CURRENT: Eloise Fornieles wins ‘Open Kimono’

Congratulations to Eloise Fornieles who is the winner of the latest Art Below / Hospital Club challenge based on the theme of ‘Open Kimono’. Her winning entry ‘The Oyster Bar’ is on display at London Bridge from 21/06/10 for 2 weeks. Her work engages with human interaction, intimacy and the relationship between beauty and violence, using photography and video as an extension of her work in performance and installation.

The Oyster Bar, Installation Performance, Eloise Fornieles, 2006, © Eloise Fornieles

This installation was based on Manet’s painting, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. People were invited to come into the space one at a time and sip champagne while they were asked to exchange a tale of loss for an oyster or an orange. The loss could be as intimate, mundane or as bizarre as the participant wished. None of the interactions were recorded, with only the oyster shells remaining as a residue of the performance. The oyster shells accumulated in the space over the seven days.

To visit the artist’s website, click here.

June 24, 2010 by Ellie

UNTIL SUNDAY: Birkin’s winning work in Sovereign European Prize

June 17, 2010 by Kay

Congratulations to David Birkin who has won the Sovereign European Art Prize with his ‘Diptych’ (2009) from his ongoing series Confessions.

Don’t miss Birkin’s work on exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery until Sunday 20th June, along with 30 other short-listed entries.

The prize is now in its 5th year and received over 350 entries from over 30 European countries. Birkin was selected by this year’s judges: Sir Peter Blake, Tim Marlow, Philly Adams, Gavin Turk, Robert Punkenkhofer, Joseph Backstein and Nasser Azam.

After the exhibition the final selections, excluding the winning work, will be auctioned at a special charity event. 50% of the sales proceeds of each painting will go to the artist and the remaining 50% to the Foundation to help with its charitable work.

COMPETITION: Vote for Birkin!

The Sovereign European Art Prize, as recently posted on this blog, is inviting you to vote for one winner from this year’s finalists. David Birkin’s ‘Diptych’ (2009) from his ongoing series Confessions has been nominated. If you’d like to vote in favour of his work, please click here.

The finalists’ gallery will be on exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London from the 9th – 20th June 2010 and is open daily to the public from 10am-8pm.

BIRKIN_Diptych_from_Confessions

May 24, 2010 by Ellie

Vote for your favourite album sleeve

The Hours’ See The Light record sleeve by Damien Hirst has been nominated for a Best Art Vinyl award!

Voting is now open as Art Vinyl launches the Best Art Vinyl search for the most exciting record sleeves of 2009. This year will see music and graphic artists competing to follow in the footsteps of Hard-Fi, The Cribs, Thom Yorke and last year’s winner, Fleet Foxes. The 2009 nominations can be viewed here.

Click here to cast your vote and to see all of The Hours’ products available through Other Criteria, click here.

Art Vinyl, alongside graphic design and music industry experts, has selected a shortlist of 50 sleeve designs for the award that will be will be celebrated in exhibitions in London and around the UK during November and December.

Previous winners of the award include Hard-Fi’s stark ‘Stars of CCTV’ in 2005, Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’ in 2006, The Cribs ‘Man’s Needs, Woman’s Needs, Whatever’ in 2007 and last year the winner was Fleet Foxes’ eponymous first album, which won with more than 3,000 public votes.

Art Vinyl founder and managing director Andrew Heeps said, “We are once again championing the art of the record sleeve. The Best Art Vinyl poll now in its 5th year has provided a unique snap shot of popular art and design and this year will be no exception. The Art Vinyl award is about celebrating the emotional resonance of the best sleeve designs from 2009 and honouring some of those unsung heroes of art and design who provide the visual identity for so many bands and artists”

The Best Art Vinyl 2009 shortlist will be featured in exhibitions at the Art Vinyl Gallery at Selfridges on Oxford St, London, the Snap Galleries in Birmingham, and the Georges House Gallery in Folkestone. All of the designs will be displayed in the unique Art Vinyl Play & Display Flip Frame. The winning designs will be displayed from January 2010 at Rough Trade East, London, Snap Galleries, Birmingham, and Georges House Gallery, Folkestone.

Voting closes on 16th December 2009 on www.artvinyl.com and the winners will be announced on 5th January 2010.

For more information and images contact:
Andy Newcombe: +44 7515 288379 / 020 7241 4129 /
andynewcombe@artvinyl.com

November 25, 2009 by Ellie

House of Cards

August 21, 2009 by Kay

An array of artists are joining Shelter in the ‘House of Cards’ campaign to raise awareness of the growing housing insecurity in the UK. The result will be a limited edition pack of playing cards, with each card representing a different artist’s piece from the accompanying exhibition. Damien Hirst as the Ace of Hearts will be alongside David Bailey, Mat Collishaw, Michael Craig Martin, Paul Fryer, Rachel Howard, Rankin and Vivenne Westwood.

Seven of Diamonds, Rachel Howard

The 8 of clubs is reserved for the winner of the House of Cards design competition – the closing date is today so get your entries in quick! If you don’t have an artistic streak, you can browse through all the entries instead, they are extremely varied in both concept and style.

The full set of cards will be exhibited between 24th – 28th September 2009 at Haunch of Venison, London. For your chance to win tickets to the exhibition launch party, click here.

The cards will be presented in specially designed presentation case and will only be available for a limited time. Preorder the limited edition cards by registering on the Shelter House of Cards website.

The Hours Competition News

New Album ‘See The Light’ – Released 20 April

WIN ‘See The Light’ Original Artwork by Damien Hirst
& Free Download of ‘These Days’

To coincide with the release of The Hours album on April 20th, the Observer Music Monthly are running an amazing competition where you can not only win 60 signed lithographs of The Hours album artwork, but also the original artwork made by Damien Hirst.

To watch a video of the painting being made by Damien and register for the competition go to www.observer.co.uk/seethelight. When you register you will be given the opportunity to download ‘These Days’ – a fantastic track from the new album ‘See The Light.’

The 19th April edition of Observer Music Monthly will feature the spectacular and strange relationship between art and music with interviews from Damien Hirst and The Hours.

Good luck!

April 1, 2009 by Ellie

See The Light album cover