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The Muse at 269, Portobello Road.

Masaki Yada Forbidden Fruit -

 A Solo Show of Paintings Exhibition: 23rd of May – 10th June 07

 The Muse at 269 offers an opportunity every year for two recently graduated artists to pursue their vision within its free studio space for eight months. During May and June, Central St Martins School of Art graduate, Masaki Yada exhibits his paintings. Inspired by urban environments and information provided by the mass media, he creates collage-like compositions by using various visual and spontaneous effects such as brush-marks, stains and scratches. He examines our response to terrorism, race, sex and war. Expressing his political and psychological interests, he uses layers of different elements tangled within a contained area. The layers create a sense of space and mirror the psychosis of modern society as the artist attempts to unravel systems that can govern the human condition. His skilful oil paintings are a saturation of cultural perceptions of reality; the many layers construct a society where the artist aims to create something accessible, to the viewer, something that we each have in common – our own humanity.

More Deails Here

When I heard that Jarvis Cocker was curating this year's Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre, I got a little excited. Meltdown always throws up some interesting performances and collaborations, and although I usually manage to miss the entire caboodle, when I have made it along to the South Bank, it's always been worth it: The Legendary Stardust Cowboy (performing as part of David Bowie's Meltdown) was mindblowing (although Daniel Johnston, on the same bill, was much less so); Patti Smith's Songs of Innocence was an extravaganze.

There are a few bands on Jarvis's bill I would like to see - Motörhead would be nice (last saw them in 1989), Iggy and the Stooges even nicer (never seem 'em), and although I've already seen Forced Entertainment's Bloody Mess, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it again (although I imagine Gill would).

But generally speaking, it's the collaborations and one-offs which make Meltdown special. And this year, the most special of these is without a doubt Hal Wilner's Forest of No Return - an interpretation of the vintage Disney songbook. For a long time, Wilner's Weird Nightmare, Meditations on Mingus was among my favourite albums, and I also love his work with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, and his tribute to Kurt Weill. Wilner always manages to put together incredibly disparate and interesting groups of musicians, along with downright bizarre arrangements, and to coax something interesting out of them. So his take on Disney is surely not to be missed.

Unfortunately, I am completely skint (no. Completely.), I won't be in London at the time and certainly can't afford the £22.50+ ticket price. But if you are in London and you can afford it, you should go.

As part of Situation Leeds Festival of Art in the Public Realm 2007 Monitor, Black Dogs and ‘The Waiting Game’ present an evening of bus and badge related
art mayhem.

Entry on the door: £5 (includes entry to the Idioteque, or a £2 refund if you leave before 11pm)

A New Exhibition of Paintings by Dan Proops In association with Eric Franck Fine Art Menier Chocolate Factory 51/53 Southwark Street London SE1 1RU

17th – 26th May 2007 Private View: Wednesday 16th May 6 – 9pm www.samsdesktop2.com ‘CONCEPTUALISM IS DEAD!’

Dan Proops slams conceptual artists as dead as dinosaurs with his powerful, vivid new show, Sam’s Desktop II.In this sequel to last years show, ‘Sam’s Desktop’, Proops uses his trademark ‘digital’ painting technique to make a dark, rich mix of references to, war, art, ‘reality’ and ‘fake’, and our ambivalent attitudes towards popular culture.

Tired, geriatric, conceptual ideology has been smited with Proops’ devious combination of time-honoured painting techniques and a cutting intellectual discourse.

In a show full of dynamic images, the standout piece has to be ‘Caravaggio, Censored’. In Proops’ take on Caravaggio’s portrait of John the Baptist, the mature artist’s love for his boy model is cruelly subverted. The original painting is a celebration of erotic beauty, as the smiling young man embraces a horned ram, his pose mischievously echoing the Michelangelo version. Proops re-works it with a fig leaf of pixels, the boy’s bright young flesh robbed of its honesty with a reminder that censorship creates obscenity.In choosing to transcribe this image by Caravaggio, who ‘borrowed’ it from a Michelangelo Cistene Chapel ‘ignudi’, Proops is also reminding us that ‘cloning’ is not a new phenomenon in art; that classical painting was built on long apprenticeships of copying; and that, as soon as art becomes a commodity, its saucy twin - counterfeit art - is born.As Seurat used a field of dots to create shimmer, and Lichtenstein used the Ben Day dot technique to parody pulp-comic visuals, Proops uses pixels, the tiny dots of light which create a screen image, to get his ‘points’ across. Robert Hughes, world renowned art critic has commented on the often vacuous and empty nature of British Conceptualism…‘…Damien Hirst, has certainly taken a terrible nosedive of late and I don't think the famous shark was all that great…… I think Tracy Emin's stuff is amateurish rubbish.’Dan Proops goes one step further…‘Contemporary Art has been bashing its head against the brick wall of shock tactics, pure sensationalism and tedious gimmickry for the last 15 years, rehashing ideas instigated by pieces such as Duchamps’ ‘Urinal’ of 1917.’ 

Thursday 10 May

Ye Olde Worlde Gallerie's 1) Hauser & Wirth - Old & New Masters, 6-8pm, 15 Old Bond Street, W1 2) Mumford Fine Art - Heads (inc Elizabeth Frink), 6-9pm, 12a D'Arby St, Soho, W1. 3) Anthony Reynolds Gallery - David Austin, 6.30-8.30pm, 60 Marlborough St, W1.

Friday 11 May

Elegent Southern Charm (and free vino) at the Danielle Arnaud Gallery - Ost Property (Group Show), 6-8.30pm, 123 Kennington Road, SE5 The Freeloaders Society of Great Britain

XFSGBX MORE THAN JUST FREE STUFF AND NONSENSE

1 When did you start to make art?

Bright young age of 5yrs 2 months.

2 How did you evolve into a professional artist?

I organised 2 one man shows age 14 – sell outs!

3 What drove you to make art as a professional vocation?

I figured it was good to make money doing what you wanted to do, also I needed cash for paints and going out to meet girls.

4 Explain your inspiration?

I am inspired by the ridiculous, the obvious, the least expected, the most opposite to what’s happening, how design meshes with technology, getting to the heart of the zeitgeist.

5 In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?

I wake up at 4 am with some wacky thought, grab a coke and start doing sketches, (occasionally this happens in the bath before or after some crappy TV).

6 From ideas to production of art – how? And why?

How – taking ideas worked out in Photoshop – making 20 –30 print studies, making collage, designing the painting and then making it. Why - have so many ideas, need to get them out there, take over undiscovered art territory, like playing a game of Risk. (I have a lot of the board).

7 Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

I think I would like to make computer games out of crates or milk cartons and have them giant on the side of buildings.

8 Which artists would you most like to blatantly rip off?

As I do a lot of collages I literally ‘rip off’ a lot of artists. All of them if I could.

9 Why is your art made?

Because it’s making statements about the relationship between fine art and interface design links and associations never made before. Genius needs to get out there. Also I then have pictures to put up in my house.

10 What does being an artist mean to you?

Getting up any time. A lot of trips to art shops. Making land mark cutting edge pieces filled with cunning, humour and ‘of the moment’.

11 Are you happy with your reasons for making art? i.e Are there any trade offs that make life hard?

I would never take seriously a happy artist – if you are happy with what you have made you won’t try to make better. As an artist you are always on the outside of life, but your always trying to get to the core of whats going on.

12 When does your art become successful?

When I complete the last brushstroke.

13 What is art?

Art is art (..blood thou art blood…Shakespeare.)

14 How do you start the process of making work?

Getting over a hangover (alka seltzer), taking my motorcycle to the studio, getting into clothes covered in paint (looks like combat gear), coffee (lots)…choosing the brushes of the day, then the first splodges.

15 Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

Me, instinct.

16 What is your next; move, project, show etc?

Sam’s Desktop II in association with Eric Franck…May 17 – 27 @ Menier Chocolate Factory.

17 What are the pros and cons of the art market?

The cons are there are a lot of stupid people in the art world, the pros are there are a lot of stupid people in the art world.

18 Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

Drawings from my first show when I was 14. My latest.

19 Any routine in making your artwork?

If so what? As many hours as possible as much of the day..

20 What has been the biggest break in your career?

Meeting Lisa Agasee

21 Who has been the biggest influence on you?

My mum, the bionic man, early Picasso, 70s video games, Windows XP

22 How many artworks have you given away and to whom?

I give a lot of ink drawings away. People seem to like them as presents.

More Info  LINK