I went to the Private Viewing of the latest exhibition at the Loop Gallery on Friday night. Its called '(Un)titled' and runs from March 1st to April 2nd. As you can see from the photo there was a good crowd there to see the works of five painters: Craig Atkinson, Derek Cully, Jason Jones, Terry Sullivan and Christine O'Reilly Wilson and the sculptor Stephen Hitchin.
All the artists fulfil Loop's remit of contemporary abstract art with a selection of works by each painter on the walls and several of Hitchin's sculptures around the perimeter of the room. Pictured here is one of Craig Atkinson's paintings.
Thanks to Craig Atkinson for the photographs www.craigatkinson.co.uk

art05 is the second annual NW Arts Council event. The first was in Manchester last year.
Information overload

From 10.30-16.30 there was the art05 x.change in the Coach Shed in Greenland St. Over 70 organisations and individuals were involved all with their own table full of stuff. Lots of familiar faces from the local galleries, theatres etc. and some not so familiar from Manchester, Cumbria, Preston, Cheshire etc.
Surprisingly (or perhaps not) no sign of anyone from the Capital of Culture dept.! Will I ever get to meet these guys? Have to go and bang on the door of their ivory tower I suppose.
I returned with a large pile of literature and intend to read every word. Also pictured here are people from Catalyst Media and GoldFishGallery

Party Time
There were debates in the afternoon at FACT in association with the BBC about Arts Council work in the NW and 'Can you buy Culture?'. I missed these, I didn't have a ticket.
The awards party was in the evening at the Blade Factory (Jump Ship Rat). We were presented with lots of food and drink and these ribbons which were part of the installation commissioned from artists Maddi Nicholson and Stuart Bastik.

Eddie Berg snogs Tracey Emin and gets a big gong

Arts Council NW Chair, Tom Bloxham, presented John Fox with the award for a Lifetime's Contribution to the Arts. John Fox, amongst many things, founded Welfare State International in 1968.
Then Tracey Emin presented the two £10,000 awards. The organisation one went to 'Quarantine' from Manchester, creators of new theatre. The individual award went to Eddie Berg, founder and executive director of FACT Eddie couldn't make much of a speech because he said he was dying to go to the loo, should have left the heavy drinking till after the awards.
Tracey says she is a big fan of Liverpool and its Culture and had one of her best orgasms here. I'd like to take the credit but modesty forbids.

Oh How We Danced

The excellent music and dancing went on till midnight. These are dancers (not wrestlers) 'Dansarota Barred' and outside was Walk the Plank's 'Garden of Fiery Fabulousity' which was indeed fabulousitous.

I'll post more about the whole art05 day later but for now here's a pic of Tracey Emin unveiling her first public sculpture outside the Oratory next to Liverpool Cathedral today. Called 'Roman Standard', I think its a really nice work but I'll need to dig out my birdspotting binoculars to get a close look.
It was freezing cold so I just popped back to Jackson Towers to warm up and upload my pics before returning to the Coach Shed.
See BBC report and video here

Excellent article by Stuart Jeffries in today's Guardian about the problem of popular exhibitions. In the major cities especially, its becoming impossible to just stand or sit in quiet contemplation in front of a painting for more than a few seconds. When I went to Tate Britain at the weekend I didn't for one moment entertain the idea of pre-booking, queuing and being shepherded round the Turner/Whistler/Monet, much as I'd like to see the paintings. Instead we had a relaxing wander round the Caro sculptures - then used up our queuing quota at the overcrowded cafe!

Here's my ticket for the Arts Council art05 awards party tomorrow night. Its printed on pretty pink felt! But the problem is it says 'Smart Dress for Party' and I don't have a smart dress and if I did I wouldn't wear it to go to Jump Ship Rat which is, lets be honest, a bit of a dump. Unless they've been refurbishing the place over the last couple of months I think some of these Arts Council nobs are in for a bit of a shock when they find themselves at this prestigious event in an unheated old shed on the coldest night of the year in Liverpool's red light area. HeHe.

This is turning into a bit of a travelog. After my recent trips to Manchester and London, today I visited Newton-le-Willows. Not exactly a cultural hotbed but its a nice little Merseyside town (or village even) with a nice little station and nice little park and heritage trail and now a nice little Art Gallery called Moo D'art which is actually about half of the Global Living shop on the High Street. It was established and opened only a few of weeks ago by Clair Greenall and Anne Christian (pictured here). They display and sell a nice mix of original contemporary art, relief paintings, iconography and prints. The Global Living shop also sells hand-crafted furniture, ornaments, gifts and cards. If all goes well Clair and Anne hope to open their own dedicated gallery space soon.
I enjoyed my trip to woolyback land, there's some nice liitle pubs too.

David Rees, International Artist: An Interview

I first met David when he was submitting his marine paintings at the Mall Galleries in London, where I worked at the time. With a fascinating international lifestyle and a successful painting career, I decided to find out how painting has led Liverpool artist David Rees around the world and back again.

David spent his childhood years in the Wirral, and as an art student in Liverpool. He then emigrated to Australia, in his 20’s where he started and owned his own Advertising Agency, writing and producing TV and radio commercials, and later, consulting to international clients in Dubai. Becoming a painter was always David’s childhood dream, so after starting his first series of works on the theme of ‘Reflections’, David decided to paint full time, and return home to concentrate on his artistic career.

Kaye: So what first inspired you to ‘give it all up’ and become an artist?

David: ‘I’ve always been the artist, from the time a pencil was first put in my hand. Looking out of my apartment in Dubai one day, my attention was caught by a reflection in a window. There were lots of buildings and skyscrapers around with reflective glass, and I became fascinated by the abstract distortions and patterns that you can so easily walk past without noticing. Translating my observations onto canvas led to a whole series of paintings on this theme, and over the next two years, my second bathroom was converted into a studio - my easel was set up in the shower cubicle, and my paint palette lived on the toilet. But the light was good in there!’

Kaye: So how did returning to Liverpool develop your painting career?
David: ‘Well I was born in Liverpool and grew up with the Beatle generation, and after spending many years living abroad, it was really a sense of nostalgia which brought me back. Childhood memories of the Mersey and the ‘hay days’ of Liverpool have always stayed with me, and spending time observing the boats and docks where I grew up provided the perfect subject matter for a new series of work. I have always regarded myself as a Photo-Realist painter, and going back to the basics of observational study also provided an opportunity to develop my painting technique’.

Kaye: Most recently, you have started painting portraits, with one or two very famous subjects. How did this come about?

David: ‘It all started when I was invited to exhibit in the Virgin Islands. While I was there, I spent some time getting to know some of the local characters, who asked me to paint their portraits. This led to a series of studies and commissions, and a new outlet through which I could further challenge my painting skills. When I returned home, Cherie Booth QC agreed to my painting her portrait – (which I gave to her, and which now hangs at No. 10) and I have subsequently completed 2 further portraits of her.

Kaye: You have enjoyed great success with your paintings on a fairly international scale – so what’s your secret?

David: ‘I have always wanted to become the pure artist I felt destined to be, and being successful takes a lot of dedication and commitment – you have to be completely focused on the dream to make it a reality. Having a good agent always helps, and my sister Diane has been a great supporter and promoter of my work in this capacity’.

Kaye: So now you’ve acquired three strings to your bow, do you have any plans to get involved with any local projects in the run up to Capital of Culture 2008?

David: 'Of course, I'd like to be involved and be apart of the Capital of Culture year - In my marine art - stirring the nostalgic days when the Port of Liverpool was host to the world's finest liners and the busy river bustled with every kind of ship imaginable. Liverpool's skyline is altering and changing and I'd like to spend time 'casting my reflective dimension eye' over this famous skyline to perhaps discover and project new images - from newly created angles. Liverpool has always had at its heart its many 'old wags' - I'd like to try to capture and reflect the unique ingredient of 'Liverpudlian character and humour' within the faces of its people.'

David’s ‘Reflection Series’ have been exhibited in the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai and London. He has also exhibited with the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Australian High Commission in London, and his work features in several private collections – including the PM’s!

Kaye Kent MA
david-k-rees.com

Of course, I intended to continue blogging from my daughter's place in London but you know how it is.
Friday - London is this strange place where they sell mangos at 49p each or 2 for £1 ! And they ruin landmark architectural sites by adding grotesque inflatible athletes (I think its Kelly Holmes). I'm not against a bit of street art/theatre and am happy for them to host the 2012 Olympic games but tasteful it ain't.
I was in Trafalgar Sq because thats where the National Gallery is. I didn't spend a lot of time in there actually. It was very busy and its all old stuff. Of course, its great old stuff, I saw Titians , Botticellis and Bellinis but I always think, well it'll still be there next time. I'll have a proper look then. I did my usual trick of studying the Visitor Guide after I'd left and realised I was very close to seeing Van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Portrait'. I really should have looked out for that. Its also a shame I'm just a few days too early for the starts of the big Caravaggio exhib which starts on 23rd.

Just round the corner is the National Portrait Gallery. I spent more time here, especially in the Contemporary area where there are several recognisable celebrites, Dame Judi Dench, Germaine Greer and Sam-Taylor Wood's video of the Sleeping Beckham. Also had a look at the Schweppes Photo Portrait Prize.
In the evening I went to the ICA to watch the film about Bob Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer. An interesting film and the director Hans Fjellestad was there to answer questions. The only problem was I was there with my daughter, son-in-law and their young friends who all thought the old footage of the likes of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman was hilarious! Laughing at the rock heroes of my generation, tut!
Saturday - Tate Britian to see the Anthony Caro sculptures, excellent. Plenty of other stuff there too of course, like Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin but didn't bother with the Turner/Whistler/Monet extravaganza - too many queues, too crowded.

Then onto the Barbican for the Christian Marclay and Tina Barney exhibs. Highlight is Marclay's Video Quartet (2002). Spread across 4 large screens, there's nearly 700 short musical clips from films such as Psycho, Sound of Music, Barbarella, Back to the Future etc. There's different clips on each screen and it runs for 15 minutes and somehow all fits together. All his work here is music related. This drum kit is 4 metres high and there's a 7 metre long accordian. Go see, if you can - finishes May 2nd.

I went to the Mark Wallinger talk at Liverpool Tate last night. As people were taking their seats, 'Hymn' (1997) was being played on the screen. Mark said a few words about that and then showed slides of the 'Ecce Homo' work that was on Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth in 1999. We then had a sort of in converstion thing with Pete Clarke, senior Fine Arts Lecturer at Uni of Central Lancs as well as questions from the audience.
We also saw the 'Angel' video and Mark explained how it took 3 months to learn how to recite the 'In the beginning was the Word...' verses in reverse. He still remembers some of it. 'Prometheus' (1999) was also shown and we finished off watching 'Threshold to the Kingdom' (2000).
This talk was related to the 'Seeing is Believing' exhibition at the Tate so the focus was on the artist's religion-related work there was a lot of discussion about faith/religion. Still, it was an interesting and at times amusing evening.

Tracey Emin is in Liverpool next Thursday, Feb 24th. She's unveiling her first piece of public art which will be outside the Oratory near the Anglican Cathedral. She's also here to present the awards at the Arts Council art05 awards party. Hope my ticket arrives soon.
BBC Link which starts 'Controversial artist Tracey Emin' aaggghhh!

I reported recently that the Singh twins had been shortlisted for the Northern finals of the Asian Jewel awards (Media, Arts and Sports section). No surprise to see it was won by Amir Khan, the 18 year old Olympic boxing silver medallist. Should have a seperate Arts section, I reckon!
Asian Jewel Awards Link

Copied from the Conservation Centre's website...

Calling all best dressed men! A Single in the City event is being held at the Conservation Centre between 1900 and 2100 hours this Thursday 17 February 2005 to celebrate the Britain’s 50 Best Dressed Men photographic exhibition.

The free evening gives the opportunity for men and women to meet informally in the exhibition or on a fascinating tour of studios where many different types of museum and art gallery exhibits are conserved.

And there will be a fun competition when visitors can vote for the best dressed man and woman attending the evening. Winners will each receive a £100 voucher to spend at event supporter Vivienne Westwood’s flagship store in Mathew Street, Liverpool.

Places are limited so those wanting to attend the event – which includes a free glass of wine or beer – must book on 0151 478 4616 or e-mail
events@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
Why not bring a friend?

Britain’s 50 Best Dressed Men, which runs until 20 February 2005, celebrates the individual style of British men. This striking exhibition highlights an eclectic mix of male personalities defining the style of mood across different generations from Henry VIII and Cary Grant to Johnny Rotten and Robbie Williams.
This event follows a very successful singles evening at the Walker in November 2004.

Coincidentally there's an article about the Fitzcarraldo 'Walk the Plank' ship that I was on board last night in today's Daily Post. In May, the theatre ship starts a tour of UK ports, promoting Liverpool's Capital of Culture year.

I always find Valentine's day amusing. Apart from the silly idea that you need a special day for being loving its the one day of the year when you can see loads of big macho men walking around grasping bunches of flowers still trying to look cool. Here's something I haven't seen before though, an evening of short films curated by the Montreal-based curator Astria Suparak on board a former Norwegian ferry 'Fitzcarraldo' moored in Canning Dock and now known as 'Walk the Plank'. The films were followed by music and dance organised by 'Evol'.
The film show 'Lets Get Tested' is part of the 'Seen' at FACT series, normally hosted on Wednesdays at FACT. Micheal Conor and the other FACT staff did a great job in organising this, its not an easy venue and it was really cold. They even layed on some pans of scouse to warm people up. I'm too used to my luxuries now like indoor toilets! You had to go back onshore and use the porterloos here. And I find all those steep narrow steps a bit scarey. Its was good fun but I didn't hang around too long.

The new exhibition at Domino Gallery is 'Valentines 05'. Its a group show by local artists on the theme (loosely) of love. Don't worry, its not all hearts and flowers (though, there are some). There's moody abstracts as well as bright figurative stuff. Finishes in April.
Artists: Tracey Critchley, Steve Des Landes, Jason Jones, Penny Gill, Kate Dadiani, Conal Mcalorum, Misha Makharadze, Clare Chinnery and Felicity Wren

Or Happy Chinese New Year. Ok, maybe not fine art but a bit of local culture in Liverpool's 'Chinatown' today.

Link - to Daily Post review of this exhibition at Liverpool Academy of Arts.
Also, more pictures on the LAA website

Local artists Amrit and Rabindra Singh, currently exhibiting at the Walker have been shortlisted in the Media, Arts and Sports category for Today's Asian Jewel Awards.
BBC News Link
Asian Jewel Awards Link

The new exhibition at Open Eye is the first ever UK solo exhibition by the French/Moroccan photographer Yto Barrada. Titled 'A Life Full of Holes - The Strait Project' refers to the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow channel that divides Europe and Africa, but for the artist it also refers to the temptation of departure. For Barrada the city of Tangier can be seen as a focal point for the issues surrounding African migration into Europe, a microcosm in which a population's imagined dreams and aspirations of leaving are placed.

There's usually a good mix of styles and media in the exhibitions at Liverpool Academy of Arts and 'Brolly Good Time' is no exception. The theme is umbrellas, of course. There's digital, pastels, oils, watercolours, sculptures etc. and lots of real umbrellas hanging around as well. All the art (but not the umbrellas) are for sale. (Finishes Feb 25th)

One of the projects I followed with interest during the Liverpool Biennial last Autumn was Dorrie Halliday's Urban Angels. The full size prints were on the walls of the Quarter Cafe in Falkner St. and during the biennial Dorrie was releasing balloons with postcard size prints of the angels. Her friends filmed the event and you can now see 3 minutes worth on the BBC Video Nation page. Most balloons were released at night so its a bit dark. They angels are still being discovered in all kinds of places, see Dorrie's website for the latest

Decided to do a tour of Manchester today. Even I like to take a break from Liverpool occasionally and there's some fine exhibitions on just an hours train ride away.
Hadn't been to the Whitworth Gallery before, the walk from Oxford Rd station is a lot further than it looks on the map. I went past Manchester Museum on the way, must look in there sometime but not today. There's a show of sculptures and drawings called 'Truce' by Shirley Diamond. The most striking work is this delicate structure 'Trespass'made from doweling with tiny white paper houses suspended from the cross-bars. Its great to look at from different angles. (Finishes April 10th).
Another special exhibition here is 'Ship Ahoy'. Guess what its about. As well as the usual dramatic paintings of stormy seas, there's examples of the use of ships in interior design, including Captain Pugwash Wallpaper, cool! They also have a good collection of the standard gallery fare.

Next, I went to the Cornerhouse which is right next door to Oxford Rd station. If you don't know Cornerhouse, its very similar to Liverpool's FACT (except its an old ramshackle building) with Picturehouse cinema screens and 3 galleries showing new media works. The first gallery is showing 'Bodyscan' by Eva Wohlgemuth. In 1997 she underwent a full body scan that recorded the coordinates of 285,000 points on her body. So there's enough information to recreate exact versions of her body in different media and sizes. There's acrylic figures, videos and 3D drawings. Take a look at her webpage www.evawohlgemuth.com/BODYSCAN
In Gallery 2 is 'Living Rooms' by Charles Sandison. This is a dark room with the words male, female, mother, father, child, food, old, threat, virus and dead floating all around the walls, floor and ceiling like word-shaped starts. Nice. www.charlessandison.com
Gallery 3 has George Legrady's 'Pockets Full of Memories', an interactive installation and online project. You are invited to choose something you are carrying and scan it into the computer then type in your details and anything you want to say about the object. The pictures of the objects are displayed on a large screen and you can also see them on the website www.pocketsfullofmemories.com

Next, I went to the Manchester Art Gallery to see Don McPhee's exhibition. McPhee is the Manchester-based Guardian photographer. There's some great images of many famous people as well as scenes of the North West though they're a bit 'grim oop north'.
I really wanted to see Will Alsop's 'Supercity' project at Urbis but time was running out and they're charging £5 so I'll save that for another day.

Here's a Daily Post article about local sculptor Tony Evans. I've seen and admired his work in a few places, most recently at the Brindley Centre in Runcorn.

Now masses of rebelious Chicagoans are taking photographs of the Cloudgate Sculpture and posting them on this flickr page This is a breach of copyright, tut-tut! I'm glad they are though because its an interesting looking thing that I would never have seen otherwise.

Here's a shocking story thats been spread across the blogisphere today. Chicago's public sculpture can't be photographed by the public
Hope it doesn't give the Grosvenor Paradise developers any ideas.

Nice review by Richard Cork in the New Statesman of the Richard Wentworth exhibition at Tate Liverpool. But, he reckons that the plates on top of the grand piano "have all been glued together by an artist bent on retrieving wonder from the wreckage of everyday existence." It looked to me like the plates hadn't been broken at all but the cracks had been realistically painted on. I'll have to go and have another look!

I'm constantly surfing the web for art-related sites and am surprised that there doesn't seem to be many art blogs out there. I can't, at the moment, recall any others in the UK but there are a few in the US.

Now at least there is a site that attempts to bring all the art sites together, GalleryDriver - the Art Blog Aggregator lists many art sites and displays the latest postings from art blogs that subscribe (including artinliverpool, of course). They also have online galleries, exhibition news etc. Its based in New York but for online stuff that doesn't really matter. Check it out and if you find any other UK art blogs let me know.

At the Maritime Museum until August 14th. I had a quick look at this exhibition on the opening night but I'll have to go back again. Its a large museum show but there's still the decorative arts to admire. There's lots to read and videos to watch. Many interesting factoids like, if you stood the Queen Mary on its end you'd see that it was only slighlty shorter then the Empire State Building and part of the cargo on the Titanic was 76 cases of Dragons Blood. Now don't tell me you don't know what dragons blood is!

Incredible crafts for Chinese New Year1 - 4pm
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Miniature Pictures11am - 4pm
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Story Making12, 2 & 3pm
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Artbase at the Walker10am - 5pm
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Paper Making - a Workshop for Beginners12 - 4pm
Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Tours Behind the Scenes2 & 3pm
Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Hands-on Family Workshops1.30, 2.30 & 3.30pm
Saturday, February 12, 2005

Not a good start to the day. They're building a new doorway at the rear of FACT and the workers were determined to make as much noise as possible, ruining my routine coffee break. Decided it was about time I had a look at the Grosvenor Paradise Project HQ in Lord St. it was starting to rain and the place had closed for lunch! Oh well, plenty more to see.

The 'Face of Liverpool' project was officialy opened last week. I'd seen most of it a few months ago before it was completed. This is in the area outside the Radisson SAS hotel and the new passport offices in Old Hall Street and features the images of 32 Liverpool residents who have moved to the city from a different country or whose direct ancestors did so during the last 200 years. It makes this boring old business area a bit more interesting.

Since I was in the area, I called into the Loop gallery in Princes dock to take another look at Arthur Roberts exhibition as it was due to finish on Saturday. The artist was there and told me that it will now be extended until sometime next month.

After a bracing walk along the prom I took a quick look at the painted model boats in the Museum of Liverpool Life. This is called 'Chinese Memory Lines' and features 100 small boats created by the Chinese communities for the Year of the Sea. All the boats are the same, just painted differently and some of the more inventive ones have added sails or rigging.

Then called at the Tate, of course, I find it impossible to just walk past that place. The new cafe is nearly ready but still enjoyed a quieter break in the temporary space.
Walking back through town the Paradise Project HQ was open so had a look. Apart from the huge model of the plan there's some interesting items there. There's a glass case with just a few of smaller items they've found during the dig. There's a lot more info on the website now.