Steve Chivalry – Gasp Graduate Award 2011

The Art Space Portsmouth New Fine Art Graduate Award supports a promising student from the University of Portsmouth to exhibit at GASP – Gallery Art Space Portsmouth. This year’s award winner is Steve Chivalry and details for his exhibition are below along with some samples of his work. Some of you might remember Steve’s work in Garbo’s Salon on Albert Road last year. Well done Steve.

Exhibition: 18th- 29th October 2011 Private View: Friday 21st of October, 6.00pm-8.00pm. Also open: Saturday 22nd October, 12-4pm.

All other times by appointment only. Contact Steve on 07815579808, email stevechiv@hotmail.co.uk, or visit www.stevechivalry.tk

“Look but don’t touch… touch but don’t taste…taste but don’t swallow ” -Devils Advocate

Steve’s work walks hand in hand with raw human emotion, nurturing human emotions and guiding people to think about their own life situations. A lot of steve’s paintings are confrontational and designed to be so. His sculptures are designed to make you think of your current position in the reality of the present moment. The quote above taken from the film / novel Devils Advocate, highlights the inquisitive naivety of the human nature, a theme that runs visibly throughout Steve’s work.
The work within the exhibition is a collective of Steve’s most popular pieces from 2010-2011.

Sit Chair Project by Karen Ryan

Portsmouth artist Karen Ryan has a new project that was showcased at this years London Design Week. Karen is contemporary British designer who graduated with an MA in Design Products at the Royal College of Art London in 2001.

“Necessity, fate, autobiography and subversion are the key influences upon my practice. I use materials that are provided as a product of continuous waste driven by mass consumption and fashion.”

The ‘Sit’ chair project is an alternative response for London Design Week 2011.

“I have taken two chairs one from my dining table and one from my bedroom, both of which had been previously discarded. I designed the ‘Sit’ brand for the use of these chairs, the brand identity is hand stamped upon a newly prepared surface area on each individual chair.”

See more of Karen’s work on her website – http://www.bykarenryan.co.uk/ and more about the ‘Sit’ chair project on Design Boom. Her photographs were taken on the streets of London and Portsmouth. Email info@bykarenryan.co.uk

Southsea Series – Episode 2 Peter Clutterbuck

Local production company Wide Aperture Media have just finished episode 2 of their Southsea Series. This time they feature the talented blacksmith Peter Clutterbuck. “Peter has plied his trade in Portsmouth for over 40 years, creating bespoke metalwork, including the iconic bandstand in Southsea.”

Totally loving their use of camera/software effects in the opening and closing scene.

Pete Codling – Work in Progress at Space

A few months ago we featured local artist Pete Codling including his work in progress at Space, Eldon Building at The University of Portsmouth. I was lucky enough to take a few more pics of his work in development earlier this week but also found out that someone broke into the room on the 20th September and stole his laptop, sketchbook, mobile phone along with a camera. If anyone can help Pete solve this crime then please contact him at pete@petecodling.co.uk

The building, which will be demolished in November along with this final artwork, was actually Codling’s old studio space when he was a student at Portsmouth College of Art in the late 1980s.
This ‘charcoal epitaph’ is a personal way for the artist to say good bye to the building but also to celebrate the creativity of many artists, designers and musicians who have used this space over the last fifty years. This drawing on the main wall will be nearly ten metres by  five meters with other smaller walls being included in the composition. The artwork will be inspired by classical mythology from his travels in the Mediterranean and will refer to Portsmouth and the history of the building.

If anyone wants to see the development of the artwork on the walls then please pop down during the day at Space, Eldon Building, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth.

Created Local – Mark Kellett

Local artist Mark Kellett is currently showing his work at the Ashcroft Arts Centre, Fareham until 30th May.

Arran Mackintosh at aspex

The talented illustrator Arran Mackintosh has his first show at aspex this Wednesday evening 9th February.

“Addressing themes of civilisation and visual identity, Illustrious Nation showcases new and recent work by the winner of the 2010 Graduate Award.

Arran Mackintosh studied BSc Illustration at the University of Portsmouth and since graduating has gained recognition for his imaginative and innovative drawing-based digital and handmade work. In 2010 Arran’s painstakingly-produced The Scroll of Britain was highly commended in the Macmillan Prize for children’s books.”

10 February – 20 March 2011
Preview: Wednesday 9 February, 6 – 8pm

Deane Clark’s Portsmouth Book

Launched in December, Deane Clark’s Portsmouth book is now available to purchase. The book is published and designed by local company Tricorn Books and features 160 pages of Drawings and Illustrations charting Portsmouth’s historic buildings
“I have been inspired to sketch and photograph Portsmouth, my home town, since I was eleven years old” said Deane. You can purchase his book from publishers Tricorn Books or via Amazon.

Stone Dead Forever

Local artist David G Kirby has been dropping free art around the city for years now and is constantly creating pieces of work in a variety of ways.

In 2008 he started writing on pebbles found on Southsea beach, near where he lives. He photographed the stones and left them there for people to find and enjoy. He has now created a book that collects together 60 or so of the photographs for you to enjoy.
The stones have also been featured on the GPS website by the South Bank Centre, London.
The project also has it’s own group on Flickr, at http://www.flickr.com/groups/stone_dead_forever/ where fans can see and even upload pictures of pebbles that they have written themselves.

You can buy the book on Blurb following the link below. Prices start at £12.95.

See more of David’s work on his Flickr site.

http://www.blurb.com/books/1602249

Badger Press – Gocco Printing 2 spaces left

Stephan Casper from Badger Press emailed me earlier to say that they are running a Gocco workshop this Sat 26th June at their studio and have 2 spaces left. “Artists Andrew Groves http://imakethings.co.uk and Simon Dovar from http://www.binaryandthebrain.com/ are coming down with their machines. It’s £40 for the day, a great opportunity.

You can print postcards, flyers, invites, tickets, print onto t-shirts or fabric, create patterns….almost everything with these wonderful little japanese machines.” Contact the press to book one of the places via their website.

Created Local – Jade Spranklen

Jade Spranklen is a 22 year old second year illustration student at Portsmouth University.  Her influences are Tim Burton and Roman Dirge and with a liking for art noveau there is also a lot of Edwardian and Victorian about her style.  As well as having work published on book and album covers she has her own book published entitled ‘Scrawbles’.

You can check out more sketches by Jade at www.sprankstown.co.uk

PRIMARY – A Phoneography Exhibition by Strong Island – Call for entries

This coming new year we will be proud to announce our latest exhibition PRIMARY, a Phoneography exhibition by Strong Island and we are even happier to announce that it’s open to you, the readers.

With the continuing increase in impressive camera technology in mobile phones and the ability to alter, tweak, post process and upload the photos to social media networks and websites like Instagram, the popularity of Phoneography has never been greater.

The ‘of the moment’ ability to take a photo at almost any time and any place by most people has really driven the fact that the camera does not make the photographer. By which I mean, you don’t need an expensive camera to take outstanding photos.

Agreed, the quality of the physical image may not stand up to the big guns, but new learnings in composition, style and aesthetic by a new generation of camera users via online media has really driven this popularity, and encourage people to go beyond a ‘quick shot’.

PRIMARY invites you to get out and about around Portsea with your mobile phone camera and take photos of anything and everything based around the three primary colours red, yellow and blue. What you photograph is entirely up to you, but submissions will only be accepted if they stick to the theme.

The call for entires has now begun and the deadline is the 31st of January 2012 with the exhibition being held in March of 2012. Photos can be taken on any mobile phone model and we ask that a maximum of 3 photos per applicant are sent in to primary@strong-island.co.uk.

Please submit along with your photographs your name, photo title, phone model, location of photo on the island and any post process apps you used, if any, to achieve the final shot.

We look forward to seeing all the entries, and the final installation will be something special using every photo submitted in a slightly different fashion from your average photographic exhibition. CLICK HERE TO PRINT YOUR OWN POSTER

Poster by Tristan Savage & Photo by Paul Gonella

It’s going to be a Strong Movember – Closed at £725

Righto chaps, it’s time to clean shave your boat race and get that mighty moustache on the grow in support of Movember for The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. For 30 days of November you can help support and raise awareness through selflessly parading your top lip for charity.

You can sign up yourself, as I’m sure many of you already have, or you can join the Strong Island team and seek out sponsorship as a team. Through the Strong Island Movember page you can ask people to join the group, make donations, upload photos and post updates via the MoSpace page, Facebook and Twitter.

Head over to www.mobro.co/StrongIsland if you would like to get involved and grow a Strong Moustache to help raise awareness, or simply head over to www.uk.movember.com and sign up to personally raise money.

The funds raised in the UK support the number one and two male specific cancers – prostate and testicular cancer. The funds raised are directed to programmes run directly by Movember and our men’s health partners, The Prostate Cancer Charity and the Institute of Cancer Research. Together, these channels work together to ensure that Movember funds are supporting a broad range of innovative, world-class programmes in line with our strategic goals in the areas of awareness and education, survivorship and research.

Poster: Tristan Savage