blog:proleno

Bandit is a project that is currently prototyped but will be manufactured by The Phillips Collection. It will be sold exclusively through authorised Phillips dealers around the world.

A single item that, when rotated even slightly, takes on a new form. It is almost a critique on society, as we all fit one mold, but through controlling our own destinies, we become unique.

Ever wanted to grow your own agave that needs no water and survives the frost outside? Designer makers Iron Vein have the answer in the form of their modular agave.

Each leaf is galvanized hand forged steel and simply spikes into the ground. Add individual leaves, as you like, to create your own style and size of succulent steel.

Perfect for adding structure to the winter garden.

Agave shown is £800 including delivery. More details can be seen at www.ironvein.co.uk or call 01938 850380

Designer makers Iron Vein have expanded their range of gifts by introducing new sizes of steel allium sculptures, augmenting their wide range of accessories for the inside or outside living space. They look as good in a vase indoors as they do spiked into your garden. These beautiful galvanised allium sculptures brighten winter borders, and lend structure to herbacious or perennial planting all year round. They are architectural and striking whether reflecting the sun, moving in the wind, or clad with raindrops, frost or snow – making them ideal for winter!

See more at www.ironvein.co.uk

Sculpture pieces by designer Eric Gill, including Mother and Child and A Roland for an Oliver, will be on show as part of the Royal Academy’s Wild Thing exhibition, London, from 24 October to 24 January.

Eric Gill was one of the most colourful figures in early 20^th century art, despite the majority of his prints being in black and white. Sculptor, typographer, and writer, it was the unequalled clarity of line of his engravings that have made his work so sought after.

Gill’s subject matter swung between the deeply religious and the highly erotic, a direct echo of his eccentric life.

His prints first appeared invariably in tiny editions or as illustrations in limited edition books, such as those he illustrated for the Golden Cockerel Press.

We are fortunate that in 1929 his friend and publisher, Douglas Cleverdon, produced a book of his prints, all printed from the original blocks. This was followed 5 years later by a second similar book, this time published by Faber.

Bryan Illsley, exhibiting at Swansea’s Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, is a well-established artist, whose diverse practice includes painting, print, sculpture in metal or ceramic, and also jewellery.

Working variously with colour, texture, form and structure, he absorbs abstraction with intensity. Unlike many artists, there are no preliminary working drawings or sketches to guide him through his meditative paintings.

Neither are there maquettes to steer the course for his rugged sculptures. Relying on spontaneous impulses, he picks up his brush, his clay or a handful of rivets and begins to work, often with a ‘wildness barely controlled’.

With a serious mind, and resolute spirit, he continues to develop his raw abstract creations with unrelenting vigour.

Bryan Illsley was born in Surbiton in 1937. He came from a working-class background with no interest in the arts. In the early 1950s, he became apprenticed to a monumental stonemason and later attended evening classes at Kingston School of Art in Kingston-upon-Thames.

In 1963, he moved to St Ives and worked part-time at the Bernard Leach Pottery. In 1968, he established a partnership with Breon O’Casey in St Ives, making studio jewellery. He now lives in London.

Bryan Illsley has contributed to numerous jewellery exhibitions at Arnolfini in Bristol, Ewan Phillips Gallery, Pace Gallery and Electrum Gallery in London. Mixed media shows include Oxford Gallery, Oxford, and The Maker’s Eye, Crafts Council Gallery, Waterloo Place, London. Solo shows include Bryan Illsely: Work in Wood, Metal & Paint, Crafts Council Gallery, Waterloo Place, London and Uncertain Joys at Barrett Marsden Gallery, London

Work in public collections includes amongst others, Contemporary Art Society, London; Kettles Yard, Cambridge and Plymouth City Art Gallery.

The exhibition is curated by Ralph Turner at the Craft Gallery, 2 July -11 October 2009.

For more information on the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery visit http://www.glynnviviangallery.org.

London’s Tate Modern, will be exhibiting what it describes as the most significant overview of American artist Roni Horn’s work to date. Horn trained as a sculptor but this exhibition will show the full range of her practice as a photographer, draughtsman, installation artist and writer.

Displaying together for the first time works in different media by the artist from 1975 to the present, the exhibition will include sculpture, early watercolours and vast new drawings alongside Horn’s photographic installations. From 1975 Horn began to make regular excursions to Iceland, its landscape and isolation acting as a central influence on her practice. There will also be a display of Horn’s books, many of which respond to the landscape and geology of Iceland.

The exhibition is organised by Tate Modern and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and will run from 25 February – 25 May 2009