A new gallery has opened up in Amsterdam, nestled somewhere in the cities business district, yes you hear correct, Amsterdam has a business district.
The Look for art galleries first show, ‘The Bear Market’ should be a grand old affair, so if you fancy taking a trip out to the Netherlands and want to see somewhere else other than the weed cafes and ’shemales’ standing in windows then get yourself down there.

THE NIXON ART MOSH
MUNICH JANUARY 29-30, 2012


The Nixon Art Mosh will make its 2012 debut with a two-night installation located in the heart of Munich. In partnership with ISPO, Planet Sports, Factory Media and Pleasure Mag.
Beginning Sunday January 29, this invitation-only art exhibition will showcase the works of Brett Walker, George Morton-Clark, Orlando Campbell, Matt Small, Cheryl Dunn, David Bray, Greg Eason, Mc Bess, LG White, Best Ever, Crista Léonard, Adam Bricusse, Lee Colwill, Anders Gjennestad, Stohead, Anton Unai, Shorvon & Hunter, Mox, Kutmah, Alex Laurel, Mathias Fennetaux, SatOne, Thesigner and C100.

There comes a point where it’s really important to sound out the nonsense you see around you, to use your voice to show whats not quite right, even a whisper is something said…….

In hiphop theres got to be a backlash to the corporate performing monkey scenario, Intelligence, commentary, artistry, these aspects have to become the norm again…..

Bro Ben provides his views on whats lacking in hiphop culture at the moment……respect to you dude

Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery presents Phantasmagoria, an exhibition of paintings, prints, drawing, street art, installation and sculpture.
Private view on Thursday 9th February - Exhibition runs 10th-26th February 2012

The title for the exhibition, Phantasmagoria, stems from the ongoing cycles of sub-cultures and counter cultures, their art, and its eventual assimilation by fashion and the media to the point of vulgarity and its serendipitous decaying of objective and social meaning in tribal and underground arts.

In 1990 a relatively unknown Canadian essayist Gail Faurschou wrote about fashion’s “ingenious strategy of expansion.” As more artistic raw material that challenges corporate consumerism is made, the more marketable material corporations have to advertise its products. This systematic diffusion of any opposition continues to effectively dissolve and quash any of its subject’s capacity for growth and maturity.

The exhibition brings together new and existing works. Jon Burgerman, Shin Tanaka and Boicut are global illustrators and custom designers. Isaac Cordal’s Follow the Leader depicts debased failings of Western leaders. James Unsworth’s and Andrew James Jones’ work subscribes to horror and the grotesque that preserves the integrity of their art. Anwot makes art, taking inspiration from fetish clubs and the sex scene. Re-assembled pieces and new works from David Shillinglaw pay homage to cult culture and philanthropy, Martin Wollerstam depicts corporations as monsters attacking the world and Roman Klonek prints are of mechanical cartoons and environments defined by logos. Otto Schade and Oliver Winconek paintings of surreal iconography can easily be found in the most fashionable parts of London’s East End. Dave Anderson and Agent Provocateur’s work satirises fashion and commodity culture. Rebecca Strickson, incorporates contemporary art with creative industries, such as Nexus group and creative culture group, Soho House. Commissioned pieces by Todd Ryan White echo the psychedelic posters and record covers of Anton Kelly and Stanley Mouse. A new Matt Small sculpture addresses lost identity and inadequacy in youth culture.

The artistic whirlwind that is Ms Calidonia Curry`has her first solo show in London starting this thursday at the Black Rat Projects

From the images seen so far of her installation going up, we can expect an incredible amount of awesomeness to be on display at the spot……..`

Just seen my art works are being shown out in sunny LA again. The Merry karnowsky galleries group show ‘District La Brea’, features artists like Shep Fairy and Aiko…all cool and funky…shame I’m not there in person though

Heres a little video showing the set up for the Moniker Art Fair.

Tons of effort by all involved go into putting on these kinds of shows, so it’s nice to see all the huff and puff condensed into this vid

The other day was fun for me, I was asked to paint a piece of art that was to be used as a backdrop for a scene in a short film.
The film is called ‘What if’ and is set on the Ainsworth Estate in north londinium and is all about our young people and the positive energy exuding out of youth culture, which is all groovy with me…..

I’ve never worked that big or on a vertical wall so all in all it was a nice push for little old me….

It’s all part of the olympics so it wont be screened for a little while….,,,around the time the worlds meant to end I reckon…….

The Moniker Art Fair was a fun event to be part of, I was most glad to be part of the little old affair.
One thing about doing any presentation of work though, is as an artist, you put your shit up and yeah you get exposure…. but your also exposed…Exposed to mr and mrs opinion and they scary fuckers they are.
But whats to do?. You have to be brave damn it. Putting that work up after all the effort it takes to do and seeing people look at it and then wonder off looking non plussed, it’s kind of interesting…..
Some people seemingly saw nothing in the work, it rolled right over them, they just didn’t see it at all. I watched them and saw no appreciation, “hey you ya fuckers you can at least pretend to like my shit ya bastards, I hate you”…I thought.

But then In those instances I always give me self a slap and say… maybe they not ready for it, or maybe they just don’t like the stuff, maybe it just ain’t for them, thats cool, or maybe they don’t need to sit and stare for ages..it’s just visual noise to them

The basic fact is….we all got our own world views….we all have our own requirements, we all see what we want/need to see, and many of us make sure our world view isn’t disrupted too much…..for me, it’s those people that I want to get hold of and talk to.

In the past I’ve had bods go on……say they don’t like what I do and have been dismissive of the work, most of the time I’ve nattered back and explained more about what I’m trying to convey and the dudes have come back and said they suddenly get it, but it’s taken speaking to the artist and allowing themselves to open out there world view to see what is going on in the art.
but I only chatted to a couple of those peeps in the past….and I’ve always been a little sloshed too

But anyway for all the people that don’t feel the work, theres always those that get it, that understand it and are open to what is going on and the message contained.

Standing at the fair next to my work a lady came by and stopped and looked, She said to me she could see the ‘oneness’ in the portraits, she understood the use of colour, she connected with the found materials I used to paint on, she enjoyed the whole concept behind the work and what was nice was she knew nothing about me or my work, she was just an open minded person, her world view was such that she didn’t need to turn away, she got something from my art and I felt that I had accomplished something special right there,
The nice thing is, other people seemed to appreciate the work too. And thats the reality right there, we all come at things from an individual angle, there is nothing that appeals universally, nothing on this planet is liked by everyone, there will always be someone out there that says that something I love is shit and the shittest thing in the world to me is good….we all different and thats an annoyingly wonderful thing.
I accept that and embrace it……no point stressing
anyway, thanks to all those that enjoyed the show..much love to you’s

Whilst Im working hard bashing away at the Moniker Art Fair me is bopping away to this tune, happy, happy, joy, joy……..