Sabina Lucia
Born to artistic parents, it was no surprise…
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
The perfect antidote to a big shopping centre like Westfield, the small alternative market at Merton Abbey Mills in SW19 was, untill 1970, the printing works for famous London department store Liberty’s but is partly named after the mediaeval Merton Priory one of the most important monastries of its time. Restored and opened in 1989 it has nearly half a million visitors a year with many shops open during the week as well as 10am to 5pm at the weekend. Situated on the river Wandle, the grounds are beautiful and on a sunny day as it was yesterday you can sit, meditatively watching the water wheel go round as the sun flickers through the weeping willow on the other side of the river.
I hadn’t been for a while but was pleased to find that there is a really exciting range of arts and crafts in both the shops and outdoor stalls. For your own piece of nature, these distressed leaf metal pendant necklaces would make a fantastic talking point at the lovely Tiffany Moore’s stall, Kool Kaftans. True to name she also does gorgeous silk kaftans with pretty designs.
The Craft Connection Gallery is a co-operative of 20 different artists and crafts people which has been open for over fifteen years. You can find everything from a rainbow coloured sock monkey to the most fun piece I saw: a Heinz baked beans sculpture with mini skulls in ‘tomato sauce’ by Skulls! Skulls! Skulls!. Human beans on toast anyone? Perhaps not, unless you’ve been stranded by the volcanic ash no fly zone and are feeling particularly cannabalistic. Ththththth…
For the Gaga fans amongst you and I’m not talking radio…, get yourselves to Funky Finger’s stall. It takes the lovely Darren a whole four days to make his hand decoupaged shoes but it’s worth the effort. He makes funky (of course) woolen jewellery too.
There’s also something for the home too with these cleverly designed Chinese food bowls that have holes to rest your chop sticks in. They’re hand made by the lovely Stephen Llewellyn who has a pottery at The Wheelhouse on the grounds. He and his wife Claire (also lovely) are actively involved in the work of Wandle Herritage and keep the section of the river next to The Wheelhouse free of all sorts of detritus including the odd safe! If you fancy a go at throwing your own pot, they do lessons too.
It was really great to meet the people behind the business; it makes the shopping experience so much more personal when you can have a chat about the designs and find out how the pieces were made and with live jazz playing under the bandstand in the afternoon, what better way to shop! Nice.
© Sabina Lucia 2010
It’s strange, I know, for a former personal shopper to not love high-street store shopping but I don’t. All the queuing, the 6 item limit at the changing room, crowds of people all clammering after the same item; it’s all just so uncivilised and I’m a laaaaady don’t you know. So – despite being invited to a preview and it being open for eighteen months already, I have avoided visiting London’s newest mega-mall (are we really calling them malls now?) Westfield. My friend Claire who probably thinks I’m the last person in London to go, took me there yesterday. The visit was a revelation and has changed the way I feel about this kind of shopping.
As I entered I was struck by the beauty of the architecture; the Knippers Helbig-designed iconic roof is an incredible feat of engineering and its undulating diamond panes shower Europe’s largest urban centre in light. With enough space to fit in thirty football pitches there is none of the crowding of Oxford Street making it a much more enjoyable and relaxed experience. The soft edges and curves make it very calm and the trendy leather husband/boyfriend seated waiting areas are a genius idea.
As many Londoners will already know, there are over 270 stores including forty sumptuous designer shops in The Village as you enter including Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Christian Dior.
As well as being able to buy original art at Lavanta Gallery, many of the stores have art displayed in their windows. A giant shoe installation made up of tiny paper shoes frames the entrance to Aldo, and Topshop has collaborated with Japanese artist Houxo Que for their neon colour injected window display.
It’s exciting to learn that Westfield’s next venture: an even larger sister centre near the Olympic site in Stratford will have a permanent art gallery – the first in a British shopping centre. With Tracey Emin acting as one of the advisors on the project it promises to be very interesting indeed. The new site will have a more eclectic, East London feel with 10% of space being reserved for independent edgey retailers which should give the centre a hint of Spittalfields, Shoreditch and Hoxton’s appeal. Can’t wait for it to open! I loved Westfield so much I’m going back today to try out one of the fourty restaurants and pick up textile designer, Vanessa Harrington’s Book Of Charms from Oasis. With twelve stirling silver charms including a dancing flamingo and tea-cup and saucer, there’ll be a different one to put on the necklace for each month of the year. Charming!
© Sabina Lucia 2010
The first thing that struck me about The Brick Lane Gallery was how nicely the exterior is decorated; the bird and flower- painted black walls promise an interesting show inside and the gallery doesn’t fail to deliver. Art In Mind is a regular group exhibition showcasing the works of emerging UK and international artists. I took my friend Paul who, once he got over the fact that he was missing the football, enjoyed the private view experience. He particularly liked the work of Argentinian artist, Claudio Gianni whose confident, sweeping paint strokes depict modern day city life and iconic characters from the old Buenos Aires tango scene. His favourite was a very striking painting of three black figures on a red background entitled Guapitos, that could be the three musketeers or swaggering cowboys.
We wondered at the technical achievement of Sharmila Agnihotri’s intricate mandala-like black and white symmetrical ink drawings. With her experience as a midwife you can see she has drawn on nature as inspiration, I found them very pleasing and loved the fact that although on first inspection they looked flawless, each drawing has little, intentional imperfections .
Of the 10 exhibitor’s work, I found myself most drawn (pun intended) to the digital textile prints by Norwegian, Didi Bjornerud who after studying at Central St Martin’s did an internship with Alexander McQueen. Depicting fantastical, dark scenes; Wonderwood - a horse rearing as if through time with lightning and supernatural light emerging from a dark forest being my favourite. Didi maintains her fashion link, having designed a series of prints for the designer Deborah Henning and prints for handbags which would add an arty edge to any outfit.
The exhibtion ends today and the next show begins April 15th. If you’re an artist and you’d like to submit your work email info@thebricklanegallery.com
© Sabina Lucia 2010
The other day I found myself, serendipitously taking an impromptu trip down the Thames on The ‘Tate Boat’ from Tate Modern to Tate Britain when re-reading a text, I realised I was at the wrong gallery! Having seen the Damien Hirst-spots-decorated, state of the art catamaran ferrying people up the river since 2003, I was really pleased to have the chance to travel in this quick, cheap (£4.50 with Oyster card) way for the first time and take in some of the outstanding scenery along the way, including stunning views of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. If you haven’t already travelled this way I really recommend it as fun alternative to playing sardines on the tube.
The journey only took about 15 mins and despite my detour I arrived on time to meet my friend and her 2 year old daughter, Daisy. It’s a good year or so since I was last at Tate Britain and I was pleased to find the first piece we saw was David Hockney’s portrait of his parents from 1977 which I instantly recognised as one of his, having studied for a short time at Bradford College of Art where he trained, I am very familiar with, and love, his clear, realistic style and use of vivid colours. The Tate is also the proud owner of the largest of Hockney’s works: ‘Bigger Trees Near Warter’ 2007. An enormous painting made up of 50 canvases, measuring 15ft by 40ft (4.6m by 12.2m) it was impossible not to be awe struck by this amazing feat. We also saw another work on a very large scale, this time a towering knitted sculpture: Pyramid Piece, inspired by a rock he stole as a young boy on a trip to Egypt and years later returned to the pyramid of Cheops in Giza.
On walking round it you get a sense of how his mild guilt chipped away at him and the peace he gained from returning it. There is also an accompanying video documenting his return to the pyramid. The free exhibiton, Art Now: Pyramid Piece and Retrun of the Pyramid runs until the 10th of April.
© Sabina Lucia 2010
Twitter is a gateway to all sorts of cultural connections; last year it was responsible for getting me back into art in a big way when I got talking to the director of A Gallery – the leading predictors of hot new art talent – and last week I won a competition with a prize of tickets to London fashion weekend courtesy of Lavazza. Since I was last at LFW the venue has changed and I must say Somerset House as a choice is genius. Of course also famous for the Courtauld Institute art gallery, which houses works by one of my favourite artists, the wonderful, spiritual Wasily Kandinsy, the grounds lend themselves well to a fashion emporium with all the smaller rooms of the East Wing showing lots of hand made, artisan goodies that you normally only find online, including Dulcie, VC Cashmere and The Rubber Cow Co. plus some old faithfuls: (Lulu Guinness and Vivienne Westwood (which despite not appearing on the programme had queue upon queue of bargain hunting hopefuls)) and, with a client list including Cheryl Cole, Sienna Miller and Sadie Frost, it’s easy to see why Clara Francis’s hand-made jewellery is becoming so popular with her luxury girlie, fantastical creations featuring colourfully beaded unicorns, sea-horses, foxes and solid silver wishbones.
Of course a trip LFW isn’t complete without a fashion show or two and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the three I watched (after recovering from a minor Argh!-I’ve-lost-my-iPhone panic). The sugary named CANDY ROCK segment championed the blush and nude palette with Jasper Conran’s detailed floral leather cut out work and chiffon. More chiffon teamed embellished with embroidery from Christopher Kane and Dior. Next up was the ‘Saved by the Bell’ inspired SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS with the ever popular faded denims of Twenty8Twelve, Frost French and Disaya accented with accessories from Eley Kishimoto. But by far my favourite section was VINTAGE GLAMOUR by Shikasuki (vintage boutique that also sells contemporary fine art http://www.shikasuki.com/). We were treated to a cornucopia of goodies reminiscent of The Good Life’s Margo Leadbetter with ’60s Jack Bryan pleated cocktail dresses in mint, black and turquoize beautifully accompanied with ’50s crystal necklaces; a Zandra Rhodes plum and turquoize print dress with sash, a stunning 2 piece yellow trouser suit (perhaps not for the banana-allergic amongst us) which managed to remain current with wonderful, soft ruffles and possibly one not for Margo but definitely my favourite of the evening: a black body con mini dress with hot pink sequin boyfriend blazer completed as with all the outfits, with mini woven Lucite box bag.
But the highlight for me of the whole afternoon was the presenting by the fabulous Louise Roe, who, showing no nerves, talked us through the trends and designers and managed to involve the audience (will you be trying the orange lipstick? No and I won’t be recommending it to my friends any time soon either unless they’re tanned to within an inch of their life and 16!
© Sabina Lucia 2010 Catwalk photo - © Simone Hathaway 2010