Monday 13 December 2010

Dant on drink at Hales gallery

Whilst down in London for the Here Today exhibition, I nipped out of the gallery to have a look at a few of the other shows going on. The Adam Dant exhibition at Hales gallery is well worth a visit.

The drawings on display are vast but filled with meticulous detail, they seem like ageing documents or historial illustrations, all executed with sepia pen and ink.

The subject of the work in the show is DRINK! and more specifically Drinking in Britain and the media representation of our relationship with the bottle.

I studied the drawings for ages, there is so much detail to take in! He depicts recognisable street scenes, filling them with drunken characters.

I loved his work! It reminded me a little bit of a painting I had seen by George Cruikshank which was on display at the Rude Britannia show at Tate Britain this summer. 'The Worship of Bacchus' also all about drink....!

It also made me think that nothing much changes, the drunken shenanigans that go on in the streets of every town in this country have been going on for centuries. I remember thinking along similar lines when I saw the film The Libertine, set in Charles the 2nds 17th century it depicts the streets of London as debauched and alcohol fueled.


Adam Dant 'Royal Drinking' 2010

George Cruikshank 'The Worship of Bacchus' 1860-2





Tuesday 7 December 2010

Here Today

Thanks to everyone who came down to the exhibition over the weekend and to the opening night. There was a brilliant turnout, over 500 people and queues out the door despite the snow and ice!

The show is on until 6pm tomorrow so there's still a chance to pop in.

Here's some pics from the show:








And some pics from the Private View night:











Thankyou to all the contributing artists for all the hard work and a big thanks to Cate Halpin at The Outside World gallery (and Bambi the chiwawa of course!).

Twinkle and I are planning to curate another group show together, perhaps Summer next time, we will keep you posted on that!