Bazooka

If you're wondering the back streets of Shoreditch, dip into this art exhibition at the Aubin gallery entitled 'Bazooka'. It showcases the work of two French punk artists, Kiki & Loulou Picasso, founders and radicalists of Bazooka in the late 70s.
Art directiong the French Left newspaper 'Libération', they created a storm amongst the war veterans of the time & created propaganda that is iconic and led to future commissions of Album covers, a magazine and currently, a collaboration with Neville Brody.

The mixture of fine art painting of Loulou, next to the cartoon, manga style (reminiscent of those felt
boards you used to colour in as a child), creates a very captivating combination. 

Mail Me Art

I didn't manage to get a long to see this in time, but had to post it up here (no pun intended).

Organised by Darren di lieto of Hai! illustration agency, artists and illustrators from around the globe were asked to decorate an envelope with artwork and deliver to the same address over a period of a year and hope that it would arive entact. Entries were collected and put together at the Red Gate Gallery of all the unusal and varied pieces. Here's my favourites:

More local art

More of pop up Art studios are around this summer in my neck of the woods so I'm making the most. The latest I went was the launch of the art concept galley, Towner and Hoxton. Set up by artists who share a love for tea and making things, the gallery combines socialising, showcasing and creation of artwork. My kinda place.
I went to the summer bbq and sat alongside the pop up doll, and the bass player as well as taking in these cool pieces of Art:

Loading bay coffee table decorated with postage stamps. By Johnny Hoxton

1940 Pinups by ??

More works by Johnny Hoxton

The Hendrix cassette piece is very similar to the work of American artist I posted here, but I still like them!

Floppy D'Art

I'm managing to squeeze in a couple of local exhibitions lately, and one I had to share was a showcase of artists including the very talented Nick Gentry.
I'd spotted his work way back and shared a link with some mates and little did I know that I knew him through a friend of a friend! Anyway, as you can see he creates these amazing portraits using old floppy discs - A much better use for something I used to find so irritating only being able to save two word files on. See more of his work here.

NIKE78 is an exciting new project created by Paul Jenkins and inspired by NIKE. Creatives were asked to challenge the function of the existing Nike trainer, using sport as their inspiration. From “Wacky Races” style characters, fish tank filled shoes, cake trainers to insole letters that travel the globe, the diverse collection will be showcased at the London Design Festival 2010. Check out more inspiring projects here.

Are You being Served? Exhibition.

Before I started my new job at Tribal, I managed to squeeze in a quick exhibition at the Bethnal Green museum of Childhood. As well as housing a large collection of dolls, toys and childhood memorabilia (remember Strawberry Shortcake!), the space at the front hosts exhibitions of local artists. The current one on show entitled Are you being Served is a collection of photographs by Tom Hunter, portraying the variety and communities of local shops in Hackney and Bethnal Green. All shot front on, to give the viewer the idea of what they may see if they were to be served by the subjects, it is fascinating to see them all as a collection. Yes, as individual images they are intriguing, but it is by seeing the whole series that you really get a feel for the area and the people that inhabit it. The shops give a hint as to the cultural mix of people that are drawn to theses areas and the services or products required. You also get a sense of which shops have staying power or may have been passed down through generations, even those not stopping.
What I liked about them was the great sense of human presence and activity within sometimes a very small space.