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“With each step you fall forward slightly. And then catch yourself from falling. Over and over, you’re falling.”
Laurie Anderson

This weekend the Siobhan Davies Studios presents its newly commissioned performance, Footfall. Free to the public, you are invited to ‘Traipse, meander, tip-toe or strut to Siobhan Davies Studios for a day exploring the activity of walking’

Comprising of a number of performances, Footfall invites audiences to join in, participate and explore the surrounding area, and in turn movements we make instinctively, but often without a second thought. Filled with performances, talks and some surprises along the way Footfall promises to be a unique and engaging look at something we all do, yet rarely consider.

Footfall is free to the public, however to attend the artists talk is it advised you reserve a place. 020 7091 9650. More info here

Things I like

Performance

Born in Poland in 1972, Wilhelm Sasnal embodies in himself the quintessential of “postmodern artist”. Ranging from the Pop Culture of the 60′s to the master painters of the Nineteenth century – such as George Seurat – Sasnal looks simultaneously to the “high” and “low” culture while creating a captivating mix of past and present, an overlap between the everyday life and the mass media influences.

Unquestionably characterised by a clean style, Sasnal’s painting is anything but simple: deprived of what may be perceived as redundant, its rough figures hide something elusive and vigorous that may escape a casual glance.

The awareness that “something more” – something difficult to name – lies hidden between the threads of the canvas is not slow to manifest itself when we are before Bathers at Asnières. In this painting details have no space or reason: everyone and everything is vanished – as if they had never existed – and the young pale bather in the foreground is left alone, surrounded by a kind of “visual silence” effectively amplified by the flat blue of the river and sky.

Bare yet strongly evocative, Bathers at Asnières is a timeless masterpiece.

Artists, Things I like

Artwork of the Week

What’s the first name that comes to your mind when I say “Pop Art“? The answer would probably be Andy Warhol. In my case, however, the answer is Roy Lichtenstein.
Regarded as one of the most prominent American artists of all times, Lichtenstein will be celebrated with a major exhibition held at Tate Modern in February 2013. The first full-scale retrospective of the artist in over twenty years, it will bring together 125 of Lichtenstein’s most definitive paintings and sculptures.

Speaking of paintings, Look Mickey! is probably one of his most celebrated ones. There are many reasons that make the 1961 painting a seminal work: first of all, it marks the transition from Abstract expressionism to Pop Art – Lichtenstein’s first paintings were in fact strongly influenced by Cubism and Expressionism – secondly, it is the first work to employ Ben-Day dots – a painting process similar to Pointillism often used in comic strips – thirdly, it is the first painting to be fully inspired by comic imagery and to feature “speech balloons”.

Derived from an illustrated story book about Donald Duck, the painting depicts this latter fishing on a pier in the company of Mickey Mouse. Mickey holds back a laugh with a hand on his mouth while Donald announces excitedly that he has hooked “a big one” when instead the fishhook just caught his own blouse.

One of Lichtenstein’s most iconic masterpieces, Lock Mickey! is on display at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Artists, Things I like

Artwork of the Week

It’s July, And That Can Mean Only One Thing….

Watch the video here!

As part of the ongoing London Based LIFT Festival, July has something special up its sleeve. Elizabeth Streb and her amazing team of dancers are coming to London.

If you have never seen Streb’s work before, known as the Evil Knieval of Dance, Streb and her company push the human body to the boundaries of the possible, creating daredevil feats of extreme athleticism, somewhere between dance and free-running, gymnastics and circus.

LIFT have yet to reveal the date of the aptly named One Extraordinary Day, but keep your eyes peeled for clues and pop up events. And until then, wet your appetite with this video of Streb’s past work.

Things to see

Performance

A few months ago I literally stumbled across the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts; I must admit I was quite disappointed. Although I sincerely enjoyed his attempt to experiment with new techniques and technologies, much of his recent paintings didn’t convince me much appearing inert and drearily “flat” – especially those made with the Ipad – and above all they were a far cry from masterpieces such as A Bigger Splash.

A faithful record of a typical 30° – how lovely! – Californian day, A Bigger Splash always cheers me up when the leaden sky of London puts a strain on my joie de vivre – and needless to say it happens quite often. The painting depicts a warm and cloudless late morning/early afternoon in L.A.; the sun shines bright on a modern single-story house overlooking an inviting swimming pool. Someone has just decided to take a swim leaving an empty chair on the wide pink patio; the yellow diving board – in the foreground – leads the eye towards a large splash of water dominating the centre of the composition – a vague sexual innuendo? Maybe!

David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash is undoubtedly one of the most iconic paintings of the late 60s and a timeless chef-d’oeuvre; on display at Tate Modern.

Artists, Things I like

Artwork of the Week

Summer is the time of the graduation shows. Every year thousands of young alumnus get off from school ready to rock n roll the Art world.

The competition is high and you should make sure to leave an impression on art collectors, curators and gallerists.

As a director and curator I get to meet many art students, from BA to MA. Often they send their CV to the gallery, or come in person to introduce themselves.

Here are my tips on how to make an impression, what to avoid and what to keep in mind:

1 Being professional will always pay you back.
I like people who speak their minds; when you are honest and express your own opinion, often people will recognize your value and take the time to listen to you. Don’t be afraid of taking a position, but always be aware not to overstep the mark. Everyone is different; with some curators, collectors, or gallerists you can be friendly and with some you have to keep the distance. Try to analyze who is in front of you, think twice before speaking and always be professional.

2 Introducing yourself by email
Try to avoid long emails, Arts Professionals often don’t have much time and are reluctant to engage with unsolicited proposals. If they like your work they don’t need to read your entire life story! Make sure to include all your contact details. Your signature shows that you are professional and know how to work.

3 Sending your CV
If you decide to send your CV to a gallery, make sure you provide them with all the right info: your telephone number, email address and a link to your website. Never take for granted that they know what you are talking about and who you are!

4 CV must be easy to read
Often people say that your CV needs to be catchy; well, I am not entirely sure about that. Avoid using too much bold, it looks like you are shouting, you don’t need to use 10 different colours and fonts. I believe that the key is to be well organized and tidy; a CV must be easy to read. You need to keep in mind that they probably see many CVs every day, so make it easy for them! Here is what I would like to see:

– One attractive image of your work
– Your contact details
– Your education
– Your shows
– Then you can add special projects/residencies and publications

If possible keep it 2 pages long, 1 is even better!

5 Select your works wisely
Please don’t send twenty thousand images of your work, nobody is going to see them, they will just make their computers crazy and even worse, their mobile devices! If you want to send images, then select the works that best describe your artistic practice, 2 or 3 images will do. Remember to always reduce the size and the resolution of the images, preferably send a jpg file because not everyone can open files with Photoshop, InDesign and so on.

6 Invest time into your website
Ideally before you approach anyone regarding your work you should have a website, this does not need to be fancy, even a blog will do. You just need to provide your listener with a virtual platform where he can browse your works. Often a curator will save the link of your page in a virtual list on their computer/ipad so make it possible for them to do so.
Also keep your website tidy, often I spend so much time in understanding how to navigate someone’s website that in the end I am no longer interested in finding the work!

7 Info needs to be up to date
Make sure that your CV and website are always up to date. Why is this so important? Well, it shows that you are professional, and care about your practice, that you are focused and willing to move on with your work.

8 Attend Private Views, everyone is nicer after a glass of wine!
Try to attend as many private views as possible. Go to check your mates’ shows, they might introduce you to the curator who might like your work too. Private Views are an important chance to get to know many people in the industry. Generally everyone is nice after a glass of wine, so catch the opportunity to let other people know what you are doing!

Don’t misunderstand me- I am not suggesting you pretend to be nice with everyone one, I am encouraging you to go out there and show what you have. Nobody will knock on your door!

9 Don’t confuse Initiative with rudeness.
If you want to go to a gallery and meet the director/curator/manager and so on, you can certainly do that but you need to have an agreed meeting. A gallery can be a really busy work environment, lots of meetings and issues to deal with on a regular basis, so if you want to see the exhibition then just show up there, but if you wish to have a meeting then you need to arrange this. Initiative is brilliant but be careful not to confuse this with rudeness.

10 Always be true to yourself. Nobody like fakes!

Please get in touch if you wish to add anything else and of course if you not agree with me!

Tips

Opening on June 28th and running until October 14th, Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye at Tate Modern examines the artist’s work from the Twentieth century. Often regarded only as a 19-century master of Symbolism, Munch engaged with modernity drawing inspiration from both the everyday life and the technological developments in cinema and photography, as evidenced by works such as Workers on their Way Home (1913-14) and The Artist and his Model (1919-21) echoing the effect of electric lighting on theatre stages.
The exhibition features a wide rage of different works, including six paintings borrowed from the Munch Museum in Oslo, films and photos providing a good opportunity to better understand the artist and his work.

Things I like, Things to see

Last week I posted some tips about promoting a show or an event. I was delighted to see how many people wrote to me to simply say thank you and to ask me other questions. Between all the enquiries received there was one that I found particularly interesting, and I have decided to write this new post based on that question.

I am struggling with my English, I move here 1 and half year ago from Spain and since then, I am really finding hard to find a real job, I am loosing confidence.

What does it mean to come from another country and constantly working in English ensuring that the others will take you seriously?

Well, it is really hard!

When I moved here my English was genuinely poor and I have had to work truly hard in order to improve it.

You see, I am Italian, and often I have to cope with: ‘Oh well, your English is so much better than my Italian!’

What does that even mean? Are you living in Italy? NO, that’s why your Italian is not fluent!

I have to duel daily with the cliché that we are all ‘pizza and mandolino’, very lazy and moving-hands lovers! Well I love pizza and I love to move my hands when I speak but I am also conscious of my limit and ready to fight my language barriers!

So here is an easy list to follow:

1 Recognize your limits

You are not English and probably you’re never going to sound like someone from Hammersmith, but you can improve and learn to speak very well. So don’t put too much pressure on yourself, accept your initial language obstructions and get ready to push your limit!

2 Get English friends

Try to spend as much time as possible with people from the UK. You will pick up expressions that you won’t find in English grammar books. You will improve your pronunciation and have the chance to ask them about grammar rules.

3 Accept critiques

You must accept critique on your spoken English and move on! Ask your friends to correct you anytime that you make a mistake; this way you will improve faster than you think! Everyone at La Scatola knows to correct me when I make a mistake, I don’t take it personally, I like to think that they are doing me a favour, a big one.

4 Study!

You need to study, there is no way that you will speak good English without dedicating some time to practice and to studying grammar rules.

Now you will tell me: “But I don’t have the money for an English course!”

Well I know many ways that you can improve without spending a penny!!

Everyday I practice for at least an hour. Here are some websites that you will find extremely useful:

BBC, Six minutes English

This exercise lasts 6 minutes, it helps you with pronunciation and with your written English. You will discover new vocabulary and on top of that you will get to know what is going on around you. The contents are all from the news from all over the world! In the same website you will find quizzes and grammar games, just browse around and pick what suits you best.

BBC – Words in the news

This is my personal favorite; here you have a text from a recent news story, a voice is reading aloud for you to follow; in this way you can check tricky words and test your pronunciation. At the end of the reading the voice repeats a series of words, also giving the meaning of each of these words, so here you have the grammar, the pronunciation, the news and some new words for your vocabulary!

Guardian – Learning English

Here you can pick a text from the news and select your level, from beginner to advanced. Generally all of these articles are really interesting and before you know it you will discover so many things!

Ship or Sheep

This is all about pronunciation!

TED

Perfect for improving your listening and expanding your knowledge. I love TED, there are so many great videos available and a lot of topics are about the Arts.

All of this will take you an hour, so start today to improve your English, don’t be lazy.

5 Trust yourself!

Always trust yourself, try to use new words, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just try to speak about anything you feel like sharing.

If you feel confident everyone will believe that you are and will be willing to listen to you and engage with you in conversation.

It’s all up to you!

Let me know how it goes!

Tips

Thierry Gueatta, aka Mr Brainwash, has recently hit London with his brand new God Save The People. Celebrating HM The Queen’s diamond jubilee, it depicts a guardsman in a bear hat, watching over Her Majesty, accompanied by one of her corgis. Unexpectedly smiling, the Queen is holding a brush and a bucket of paint, as if to suggest that she is the author of the written in pink letters “God Save The People”.

Regarded as one of the most controversial street artists of the recent years, Mr Brainwash hit the headlines in 2010 thanks to Banksy’s highly acclaimed documentary film, Exit Through The Giftshop. Despite his many detractors who accuse him of not being a “proper artist”, his reputation has grown steadily over the last two years.
Mr Guetta is expected back in London with a new show later this summer.

Things I like, Things to see

Many times people ask me about useful ways to promote the gallery and its shows, I thought it was nice to share some tips on free listing, so here you go!

Promotion, Promotion and again promotion, let’s make the most out of FREE LISTINGS!

Promotion is fundamental for the success of your business, often to promote your projects and events you need to invest lost of money in PR and advertising, studying a marketing strategy and so on. Well not everyone have the opportunity to hire a professional PR, this is definitely a worth investment if you have the money, but be ready to pay even £250 a day, yes you have understood, they are expensive! But no worries you have plenty of opportunity to promote yourself and what you do on the net.

Let’s see together how.

When I first moved to London few years ago I didn’t know where to look for private views and art events, so I started to browse the net and I found many websites where galleries can list their events/shows for free and where often artists can create their on profile in order to promote their works. These websites are a really useful vehicle to let people know what you are doing in real time!

Free Listings: these are the key to generate a buzz around what you are doing.

Do you want to promote your work as an artist? Do you wish to promote an art event or an exhibition? Do you want everyone to know about your gallery and project space?

Then you definitely need to know these websites:

With Artslant you can create your profile as an artist and as a gallery with ‘My Page’, you can import images and info about your business, promoting your location with a map in ‘My Venue’, you can list your exhibitions in ‘Exhibits’.
I really like it, it is free and it is easy to use, sometimes if you are lucky it might happen that they will list your show in their newsletter, which I reckon reaches lots of people!

Same deal with Remotegoat, Artlyst, Artrabbit, they are all for free.

Then with Artcalendr you have 6 listings for free, so why don’t use it as much as you can, then you could decide to subscribe to it or not.

If you have a gallery in East London The First Thursday, an initiative run by Whitechapel and Time Out, give you the chance to register your gallery for free for one year, then every first Thursday of the month you will need to stay open till late, 8/9 pm should do it. In your profile you can promote your current show, your gallery – info, location and so on, and the section Eating and Drinking Near by will help you to divert people to your business, you might make an alliance with other pubs and bars, promoting their premises in exchange of sponsorship, before you know, they will promote your shows and became your drink sponsor for your Private Views.

Here is another tip, try to have your Private Views on the first Thursday of the month, think like that: we are always very busy and there are far too many events happen at the same time in London, so often we check as many shows as possible in one evening, many people look up at the First Thursday in order to see what is going on, they know they will find many galleries open at the same time till late, they know they will have a good time and they will probably come to check your show too!

Is your gallery in South? Then we don’t need to worry, you have a similar service with South London Art Map.

And if you have a posh gallery in West London, you will like Fitzrovialates, it works like The First Thursday.

There is also our friend Artlicks, they are always interested to discover new exciting events, so send them an email.

Always remember to promote your business trough social networks, Twitter and Facebook need to be your best friends, use them us much as possible.

I hope this will be useful to you!

Tips