Why Am I Me?

184th Street by José Parlá

Just got my José Parlá 184th Street print back from Simon Beaugie picture framers and have now hung it.
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One Eighty Fourth Street by José Parlá

Bought some art at the weekend, it’s a print by José Parlá entitled One Eighty Fourth Street. The print is one of three new works published by Elms Lesters  Painting Rooms, found it difficult to choose between this print and another, St. Giles. This image is from the show, it’s a bit grainy as it was only taken  on my phone.

Just need to get it framed and hung, can’t wait to see it on my wall.
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Looking forward to seeing this.

Sculpture by Eduardo Chillida

Just back from Spain where I saw a lot of really great artwork. One of the highlights was probably my visit to the Museo Chillida-Leku near Donostia-San Sebastian in northern Spain which house artwork by the Basque artist Eduardo Chillida. There’s a massive outdoor sculpture park with some fine examples of his work, as well as a converted farmhouse with some smaller scale works including works on paper and some using felt.

I also visited the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao where I saw a brilliant show “I Want to Believe” by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. I also picked up a great Cy Twombly book.

Adaptation/Translation – Elms Lesters Painting Rooms

I went to see Adaptation/Translation, an exhibition of work by the Brooklyn based artist José Parlá at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in Flitcroft Street, London last night. For anyone who has never been to the building, it is an amazing space. Aside from the gallery space itself, there are two huge scenic painting rooms with massive motorised stretchers, which can be used to paint large scale theatre back-drops. I think the largest stretcher is around 20 square metres. I was lucky enough to do work experience there many years ago as the gallery owner, Paul Jones, is an old friend of my father.
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Finally bought a new board, a Black Label Adam Alfaro. The graphics are by Christian Hosoi and the board is part of a series to celebrate ’20 years of the Elephant’, other boards in the series have artwork by the Gonz, Natas, Lance Mountain and Ed Templeton. What a line up.

Can’t believe that Black Label have been around that long, although I reckon that time includes the company in its original incarnation when it was called Lucero, I don’t think it was too long before Lucero became Black Label though. The first Black Label board I ever had was a Max Evans slick which, I think, I would have bought around 1992? I can’t remember for sure but I’m pretty certain that this is my fifth Label deck.

I also got a new set of Indy’s, Stage X 139′s. Rubbers are a little crappy so I think I’m going to get new ones. How hard is it to skate new trucks though? I think I had my last set for around 4-5 years so it’s been a while since I had to break new trucks in.

Happy 20th birthday Black Label. And remember, NEVER FORGET.

What a great subject for a first proper post, Francis Bacon. I went to his show at Tate Britain at the weekend. His work was a big influence on me when I was at art school and I was really interested to see a show of his work on this scale. I was enormously impressed, although it’s pretty obvious he could make very powerful images, I’d forgotten what a good painter he was.

The image is one of the panels from the second version of the triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, painted in 1988.

The show runs until the 4th January 2009.