I'll be soon in England again, my second homeland. This trip will enable me to plunge into my favourite trends in arts and music, new and less new. More soon. In the meantime, I'll post here some recommandations and ideas I fell like sharing and recommending.
Cheers folks.
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Lazaride Gallery, London
Set in the heart of London's Fitzrovia, Lazarides Rathbone exhibits many of the most significant artists thriving outside the conventional contemporary art market. While Lazarides is considered the international market leader in what is dubbed urban art, many of the contemporary artists on display defy categorisation. Since being founded in 2006 Lazarides has been a constant force in championing the careers of artists who have transformed the way art is made and presented. These include a generation of pioneering street artists such as Mode 2, Invader and Todd James alongside influential British portrait artists Jonathan Yeo and Antony Micallef.
Since its inception Lazarides Rathbone has hosted a variety of prolific exhibitions spanning both the ground and first floor levels, including JR's global Inside Out initiative and 3D's major retrospective of Massive Attack visual history. The gallery is involved in extensive off-site activity, incorporating one-off shows in New York and Los Angeles as well as art fairs and museum collaborations across London and Europe. Recent out-of-gallery highlights include Conor Harrington's New York solo debut Eat and Delete, Sotheby's Unauthorised Banksy Retrospective and multi-disciplinary group showcase BRUTAL at 180 The Strand.
Current exhibition:
Mark Jenkins: Moment of Impact
Lazarides Rathbone
16th January 2015 to 7th February 2015
Featuring Mark Jenkins
As the New Year commences, Mark Jenkins returns to London with his debut solo exhibition at Lazarides Rathbone. Moment of Impact extends the American artist's multidisciplinary practice and thought-provoking interventions into the gallery space for the first time. Jenkins presents a new body of hyperrealist work, encompassing a compelling series of unseen three-dimensional canvases and life-sized figures created exclusively in the UK.
Moment of Impact follows the artist's popular appearance in Lazarides' group showcase BRUTAL last October, in addition to various international exhibitions throughout America and Europe over the past year. Recent highlights include 2014's Miami Art Basel, Nuit Blanche Paris and widely acclaimed shows in LA, New York and Cologne. As well as within formal gallery programmes, Jenkin's provocative interventions can be found in major cities globally, challenging the way in which the public engage and experience urban environments.
The upcoming solo exhibition will introduce a new collection of child-sized sculptures constructed in situ alongside mixed-media still life canvases, continuing themes from the artist's distinguished kicked paintings series. Jenkins attempts to remove himself from conceptual ideas associated with creating each artwork, instead focusing on the medium and production process, allowing the finished work to initiate its own relationship with each new space it inhabits.
More from the gallery's press release:
About the artist
Mark Jenkins is an American sculptor and installation artist based in Washington, DC. Jenkins’ hyperrealist installations aim to question social interaction and the manner in which we engage with urban environments, drawing inspiration from the late figurative sculptor Juan Munoz and Albert Camus’ philosophies on the absurd.
The mixed-media artist developed his own idiosyncratic technique of casting objects with packing tape and plastic wrap, creating a range of ominous figures and objects spanning the past 7 years. Once in the public space, Jenkins’ ghostly sculptures lead brief and lonely lives at the mercy of a society that rejects unwanted visual intrusions. In a world where artists are becoming brands and brands camouflage themselves as artists, Jenkins attempts to keep the environment stimulating. He turns regular space into art space and believes the ephemeral nature of street art is essential to maintaining a visual heartbeat in the city.
About Lazarides
Working outside conventional practice and the contemporary art system, Lazarides welcomes a broad audience to an extensive exhibition programme, supporting the work of a group of artists who collectively defy categorization.
Founded in 2006 by Steve Lazarides, the gallery represents some of the most distinctive and innovative artists working today, with a constantly expanding and evolving roster of international creatives.
While Lazarides is considered the international market leader in what is dubbed urban art, contemporary figurative painting, interactive installations, sculptures, and video work all feature heavily on the exhibition calendar. Lazarides Rathbone has been the flagship gallery of Lazarides Limited since May 2009, set in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia in a four-storey former gin palace. In addition to the gallery schedule Lazarides are recognised for their dedication to producing a range of unique off-site events, encompassing pop-up shows in New York and Los Angeles as well as global art fairs and large-scale group exhibitions. Major collaborative highlights include acclaimed Hell’s Half Acre, The Minotaur and Bedlam spectaculars at London’s Old Vic Tunnels, as well as 2013’s BRUTAL hosted at 180 The Strand alongside The Vinyl Factory.
Alongside the launch of the new print studio and online store, 2014 saw the opening of the Lazarides Editions at Sea Containers on the Thames South Bank. The new gallery, within London’s globally acclaimed Mondrian Hotel, will present a comprehensive schedule of bespoke exhibitions, artist collaborations and limited edition artwork in addition to a revolving curation of notable fine art prints.
Artists represented include: Antony Micallef, Charlie Isoe, Conor Harrington, Doug Foster, Ian Francis, JR, Jonathan Yeo, Invader, Mode 2, Oliver Jeffers, Ron English and Todd James.
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Exhibition dates
The exhibition runs from 16th January 2015 to 7th February 2015
Opening hours
Gallery : Tuesday–Saturday 11am–7pm. Admission is free
Office : Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
Office : Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
Contact details
Closest tube stations
Tottenham Court Road (5min walk); Goodge Street (7min walk); Oxford Street (10min walk)
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Upcoming exhibitions and events
Exhibition
Antony Micallef: Self
Lazarides Rathbone
Friday 13th of February 2015 to Thursday 19th of March 2015
Featuring Antony Micallef
Lazarides Rathbone is pleased to present a major new body of meditative self-portraits by Antony Micallef entitled Self.
In an era when the selfie is ubiquitous, his long-awaited solo return unveils a series of energetic self-portraits on canvas and paper, presenting the ultimate commentary on this contemporary norm.
Self highlights a departure in style and language from the artist's earlier series Impure Idols (2007), Becoming Animal (2009) and Happy Deep Inside My Heart (2011). Stripping away the excess prevalent in this earlier work, Micallef has parted ways with the colourful pop language that dominated these previous series in exchange for a set of self-scrutinising works that turns the looking glass upon himself and his medium.
The paradoxical notion that the self can be uncovered through the most narcissistic of gestures is explored through his relationship with the paint. The self-analytical dialogue is enacted through mark-making, the artist's hands and brush carefully constructing layer by layer in a vicious attack of the canvas. Set against Rembrandt-like backdrops of pastel and colourfully marbled hues, thick brushstrokes overlap, bleed and fuse into one another constituting a unique and authentic persona.
Antony Micallef's ultimate self-portrait, Self subverts the selfie paradox and presents a wiser artist in deep reflection.
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Des policiers nigérians, à Maiduguri, dans l'Etat de Borno, au Nigeria, lors d'une opération contre Boko Haram en juin 2013.AFP PHOTO / Quentin Leboucher
