Sunday 10th June: Hattie Stewart's "I Don't Have Time For This" at NOW Gallery

Coincidentally the artist who has taken over the next show at NOW Gallery after me is Hattie Stewart who is from the same town as me!  Essex girls are infiltrating the big smoke and bringing colour and pattern to London!  

The lineage of shows at NOW Gallery has been a constanstly evolving use of the space with no shows looking anything like a previous one.  Each artist has totally transformed the glass wall gallery and this latest installation is no exception.  Hattie has hung a mirrored ceiling to reflect a massive hand-painted mural on the floor.  Visitors can lie on the design and look up to see themselves as characters amongst her trademark cartoon world.  Her mixed-media illustration work often doodle bombs over the cover stars of magazines and here you can become your model on her landscape.

Here are snaps from her private view including her with DJ Jodie Harsh who provided the sounds for the party fuelled by alco-lolly-pops and gifted with her own design tote bag for the Peninsulist artist edition series.

See my archive posts on Hattie's exhibitions here and here.

NOW Gallery, Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, London til 25th June

Sunday 10th June: Ollie & Quinn

I've had the same pair of glasses since I was studying (many moons ago) so it was opportune time when Ollie & Quinn contacted me about their frames.  The cost of a new pair also includes the lenses as one all-in package under £100.  The store offered me an eye-test at the appointment which revealed that not only did I need new specs but also a new prescription.  Once you get used to the style you can also order the same design as a pair of sunnies too in their sunglasses collection.  I visited the Spitafields branch but there are boutiques across the city and towns across the country so check out the locations to try some for yourself! 

Saturday 9th June: "Get Braided" by Charz Couture

My new fresh colour was made one hundred percent more cosmic by the deft and perfectionist skills of hair stylist Charz Couture.  Char has previously braided my hair in two dutch braids so this time she went even more intricate dividing my spectrum into four plaints.  My soft fine baby hairs were all neatly pulled in line and swept into the separate sections which revealed the layers and stripes of my colour.  I managed to keep it neat for a couple of weeks thanks to a hair-net over night and maximised the opportunity.  I got so much positive feedback from strangers stopping me to compliment me on the braids.  I felt like a million dollars, I wish I could keep this forever!  

Head over to Char's Instagram to see more and make enquiries. 

Saturday 9th June: Fudge Paintbox

My latest hair dye design by Tracy Hayes at Fudge is this pink tint with a hidden horizontal spectrum stripe.  Over time the pop brights will fade and the soft shades will meld into a smooth gradient.  I enjoy every single stage of these crazy colour-ways!

Head over to Fudge's instagram to see more inspo from Tracy's work here.   

Friday 8th June: Foam Talent at Beaconsfield Gallery

The "Foam Talent" exhibition is taking place in London for the third time at Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall.  The competition showcases twenty artists who have been selected for their creative mixed-media approaches to photography.  Here are snaps of just a few of the diverse entries including my favourite artist Namsa Leuba who has just shot the Nike campaign for the Nigerian World Cup football kit / collection.  This is definitely the place to pick up names of the next generation of ground breaking image makers.

Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, 22 Newport Street, London, SE11 6AY til June 10th

(All photos by me except my braids detail by Magda and FOAM's own event photos)

Friday 8th June: Lorenzo Vitturi's "Money Must Be Made" at Flowers Gallery

I'm a massive fan of Lorenzo Vitturi's work and excited that his latest photography series "Money Must Be Made" is now on at Flowers Gallery. I first fell in love with his portrait and interlinked still life project that captured Ridley Road's market, documenting the atmosphere perfectly and beautifully. "Money Must Be Made" has taken the same theme of working with personalities and paraphernalia but travelling to the Balogun Market in Lagos, Nigeria, the second biggest market of its kind in West Africa. The characters carrying goods on their heads were shot in a make-shift studio in the actual market, made with backdrops of fabrics foraged from the stalls. These shapely silhouettes are shown next to detailed complimentary compositions of the bulbous gourds, fruit and veg. The hand-made cover of the book also uses this calabash bubble in a Matisse style cut-out from screen-printed leather. Ive included a photo here from the book launch at Donlon Books to illustrate the various colour-ways that Lorenzo printed of this limited edition run. Its such an amazing investment to have this book as each page is a work of art in itself. The textures, patterns, colours, characters all brought together with his distinctive aesthetic is outstanding and its brilliant to be able to see the images blown up to full scale at Flowers this Summer.


82 Kingsland Road, LONDON , 11 May – 30 June 2018

See my archive post of "Dalston Anatomy" here.

Friday 8th June: Clerkenwell Design Week

Following on from the previous post of searching out colour in the East End............ to Clerkenwell Design Week and the magnificent patterned sofa in the crypt of a church in Smithfields.   The signature print belongs to DavidDavid who was showing this new cosmic furniture in the exhibition which I would certainly like to give a good home to!   

(Other works include "A PIECE OF SKY" installation by Sky-Frame and Rainbow thread Next Generation Design Pavilion by Scale Rule)