Meiso Lai exhibition opens at Chocolate Factory Gallery

Encompassing an array of techniques both modern and traditional, this selection of work by Meiso Lai perfectly illustrates the artist’s passion for nature. Whether capturing brilliant reflections on camera, or creating them herself with twisted and stained glass, light and shadow are often the focal points of these pieces.  Add to this the global scope of settings and subjects, and the result is an assortment of inimitable and esoteric work that is sometimes abstract but always relatable.

On display are samples of existing collections including Deja Vu and Green Spirit, as well as some completely new works that have never been displayed elsewhere.  Every series has its own identify; a distinct style that connects it to a place or point in time, and, although there is always a sense of the artist in her work, each piece stands alone as a separate creation.  Each exploration of each style is unique, though thematically linked, and even when breathtakingly simple in their depictions, can be incredibly evocative.

The notion of travelling is always prevalent, and included among the images here are the impressive man-made structures of New York and Hong Kong, idyllic, pastoral Netherlands fields and a worldwide range of scenes in between.  Some are photographic impressions that show the interplay of the natural and the fabricated, yet others are more tacit; the implication of light cast with a drop of wax or stitch of fabric.  Regardless of their subject or geographical location, each item is singularly fascinating and eye-catching and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to present them here.

Exhibition runs until 27 May 2012 at the Gallery in Karamel restaurant, 4 Coburg Road, London N22 6UJ. Tel 020 8829 8989.

Open Monday to Friday from 9 ’til 3pm and Wednesday to Saturday evenings from 6.30 ’til 10pm.

The Private View is on Thursday 10th May from 7pm to 9pm.

Sabrina works mainly with video, installation, photography and mixed media assemblage. She moved to London in 2007. Since then dislocation and isolation have become main subjects of her work. She carefully records the unconscious stair of the human mind, which randomly captures and stores. Her works are beautiful beguiling amalgamations of fragmented constructions of juxtaposed images, weathered objects, photographs, materials, sounds, spaces and times. She tries to create a non-narrative yet nostalgic and melancholic experience for the viewer. It is like piecing together a puzzle by running through a maze of memory lanes. Through this montage, she makes her viewer struggle to make connections, assimilate meanings and get immersed in the process of identifying the familiar /unfamiliar/known/unknown, building the feeling of estrangement and loss. Her self-referential works are tinted with concerns of identity, memory, melancholia and loss.

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I am inspired by moments of joy, sadness, beauty or yearning, a need to express inner emotions.

I enjoy the process – the immediate sensuality of paint onto a blank white canvas excites me ! Spreading, sculpting the paint, the smell, the colours and textures blending, seeping, bleeding into each other. Shapes appearing with the rhythm of emotion! Then I follow the paintingís development like a servant follows its mistress, breathing the painting to life !

I can be inspired from within or an external inspiration and that being so my subject range is varied and unusual. I am interested in creating a full and whole expression with each new canvas ! So each is a complete world in itsealf , rarely part of a series, although in the passing of time I can see I can see how some paintings can be grouped together !

When a painting is complete I have a new conversation with it. When viewed I hold no real significance to its interpretation , although I am interested in how the viewer sees, feels or interprets the painting for themselves. This is an important part of the completion process of each painting. The process is the real impact and the finished painting I view almost detached ! Moments captured on canvas and lost into other moments !

My work is passionate, searching and exciting. The world of colour plays and dances with singing, ringing resonances and makes no apologies to a drab world. It is a celebration of life. I hope to uplift and excite the viewer or to expose living in the question? The sense of search and seeking in each painting to find some momentary balance, which I hope gives the paintings a sense of the universal and spiritual quest.

Isa Levy lives in Highgate, London. The passionate and primal energy of her paintings has attracted collectors from the USA, Finland, France, Italy and her native homeland, Cardiff.

Isa Levy is the niece of the late art critic and art writer, Mervyn Levy.

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No Large Labels Please…

It’s important, sensing the holes in the brain… the spread of creativity… keeping the portals open… feeding the back end to fill up the reservoirs… Art is the food for passion…

My own art explores many things at the same time

Paint, Paper, Glue, Felt-tip, Scissors, Drills, Canvas , Sewing Materials, Glass, Boxes…

Working on 3 or 4 pieces at the same time… jumping from one to the other, layering, adding, scraping and changing paint, altering perspective… using words and found images overlaid, to make suggestions to the viewer… building a story

Leveled at the man who is continually asking me questions that I don’t have the answer to….

Politics with a soft  p… Challenging stereo types. Pushing the Viewers thoughts to uncomfortable places, through juxtaposition of words and images…

Opening the flood gates and stepping out of the way… watching …

Keeping the Ritual… going…

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Mark Oliver is a London based artist and illustrator.  He produces drawings, prints and sculpture in response to both commissioned and self initiated research.

His creative practice is informed by his undergraduate studies, and continued interest in philosophy.  Recent projects have addressed architectural politics, with reference to Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace, Olympic stadiums and R. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes.

He also publishes comics, zines and artists books via his small press project, Dancing Eye.

More recently, he has developed his work to accommodate an interest in education, working in various public locations, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Hackney Museum, Kings Place, Quentin Blake’s House of Illustration and a number of schools across London.  For more information on a recent series of animation workshops, visit his blog, The Hackney Animator.

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Natalie Thakur is a leather designer of unique and quirky gifts and accessories based in London. Using the highest quality leathers, Natalie designs and currently handcrafts all her functional designs from purses, wallets and bags under her label Natthakur London.

With previous experience working on bespoke furnishings and accessories for companies such as Mulberry and Ghost, she began designing under her own label ‘Natthakur London’ in 2006. Much of her work has been featured in major publications internationally such as Elle magazine, The World of Interiors, Blue Print, Easy Living, Vogue, The Times, The Independent, The Evening Standard and Stylist magazine.

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Pajunen-Moghissi’s individual artistic style follows two different but mutually supportive ways of painting: “At times my paintings are the result of a very easy and straightforward technique: a thin layer of paint which in certain places reveals the paper or canvas underneath. Alternatively, some of my paintings are constructed of a series of layers, with different coats of paint revealing many other pictures.” The final touch is usually a figurative image traced in charcoal, in a fragile finish to reflect sensitivity and childlike innocence.

Pajunen-Moghissi also often employs a collage technique, gluing photocopies on the canvas to emphasise a particular detail. This is exactly what she has done with the paintings where people have toys in their hands. Photocopies of toys and the hands holding them add a sense of narrative and mystique to the paintings. Inspired by her mother, artist Seija-Marita Guttormsen and her woodcuts she also makes embossings using her old woodcut blocks.

Sirpa Pajunen-Moghissi has been exhibiting in the UK and abroad since 1992. In 1996 she graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Art with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, and a few years later from Middlesex University with an MA in Fine Art. She has been a tutor at the Shadwell Centre Art Foundation since 1996. Her catalogue ‘Frozen’ was sponsored by the Arts Council of Finland in 2010.

Pajunen-Moghissi is also a co-founder of the company Artkapsule, which presents an annual collection of artists’ multiples sold through Design stores and intended to encourage a culture of art collecting.

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I take photographs of People going about their daily lives.

That’s what I do, nothing complicated.

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Bernard Swift exhibition opens at Chocolate Factory Gallery

Collage Arts and Karamel are pleased to be kicking off this year’s series of exhibitions with a selection of works by Bernard Swift. An artist whose style is instantly recognisable but ever difficult to categorise, Bernard’s work contains echoes of bawdy seaside postcards, imposing soviet propaganda posters, and magnificent stained glass friezes, with an occasional loving yet sarcastic nod to the classics of the old masters. But, with a sensibility that could draw comparisons to Velazquez, it’s the fine details and their hidden gems that really give these impressive pieces their unique charm. Whether they’re nostalgic stills of New England beaches, or dense biblical parodies transported to a heaving modern Britain, each painting has its own distinct story, and each character their own personality and purpose. No public figure or archetype is safe from Bernard’s satirical brush and careful observers may even see friends and neighbours among those mercilessly, yet joyfully caricatured.

Exhibition runs until 23 March 2012 at the Gallery in Karamel restaurant, 4 Coburg Road, London N22 6UJ.

Open Monday to Friday from 10 ’til 4pm and Friday/Saturday evenings from 6 ’til 10pm.

The Private View is on Thursday 1st March from 6.30 to 8.30pm.

Stones and their colours have been my passion for as long as I can remember, the more unusual the stone the better. I love creating designs from delicate feminine to huge, sometimes over the top jewellery but always something that will stand out, be it the design or the actual stones themselves.

Glamunique was born out of the idea to create glamorous and unique jewellery designs with top quality materials. Jewellery that will give you the ‘WOW’ factor when you walk into a room. I only create one-off designs so the jewellery of your choice will be totally unique to you.

Most designs are made from semi-precious stones, however I do use other materials like driftwood, glass, metal, etc.. Basically anything that inspires me. All the materials I use are from suppliers that have an excellent trade standard or that I have sourced during my frequent travels all over the world.

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