News

Temporarily relocating to another city is a quick way to make you realise what you take for granted from the home you just left. Living in Berlin, I know all of my favourite and interesting corners. So if I want something, I know exactly where to go. For instance coffee. I am not a regular coffee drinker. But since friends of my set up their coffee shop, Passenger Espresso, over the canal from me, I have never had want for any other coffee. I am now spoilt.

Now I find myself in Vienna and I am on the hunt for good coffee. Vienna, famed for its coffee culture and coffee houses, so far has disappointed. A Latte is half foam, in a glass that is already small and equally so is the flavour lacking.

Georg, one of the Passenger Espresso crew gave me a list of Vienna coffee shops to explore. But there appears to be a catch. Since Vienna is an ardently Catholic town, there is not much of night life culture, and certainly little is open or moving on a Sunday, albeit in the tourist areas.

Ah Berlin, how you have spoilt me.

I will report back on my findings. In my search I came across Der Espresso Freak blog. He seems to have done a bit of exploring in Vienna, so I will be taking a look at his list also. I’ll also have to point him towards Passenger Expresso

The exhibiting artists

Seeing a brilliant opportunity, at very short notice, Amanda Sage organised an exhibition of Fantastic Visionary artists at Galerie 10. She and Laurence Caruana, along with Andrew Gonzalez had been giving a painting seminar in the Summer. A number of artists had travelled to attend their course in Italy. Thus she came to the idea of organising a show while everybody was in Europe.

After a late night skype session between Amanda, Dennis Konstantin and myself, Dennis made himself busy with the flyer and Amanda busy organising the other artists, which is often compared to herding cats.

Dennis drove down from Hamburg in his spacious blue VW van. A vehicle well kitted out for adventures, so it fitted our needs very well. After stopping over for the night in Berlin, we loaded my artwork into the van and began our long road trip to Vienna.

René and Lisa graciously housed us in their living room for our stay in Vienna. So I must thank them again for their hospitality.

On Tuesday we made trip out to one of Dennis’ collectors, who endless numbers of Fuchs prints and sculptures and now had a growing collection of Dennis’ artwork.

After too many coffees and a light lunch, we trooped over to Amanda’s studio to catch up David Heskin and Aloria Weaver who were staying with Amanda. It is a pleasure to meet the real face behind an internet presence, and more so with David and Aloria. Both had been on Amanda and Laurence Caruana’s painting seminar idyllically located in a medieval village in the Italian hills. They were now making the most of Amanda’s studio in Vienna to finish of some works for our group exhibition “The Irresistible Flow of Time” at Galerie 10.

Wednesday brought Emma Watkinson to Vienna and us to Galerie 10 to hang our artwork. Not all of the exhibiting artists were present and there was much to do. Although we started early in the afternoon, we worked into the night to complete the hanging of 69 artworks in total, making at a very large show. And by the time the hanging was completed, it looked amazing. It was such a wonderful collection of high quality artwork.

Our work was done, so we adjourned to Amanda’s studio again, taking Galerie 10 owner, Michael Scheer along with us. It was again a long night as artists are wont to do, however, we could sleep in for our big day, the opening of the exhibition.

When I arrived, the gallery was wall to wall with people. The opening also brought all of the local Fantastic Painters, and then others from far away elsewhere who just happened to be in town.  Many of these faces I met for the first time outside of the internet. Its reassuring to get to know the real people of these ever present internet avatars.

Two of the other exhibiting artists managed to make time from their busy schedules back home and fly into Vienna for the exhibition, Daniel Mirante and Basia Wiacek.

De Es Schwertberger did all of us younger artists the honour of exhibiting with us and bridging the worlds of the established Fantastic Realists to that of the emerging, oft referred to as, Visionary artists. However, the term Visionary is still up for debate.

We the exhibiting artists were of course very busy the whole evening talking to various people about our art, and of course catching up with and meeting the other artists. Not surprisingly, it ended up being a very late night.

And similarly unsurprising, was a few of the taught faces present the very next morning for breakfast at De Es‘ studio. In De Es‘ expansive inner city studio, we took advantage of the far more relaxed atmosphere and conversed at leisurely pace. Sadly however, this gathering of new and old friends had to eventually part ways, as flights were waiting to whisk people off to new adventures.

As for Dennis and myself, our next adventure was to commence the following day when we returned North to Germany and headed to the Bavarian Forest to visit the opening of  the 1st Biennial of Fantastic Art in the Town of Viechtach. But this is the next news entry.

Following are all of the wonderful artists that I exhibited with.

De Es Schwertberger (A), Amanda Sage (USA), Dennis Konstantin (D), Leo Plaw (D), David Heskin (USA), Aloria Weaver (USA), Adam Scott Miller (USA), Gregory Pettit (USA), Autumn Sky Morrison (USA), Daniel Mirante (GB), Basia Wiacek (GB), Emma Watkinson (GB)

[View with PicLens]

Last week I made my way to Hamburg to have a number of my paintings scanned and spend some time with friend and colleague in artistic crimes, Dennis Konstantin. Dennis uses a company called Scan Discounter to have his paintings scanned at full size in 300 DPI. The same company also does excellent paper and canvas prints from these scans.

Earlier that week I managed to persuade Norman Dziegel, the proud owner of my Gelbe Spiral painting to loan it to me, so I could take it to Hamburg for scanning. I packaged it up for the journey along with two other paintings. Meeting up with Dennis we drove out to Scan Discounter. Hidden on the ground floor of a house in the suburbs is the largest scanner I’ve ever seen. They tell me that they can scan up to 2 and half meters in length at 300 DPI. That makes for very large files, and you’d better have enough RAM on your computer to open and modify them. (drooling while dreaming…)

With the scans done in no time, we were off to Dennis’ apartment in the Caroline Quarter of Hamburg, the not so famous sister of the Schanzen Quater. Both are like a mini versions of Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Neukölln in Berlin. But it wasn’t the distractions of Hamburg street life that interested us. There was painting to be done!

Dennis and I have on a number of occasions have had joint painting sessions, over the internet. While it is interesting to have a bit of virtual company, to share the same space is far more productive. I am always curious to look over other’s shoulders and to see how they work. Its a great chance to trade tips on technique and talk paint.

Along with my paintings that I’d brought to Hamburg to scan, were two small collaboration pieces that we had started on, last January when Dennis was in Berlin for our Fantastic Visions exhibition. We set about finishing the two off. However, Dennis is much quicker than I and finished his, while I have not yet. I’ve included some photos below.

[View with PicLens]

I once again travelled to Amsterdam for the Dreamscapes Exhibition. This time however, I made things easy on myself and took the train. What a difference it made. I think I’m hooked on train travel.

Early Friday afternoon I arrived at the exhibition hall. The hanging of the artwork was nearing its end and Ella Buzo and Marcel Salome, the organisers were very busy. The exhibition was being installed in the same large hall they had used last time. Its size being very necessary owing to the large volume of artwork. Their exhibitions are some of the largest and best organised Fantastic Art shows I’ve attended. Although, in the Netherlands, “Imaginary Realism” is the favoured term for this sort of art. This year they broadened the scope and included a some artwork bordering on the fringes.

It proved to be a very long day as some of the artists were arriving  only that evening with their artwork. I helped out where I could with the set up.

I occupied myself through out the day photographing and shooting video of the event. Part of my aim in attending was to document the exhibition for my Fantastic Visions project. I’ve begun sorting through the footage and will post a video to YouTube and my website in the near future.

The exhibition was once again in the same large exhibition hall in Amsterdam. It is a truly impressive site to see such a large space filled with high quality artwork. Ella and Marcel put a lot of time and energy into this project to make it what it is. This year they went even further and had large posters of Viktor Safonkin‘s artwork advertising the exhibition placed all over town.

Their efforts were well rewarded on the opening day. While it is impressive to see the hall filled with artwork, it is even more impressive to see the same hall filled with people looking at the artwork. Approximately 1000 visitors attended the opening with numerous sales being made. Prominent articles about the exhibition appeared in two major newspapers, the Telegraaf and the Volkskrant.

While not all exhibiting artists did attend, a sizable proportion did. Viktor Safonkin was there with his vice like handshake as well as the very congenial Olivier Zappelli who we kidnapped later that evening on a mystery tour of Amsterdam. I chatted with Siegfried Zademack. We had last met at the Art Imaginär exhibition in Mußbach, Gemany the previous year. Slowly I’m coming to know more of them as I travel about to various exhibitions, but there were still new faces to meet.

At the opening ceremony, Marcel presented the very handsome new edition of the Dreamscapes book. Marcel changed the format and design this year and also adding many more pages to the book. Everybody was thrilled with it. With the larger size, extra pages and of course weight, it feels very substantial and its content is certainly enthralling. It is now one of my favourites in my art book collection.

There were smiles all round as the hall buzzed with activity. Artists were queried about their artwork, photos were taken and autographs given. The exhibition was still busy at closing time and reluctantly, visitors had to be ushered away as there was the long expected dinner to be had. Finally people could rest and relax. It was a time of exchanging email addresses and catalogues.

Come the next day it was work again for Ella and Marcel as they opened the hall again. Where as I boarded the train for a casual return journey to Berlin.

Following is a slide show of photos I shot at the exhibition.

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[View with PicLens]

IFAA – Exposition L’art fantastique Paris 2009

This Sunday, Anja Brinkmann and I will be flying out to Paris to once again meet with our Japanese friends that I exhibited with last year in Kyoto. We have both been invited to exhibit in Paris with the IFAA.

The International Fantastic Art Association (IFAA) is an artist group dedicated to bringing together and gaining more exposure for Japanese Fantastic Artists. The group was founded by the artist Shoji Tanaka and has so far exhibited in Kyoto and Tokyo with international guest artists.

This exhibition is the first outside of Japan with guest artists from Australia, France and Germany included. The IFAA intends this to be the first of many exhibitions abroad for their group. The exhibition is right in the heart of Paris, at the Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri, which is only a few blocks away from the Louvre Museum.

This is my first trip to Paris, a city that has been long on my list of places to go. Anja and I are both excited about seeing our Japanese friends again. It will be also an opportunity to meet some new faces, such as French artist Hugues Gillet who exhibited with the IFAA earlier this year in Kyoto and will do so again in Paris. If we’re lucky, we should also see few other people we know visit us at the exhibition.

Exposition L’art fantastique Paris 2009

Start Time: Monday, October 26, 2009 at 5:30pm
End Time: Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 5:00pm

Association Culturelle Franco-Japonaise de Tenri
8-12 rue Bertin Poirée
Paris, France

tenri-paris.com