Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery Online Is a great place to find inspirational art. You can find the most contemporary and cutting edge art.

Within the site (www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk) there are also biographies, information on the artist, articles, and other resources.

With the website I found a sub heading 'Which reality?' which held some quite nice pieces of work.

Firstly Inka Essenhigh, here first piece shown bellow is called 'Subway' an oil on canvas, 200x180cm. I love the fluid motion of the piece, created by her 'seamless' application of paint. Which seems appropriate considering the movement on a subway. 'Turning everyday banality into surreal case study, Essenhigh gives humorous portrayal of people at their rush hour worst. Drawing stylistic reference from both graphic novels and golden age animation, caricatured city-types gain comically heroic status, rendering a humble slice of America as grand theatrical drama.' http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/inka_essenhigh.htm




Blue wave 2002 oil on canvas 178x 188cm


Supergod 2001, oil and enamel on canvas 183x 188cm

Another artist I was particularly intressted in is David Throrpe. Instead of using the usual oil on canvas, he created these amazing paper collages. They contain the finest of detail. He creates images of 'scenes of urban isolation oozing sex appeal, 70s social architecture promising budget exotica.'


Forever 1998 Paper collage 136 x 154 cm


Kings of the night 1998, paper collage 149x 168cm


We never sleep 1998 Paper collage 90 x 176 cm

Jamie Shovlin - Naomi V Jelish 2004

Art turns to perception and trickery with Naomi V Jelish 2004 by Jamie Shovlin.

A room was filled with newspaper cuttings about Naomi and her family, unbelievably realistic drawings of babies and children created by Naomi the 13 year old girl, diary entries as well as photographs school reports and personal mementoes, to explain the story of the artistic genius Naomi.

As I looked round the room, due to the sheer immense amount of data, the story becomes more and more believable; this draws on a concept that if you’re told something enough you generally begin to believe it. When I saw it I was just simply amazed by the quality of drawing that Naomi produced.

Throughout the work a story is also revealed about the 13 year olds life, 'Naomi showed great aptitude for art in the face of complete indifference from her family and school. But in 1991, a few months after her father drowned, Naomi, then 13, her mother, and her four siblings mysteriously walked out of the family home in Gravesend, Kent, and despite extensive police inquiries, none of them has been seen or heard of again. A cutting from the Kent Messenger discloses that in September 1990 Naomi won "the prestigious North Kent Student Art Prize".

In August the following year the paper reported that police were concerned because the family had vanished. Neighbours said the family seemed "cursed". David Jelish, the head of the family and a road mender with Kent county council, had drowned while saving one of the children, another child had recently survived electrocution and Vanessa, the children's mother, was suffering from a stress-related illness following the death of her youngest son in 1989.

A book accompanying the display at the Saatchi Gallery goes on to say that Naomi's precocious drawings were recovered from the abandoned house some time later by the late John Ivesmail, a science teacher at Naomi's school who had befriended the family. Though beguiled by her sketches, he waited until 1999 to show them in a small exhibition in Gravesend.

Soon after, he passed Naomi's pictures to a friend, a young artist called Jamie Shovlin, who created an exhibition of the drawings, along with all Jelish memorabilia recovered from their house and the newspaper cuttings. ' http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jamie_shovlin.htm

As the work is placed in a gallery you can believe that the work has been put there as a tribute to Naomi, you don’t doubt the authenticity due to the prestigious environment. This makes me question to what extent do people’s perceptions change when they view something, depending on where it is placed. As you have probably guessed this moving story is simply a hoax. The names Naomi V Jelish and John Ivesmail are actually anagrams of Jamie Shovlin. He claimed he wanted "to test the boundaries of ambiguity". You can question the truth in comparison to fiction, a concept I quite like. The story he chose, is slightly depressing, makes the whole thing more believable, as people don’t generally joke about a little girl’s misfortunes.

'His painstakingly researched and executed works combine inherently flawed systems, pseudo-scientific exactitude and doubtful philosophical propositions with the seemingly objective experience of the archive. Shovlin’s work questions the way in which we map and classify the world around us in order to understand it.' http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artnow/jamieshovlin/default.shtm

Think Mule Illustrations

Here is a collection of illustrations by think mule (www.thinkmule.com)

Due tonal colourings and abstraction of forms they suggest a native style of working. (Possible Picasso with the workings of far more surface texture) However I feel they go beyond this as they seem to work well and seem rather trendy when placed in to graphic products, i.e. packaging and posters. They seem to dwell well in the Music market - suggestions of alternative art for alternative music.

The layering and strongly marked details of create a surface texture of which I admire. They appear far from my own illustrative style this maybe why I like them.

Tate Liverpool

Last week I visited Tate Liverpool, situated on the Albert dock. A good range of inspirational art was held, from sculpture to photographs claiming Liverpool is the ‘Centre of the Universe,’ a bold and proud statement that I did admire.

Ron Mueck; a rediscovery for myself, exhibited a piece entitled ‘Ghost’ 1998, a tall dangling limbed figure of a girl with a rather gaunt expression on her face. She seems to look down at the viewers, unaware of what’s going on, and in her own little world. She is just a child yet this is contrasted with the scale of the figure. This was all done to 'emphasise a sense of adolescent anxiety.'

I have seen other impressive works by Mueck such as ‘Dead Dad,’ which has always been a favourite of mine, showing the limitations of man, and the iconic fatherly figure, as well as ‘Angel,’ which holds rather optimistic connotations. Mueck works with Fiberglass, silicon, polyurethane foam, acrylic fiber and fabric to create unbelievably realistic sculptures. Due to the ‘visceral realism’ (arts.guardian.co.uk/.../ story/0,,1840033,00.html) and the overwhelming scale the art is agreeably ‘slightly eerie’. (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=26294&searchid=29151)

He seems to concentrate on one humanistic emotion and express it through the formation of the body.





However the ability to produce life like human figures instead of real humans to project his artist thoughts, can allow Mueck to make small changes, (this may be in terms of scale or unusual proportions).

The front cover of his book, seen in the photograph bellow, I feel depicts the essence of his process of work rather than conceptual ideas, (engineering humans) which within the world of pregnancy and artificial growth is hot topic in today’s society. (This image suggested to me… could such works provoke powerful graphic messages when accompanied by the correct copy.)



Another artists who was also exhibiting was Ellen Gallagher with her series named watery ecstasy. The exhibition was feature in one room on the ground floor; therefore the room contained the atmosphere of the work. I liked the lightness of the work, however the work was not simplistic like so much work these days. Therefore a balance was maintained. Her work also uses subtle layering. A nice collection.

Cornelia Parker (‘Formalizing Things Beyond Our Control’)

Contemporary artist Cornelia Parker is obsessed with ‘formalizing things beyond our control’ (www.fithstreetgallery.com, 23/05/07). My favorite piece of hers, which was exhibited in the Tate Modern Gallery, illustrates this concept perfectly. ‘Cold Dark matter- An exploded view.’(Seen above) She has exploded a shed with the help of ‘British Army’ (www.tate.org.uk in 1991.) The pieces were then hung up using fine string and a light was placed in the center. The light appears as the center of the explosion. When I viewed this piece, I was allowed to walk round it. It appeared as if the explosion had been paused or slowed like used at the opening of the film ‘Sword Fish,’ 2001. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8K3CfUHKx8, 23/05/07), (however it has to be said -less brutal.)

This concept has been used in popular culture. The recent Scissor Sister video ‘She’s My Man,’ (http://www.youtube.comwatch
v=obDALgFz4F4) where a black background is used, and people are dressed in black walk round the band moving objects and band members in unusual ways. Again this suggests the sensation of creating the impossible by illusion.What I liked most about the video is the viewer’s ability to see the covered up extras, so the concept is essentially revealed.

Back to the shed…

Found within the blown up shed were ‘objects which have certain modesty and/or sentimental value (www.tate.org.uk 23/05/07), suggesting a more personal piece, and the gaining of a more emotional disturbing reaction. This reaction maybe also produced by our cultural perceptions, ‘A terribly British institution, the shed functions as a place of refuge, a safe place, a place for secrets and fantasy’ (www.tate.org.uk 23/05/07).