Weds 16th October: Walter Hugo's "Reflecting The Bright Lights" at Paul Smith Gallery

And here it is - the first showing of the final fifty portraits in the pin-hole camera portrait series "Reflecting The Bright Lights" by Walter Hugo.  The artist was given space by Paul Smith at his headquarters to set up the epic equipment in order to shoot the remaining subjects.  Now the complete set is on show at the Paul Smith Gallery alongside Walter's latest landscape work "We Are An Island" - seascapes processed using the location's water collected and purified.  GENIUS!

Read what Paul has to say about the partnership over on his blog here.

See official photos from the private view here.

16th October 2013 - 10th November 2013
 
Paul Smith No. 9 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BL

Tues 15th Oct: "Ever After High"

The world's art world descends on London tomorrow for Frieze Art Fair and now I have the perfect t-shirt to wear with a print of a Princess Julia original painting.  She has created three different watercolour designs of "Ever After High's Royals and Rebels" for these t-shirts as part of a new project with Fashion East designers.   

Ashley Williams, Bobby Abley, Claire Barrow and Ryan Lo have each been inspired by the doll range and invented a unique handbag - see here Ashley's fury fox clutch.    Each handbag comes in a limited editon of three to go on sale at Selfridges Toy Shop where they will sit alongside the respective "Ever After High" dolls. 

The designers threw a party last night to launch the line, each taking a turn on the decks after dj superstar Princess Julia showed them how its done.  All taking place in the surroundings of a Tony Hornecker magical forest set, tiny houses lit up trees for the dolls to perch on.  Lily Vannilli baked a multi-story glitter dream cake for the "Ever After High" fairytale theme using blueberries, rose petals, beetroot and chocolate............... and the party bags were a work of art in themselves,  depicting Princess Julia's paintings and containing a doll and t-shirt for each guest. ...........

Pick up your own "Ever After High" doll or one of the designer's handbags from Friday 18 October at Selfridges London's Toy Shop

(Top to bottom: Lily's cake, Ashley's bag, Bobby's rucksack, Ryan's bag, Ryan hiding behind his bag, Ashley, all the designers cutting the cake, Tony Hornecker's set, the goody bags with Princess Julia's artwork and the t-shirt worn my Max Allen)

Monday 14th Oct: New FUDGE colour hair

The result of my latest FUDGE "paint box" colour hair instalment from head colourist Tracy Hayes who started my new spectrum with swirl sections.  Continuing from my first violet hue hair thru to the second turquoise look, now to a new neon lime palette!  Who knows where we will move in the rainbow next time.............. check out the complete series on the site......... and check out Tracy's ongoing collaboration with Julie Verhoeven here..........

Sunday 13th Oct: "World Sight Day" with TOMS and DAZED's pub quiz

TOMS are known for founding their shoes strategy on a "One for One" basis by giving a percentage of sales from each pair sold to their organised charities providing footwear to communities without.  The newest development and product to follow suit is glasses to specifically raise awareness of the 285 million people that are blind or visually impaired - 90% living in developing countries.   Children are unnecessarily struggling in school and adults are forced to stop working as their vision declines.  Blindness and visual impairment can push families deeper into poverty and yet 80% of all of these people can be treated.

Therefore TOMS took the opportunity of "World Sight Day" on Thursday to create a campaign called "Be Shady" with worldwide events to spread the word.  In London, DAZED magazine hosted a pub quiz with teams of their family and friends to tackle questions such as a photo round of naming the breed of dog!  I hosted a team which grew in numbers as the party got started, ironically resulting in me naming it "Haphazard" as it hadn't occurred to me to do so before!  Here is Margot Bowman with her sunnies on and Charles Casely Hayford making our newspaper tower in the activity round.  Despite having a STRONG team we lost out as runners-up  to Ronojoy's captaining of recruiting a brainy bunch including Sophie Heawood and a human paper tower Tremaine Emory.  

Although the night was ridiculous fun, the serious and actual point of the get-together of creative minds was to capture imaginations to pass on the power of TOMS pledge.  When one pair of their glasses is sold, sight is guaranteed to another person in need via sustainable plans such as prescription lenses, sight-saving sugary or medical treatment.  When you know that, it seems crazy to buy any other brand!  Head over to their comprehensive sight site to dig deeper into their mission and success in making a change ..................

Sat 12th Oct: NIKE FEEL, LONDON

To kick off the new NIKE launch in London, a few of the capital's footwear fam were invited to a late Friday lunch at ACE Hotel to find out more.  The crew I originally met on the Fuel trip to NYC in 2012 were there, including Cassetteplaya, Grace La Doja and Charlie Dark with Joel Gethin Lewis missing ......... but that's because he's in the final throws of putting together the project's epic event taking place on Thursday.  His company "Hellicar & Lewis" have curated a live stream programme "The Art + Science of Feeling" line-up including Redlight, Benga, London Contemporary Orchestra and English National Ballet.................  

"FOR 10 DAYS THIS OCTOBER NIKE IS INVITING THE WORLD TO SHOREDITCH, 

EAST LONDON TO CELEBRATE, EXPLORE AND INTERACT WITH THE 

ART + SCIENCE OF FEELING FEATURING ARTIST INSTALLATIONS, WORKSHOPS, 

EVENTS, PERFORMANCES AND WORKOUTS ALL INSPIRED BY THE NIKE FREE 

HYPERFEEL."

To coincide with the multi-media "Nature Amplified" night, there will be a run of events for anyone to experience and sign up for.  You can take part in talks, workshops, work-outs or just visit the extended exhibition space at 1948 with works by Daniel Widrig , Universal Everything, Quayola Sinigaglia,  Bart Hess ............ open now till Sunday 20th Oct.

1948 LONDON  Arches 477 – 478, Bateman’s Row, Shoreditch, EC2A 3HH

(Kit Neale wearing his own "Peckham Riviera" jacket and "Woogie Woo" shirt, Carri Munden, Grace & Charlie & Tremaine)

Saturday 12th Oct: "Opera Rose" by Jonathan Gabb

"Opera Rose" a solo show of new works by Jonathan Gabb - layers of paint, peeled off into strips and arranged into amazing fringed sculptures to transform the notion of "painting".

A Brooks Art, 194-196 Hoxton Street, London, N1 5LH

(Thank you to Rosy Nicholas for the tip-off and photos)

Thurs 10th Oct: Walter Hugo - "Reflecting The Bright Lights"

Having been a massive Walter Hugo fan since the time I discovered his work, I am now massively chuffed and delighted to have joined the subjects of his "Reflecting The Bright Lights" project.  I sat in the long exposure lens of his pin-hole camera which projected my image onto a glass plate.  Straight away the photograph emerged like magic infront of our eyes in the chemicals of the developing tray (see pic above).  Here are Walter and partner Zoniel who invited me to take part in the process which is going to come to its final conclusion next week.  The complete series will be on display as part of his latest show in London, "We Are An Island"

"The show is a collection of my most recent work and also the first ever showing of the finished series Reflecting The Bright Lights, which you sat for, so your portrait will be on show. We are really excited to have all the glass plates finished and shown together!"

The show opens to the public from 16th Oct - 10th November at the Paul Smith Gallery, No.9 Albemarle Street, W1S4BL  

See archive post on Walter's shows here,  here, here,

Above images are a mix of my own and Zoniel's from her blog here.