A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures

Adore (3 deep), 2012

A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures is the new Stephen Powers' exhibition currently showing at the Joshua Liner Gallery, New York - his first solo exhibition in 7 years.

Phily born Powers (aka ESPO) is renowned in NY for his large scale sign painting/ graffiti often seen around the City. This exhibition showcases various scaled enamel on aluminium paintings - from his daily 'Metaltations' (small 10 x 8" pieces) to some 8 x 16ft giants, all in his recognisable style.

Daily Mataltation - 6.26.12

Everything is shit except you love, 2012

Holler back, 2012

Undo my life, 2012

The exhibition is only running until the 29th of this month, so don't hang around or you'll miss it. Only wish I was in NY this month :(

If like me, you can't make the exhibition you can see loads of his gorgeous painted signs and other work here and follow his day to day adventures here.

Images copyright Stephen Powers.
Via World Famous Design Junkies.

Bauhaus: Art as Life

© László Moholy-Nagy, Prospectus cover for14 Bauhausbücher (14 Bauhaus Books), 1928. Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. © Hattula Moholy-Nagy/DACS 2012

© Erich Consemüller, Lis Beyer or Ise Gropius sitting on the B3 club chair by Marcel Breuer and wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and dress fabric by Beyer, c.1927. Herzogenrath, Berlin. © Estate Erich Consemüller

 © Walter Gropius, Graph of the educational curriculum at the Bauhaus, 1923. Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin. © DACS 2012

© Josef Albers, Set of four stacking tables, c.1927. © The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation/Artists Rights Society, New York and DACS, London 2012

This Sunday is the last day you can catch the wonderful Bauhaus: Art as Life at The Barbican. The largest exhibition in the UK for 40 years documenting the iconic Bauhaus art school and it's post WW1 vision.

Bauhaus: Art as Life "explores the diverse artistic production that made up it's turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age".

If you can't get down to see it don't panic, the exhibition catalogue is fantastic and available to buy here along with some beautiful Bauhaus designed goodies. But if you do visit, be sure to check out our letter-pressed greetings cards in the shop! 

Blisters - The Directors Cut

It's that time again, Print Club's summer screen print show, Blisters - The Directors Cut (all the prints are derived from movies) has just been announced. True to form, the exhibition will showcase 40 original prints from 40 artists, in editions of 40 for £40.

This years line up of well known and up-coming artists includes; Babycrow, Conception Studios, James Joyce, Kate Moross, MOL, RYCA, Ryan Chapman, Si Scott and Steve Wilson.

The show will be hosted one again in the MC Motors building (next to the Print Club studio). It opens for a private view 6-10pm on Friday 31 August (RSVP only) and is then open 10am - 6pm Saturday 1 September.

Here's a sneak peek at what's going to be on offer...

Up - Anthony Peters, Imeus Design

Lost Boys - Philip Morgan

Star Wars - Conception Studios

Back to the Future - RYCA

Metropolis - Raid71

All images courtesy of Print Club London and copyright of the individual artists.

Phil Ashcroft

These dramatically bold paintings are the wonderful work of London based artist and designer, Phil Ashcroft.

His graphic landscapes have a dark, mysterious feel, "combining influences from abstract expressionism, British landscape painting, Japanese woodcuts, and graphic street art, Ashcroft integrates varied visual styles to generate a crossover between space, object and environment."

I love the way he plays with scale in his paintings, incorporating the tiny buildings really exaggerates the drama and impact of the full image.

Mr Ashcroft has had many, many exhibitions over the years from solo exhibitions in Liberty London, and (an old favourite for me) Arc-Arts, Manchester to group exhibitions in the Tate Modern and The Barbican. Some of you may have seen his work earlier this month at Pick Me Up 2012 as part of Nelly Duff's pop-up zoo.

You can see more of Phil Ashcroft's work here and keep up-to-date with his recent goings on here.

All images copyright Phil Ashcroft.
Via But Does it Float.

Pics from the AT Openhouse

So Saturday afternoon I worked the vintage tearoom at AT Openhouse (complete with vintage pinny) I sliced cake, poured tea and chatted to visitors about the artists/work on show. It's the first Openhouse I've been involved with and although it was only day one, I really enjoyed it.

The house looks incredible, April and Tim have completely given their lovely home over to the show - every room, corner and shelf is full to bursting with prints, paintings, vintage clothes, jewellery, soft furnishings and cake from 17 different artists, designers, crafters and print makers.









AT Openhouse is at 42 Hendon Street, Brighton BN2
Open throughout May 12-6pm, Saturdays & Sundays.

Keep up to date with AT goings on here.

Christie's Travel and Vintage Poster Auction

These wonderful Olivetti posters are coming up for auction on the 5 November as part of the Christie's Travel and Vintage Poster sale. You can view the ecatalogue here - you won't be disappointed, there are loads of great travel posters, but these Olivetti ones get my bid (or they would if I'd saved a few more pennies this year).

Olivetti Divisumma (above top) by Herbert Bayer (1953) is lot number 252. It's a linen-backed, lithographic print (71 x 51cm) classed as A- condition with an estimation of £1000-£1500.

Olivetti Elettrosumma 22 (above bottom) by Giovanni Pintori is lot number 255. This lithographic print (70 x 49 cm) printed by Arti Grafiche M & G Pirovano in 1956 is not backed, but is classed as A condition and has an estimation of £600-£800.

Find more sale information here. Happy bidding!

Images copyright Christie's.
Via Quad Royal.

Artist + Blacksmith, Agnes Jones

Artist and Blacksmith Agnes Jones has a wonderful illustration style that looks, at first glance loose and whimsical, but is in fact immensely detailed. It's a style I find really lends itself to architectural illustrations, so I love her series of clock towers (above).

Agnes is a trained metalworker and coupled with her creativity as an artist has created some great large scale commissions as well as some very pretty and delicate looking frames (below). She is based in Brighton and is always taking on new commissions, so get in touch here.




Images copyright Agnes Jones.

Charley Harper Federal Building Mural

I've read about the Charley Harper mural in the Federal Building Cincinnati, but had no idea it was still in existence until I saw these pics on Visualingual.

The mural illustrates American wildlife in Harper's unique style, easily recognisable even when created in mosaic tiles. In fact his style seems to really lend itself to this discipline.

It's so great to see it in such detail, so huge thanks Visualingual for going down there and then sharing your pics.

PS. Tomorrow is the last day to catch the Charley Harper exhibition at Castor + Pollux, Brighton.

Images copyright Visualingual.
Via NOTCOT.

Lillian Bassman at The Wapping Project Bankside

Some work from the ionic fashion photographer, Lillian Bassman will be showing as part of 'Group Show' (a collection of work from all the artists represented since the award-winning gallery opened it's doors in October 2010) at The Wapping Project Bankside.

Lillian, now 93, is renowned for her stylised black and white fashion photography (above and below) that graced the pages of Harper's Bazaar during the 60's and early 70's.


During the 70's she left Harper's and fashion photography altogether, it was only when a stash of her images was found in the 90's that interest in her work grew and Lillian returned behind the camera after a 20 year break.

Her images are beautiful and feminine, yet strong and contrasty - a combination that works perfectly, they're exaclty the kind of images I love. The exhibition starts on the 17 August and runs until the 4 September. There isn't anything about it yet on their website, but I found more information here.

Images copyright Lillian Bassman.
Via Cool Hunting.

Blisters Blackout Submission Call

Print Club are now accepting submissions for their December show, Blisters Blackout - "40 Illustrators. 40 Edition and hand signed prints. 40 Pounds each".

All entries must be new work, and for the 'blackout' must have an element of glow-in-the-dark. Throughout opening night the exhibition space will be blacked-out revealing the glowing bits of the designs.

So get your skates on, the closing date for submissions is 30 September 2010 after which time 50 posters will be selected for the show.

For more information and to see work from previous Blisters shows visit Print Club London.

Roman Cieślewicz Retrospective

London's Royal College of Art are exhibiting the first major UK retrospective of Polish designer, Roman Cieślewicz's work from Friday (16 July) until 17 August.

"Cieślewicz was - alongside Fernando Arrabal and Alejandro Jodorowsky - a member of Panique, the 'last' surrealist group in France. At the same time he was a brilliant art director at Elle, and a contributor to Vogue. Remarkably prolific, he also worked closely with figures from the worlds of advertising and fashion including Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton.

Extraordinarily talented as an image-maker, Cieślewicz’s tools were not the pen or the brush but the scalpel and scissors. Working with collage, he produced compelling and original images by reworking familiar icons such Che Guevara or Mona Lisa. “I always go for the maximum picture and the maximum information. You need to stimulate imagination to the maximum” - he once said in an interview."

The exhibition will include 150 pieces of Cieślewicz's diverse work including the iconic magazine covers created for Opus (above top & middle) and the poster he designed for Hitchcock's Vertigo (above bottom). The collections on display are from the National Museum in Poznan, the Museum Art in Łódź and the private collection of Cezary Pieczyński.

See other posts about Roman Cieślewicz here and here.

Images copyright Roman Cieślewicz from 'Roman Cieślewicz: Master of Graphic Design' by Margo Rouard-Snowman. Published by Thames & Hudson Ltd. London, 1993.
Quotation from the Polish Cultural Institute.

Paul Catherall at Castor + Pollux

Well the Brighton Festival is now in full swing and to celebrate, our friends at Castor + Pollux are showing new linocuts from the wonderful Paul Catherall.

We're big fans of his work and can't wait to see the exhibition which includes a print of Brighton's infamous Embassy Court building (top), which is available at the special price of £250 (unframed) when ordered before the 15 May or bought at the private view evening.

The private view on the evening of Friday 14 May kicks off the exhibition which will then run from 15 May - 20 June.

See more work from Paul Catherall here.

Images copyright Paul Catherall, taken from Castor + Pollux.

Going Going Gone Red!

Going Going Gone Red! is a forthcoming exhibition and auction (dates yet to be confirmed) to raise money for London's first Children's Hospice, Richard House.

lllustrators are contributing unique pieces of art, with either a head, body or legs theme, "fabulous, eccentric, one-off, original artwork. A creative collaboration by some of the most renowned and exciting illustrators working today".

The project includes work from some of our favourite illustrators; Pete Fowler (head - above), Agent provocateur (Body - above), Paul Thurlby (legs - above), James Joyce (head - below), Spencer Wilson (Body - below) and Andy Smith (legs - below).



I'll post up as soon as the dates are announced for the exhibition and auction - watch this space!

Images copyright the individual illustrators - taken from Going Going Gone Red!