Summers end brings early nights and beautiful sunsets and for some, the chance to work under the cover of darkness! But before getting into that here's a run down of what's been happening and what's coming up!
Doric Skateboards wrapped up their pop up shop at the Belmont Cinema last month after a successful weekend of art, skating and films. Featuring a wall display that chronicles their story from the humble Street Dreams deck to their most recent board graphic, the Buttery, its quite impressive to see how much they've put out in a short space of time. Artist collaborations with Small Stories and Honkemon proved popular and their most recent release with Jetpack Dinosaur has been a great addition to the line up. Whether you skate them to death or hang em on your wall, the Doric name is one to be proud of and proof that you can do a lot when you throw yourself into something you love.
The creative frolics at No.8 are coming to a close as the space wraps up its summer programme. I've missed the majority of their events due to work commitments and poor planning but as a topic I often speak to Ikar from Creative Me about, its impossible to do everything all the time and its good to not beat yourself up because you think you should. That said if I don't manage to check out 'The End' closing show then I will be gutted as I really liked Marcus Murisons degree show (peep it here) and the team that's put on the summer of events (headed up by Hannah Gibson) have done a fantastic job at keeping it fresh with lots of recent graduates and established artists taking part including Roos Dijkhuizen and Kirsty Russell. Check out 'The End' this Saturday at No.8 Chattan Place.
This weekend also brings the closing party for Jess Connors 'Sponsored Content' exhibition at Foodstory Upstairs. I finally managed to check out the show this week and picked up a new print and special self help zine which has improved my week 100% (check out the blog post here). To wrap up the exhibition Jess is hosting a special closing party with music from his friends Dan & Milo. I think the main party kicks off from 10 til late and its free entry or you can BYOB for £3. The foodstory upstairs space is great for a party so get on down and check it out!
Wood carving extraordinaire Tom Huck aka Evil Prints has been holed up at Peacock Visual Arts working on his latest large scale wood cut for the last 6 weeks and has finally finished, for now at least. He gave a funny and insightful talk to students from Grays School of Art and spoke about his work and where it fits in the grand scheme of things, relating to giants like Hogarth with a bit of Robert Crumb for good measure. Insanely detailed, incredibly dark and a pinch of humour make Hucks work a perfect mirror to the world in which we currently live. I hope to be catching some air time with Huck next week before he heads back to the states and you'll be able to see his new piece 'A Monkey Mountain Chronicle' the first of a new Triptych series which Tom will be working on for the next few years on Monday at Peacocks!
The Brownlee Brothers show is all done (check it here) but you can check out a bit of the alleyway action in the short video above. The Brothers used an old fire extinguisher to paint the lane next to Peacocks which has sadly now been white washed.
Grampian Hospitals Art Trust celebrate the big three zero! It's easy to take for granted having paintings and art work on the walls of the hospital but if you look a little closer you'll see that many of the works are artists originals with a few low numbered prints for good measure. Of course this is just the scratching the surface of the work that GHAT do for NHS service users and as someone who's spent a fair bit of time lying in a hospital bed, I've found that GHAT have managed to change my view of not only visiting the hospital but touch wood, have made it more often than not a positive one. Art maybe can't cure the sick or dying but it can take you out of a sad moment, remind you of a happy memory or simply give you something else to moan about on top of your long list of ailments! You can check out a few posts about GHAT here.
The latest episode of the Creative Me podcast features Smart Art Agency heads Claire Bruce and Sally Moir. From the early days curating shows at the Foyer to the incredible Smart Gallery and of course the cities annual visual art and design festival Look Again, Smart have been at the forefront. Certainly since starting the blog Sally & Claire have produced some of the most interesting and exciting shows and have helped create connections with international artists and provide support and opportunities for new graduates. Buckle up as there's a lot to take in. Creative Me have been pretty busy as well so you might find there's quite a few chats to listen to, check out the full line up of chats here and tune into Smarts chat here.
Although they didn't take the top prize (losing out to Young Fathers no less) Best Girl Athlete still managed to hold their own against some of the best Scottish bands of the moment. The annual SAY (Scottish Album of the Year) Award is a big deal and for BGA to make to the final round is testament to the quality of their music. Although they've been a bit quiet on the live circuit you can check out a rather sublime cover of 'Video Games' from their Advocates Library gig last year. You can download or buy the album here and opefully there'll be a few more chances to catch them live soon!
Finally Painted Doors have had a super busy spell with not 1 or 2 news pieces but a whopping 6 new pieces, some finished while some are still in progress. Yours truly will also be working on a new door, potentially this weekend so that makes 7. I'll be doing a proper post about the new doors and the artists behind them but you can check out a bit of background to the project and check out previous years efforts here.
That's it for another round up, I've not made it to as many things as I'd like but it's great that so much is happening in the city and that we're so spoiled for choice. But if you get bored then you could always make a day out and head to Dundee, I hear they have a new museum?
The Brownlee Brothers show is all done (check it here) but you can check out a bit of the alleyway action in the short video above. The Brothers used an old fire extinguisher to paint the lane next to Peacocks which has sadly now been white washed.
Although they didn't take the top prize (losing out to Young Fathers no less) Best Girl Athlete still managed to hold their own against some of the best Scottish bands of the moment. The annual SAY (Scottish Album of the Year) Award is a big deal and for BGA to make to the final round is testament to the quality of their music. Although they've been a bit quiet on the live circuit you can check out a rather sublime cover of 'Video Games' from their Advocates Library gig last year. You can download or buy the album here and opefully there'll be a few more chances to catch them live soon!
While the streets were filled with middle aged folk getting pissed and enjoying the prospect of a hungover holiday Monday I was out with local street artist Abz Jawa as he installed some new Star Wars themed mosaics around the Tunnels. One of the great things about street art is discovering it on your own terms so I won't spoil the suprise for anyone but if you head to where his other pieces are located then have a walk around and remember to look up.
After a few changes and tweaks the first Street Art Aberdeen zine is ready to launch. With the arrival of Nuart Aberdeen the city is buzzing with street art enthusiasts but most people don't know just how much street art history Aberdeen has. Although my own knowledge doesn't cover everything that came before it does capture a snapshot from that stretches from the Wolf Man stencils of the late 90's up to the love padlock sensation that was Dymagate (get me boltcutters!). I'll be sharing details about the zine launch and hopefully making a start on volume 2 which will look at specific artists starting with local one man graffiti scene that is Slave aka AlterEgo!
That's it for another round up, I've not made it to as many things as I'd like but it's great that so much is happening in the city and that we're so spoiled for choice. But if you get bored then you could always make a day out and head to Dundee, I hear they have a new museum?
