Forthcoming Exhibitions

I am in 2 exhibitions coming up soon! Stick the dates in your diaries!

ARTSDEPOT OPEN - 26th July - 8th September
http://www.artsdepot.co.uk/event_details.php?sectionid=visual%20arts&eventid=1841&searchid=current

The Artsdepot Open is an annual showcase of art work made by artists who either live or work in Barnet.  This is the first time I have participated in the show, which always has some interesting pieces in it.  I will be showing a new version of my 'Tour de Force' cycling print, using whites and blues inspired by paintings I saw in New York recently, most notably by Agnes Martin, my newest painting heroine. (https://www.google.co.uk/search?gs_rn=17&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=94cTQiLBUAcXAofa6beCyA&cp=8&gs_id=r&xhr=t&q=agnes+martin&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.d2k&biw=1366&bih=643&ion=1&bs=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=ovzTUeHNOom-0QXP0YGYBA )


The end of the Artsdepot Open leads very nicely into the Herts Visual Arts Open Studios event.  Me and my fellow Abbey Artists Fleur Oakes (http://www.fleuroakes.com/), Sheila Englert, Verene Lack, Ruth Parker (www.ruthparker.co.uk), Molly Hagan (www.mollyhagan.co.uk), will be opening the doors to our studios set in the wonderful Abbey Art Centre, 90 Park Road, EN4 9QX.

More information about what we are showing, when and where can be found on the HVAF website here: http://www.hvaf.org.uk/Open-Studios/Open-Studios-2013/Barnet



Artsdepot Open, 26th July - 8th September 2013 (12pm - 4pm daily)

5 Nether Street
Tally Ho Corner
North Finchley
London N12 0GA

www.artsdepot.co.uk

*

The Abbey Art Centre Summer Exhibition (part of Herts Visual Arts Open Studios), 8th-9th September, 12pm - 6pm Saturday and Sunday

89 Park Road
Barnet
Herts EN4 9QX

http://www.hvaf.org.uk/Open-Studios/Open-Studios-2013/Barnet


lisatakahashi.com

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 10th June - 18th August

My linocut print, 'Tour de Force', has been accepted for this year's Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.  It is the first time I have been accepted and yesterday I attended the Varnishing Day, which was a lovely occasion; selected artists and patrons only meant that everyone you encountered was incredibly pleased with themselves, and pleased for you, too! The church service was particularly enjoyable, the address examined a passage from 'A Midsummer's Nights' Dream' that considered the idea of art allowing us to glance at the comprehended and the apprehended, heaven and earth, innermost feelings and those on the outside...it was thought provoking and inspiring.  Anyway here are some snaps:

The mighty Emin

Marimba band that led the Procession to the church

The Procession of the artists from the RA to St James' Church down Piccadilly

Me and my print (the blue one above my head!)

Exhibition Review: Hugo Grenville, ‘Harmonia’ Wally Findlay Galleries, 124 E 57th St, New York 15th May – 15th June, 2013

Hugo Grenville: ‘Harmonia’exhibition

If Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings remind us of the exuberance, the surprise and the energy of freeform jazz, then Hugo Grenville’s paintings in his latest show ‘Harmonia’ (Wally Findlay Galleries, New York) certainly evoke a different kind of music.  This collection of paintings, all executed in the past 12 months, possesses luminosity, where light and gentle colours dance across the whole picture surface: These paintings allow us to hear an elegant string quartet playing a Chopin nocturne on a bright summer’s day.  However on closer inspection of this show, one is treated to a surprising diversity of mood from piece to piece, as well as a dynamic and exciting (not to mention heartfelt and genuinely inquisitive) exploration into a world of colour and mark making that is clearly inspired by a love of French post impressionism; indeed a gorgeous landscape study by Pierre Bonnard hangs in amongst the Grenvilles, quietly reminding us not to forget where all this came from.

‘Summer Morning, 23 Arcola Street’ by Hugo Grenville

The show comprises twenty paintings, the majority of which are nudes and still lifes (some complete with Matisse-ian backdrop of a view from a window), peppered with a couple of landscapes.  In the figure paintings especially, compositions appear as if stitched together with patches of contrasting patterns and colour schemes. There is a real playfulness to the approach, which celebrates the beauty of the fabrics surrounding the figure, as well as elegant flowers and ornaments.  In ’Summer Morning, 23 Arcola Street’, the viewer encounters not a grimy east London view, but a Fragonardian seated figure in a beautifully opulent interior, mindlessly fumbling with a piece of material.  You sense that the artist lives his life inhabiting a very special place that marries all the best bits of life from the late 18^th Century to today.  The patterns serve as a structure on to which Grenville can apply harmonious colour.  More often than not the fizz of the patterns lie in direct contrast to the human presence, which is always a young girl, either lost in contemplation or asleep.  The peace of the paintings is found in their innocence and passivity; one is invited to project one’s own narrative to the scene or simply bathe in the sheer delight of the colour.

‘A Pilgrim Soul’ is arguably Grenville’s bravest and most emotion-laden painting yet, and is a paired down composition drawn from an earlier painting ‘Ah Love, Let Us Be True To One Another’, which hangs nearby. It’s brave because one feels he is not hiding behind the cleverness of all the patterns and colours, it simply shows the upper torso of a girl asleep. It is painted so sensitively the feeling of serenity is arresting.  The use of gold leaf to decorate the girl’s headband and fabrics behind her evoke a similar feeling that one feels when standing in front of a medieval altarpiece; there’s something so spiritual and other-worldly in this very simple painting – through finding it himself Grenville is urging us all to slow down the process of looking, as there is something profoundly spiritual in the everyday, if only we paused to contemplate it.