MurmurART
|I went to a concert earlier this week performed by musicians who had spent years in training, many at some of the UK’s most prestigious music colleges, but now, given the fierce competition they face, rarely perform any more. Many are forced into completely unrelated jobs. Luckily, his regular hour-long session at a church in London gives them the opportunity to play to crowds and remind them of why they grafted so hard to achieve those skills. It reminded me of this website which provides a bit of a refuge and a sign of hope for new artists, photographers and sculptors. The basic idea is to give emerging talent a platform on which to both exhibit and sell their work and, on the flipside, engages a wider audience in contemporary art. In such a competitive field, too much good material inevitably goes unnoticed and the artist, for all their potential, quits the game. So these platforms are wholly necessary. In May, they’ll host online exhibitions of work selected by both established and emerging curators.
Tagged: art websites
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Want to share your project and network with thousands of other like-minded creatives and artists? Well, this is exactly what Art Bitch does. With a local and international audience of 6000 plus people interacting on Facebook daily, sharing, talking, liking, we’re off to a good start. Oh, and this is expected to grow. In a super way. Hit the Like button and share your project. It’s that easy.
We featured online contemporary art gallery MurmurART recently and thought it was time to catch up with co-founder Donald Eastwood and ask him how someone like Damien Hirst can get £95.7 million for a bunch of pickled animals and stubbed out cigarettes: ‘It’s funny that pricing of art is always treated with much more suspicion than the pricing of other art forms. When you buy a painting, you are buying a one-off, original artistic creation, plus the cost of the materials used to make it. It’s not like buying a book or a song on iTunes, because they are just reproductions of a moment of artistic creation. When you pay 79p for Britney’s new single, you are in fact agreeing to a price for that piece of “artistic” creation that is 79p multiplied by the several million people that will buy it, and you are only getting a reproduction of a song that should, but probably won’t, be better heard live. Now frankly, why aren’t people asking how someone can sell meaningless lyrics and a banal tune for several million pounds?’ Read more
With online ‘art-for-sale’ websites popping faster than magic mushrooms come mother’s day (or so I am told, ah-herm), it can be hard to pick the gold from the garrrr. To make it nice and simple for you, I can guarantee you’ll like what you see at Stupid Krap! Read more
Also by FRANCIS ANDREWS
Irina Werning’s Back to the Future photo series
Argentine photographer Irina Werning has complied this beautiful and poignant collection of portraits of adults re-enacting images of themselves as kids. From what I gather, she has asked people to submit photographs of themselves and then returned with them to these same spots at the same times in their lives. She’ll take this project round the world, from Baghdad to Eurodisney, and is looking for willing participants. Read more
Bug fighting in South East Asia
Of all the little idiosyncratic activities I’ve come across since living in Southeast Asia, this nears the favourite. The bug fights are held in a cemetery about half an hour outside of Chiang Mai late in the year when the stags are at their randiest. It pulls an impressive crowd who bet some hefty dollars on the winner, claimed by the beetle who throws its opponent off the revolving log and struts (or crawls) to victory. Read more
What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner
All hail the magic 8-ball of cooking; the answer to those painful moments of indecision that plague every shopper at around 6pm on a hectic Monday evening. It’s not the nagging voice that questions every decision you make, but the blunt, obnoxious hollering of an online Gordon Ramsay. The kitchen abides.
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Drew Boyd is a Brisbane-based table artist, with creations that are the answer to those interior designers’ ‘stuck for ideas’ moments. Read more
I’ve always had this urge to experience the great American outdoors, that picturesque world that I’ve seen in countless John Candy reruns. Yes, I’d stay in a rustic log cabin, surrounded by chipmunks and coyotes and sing John Denver songs by the fireplace. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll make it happen one day. Maybe? Nah. [painting by Mark Ryden]
Films involving characters faced with an impossible choice never make easy viewing, an example being the Nick Cave Australian gem, The Proposition. A nightclub manager, played with understated power by Joaquin Phoenix, is the victim here, and you actually feel truly uncomfortable as his predicament unfolds. Set in the 1980s, We Own The Night shows a real nostalgia for that period — particularly in the costumes. Read more
A soviet-era monument in Bulgaria commemorating World War II armed forces was recently vandalized: the figures were all turned into pop and capitalist icons such as Ronald McDonald, Superman, Santa Claus, and Captain America.
Every year we get a new one, every year we play it safe. So, this year, why not open your mind a little and get hold of one of these tasteless date makers. If nothing else, it’ll be a very good conversation starter. Read more
There’s some nice, doom-tinged psych rock coming out of Holtzclaw, Virginia in the form of Pontiak, a lumbering, feverish, blues-heavy trio that sounds like a hungover morning after a drunken party around a bonfire in the woods.
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My good friend Kit (her Etsy handle is Greenshock), who used to live in Baltimore and now lives in Rockland, Maine (she moved there to go to boat-building school), makes really amazing wooden rings which you should totally buy for your loved ones this coming holiday season.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Matthew Dear’s Black City album totem
Our friends at Ghostly International are releasing Matthew Dear’s Black City album as a limited edition ‘totem’. A what? A totem – a limited edition metal bar used to access a private music chamber. Cool! Read more
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
The return of the Brionvega rr226
Italian brand Brionvega has resurrected the classy Radiofonografio piece first created in 1965. The updated version is just like the original turntable/radio unit, but also has a CD/DVD player.
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
A little infectious lollipop rock anyone? Feel free to embarrass yourself singing along at the stoplight. If the other drivers give you that look, roll down the windows and spread the love.
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Sovereign Beck create modern silk ties for the classic man — both understated and provocative, classic and cutting edge. We have them for sale in the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
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