Urban Curations, new layers, First Thursday crowd photos and three months in...

I meant to keep this blog far more active and pass on the experience of the Cultivate gallery experiment and such, never enough hours in the day. We expected it to be a lot of work but it really has become a full on eight day a week affair that sucks up every waking hour. No such thing as time off or a break, a non stop operation of sorting, booking, hanging, looking after, administrating, and the occasional massive ego who really has no idea what goes in to keeping the doors open on a shoestring budget.

We've had the doors open for almost three months now, in fact it will be three months ago tomorrow that we first picked up the keys at 3pm, cleared out all the rubbish, the old beds and everything else, and opened the doors three hours later at 6pm for September First Thursday. So three months have passed and we enjoy our fourth First Thursday evening tomorrow. We're in the second week of our Something Blue group show. new art is being added to our walls for the second week of the blue show, 23 artists and their interpretations of the title. We've had nine events or shows or exhibitions during the first three months of Cultivate and I'm guessing we've shown the work of around 200 artists (rather proud of that fact actually).

I think we can say we've created quite a buzz down Vyner Street, indeed we see the official Whitechapel/TimeOut First Thursday website is currently using a photo of Cultivate and the crowd at our gallery to illustrate how popular their event is. Shame we've not be able to get them to list any of events or even respond to us thus far.. I guess it is all about the little galleries and new spaces feeding new energy in to things like First Thursday and the general East London art scene - went to a great show in a recently opened space in E8 called Ground Floor Left last night and today I've been delivering a piece to the Artefacto Galeria in Netil House here in Hackney ready for the opening of a show called Urban Curations


The big Vins and Eva canvas that has been evolving and evolving and that was last seen in my solo show at Cultivate earlier this month, now has another layer on it and a new Wilfred exploding with colourful leaf noise at the foot of painting The piece will be on show for a month at the Urban Curations exhibition that opens this Saturday evening December 3rd and then runs from December 5th until January 3rd, rather looking forward to the opening on Saturday night , there looked to be some rather good work waiting to be hung when I battled the high winds and delivered my piece earlier today

That big piece is two and a half metres high, don't really get a sense of the size from that photo up there. Rather like working on bigger pieces...

Right then, time to get on with the Something Blue publicity and booking in the next shows and getting us through the Christmas and New Year period with the Cultivate doors still open and art still glowing on the walls...

I wonder what I’ll paint for you tonight...

I had a good day yesterday, spent most of a very blue sky filled Sunday at the gallery, most of the time painting outside the front door while people came in to see the current Something Blue show we have on. Even the news that the gallery rent is to go up 'significantly', because "you're clearly doing well here and the Olympics is coming and the council is putting up the tax to pay for the Olympics, everything is going up to cover the cost of the Olympics but you'll be OK, you'll make loads of money out of people coming to the Olympics won't you, Vyner Street is really coming to life again, it is going to cost you more money to stay here, it such a good space you have, the rent will have to go up blahblahblah..." We never said we saw it as anything more than a six month experiment anyway.... Landlord needs to remember who it is putting a big slice of that life back in to the street and that the space was empty for months before we took on the challenge...

Anyway, yesterday was good, not even the idiot dishing out the abuse because we won't give him the gallery for three weeks for nothing so he can... nah enough of him. The biggest downside of this gallery experiment so far is the small handful of artists who think they're something big but don't actually seem to have any kind of body of work, who think they're doing you a favour by allowing you the honour of showing their work... Maybe he should go talk about the rent increase with the landlord and explain to Mr Landlord that there should be no rent because said artist deserves everything for nothing because he's an 'important artist" ... We're only just keeping this all alive as it is. Amazing how some people think just by calling themselves an artist they become more important than the rest of humanity and the world owes them a living... Tough thing keeping a gallery open and the walls exciting on a budget of nothing, tried explaining the maths but no, rich boy "art terrorist" thinks he had the right to our walls to do what the hell he wants with no consideration for others ans when we say no it doesn't quite work like that, he can post a load of rubbish about how... nah, enough. Most of the artists involved in the space so far, have been excellent, committed realists who love what they're doing and understand the harsh realities, the spirit and how we're trying to do it just a little differently...

Anyway, yesterday was a good day, not everyday you get to play one of your all time favourite records on the radio with one of the makers of said record sitting opposite you... It was a pleasure to have Gaye Black (AKA Gaye Advert) on the radio show talking is such an excited way about the art show she has curated and well as her musical enthusiasm and current love of black metal. The show, Punk and Beyond is on at the Signal Gallery in East London, loads of people from bands you love with their art, people from Crass, Devo, Subhumans, Husker Du, MC5 and loads more. We'll have a podcast of the interview/radio show up on line later, lots of interesting bits about how the exhibition at Signal came together and such

I met Gaye when she dropped by Cultivate a couple of weeks ago for Free Art Thursday, (with her friend Tina, from a rather good band of times past that we covered in Organ, a band called Suicide Milkshake). Must secretly say I was delighted when Gaye picked up one of the pieces I'd left out for Free Art Thursday. I probably shouldn't say it, don't want to embarrass anyone, but hey, I'm a fan, I loved The Adverts and especially the glories piece of musical energy that is One Chord Wonders (Gary Gilmore's Eyes always hit a spot as well, looking through someone else's cornea and all that, that song ran around my head lots in the eye hospital, sitting there waiting for someone to fall off their motorbike so I could have a piece of their eye they didn't need any more) .

So we got talking about the Punk and Beyond exhibition she was/is curating and what Punk and Beyond was all about (well we talked more about black metal bands...), so we invited her to come talk on our radio show on Resonance FM...

So yesterday was a good day, radio days are always good, and days down at the gallery when so many positive people come in to look and chat and ask and share are good. Great chat with Gaye both on and off air, the excitement of pulling together an art show, the difficulty of herding the artists, of having to trust the Royal Mail, of hanging the show in the right way and how draining it all is... and how exciting it all is... what a buzz showing other people's art is... well when the art and the people making it are worth the effort... sometimes it is just thankless stress..

So yesterday was a good day. Gallery doesn't open on Mondays, today is mostly about sorting out the next shows, doing the book keeping, the publicity, catching up with emails from artists, people interested in the artists, arguing with landlord about penalising the hard work we've put in to making Cultivate work by throwing the rent up over 30% and blaming it all on the Olympics and the fact that Vyner Street has a buzz again... and hopefully finding time to paint

Yesterday was a good day...

I wonder what I’ll paint for you tonight
Something heavy or something light
Something to set your soul alight
I wonder how I’ll answer when you say
‘We don’t like you – go away
Come back when you’ve learnt to....

GETTING READY FOR SOMETHING BLUE...

Getting ready for tomorrow's open of the Something Blue group show at Cultivate. We're nearly three months in to our Vyner Street experiment.

Today was spent waiting for the twenty one other artists taking part to deliver their pieces. Always good to unwrap the arriving art and see it all in the flesh. Putting together a show based on website images is always a little bit of a risk.

Didn't waste the waiting time, fresh blue flavours of Montana Gold and something blue painted and just maybe ready to go on the gallery wall tomorrow.

Sold three pieces of hand painted seven inch vinyl to the van driver delivering art from one of the other people taking part in Something Blue, I like unexpected things like that...

Something Blue is a show where artists have simply been asked to submit their interpretations of blue. This is a follow up to the rather successful Red show we put on two months ago, as well as Twinkle and Tinsel's Something Borrowed show that the two girls put together at Cultivate for last month's First Thursday....

TO HER, Trillion Green, Elizabeth Soyer and the story behind a painting...

I sold a piece called To Her at my recent show of paintings. The buyer ask me if I could write down the story behind the piece that I told at the gallery, along with some information about my work. The piece is mixed media on canvas, 60cm x 90cm... (I'm off to deliver it later today...)

SEAN WORRALL - TO HER. - Painting, mixed media on canvas, 2010.

Sean Worrall's current body of paintings explore the notions of new layers reclaiming those things that are left decay, notions of Trillion Green and the Captain's Table, the idea that our cities will eventually be covered and lost in new layers, first in the short term as we use them as a street art canvas then as nature paints her leaf shaped beauty. Sean's paintings explore the taking back of old walls, the growing over, the freshness of new leaves, new marks, old surfaces, always growing, new weathered marks over old faded marks, new layers, new leaves, fresh leaves, new growth over old, new shoots, new paint over old, new street art on old city walls, new art over old walls, layer over layer, the covering up, the taking back of unloved surfaces, spaces reclaimed both my human hand and nature's growth.

New graffiti, nature's leaf graffiti, growing on walls, over old concrete, Kensal Green cometary, grown over, new leaves growing under, new marks on old marks, rain marks, rain drops, new leaves over old leaves, new street art marks obscuring old man-made marks, green shoots, instant shapes of spray paint, red shoes, green rain, Montana Gold, To Her....New leaves, revealing the old, evolving, regenerating, the taking back, plant life, street art, plants as street art, plant shape as pop art, organic graffiti, found things painted on, grown on, green shoots and buds taking back...

TO HER is a painting created in late summer 2010 ahead of a show of work at the Dissenters Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery. London - a place alive with fresh growth over old, new leaves over old stones... The painting is a celebration of painter Elizabeth Emma Soyer and Alexis Benoist Soyer's monument of worship to her, it is also a celebration of Her, pagan notions of the goddess, of green..

TO HER is also a monument of worship To Her, Painter Elizabeth Emma Soyer (nee Jones), that is to be found in Kensal Green Cemetery...

"Elizabeth Emma Jones was born in London in 1813. In 1836 she married Alexis Benoist Soyer the famous Chef de Cuisine of the Reform Club, Pall Mall, London. She died on the 29th of August, 1842, aged twenty-nine. She showed talent from a very young age and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1823, at barely ten years old. This highly accomplished artist focused on portraiture and studies of nature. Her works were popularised through engravings and she went on to exhibit at the Paris Salon from 1840-42. Her reputation in France stood higher than even her native country. She was regarded as unusual and precociously gifted. Her works were admired because they were said to have been marked by great vigour and breadth of light and shadow."

Elizabeth Soyer died during child birth in 1842. A "said to be devastated" Alexis Soyer had the grand pedestal tomb erected in 1844. Designed by her husband Alexis, a leading (early celebrity) chef and dietician of the 19th centur. Carved by Pierre Puyenbroeck of Brussels, the monument had a permanent gas powered eternal flame that burnt until the 1930's when apparently someone at the cemetery company worked out they were actually paying the gas bill. The monument fell in to (what some would say was) beautifully natural decay until cleaned and restored by Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery in 2009.

Kensal Green is an inspiring place (especially the overgrown parts), the idea of Trillian (or the Captains Table) and the leaf growth taking back man-made objects in such an organically beautiful way... leaves wrapped around crosses, words on stones weathered away, fading in a way street art on buildings never quite does... layers and layers to visually peel back and explore.. words, shapes, leaves, lives... To Her in so many ways...

FREE ART THURSDAY... PRESS RELEASE

CULTIVATE VYNER STREET PRESS RELEASE - NOVEMBER 2011

FREE ART THURSDAY...

Free Art Thursday on the street outside of Cultivate, come leave some free art, come get some free art.

Free Art Thursday will happen on Thursday afternoon/evening, November 17th, at, in and around Cultivate Vyner Street.

Cultivate is an artist run space, we've planted our flag right in the middle of the East London establishment art road that in Vyner Steer. This is not an accidental planting, rather than joining in with the continual humming note of artist moan about how they're treated by London galleries, a small group of us thought we'd go on to 'their' patch and do it ourselves. Thought we'd find out first hand about the reality of running a space as a functioning commercial gallery. We've survived two and a half months and a number of rather successful shows so far including the Wahat Prive Art event where buyers set the price, the 22 hours event that saw is take over the place, empty it out of al lthe junk, paint the walls and get a packed group show open for September First Thursday with 22 hours notice...

"Cultivate is fast becoming the First Thursday place to be, right on the corner in the middle on Vyner Street, the recent Red and Something Borrowed shows were a triumph" (Resonance FM)

Cultivate will be open late on Thursday 17th November for the current two week "Sean Worrall - Paintings" show, other galleries in the street have openings/private views on on the night of the 17th, Set Aymot has an interesting looking show at Gallery Twenty One, just over the road from Cultivate), Sean is well known for leaving bits of art on the street, in the trees, on buses, trains - painted pieces of vinyl, canvas pieces. A number of other artists have been joining in outside the door and on the window ledges of Cultivate in recent weeks and so... let's get it a little more organised with the first of what we hope will be several events called FREE ART THURSDAY

This Thursday we'll have art left outside Cultivate (or just inside if the weather is bad) as well as around the street near the gallery. Artists are encouraged to come join in and leave pieces, people will be encouraged to come take a piece (no more than a piece each please, don't grab it all, leave some for others), Sean will be leaving a load of painted pieces of cardboard, canvas, vinyl (records) and such, we'll announce other artists involved as they declare themselves part of the event, we'll start at 5pm and carry on until 9pm or later if we need to (anything left over we'll cleaned up and we'll give away the next day or over the weekend at the gallery).

We have about 20 other artists confirmed now, the list is growing by the hour as the word spreads... watch the websites and facebook pages for updates...

Come join in...

Marina (Cultivate / Organ magazine)
020 3222 5042

www.cultivatevynerstreet.com
http://facebook.com/sean.worrall1

FREE ART THURSDAY

Free Art Thursday will happen on the street outside of Cultivate, come leave some free art or come get some free art.

Cultivate is a gallery right in the middle of the frontline East London art-filled gallery-laced road that is Vyner Street,(London E2 9HE)


Free Art Thursday will happen on Thursday afternoon/evening, November 17th, at, in and around Cultivate Vyner Street, while my "Sean Worrall - Paintings" show is on and open for a Thursday late night at the gallery (and while other galleries in the street have openings/private views, Set Aymot has an interesting looking show at Gallery Twenty One, just over the road from Cultivate).

We'll have art left outside Cultivate (or just inside if the weather is bad) as well as around the street by the gallery. Artists will be encouraged to come join in and leave leave pieces, people will be encouraged to come take a piece (no more than a piece each please, don't grab it all, leave some for others), I shall be leaving a load of painted pieces of cardboard, vinyl (records) and such, we'll announce other artists involved as they declare themselves part of the event, we'll start at 5pm and carry on until 9pm (anything left over we'll clean up and I'll give away the next day or over the weekend).

Come join in, spread the word and come join in...

Cultivate is an artist-run space, we're trying to shake things up just a little.... come be part of it...

www.cultivatevynerstreet.com

East London solo show, November 2011

Busy times, blog neglected again, solo show already entering the second week down Vyner Street, this Thursday we expand out to the street as well as the filling the gallery walls inside