XoHal

First Thursday’s Art Crawl in Hoxton

Hally Bowman — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:26:00 +0000

We usually head to Vyner Street on each first Thursday of the month to catch the vibe of the arty village comprised of a cluster of gallery warehouses. This time we emerged from Old Street Station and headed through Rivington Street to Charlotte Road past several galleries with doors swung wide open trying to contain all the uber coolsters spilling out into the street Pub style. Pure Evil (on Leonard and Great Eastern) exhibited Jaw among others, and I met Reginald and Ted who offered some words of wisdom. Reginald: It all has to start with an idea. Ted: If you try to paint looser than you can, it can look very contrived. more|info

Ron English at Elms Lesters Paintings Rooms

Hally Bowman — Fri, 08 May 2009 08:44:20 +0000

Last night at Elms Lesters we had the distinct pleasure of meeting Ron English, a pop surrealist artist from the States . English is getting alot of press these days for his street art, in particular the Abraham Obama image. English is a fantastic realistic painter which can be overlooked because his subject matter is usually what grips you at the get go. His KISS themed portraits, his kids posing with army helmets and a cigarette, or my favorite, the Warholian kid, send powerful messages that leave you wondering what the commentary is all about.

Phillips de Pury and Chelsea Art Fair

Hally Bowman — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:18:05 +0000

We stopped by the auction house, Phillips de Pury & Co, to take a look at the lot that’s going up for auction this week in London. The auction exhibition was on contemporary post-war design featuring furniture and interior design artworks. The design lot on auction can be seen in the reference link below.

What was as impressive as the interior design artworks on display were the two men gracefully walking around, one of which looked like he buys regularly at this price point. His auction house escort was clearly imparting the history and specifications for each item as they glided around the gorgeous gallery space. The Phillips de Pury broker was imparting his wisdom and recommendations with such infectious enthusiasm and flair, I had to rethink what selling art might really entail.

Unfortunately, this salesroom vibe was a bit of a contrast with what was going on at the Chelsea Art Fair down a ways on Kings Road. Granted it would be unfair to pit the auction house money and cache against this particular art fair, but there were many booths where presentation did not seem to be a priority. In fact, the one woman who was meticulously on cue seemed to be over doing it in contrast with the many other booth guardians who seemed tired, bored, and uninspired. I started to really take notice of a lack of brand guidelines when one booth worker was slouched in her chair.

A heated discussion later ensued at dinner around the question, Do you require gobs of money to create and adhere to sophisticated brand guidelines in your business’ presentation? Is it so hard to work within one’s means and at the same time demand excellence in your presentation, pitch, marketing collateral, and hospitality? Our answer was simply: No, you can create good design fairly cheaply – yes, with hard work. And, brand guidelines are about having the discipline to create them with your budget in mind, but more importantly to consistently follow them without exception.

references |Catalogue for Phillips de Pury & Company Design::London April 30, 2009 |

PJ Harvey and John Parish last night

Hally Bowman — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:45:26 +0000

Skipped over to Shepherd’s Bush Empire to see the diva after a mad scramble to download the latest album, A Woman A Man Walked By. Right… 39th parallel… is that the divide between North and South Korea? All the guys in the band had hats and dark suits on and PJ, center stage, was all in white. After the last album, White Chalk, I now understand Harvey as an artist, a sonic sculptor of musical transitions and mood phrases. While this is not the kind of music you set your Facebook photo gallery to, it certainly is a remarkable style influenced by Howlin’ Wolf blues and Captain Beefheart jazz. It’s easy for people to compare her to iconoclastic Patti Smith, but this is not accurate in my opinion. Smith is a writer and poet, Harvey is a musician who seeks to constantly reinvent herself and who reaches for new heights in an unconventional sound-scape. If you listen a few times over in the spirit of Trout Mask Replica and Moanin’ in the Moonlight, it’s easy to get that this fierce darling is a trail blazer.

Churchill Was a Lifelong Writer

Hally Bowman — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:06:44 +0000

Went to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms yesterday in Westminster. The museum itself was excellent, the war rooms were enthralling as many of these small utilitarian rooms have not been altered since the war ended. A country enduring a 6 year nightmare fighting WWII essentially alone for most of it, and then one day it’s over and everyone leaves for the last time. These bunker rooms just left as they were while Britain immediately shifted focus to start rebuilding their ravaged country. Sir Winston Churchill’s speeches, written by him, were said to have been the only true offensive weapon and it is pointed out that this was no coincidence given Churchill’s life-long obsession with words and journalism.

Design Principles for Newspapers

Hally Bowman — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:03:31 +0000

The traditional principles in architecture such as the balance of function and design can be applied to everything around us not just buildings. Jacek Utko claims that good design can change your work flow. His approach to newspaper design was to treat it as a cohesive product. Whether his solution is practical or not, could there be a revolution brewing to bring back exceptional design for the common wo/man? more…