Category Archives: Contemporary Art

Inch Kenneth

By on 25-04-2012
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Jules and I have spent the last 24 hours on the Isle of Mull filming Adrian and Jane of ‘Strongarbh House‘ in the picture-perfect town of Tobermory, as part of a series of films on collecting for Own Art.

I am ashamed to admit that despite being a quarter Scottish this the furthest north I have ventured. The landscape is utterly captivating and is home to some of Britain’s most spectacular wildlife including fallow deer, mink, otter and if you are lucky enough to spot them – dolphins (in my case not yet!). The dramatic coastal line beckons you to explore so it’s no surprise that landscape is central to much of the artwork in the area.

I have a confession…

By on 22-01-2012
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Suzanne Moxhay, Eyrie, 2011

I just can’t help myself. When given half a chance, I have nipped off to have a look around the other stands. I managed to do this on Wednesday evening when I popped to the main projects area and took a look at some of the other stands. BEARSPACE stand - P21 caught my eye - they are showing the work of three British artists Suzanne Moxhay, Reginald S Aloysius and Jane Ward in an exhibition entitled ‘Brave New World’.

Putting a face to names

By on 21-01-2012
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It’s been good to meet so many artists at the London Art Fair, many of whom have profiles on Axis. Thank you for coming to say hello.

For the Axis team it’s great to put a face to the work. And for the artists I guess it shows that there are people behind the technology. We’re real human beings, honest!

Bill Jackson, Fish HEad, 2011

This morning I’ve been having a bit of a wander round the Art Projects section of the London Art Fair. I was pleased to find Bill Jackson’s striking photographs at Troika Editions and to meet the curators of The Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast. Although Axis has a remit for the whole of the UK, we have only a handful of directory members in Northern Ireland. Definitely something to be remedied there…

Can I buy the video please?

By on 21-01-2012
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When we curated the stand for our Arts Projects space at London Art Fair we wanted to show a cross-section of work from the Axisweb directory. The directory is bursting at the seams with talent and the Art Fair is a great way to show it in the flesh.

Hanae Utamura, Wiping the Sahara Desert, 2010
Hanae Utamura, Wiping the Sahara Desert, 2010

Selling the work is, of course, important in this context and the work was selected with this in mind. However I think it would be fair to say that the success of Hanae Utamura’s ‘Wiping the Sahara Desert’ has taken both the artist, and us, by surprise.

Conversations at the London Art Fair

By on 18-01-2012
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To state the obvious, one of the good things about having an art fair stand is the enforced leisure. You really can’t do very much except talk to people. And for us, so far, that has been a real pleasure.

Florin Ungureanu, Lost Memories, 2011

Yesterday we spent a lot of time in conversation with the artists who have work on the Axis stand. I was intrigued to hear about Florin Ungureanu’s education in Ceauşescu’s Romania, David Webb’s passion for colour, Canadian Trevor Kiernander’s experience of living in London, Will Woon’s interest in Gothic architecture and the propensity of caretakers at the Slade to dispatch anything vaguely resembling scrap material to the rubbish bins, as Sonke Faltien discovered to his cost while doing a BA there.

Axis at the London Art Fair

By on 17-11-2011
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With barely time to pause for breath after The Manchester Contemporary it was straight into organising the The London Art Fair taking place in January 2012. Axis will have a stand in the Art Projects space where the work of new and emerging artists work is shown alongside selected work from public galleries such as The Whitechapel and ICA.

Adrian Berg remembered and Alice at Tate Liverpool

By on 09-11-2011
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An obituary for the artist Adrian Berg stopped me in my tracks the other day, for I’ve loved his paintings ever since seeing a touring exhibition of his work in 1986.

Leighton Hall, 10 July, 1991 Courtesy Gillian Jason Modern & Contemporary Art

At that time he painted the view from his window over Regent’s Park with all the obsessive, investigative intelligence of his hero Claude Monet, whose ‘series’ paintings of haystacks and cathedrals were Berg’s single most important source of inspiration.

Formulas, furniture and fruit – Kara at Frieze Art Fair 2011

By on 24-10-2011
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In mid October, four of the Axis team – Kara (Head of Audience Development), Mark (Head of Finance and Resources), Ruth (Projects Coordinator) and Sheila (Chief Executive) took a trip to London to see this year’s Frieze Art Fair. In the next four posts we share our experiences and let you know what we thought.

I felt a bit out of sync as I made my way into the fair – I missed last year’s Frieze as I was on maternity leave – so felt the need to go and catch up. While still familiar, the feel of the show was very different from when I last went in 2009. My overriding memory of two years ago was that big statement sculptures were ‘in’ as were sequins and sparkle. But now, it seems, it’s out with the sparkle and in with much smaller work, muted colours, handmade and found objects.