Miss Cakehead Prooves Great Art is a Piece of Cake

The Fairtrade Mad Artist Tea Party opened at London’s Future Gallery over this bank holiday weekend to the delight of eager edible art fans. The show really did pull in quite a crowd, and it’s no surprise considering the fun original concept and the talent involved including Pete Fowler, Stuart Semple, Bompas and Parr, Jon Burgerman and Peat Wollaeger (stenSOUL).

Squid & Tabernacle’s Shipping Container Closure

Curatorial duet George Major and Hanna Sorrell of itinerant art gallery Squid & Tabernacle, must feel quite at home in their Dalston shipping container by now. Their previous three exhibitions have all been staged in the claustrophobic pod, which has proved to be a remarkably versatile space throughout the course of the year.

But now as they say, ‘all good things must come to an end’ and so it is time for Squid & Tabernacle to find a new home, but not without one final fantastic finale exhibition to give the shipping container the farewell it deserves. From September 2nd S&T present; Matthew Coombes: Come What Will.

An Extravaganza of Cakey Arty Madness!

I’m absolutely loving The Mad Artists Tea Party concept dreamt up by the one and only Miss Cake head of quirky subversive blog, ‘Cakehead Loves’ in association with the sweetest of brand partners, Tate and Lyle sugar. For a start, what’s not to like in the name? Mad, art, tea and party, all of my favourite things rolled into one extravaganza of ‘pop biscuits & toffee shocks’!

The summer Gallery

Nowadays the Royal Academy recieves close to 10,000 annual submissions from professionals and members of the public hoping to make the cut for the presitgious Summer Exhibition. Unfortunately, only about 10% of these ever make the final cut. Two years ago one Rocco Sciaraffa, an amateur photographer, having had his own work rejected, was inspired to create an opportunity for all these works to be displayed.

In an interview with the Times, Sciaraffa said; “I saw that there were so many great pieces of work here, which the public might never get to see…I felt there had to be an outlet for all this rejected art.”

Subsequently, the Summer Gallery was born. Rejected art works are displayed in an online gallery enabling all artist to display their work to a wide audience. There is no fee for uploading up to 10 pieces, only a 10% commission charge if a work is sold on the site.

Why not take a browse now and see if anything catches your eye?…www.thesummergallery.com

The Future of Architecture: The AA School’s Projects Review Exhibition

A new exhibition of work by 650 students will go on display this Friday (25 June) at the Architectural Association School. The exhibition is set to demonstrate some of the most radical and experimental thinking in architecture and cultural enquiry today (these images should give an idea of just how futuristic we’re talking).

From sketch to render, hybrid collage analysis of a lawnmower flywheel detail – Drawing project. Wiktor Kidziak, First Year Student

The exhibition opening will also mark the grand opening of the AA School’s newly expanded Bedford Square campus which will be open to the public for the first time.

Neon Porn? That’s fun art!

Five Marching Men, 1985

In my recent trip to Berlin I visited the National Gallery in the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Modern Art. They are currently showing the first major retrospective in Berlin of the internationally famous American artist Bruce Nauman. The exhibition ‘Dream Passage’ runs from 28 May – 10 October 2010 so if you’re planning a trip to the German capital in this time, I’d really recommend a visit. This exhibition is a thoroughly dynamic, experiential immersion into modern art. Colourful, polictical and enjoyable, this was one of the best exhibitions I’ve been to in months.

Since the middle of the 1960s, Bruce Nauman has worked with a diverse range of media; his extensive oeuvre includes sculptures, films and videos, photographs, neon works, prints, installations and vocal works. This exhibition focuses predominantly on Nauman’s neon, film and architectural pieces.

Daimler Contemporary Berlin

You’ll find the Daimler Contemporary gallery neatly tucked between a sky rise business complex and a quaint coffee shop on Alte Potsdamer Straße, Berlin. The awning and sun umbrellas of the neighbouring Kaffe Haus, make the grand double doors of the Daimler building easy to miss, but once discovered, you’re rewarded with the joyful sense of accomplishment that comes with uncovering some hidden treasure. After ringing the bell and attempting to over come the language barrier in a battle to gain entry, simply stepping forth into the building feels like a thrilling success.

Wellcome Collection set to bare some ‘Skin’

The ‘Skin’ exhibition invites you to re-evaluate the largest and probably most overlooked human organ. This fascinating new exhibition at the Wellcome Colletuion will consider the changing importance of skin, from anatomical thought in the 16th century through to contemporary artistic exploration.

OMA Book Machine: The Books of OMA

Can a book be an architectural form? According to the Architectural Association School (AA) in Bloomsbury they can. The AA’s current exhibition does just that, displaying books produced by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and its many collaborators in order to reveal their key role as a revolutionary architectural form.

Jamie Reid: Let it Grow

Green Bar by Jamie Reid

As the UK enters into its first hung parliament decades, we are approaching a period of intense political uncertainty and instability. It thus seems more appropriate than ever, to consider art’s position within the political arena and L-13 Gallery in Clerkenwell is doing exactly that. The gallery’s current show is a collection of works by radical political veteran and activist Jamie Reid, a collection which derives predominantly from the artist’s political discontentment and contextual motivations.

Jamie Reid, born in 1952, is an artist and anarchist, considered by many to have defined the image of punk rock in the UK. He famously created art work for the Sex Pistols including the album cover to Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols and the iconic punk image of Queen Elizabeth II, with a safety pin through her nose and swastikas in her eyes. His latest exhibition, Jamie Reid: Let it Grow, is a collection of the artist’s most recent work, all of which are integrated heavily with his life, belief system, radicalism and activism.