Art of England (issue 63)

If you can manage to get hold of a recent issue (well, I say ‘recent’ - it probably came out a couple of months ago) of Art of England magazine you might be able to find an article that features one of my paintings, Kitchen blue. The article starts on page 66 of issue 63 (the one with the new Damien Hurst painting, Skull with Astray and Lemon, on the cover) and celebrates 20 years of Candid Arts – the Islington arts centre set up and run by Duncan Barlow, to promote the work of recent art and design graduates. However, Candid Arts is much more than just that. As well as being an artists’ studio complex it has its own gallery spaces (set over 2 floors) a projection room, a courtyard garden and probably the best chill-out café in London.
Anyway – back to me (‘Yay’ I hear you cry). As well as having one of my pieces featured in the article I get a mention as one of Candid’s exhibiting artists, along with a short biog.
And if you can’t find the article it’s still well worth visiting Candid Arts, if not only for its bohemian style café. Here’s the address – Candid Arts, 3 Torrens Street, Islington, London EC1V 1NQ. Tel. +44 (0) 207 8374 237. www.candidarts.com.

Summer Show - Final Tuesday Late View

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to last night’s late opening at Candid Gallery’s Summer Show as I was busy setting up my work for the next exhibition that I will be involved with – namely, The Brain Unravelled (opening party, Monday 7th Sept – so get your name on the guest list) at The Slade Research Centre, Woburn Square, London.
However, I will be going along to Candid Gallery’s final Tuesday late view for the show on the 8th September. So if you would like to join me there for a drink and come and see what I’ve put in the show, the address is 3-5 Torrens Street (behind Angel Tube Station), Islington, London.
Hopefully see you there.

Candid Gallery – Summer Show

I know this is a bit of a last minute thing but I thought that I had better mention this year’s Candid Gallery Summer Show – especially since it will be featuring 10 of my paintings and 1 of my prints. In fact it looks like my work might be taking over a whole gallery wall. How greedy is that? About half of my paintings in the exhibition have been seen before and half will be exhibition virgins (so please be gentle with them).
For anyone who is unfamiliar with Candid Gallery and for that matter, Candid Café (which has to be one of the best secret chill-out spots in London), they are located at 3-5 Torrens Street, behind Angel Tube Station in Islington, London EC1V 1NQ.The Summer Show runs from 24th August to 13th September and there will be three Tuesday 6-10 pm late views, starting with this Tuesday’s Opening Night (25th August).
So, I hope to see a few familiar faces their and don’t worry – they do have a bar.
For further information check out www.candidarts.com or ring them directly on 020 7837 4237.

'Scratch' film set

'Scratch' film set, originally uploaded by Wayne Chisnall.

I spent most of this weekend on the set of a new film ‘Scratch’. Why, I hear you ask? Well I’ll tell you. On my birthday I met an interesting young film director by the name of Jakob Rorvik. After checking out, and being very impressed with his work (check out his website – www.jakobrorvik.com) I was pleased to receive an email from him asking if I would like to have one of my sculptures, ‘And When I’m a Man’ (the big green model kit piece) feature in his new film, set in the art world of East London. Strangely enough the original location was going to be Candid Arts in Islington, where the piece is currently stored. I thought ‘bonus’ – I won’t have to move it very far. However, the eventual location was to be the Jago Gallery in Redchurch Street, Shoreditch – a gallery where I had previously exhibited. In the end we used four of my sculptures in the shoot – with the other three being ‘Dreams of Being Batman’, ‘Baby Kit’ and ‘Nail Box’. Someone joked that it looked like I was having a solo show.

Here is some info about the film, that I lifted from Jakob’s site -

Lena is a young art student new to London. Calling it her art project, she obsessively follows and takes pictures of an unwitting Sol; a scruffy, charismatic 20 year old, by all appearances homeless, who drifts around in numerous detached relations to people affiliated with the art scene.
Her project takes a wrong turn when Sol discovers her. Fascinated by her odd behaviour, Sol is now the one to follow her.
Against a backdrop of contemporary East-London, Sol and Lena gradually expose each other’s dreams, fears and lies.

The cast includes Viktoria Winge (Reprise), Luke Treadaway (Brothers of the head, War Horse), Patrick Kennedy (Atonement) and Montserrat Lombard (Ashes to Ashes, Vanilla Song).
The film is produced by Tamsin Lyons at the Oscar-Winning production company Breakthru Films and Yngve Sæther at Motlys.