various challenges during their trip around the UK. Meanwhile, the British group Blue and Ramin Karmillo’s solo performance of a song from Phantom in the Opera spiced up the show. Per Nelson Mandela’s wishes, his grandson then delivered the important message of humanitarian action. This year’s panel of judges was comprised of previous Miss World winners. Miss England, Miss Korea, Miss Venezuela, Miss Philippines, Miss Puerto Rico, Miss South Africa and Miss Scotland made it to the final stage of the competition and had one last chance to convince the jury by delivering a short speech. The speeches revealed one of the main purposes of the competition - to make the difference to the world‘s most burning problems. Eventually, they announced the winners. Third place was granted to Miss Puerto Rico, second place to Miss Philippines and first place, somewhat unsurprisingly, to Miss Venezuela, Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colmenares. Previous Miss World, Alexandria Mills from the USA, crowned the new winner and the show was closed with the song performed by all the contestants. Although the competition itself attracts criticism from various activists groups, its underlying charitable purpose and symbolism of peace between the countries still exist. At the same time, the competition promotes the idea that young talented women are able to fulfill their dreams and make a difference in the world. To this end, the winner is not only the most beautiful woman in the world but most importantly the one who is willing to commit her talents to being a part of the solution to the social problems around the globe. review published:  http://www.eventsandtrends.com/index.php?menuid=17&content=1784

LIA 2011 Barbara Levy in interview

LIA 2011 Barbara Levy in interview

Interview with the Founder and President of London International Awards, Barbara Levy, during the London International Awards held in London on the 14th September 2011, by Olga Maczynska for events & trends. Olga Maczynska: Congratulations for this wonderful show tonight. Can you tell me how the London International Awards began? Barbara Levy: I was working at the CLIO Awards and I became the International director over there. Through that I met quite a number of luminary people in Britain, real characters in the industry. At the time, there was the company Creative Circle based in the UK. It did not have a London based office, they had the idea to go international so they approached me to think of it. I did not really want to leave my job completely but I did a lot of research and I decided to talk to some people. They convinced me to follow that idea. First year’s jury was such a good jury that we were even accused of being a scam, since nobody had a jury like that at the time. O.M.: Has the competition been successful since then? B.L.: In the first year of the running of the competition one of the agencies called me and asked for names of the winners and finalists from the previous year. I said that it was the first year of the competition and joked to let me check if maybe I sent them a bill for what they thought they entered. In the first year of the competition we had entries from around 35 countries which was extraordinary back then, and we just grew from there. Competition has been a success every year, except maybe three years ago at the time of economic recession. London International Awards is the only awards competition in the world where the same person is running it since 26 years. The competition was a challenge because it was London based, run by the American, with the biggest markets being Germany and Asia. So it was very confusing but that is how it became the international awards. O.M.: Could you explain the reasons for the creation of the NEW Category in this year’s competition? B.L.: The idea behind the NEW Category came out when the Chief Innovation Officer and I sat down together and tried to think of a new kind of medium. We could not really think about the name for it. When walking around the hotel in Las Vegas I thought why not call it simply ‘the new‘, because it does not define anything. Others thought I was joking but in the end we decided to call it that way. However, actually we had no idea what the category exactly was about. I was in the business for many years and the competition itself has always been engaged with the traditional media. Therefore, ‘new’ stands for something that people are creating in a completely new way, not only of advertising, but in connecting different forms of media. NEW Category defines a completely innovative mind set, based not so much on creativity, but on what the jury defines on the spot. O.M.: Is this the first year which has no maximum length limit for the entries and accepts longer, even documentary films? B.L.: We actually do not really take documentaries and we have given up having maximum lengths for the entries, because nobody really adhered to it. We actually did think of taking short films maybe in next year’s competition. In this year’s competition, Morgan Spurlock came up with his documentary film POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. When Morgan Spurlock was entering his film we did not realise that it was the whole film he is entering. We thought it was just a concept of the film that he was entering. It ended up in the NEW Category. After a few days the jury called me and said that they have a real dilemma because Morgan Spurlock‘s film was completely different than anything and did not fit into what LIA is about. They asked me to decide if they can create a new award, specifically for Morgan Spurlock’s film. They were talking about creating the award called The Greatest Award Ever Sold. I said that the industry might look at it as a kind of award which is ‘sold for price’. Therefore, the jury proposed to me to find a sponsor for the award, although we never had sponsors before and I said ‘why not‘. We had an idea for a white statute for this award, the statute manufacturer said it was possible and so the award has been created. O.M.: What do you think about his film itself? B.L.: We watched the film and I must say it is very much eye opening, and Morgan Spurlock’s work is very confrontational. O.M.: Looking into the future, could you say that next year’s competition will go more into the direction of social media? B.L.: We are talking about it, but the worst problem that the new jury has is that social media is not really what the competition should be about. So the Facebook page might get many hits but unless it has other reasons than to announce something it is not really what the jury considers to be a successful social media. O.M.: Any final conclusions about the competition and perhaps any plans in mind for the 30th anniversary of LIA? B.L.: (Laughing) I have not even booked a ticket for my next week’s trip so I cannot even think about the 30th anniversary yet. We are going to judge again in Las Vegas next September and I am not sure whether or not we should be doing another major show regionally due to budgetary reasons. O.M.: Thank you very much.

interview published:
http://www.eventsandtrends.com/index.php?menuid=27&content=1783

WILHELM SASNAL IN WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, LONDON

London has always been a hot spot for contemporary art. A feature packed October saw the return of the Frieze art fair, the opening of White Cube’s flagship gallery as well as the first major UK exhibition of the great Polish artist, Wilhelm Sasnal, in Whitechapel Gallery. Despite this busy schedule, Sasnal’s exhibition, which had its preview on the 13th of October 2011, really put itself on the London arts map.

Wilhelm Sasnal, born in 1972 in Tarnów, Poland is one of the most intriguing figures of contemporary art in our time. His art has been showcased worldwide in places such as Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate Modern, London. The subject matter of his art transgresses all boundaries as long as it is honest, as he states himself: ‘There are no rules. The only rule is that you must not cheat.’

As the curator at Whitechapel, Achim Borchardt-Hume explained during the preview, the exhibition is divided into three sections based on Sasnal’s work from 1999 - 2011. The themes range from his extensive travels around the globe, Sasnal’s own family portraits and finally issues of political significance. The first section presents artwork from the last five years including family portraits, which all curiously keep the subject’s faces hidden, along with paintings inspired by music and art masterpieces. The second part of the exhibition explores the troubled history of his native country Poland. As the artist mentioned during the preview, he doesn’t wish to victimise Poland but he feels that he cannot be indifferent to the dark chapter of Polish history affected by the Holocaust and the Second World War. Although painting will always be Sasnal’s first love, the exhibition includes his recent ventures into photography and film. Third section demonstrates this with a selection of short features films including, ‘Kiss’, which seemed to draw the majority of attention. What is specific for Sasnal’s art is that his films, paintings and photographs remain closely connected in terms of content. During the preview the artist revealed that although he was trained as a painter, he does not want to limit himself with just one art form, as he wishes to retain a healthy distance between each form of expression and allow himself to discover new places.

The success of the preview was attested by the large gathering of art enthusiasts from all over the country and beyond. Not only has Sasnal proven himself to be a truly exceptional international artist but has managed become an icon of Polish contemporary art. The hidden stories in Sasnal’s paintings can mesmerise viewers for hours as they ponder the delicate mysteries within each work. Wilhelm Sasnal once said ‘painting is not a game, not something you do just for fun; it comes with a responsibility that I take very seriously’ and though his paintings usually follow his signature style, the variety within the exhibition clearly demonstrates his sense of responsibility. The different forms of expression adopted by the artist always manages to surprise making this a must see exhibition.

Visit information:

Tuesday-Sunday 11-6 Thursday 11-

Whitechapel gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street London E1 7QX

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