Hot off the Press 11

For any print fans that haven't been already, this years Hot off the Press should be scribbled onto your "things to do list" immediately. Associate Director Natalie Suggitt has chosen the very best work from last years MA graduate shows,making this one of Curwen's most contemporary exhibitions.Anyone concerned about the state of printmaking in England today will be firmly reassured by the quality and diversity of this years graduates.Also, as with all our graduate shows, a great opportunity to buy the work of promising new artists before they become too expensive!

This year we had an immensley positive private view.
It was extremely busy, with many familiar faces from
 the world of printmaking in attendance.

Recieving a lot of attention at the private view was the work of Dolores De Sade, a graduate from the Royal College of Art.Rich with irony and a thoughtful playfulness, De Sade's puts disparate elements together to form surreal environments.These scenes make strange an irreverant comments. What these comments actually refer to is a mystery but one assumes the answers lie deep within tomes of contemporary art theory. That is not to say this work is academic or elitist however. As I write a visitor to the gallery is happily chuckling away to "It Was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times" where a lonely shed is depicted listing the great spread of curries which now make up a staple of the English diet. 

Dolores De Sade
It Was The Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times, £495 fr





















Continuing the strain of surreal imagery Eric Storey, a graduate from Camberwell College of Art, has collaged together images from popular culture to make sinister assemblages.His "Forensics in Fairyland" series seem to address the unconscious mind, using the imagery of nightmares to create narratives and scenarios that unnerve and disorientate.One of the most psychologically arresting of the series is No.4, where a potentially infirm girl clutches a ghost dog while being stalked by a pantomime Cricket man.The full series seem to give a map of the many characters which haunt Storey's personal "other world", with the suggestion that all conspire together to eventually undo him.
 

Eric Storey- Forensics in Fairyland 3, £290 fr

 As a whole Hot off The Press can be viewed as an accurate cross section of current movements in contemporary printmaking.At the same time the exhibition also feels like a cohesive whole, with the different artists sharing many similar attitudes to technique, pallet and content. If you haven't been already, you have until 28th January to catch this remarkable exhibition.

Denise Walker- I, £190 fr



The Print Master: Stanley Jones Speaking on Radio 4 on Tuesday 17th Jan 11:30

Legendary print maker and good friend of the gallery: Stanley Jones will be the focus of a documentary on Radio 4 next week.The program, which examines Stanley's career as the Master Lithographer at Curwen Studio, will be broadcast on Tuesday morning at 11.30.Anyone with even a passing interest in print making should definitely add this program to their diary immediately. It promises to be a fascinating examination of one of the most respected living print makers in the world today.

Stanley Jones and Tom Martin: Party Piece
Currently showing in the Gallery as part of "Curwen Prints"

 The program was recorded recently at the Curwen Studio amongst the thundering and clanking machinery of the print works.It attempts to explore Stanley's many experiences with some of the greatest print makers of the 20 Century.The recording also looks at the current artist in residence at the Curwen Studio, Susan Aldworth.Susan assumes the role of Stanley's apprentice in the show, learning his skills and listening to his many anecdotes.

For any of those not familiar with Stanley Jones' story ( also told by his wonderful book 'Stanley Jones and the Curwen Studio' available at the gallery) Stanley has been the Master Lithographer for over 50 years at the Curwen Studio. In the 50s he spearheaded a rapid expansion in British Printmaking and today he is revered in artistic circles as one of the greatest print makers alive. Now in his 70's Stanley Jones's clients read like a roll call of the 20th century's great British artists, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and David Hockney amongst many others.

 Today lithography is "under threat" as increasing numbers of Art schools have disposed of their lithography presses and there are few technicians who fully understand the process. This is a unique chance to work with the world expert in this discipline, and for the listener to discover more about this art.

Pierre Julien in Metro

Have a look at this brilliant article on oner of our artists, Pierre Julien, in todays Metro newspaper,page 3.

It's full of some rather interesting puns, some stretching the English language to capacity.

"He rolls the pioneering popular free paper into 3,000 matchstick-sized tubes, glues them and covers them in varnish.
‘Each animal takes about a month to build,’ he said. ‘When you are working on such a minute scale you have to be extremely patient, making sure each tube is placed correctly.’
‘Each year more and more animals are added to the endangered list and unless we do something to stop it, we will lose some of our most treasured species included the polar bear, tiger, elephant, gorilla, giraffe and black bears.
‘It’s almost unimaginable that we have allowed these great animals to get to the brink of extinction,’ added Mr Julien from London.
The menagerie, named Endangered Species, is at the Curwen Gallery in Fitzrovia, west London until Friday. There’s only one thing missing, a paper tiger."

 If you would like to see Pierre Julien's menagerie, including his paper Tiger, it will be on show in the gallery until Friday 23rd December.

The Christmas Show

Our Christmas show has now been running for two weeks and we are pleased to say it has been very successful.The Christmas show is an extremely important exhibition for us.  Our selections for this show try to reflect the gallery as a whole.Much of the work currently on our walls is the work of artists that we have been showing for many years, making this a good exhibition to reflect on the history of the gallery, as well as its future.

Keith Roberts, At Swim, £1500



Susie Perring Into the Sun

 This year we have attempted to include all of our gallery artists as well as trying out a few new additions to the usual core choices . Every artist we will be showing next year is represented in this show, with artists such as Susie Perring (showing in the Rectory Gallery next March- May) and Brendan Hansbro (showing at Curwen in April 2012) causing quite a stir. Lee Sellers also, who will be showing at Curwen next December, has been extremely popular, selling the five paintings we initially hung in one go! Other works such as Keith Roberts At Swim will be familiar to many and much loved by everyone here.



Pierre Julien, Gorrilla, £450

The Christmas show is also a great platform for us to look to the future and to try new artists. This year we have been delighted to show Pierre Julien’s Endangered Species series of sculptures. They are made in a very original fashion- from hundreds of rolled up bits of newspaper. Pierre has very kindly given us a brilliant collection of these animals which will also be showing next year in the Rectory Gallery, during the “Menagerie at the Rectory” exhibition running from January- March 2012.Look out for a short article in Metro newspaper on Pierre, hopefully printed at some point this week.

   



Macmillan Cancer Support Weekend, 26th/27th November

The Macmillan Support Weekend is a charitable iniative we have been running for over 30 years.The weekend is a fund raising art exhibition which runs for two days only (this coming weekend 26/27 November). Of every sale 10% of the artwork's price is donated to Macmillan Cancer Support.The show is open from 11am-9pm on the Saturday and 11am-6pm on Sunday.

               Hannah Battershell, Crocodilian, £375

 

Originally started in 1977 at her own home by the gallery director, Jill Hutchings, the exhibition

has been running every year since.Jills particular connection with Macmillan Cancer Support
comes from her backround in nursing in the oncology wing at the Middlesex Hospital, where she nursed cancer patients specifically.

Every year the exhibition raises money, as well as awareness, for the charity.It is also a great opportunity to see a more eclectic mix of artwork than is usually shown by the gallery.Some of our staple artists are represented in the show. Henry Walsh  a much loved and long serving Curwen Gallery artist will be showing Insouciant (below), one of our favourite of his paintings.          
                 

                  Henry Walsh, Insouciant, £700

Another of our current favourites; Lee Sellers, whose charming paintings have been most recently shown on our stall at the Affordable Art Fair (Battersea) in October.Going for a Walk (below) is without doubt the most delightful of all his work.
                Lee Sellers, Going for a Walk,£750

Two very new artists, both showing at Curwen Gallery for the first time during the Macmillan Support Weekend, are Robin Spalding and Hannah Battershell.Both have an unexplained fascination with Crocodiles! Hannah Battershell's dreamlike and uncanny paintings are both unsettling and at the same time rather adorable.Robin Spalding's Golden Crocodile could be said to occupy similar conceptual ground, its toothless smile making it as cute as it is threatening.
                     Robin Spalding, Golden Crocodile, £450

Alison Neville- Cathedrals,Mosques, Madrasas and Little Houses 3rd-23rd November

Alison Neville is probably the most well travelled artist we have ever met.Her career spanning show at Curwen Gallery is a document of the many exotic places which she has travelled to and been inspired by.

       Alison Neville, Royal Albert Hall, etching, £450 fr

Alison Neville is an adept printmaker with a distinctive, characterful style.This show
builds upon a solid grounding of work from her early career (Westminster Abbey, Poets Corner was shown in Curwen Gallery's first show 30 years ago) and charts both a lifetime of work and of travel.

For me, the most significant factor in this body of work is that Alison is exceptionally accurate when capturing a sense of place.There is a feeling that Alison has absorbed so much from each place and then managed to transcibe this experience into a single image. Each etching is like a distillation of the essence of the subject location.For the places I know, I get a genuine feeling of nostalgia, for the many places I have never been I feel that I must go at once!From conversations with the other visitors to the show, I think these sensations are a surprisingly common reaction to this work. 

                             Alison Neville Mosque-Pesharwar, etching,£375 fr

Her most recent works document a trip down the Congo River.Last Tuesday evening (15th Nov.) Alison delivered a fascinating talk on this rare experience.From this trip she has created a series of delicately produced  etchings of the "Little Houses" she encountered while travelling down the Congo.The remarkable character of these makeshift buildings are what Alison has most faithfully reproduced. One gets the feeling that there are a wealth of different stories which live in the fabric of these little houses.Also, when the whole series hang together, there is a real sense of the narrative of Alisons own journey and the many stories which she could tell of this much mythologised river.

                                         
        Alison Neville,Congo River Series:The Widow's House, etching,£150 fr 
Alison Neville- Cathedrals,Mosques, Madrasas and Little Houses runs from 3rd-23rd November

The London Suite

The London Suite are a set of 10 lithographs published by Advanced Graphics London in 1982. 10 well known artists were invited to each make one print to illustrate to the world that printmaking didn't have to be flat.They are a very vibrant set of screenprints, all with a unique character and the hallmarks of their artist.The suite is a rare and very collectible set of prints with some of this centuries best loved artists contributing.

Albert Irvin RA Battlebridge

 Advanced Graphics kindly let us borrow their complete framed set which is currently on show in the gallery.We have one available copy of the suite of prints (unframed) which is priced at £7000.