News

18th May 2010

Hello one and all, here's the latest in my sporadic updates. Quite a bit to let you know about just now so please read on...

Mostyn Re-launch, Llandudno, May 22 – Sep 4: I’m really pleased to say that I’m in the Mostyn relaunch exhibition ‘We Have the Mirrors, We Have the Plans’. Following it’s extensive and impressive refurbishment, Mostyn is re-launching with a show of 25 artists currently working in Wales, including Bedwyr Williams, Sean Edwards, Peter Finnemore, Heather and Ivan Morrison, David Nash and Miranda Whall (to name but a few). You can read the full press-release and list of artists here

Also, on exhibition at the time will be Superflex’s ‘Flooded McDonald’s’ The exhibition launches on Friday 21st May and if you want to come to the preview on the Friday, drop me an e-mail as I have a few invites I can send out. Further info can be found on the Mostyn website

Grizedale Arts, Late at Tate, Friday June 4

I’m going to be involved in the cutting-edge rural art-mess of Grizedale Arts Late at Tate on Friday June 4th. Quite what my involvement will be is anybodies guess at this point but will most likely be in the form of some video clips, maybe some guitar-playing and, possibly, having things thrown at me. More info here The night aims to bring to life Grizedale’s excellent book ‘Adding Complexity to Confusion’ which tells the story of their last 10 years and can be bought for a mere £10 from their on-line shop here Unquestionably it will be a fun and interesting night, leaving people feeling slightly confused and soiled come Saturday morning.

They Do Things Differently There, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, June 5 -19

I’m also really pleased to say that I’m part of this group show organised by Edinburgh College of Art’s Contemporary Art Theory and Material culture MA. The show also includes, recent Turner Prize nominees, The Otolith Group. I’m going to be showing the fanzine I produced in Collaboration with Road Kill for my project ‘History of a Time to Come’ at Crate Project Space in Margate earlier this year. Zine’s will be free to take away from the gallery but, I guess, will be in finite supply so get along early. Further info

Last Chance to See…

A Stranger’s Window, Nottingham Castle, Until June 13

It’s the last few weeks of this exhibition which is, even if I do say so myself, well worth a look. Commissioned as part of the Contemporary Art Society’s centenary celebrations, Moot Gallery invited 13 artists to ‘re-frame’ a work from the Castle’s permanent collection. With a line-up including Sean Edwards, Jack Strange and Tom and Simon Bloor, you can imagine the diverse approaches taken. Further info (Moot website) or (Contemporary Art Society website)

There Forever!

Nottingham Contemporary Commission

For those of you that haven’t made it the excellent Nottingham Contemporary yet, shame on you. Just launched is their new exhibition ‘Uneven Geographies’, which I’m not in, but what you can see is my permanent sculptural commission for the exterior of the building, glowing like a beacon of hope and pointing the way to eternal health and happiness (or something like that). You can currently see it on the front-page of my website here

Finally…

If anyone remembers the Among the Living project I curated a few summers a go (based on the cross-overs between art and skateboarding, including skateboard deck commissions by Juneau Projects, Bedwyr Williams, Ross Sinclair, Gordon Dalton, Lucienne Cole, Kate Parrott, Beagles and Ramsay, David Burrows, Mark Beasley and Stuart Bailey, and Craig Fisher), the last few decks have gone on sale with Concrete Hermit in London. There’s also a nice piece about deck graphics on their blog written by Charlie Hood (someone who clearly received an excellent arts education). Keep your eyes and ears open as I’m also talking to them about a show of my various text works for later this year.

…and also a heads up about Ellie Harrison’s Artists Lottery Syndicate where me and 39 of her closest art-chums are pooling our collective naivety in an attempt to win the lottery and be poor, starving, artists no more. Keep your fingers crossed, I may buy you a drink (disclaimer: this offer of a drink is meant as a glib familiarity only and does not, in any way, form a legally binding contract between me and whomever receives this e-mail)

Keep in touch

18th January 2010

A very happy new year to you one and all. Firstly, I'd like to say that my pronunciation of the year '2010' will follow the same format as the first decade of this millenium i.e. 2000 and 10, as opposed to 20-10 (like an American blockbuster or something). Hope you've managed to survive 'Snowmageddon' as, the always-spot-on, Charlie Brooker dubbed it. I was sunning myself in Fuerteventura when the shows came and found myself wondering, 'Why doesn't everyone just get on a plane and come here?'. Of course, there are many, many reasons why this naive and self-indulgent thought could not be acted on, but part of me still wonders why. Anyway...

A busy start to the year. Spasticus Artisticus has just opened at Ceri Hand Gallery in Liverpool and runs until Feb 27th. It's a great show, curated by Christian Viveros-Faune and Jota Castro (from New York and Belgium respectively) and features loads of interesting artists from all over the gaff. I've made two new works for it, a poster piece and my first ever bronze cast. Images of the show can be seen by clicking on that link back there at the start of the paragraph.

Next up, Ceri's away to Art Rotterdam with a fantastic booth designed by the new-kid at Ceri Hand Comprehensive, Bedwyr Williams. Should you be fortunate enough to be in Rotterdam then go and take a look. It's a good time to be in town as the Rotterdam International Film Festival is also on. Imagine all that culture, all in one place!

Friday 12th February sees my project 'History of a Time to Come' launch at CRATE in Margate; a collaboration between myself and those boys at Roadkill, it should be pretty interesting. Come along for a beer and a chat 6-9pm on the 12th and, for any of you zinefreaks out there, there's going to be a zine fair held alongside on the 20th Feb 12-5pm.

Right after that I'm off to London for a month long residency at Standpoint Gallery. So, again, if you live in London or are passing through and fancy entertaining a lost-boy from the sticks, give me a shout. There are a few other things lined up for later in the year, but I think I've said enough just now.

11th November

First thing to mention is the successful installation of my sign for Nottingham Contemporary. Assuming you came through the usual route, you'll have had a glimpse of its shimmering beauty right at the front of my website. NC launches on Friday and, in all honesty, I can't wait. Much debate surrounds the place but I genuinely cannot see how it can in any way be seen as a bad thing. Best of luck to all involved (and see some of you at the launch party on Friday hopefully).

I'm also going to be talking at the Hinterland Symposium at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, on Thursday 26th November. Should be a really interesting day with a lot of interesting folks talking, just follow the link at the start of this sentence to find out more.

Another date for your diary is Friday 11th December when me and my part-time-partner-in-crime, Gordon Dalton, will be hosting a night somewhere in Cardiff as part of a day of activity completing the Birmingham-Bristol-Cardiff trinity instigated by Warp. When I say hosting a night, what I mean is putting up a neon sign in a bar, playing some music and projecting some videos at the end of a day of art events, screenings, visits and socialising, 12pm-late. Information is available from www.g39.org/warp or sean@g39.org

The Event was fun and I'm sure I'll get round to posting some pictures sometime. On my day we made a sort of bus-shelter-cum/picnic-shack culminating in us using it to have a beer and a curry inside it. I can't sing high enough praises of Lahore's mixed bean dahl, possibly the best I've ever had (seriously).

Looking to the new year I'm going to be in a show at Ceri Hand Gallery in January that's been curated by Christian Viveros-Faune from across the pond. Looks like it will be a good show so keep your eyes peeled at Ceri's site and here for more details. In February I'm going to be bringing my project for CRATE to fruition, working with the guys from Roadkill to make something of wonder for Margate. I'll also be showing with Ceri at Art Rotterdam in in February. Following that I'm going to be in London for a month doing a residency at Standpoint Gallery, in no small part thanks to those lovely people at Arts Council Wales who have given me a bit of money to help pay for it.

Between now and then I'll be making some new work and seeing how they do Christmas west of England.

19th August 2009

As ever, it's been a busy few months, made no less busy by my relocation to the Welsh capital. All is good over here. Just returned from a month long residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop - you can take a look at some of what I got up to on my artists page on their site - some acorns that may grow in to the content of a solo show I'm having at Chapter, next October.

Most important/imminent to mention is my Hinterland project 'Pura Vida' which is launching next Wednesday 26th August, at One Thoresby Street, Nottingham, 6-8pm. Come down for a beer and chat and a bit of good life.

I've recently been in various meetings with Nottingham Contemporary to confirm the production of a full-scale neon version of the logo I designed for them (you can see it on my projects page here). This is going to be a permanent fixture on the exterior of the building when it opens in November and will be a thing of real beauty (contrary to public opinion here). With all due respect to the good folks who have opined, they clearly get the cultural reference - to a degree - (good on you people) but have failed to think it through any further (shame on you people). I'm genuinely really excited and think that the artwork, in some way, reflects the aspiration, hope and vision that we all must have for this fantastic new venture.

A couple of other things coming up - I'll be taking part in this years 'The Event' in Birmingham, early November - where myself, Harminder Singh-Judge and Gian Paolo Cottino will be deconstructing one of Bob and Roberta Smith's CCA's in the back of a van and rebuilding it in to something else on a daily basis. Should be fun.

I've also been asked to contribute to a project being organised by YH485 Press whereby residents of Great Yarmouth will be able to eat their chips out of paper printed with an artwork by me (and several other good people) from mid-September. These are all beng collated in to a ltd.edition newspaper which is going to be available to buy and keep and not eat chips out of, at the same time.

Also to mention is that at this point, you have precisely three days left to get yourself along to the Newcastle leg of 'The Kiss of a Lifetime' - a group show I'm in - at Vane. Should you miss it there, you can always catch it at BEARSPACE, London, from 4th-12th September. And you can always buy something from it too.

Leaping forward to February next year, I'm going to be doing a project in Margate (something of a homecoming for me) as part of Bad Translation, curated by Matthew de Pulford through CRATE. It's a series of solo projects, beginning later this year, and other commissioned artists include Juneau Projects, Lucy Harrison and James Howard.

29th April 2009

Another news update, and it's only taken me 6 months to do it! Very bad. Very bad indeed. Anyway, this is a good time to do some updating as there's plenty to tell.

Things have been busy over the last 6 months, with all those things listed below and my first solo show at Ceri Hand Gallery - 'My Empire of Dirt' - check out the project pages in the recent days/weeks as I'll be putting some proper documentation up about it.

Alongside this, we also launched my first publication, documenting some key projects from the last 6 years or so and including an interview between me and Ross Sinclair and an essay by Andrew Hunt. We had 500 printed and there's only a handful left, so if you're interested to see/read it, then you can download a PDF of it here (1.3mb). Hope you like it.

Imminently, I'm going to be showing with Ceri Hand Gallery at Volta in Basel. This is Ceri's first outing to an art fair so should be very interesting. Pop along to the stall and say hello if you're in the area. I'm making one new plectrum piece and a boxed edition of the printed posters from 'My Empire of Dirt'. A fine addition to anyone's collection I'd say.

Things I'm working towards towards right now are a new project for the wonderful Hinterland in Nottingham, which should be happening late summer time, also an exhibition called 'Empty' on Manhattan in New York in October. I should be there for around a month, so anyone who lives there who fancies taking me out for a drink then please get in touch.

Other than that, there's a few other shows/residencies in the pipeline which I won't talk about right now in case they don't happen, but if they do it looks like I should be pretty busy for the next year or so.

Finally, my life is pretty much split 50/50 between Nottingham and Cardiff these days as I've just moved the other side of the border. My wife has taken the role of Head of Cinema at Chapter, so if you ever find yourself in Cardiff, you'll quite likely find me skulking around Chapter somewhere trying to get free stuff.

20th OCTOBER 2008

After a busy week in London in the artfair scrumdown, there's a few things to update you about just now. Firstly, shows I'm in/upcoming:

First up is Gold Soundz at Southwell Artspace in Notts, on until Nov 1st. A great show about art/music. I have a new(ish) piece in there for all you Iron maiden fans.

Next up is Awopbopaloobop at Transition Gallery in London, opening November 15th - an exhibition with loads of people in, all of whom have made a new painting inspired by a song lyric. I've also just written a piece for the 'Rock n Roll' edition of Garageland that will be released at the same time.

Then I'm in the axis and Ceri Hand curated future50 at Project Space Leeds from Nov 21-23rd - a new selling show with lots of great artists in and it'll be the first time I'll be showing the photographic documentation from my 'The Death of Peter Fechter' project I made last year

Other than that, I'm mainly working towards my first solo show with Ceri Hand next January and working on a publication that will be launched alongside it, documenting previous projects and including an 'in conversation' between me and Ross Sinclair and an essay by Andrew Hunt.

I'll be updating my projects page over the next couple of weeks with some info about projects I got up to over the summer, including Out of Bounds: The 5 Codes Tours and Becks Fusions, so check back for that.

I've also just added a whole section of links to stuff about me on my links page (interviews and things like that), so have a look there if you haven't had enough already.

27th MAY 2008

Here we go with the news thing again. I'm bringing it back here as I've discovered I'm even less inclined to update/blog on Myspace than I am to pull my finger out and update this page. So, briefly, what's new and what's happening.

I'm spending a good deal of time updating the site, in particular the projects and exhibitions pages, so make sure you catch up with those.

Other than that, I've just finished a couple of new pieces of work for a great show at Collective in Edinburgh, opening late July, called The Golden Record. Have a look at the Myspace to get a better idea but it involves loads of really great artists and comedians etc.

Also, I'm working on two new multiple commissions, one for Ceri Hand and the launch of her gallery in July and one for The Public and the launch of their building in June. More to follow, or look at their sites to see if you can get hold of one.

For any booklovers out there, you can also read a bit about my Death of Peter Fechter project in this new book just launched by the ICA, about the ICA. Called 'How Soon Is Now' it's a history of the last 60 years of the ICA's programme. Priced at a mere £9.50 how can you say no?

Aside from that, it's studio time right now, for the first time in god knows how long, so I'm just trying to read and research and make and all that kind of business.