Dreaming of Olympia - 5 Thomas Ostenberg bronzes at the Mint Leaf

It’s refreshing to see work that doesn’t strain for effect, is straightforward, confident and comfortable in its own skin. Ostenberg’s bronzes on show at the Mint Leaf restaurant  (Lothbury, City of London) are about joy, energy and love of life. There is humour in these pieces, and a kind of circus-like exuberance.

Two of the pieces - “Wing and a Prayer” and “Leap of Faith” - depict flying gymnastic figures suspended in a circle of bronze. What came to mind was a Classical Indian, rather than a Greek or Olympian association: the Mahabharata… “The wheel of life moves on. It has the understanding for its strength; the mind for the pole (on which it rests); the group of senses for its bonds, the five great elements for its nave, and home for its circumference”.

Perhaps ’the wheel of life’ explains why these works sit so beautifully in the surroundings of the Mint Leaf, an upmarket, funky Indian restaurant. The Ostenberg bronzes enhance the restaurant no end, and if the proprietors have any sense, they will make sure they hold on to them permanently. 

The exhibition is brought to the Mint Leaf by Fraser Kee Scott and A GALLERY, where you can find out more about the exhibition and Ostenberg’s pieces.

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‘Acceptance’ by Jessica Stride

“Acceptance” by Jessica Stride showing her typical mastery of colour. Acrylic on canvas. Presentation is on an unframed deep box canvas. More details.

Buy an open edition print here.

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Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009

You sir! Pass my monacle.

To assert that the Royal Academy’s long standing tradition of open submission to its Summer Exhibition is a form of democracy, as the great and good would have us believe in the meeja this week, is to adopt an essentially self-contradictory position. There’s a paradox in operation.

I say so because the actual tradition of the Academy is one of conservatism, elitism, royal and aristocratic patronage, closed shops, and negative discrimination at every possible level. It has played its part in helping to build the reputation of English art as the poor man of Europe, dragging its pallid shape along in the wake of the adventurous and spunky Europeans (and Americans in the precociously recent 20th Century). Picasso, Miro, Pollock, Richter? What, when we have the St Ives school?

At this year’s exhibition, as in the past, the jury’s chosen water colourists and acrylicists rub shoulders with established artists. What’s different is that this time around, apparently it’s funky. Flirting dangerously with the 21st Century, the Academy has drafted in Emin and Hirst, like Royalty at a cup final. Britain has globally recognised stars of the art world, and here they are. We only sing when we’re winning.

This is a good mix. It is an excellent chance to compare the output of the great engine room of English artistic output, the reality of what art is for most artists (i.e. rendering approximations of observed phenomena with paint, charcoal etc), with the work of the great conceptualists of our time. Who will come off best? What will connect, emotionally or intellectually? And what will have lasting quality?

We find ourselves at a fascinating juncture in art history, entangled as never before in the reality of the market place. It’s an entertaining scramble for the Art Quid, but let’s not pretend that democracy has anything to do with it.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2009 continues until 16th August.

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Ashford School of Art & Design - degree show 2009

If you want to see the very best in young British art, get along to the ASAD show, which runs from Mon 15th to Fri 19th June. We especially liked the wax sculptures by Trish Bishop, the huge dystopic landscapes by Dee Taylor, and the disturbing ‘3 Stages of Becoming’ by M.A.L Huguet. Compared to the style-over-content art fairs we attend, this was refreshing indeed. Miss it at your peril!

ASAD Henwood Industrial Estate, Ashford, Kent TN24 8DR Tel:01233 642430 asad@southkent.ac.uk

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‘I am a Stuckist artist’ - Jane Kelly

Soon to exhibit at the Cristus Gallery, Jane Kelly talks about her art, her background and her current projects.

‘I am a Stuckist artist, that is I joined a group of painters, now world wide, who believe that painting is about some skill and a lot of passion, and the ability to use paper, pencil and paint rather than sump oil and dead animals.

In 2000 I exhibited a portrait of Ken Livingstone being tried as a criminal, in the Royal Academy Summer Show, which sold for £1,000. In 2004 I exhibited in The Stuckists Punk Victorian, at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and sold a painting for several thousand pounds (my best sale yet!) to a commissioner from the EU. It now lives in his home in Luxembourg.
This painting has a dramatic effect on my life; to make it I took a photo from the Daily Mail Weekend Magazine, of a typical Daily Mail family, took out the benevolent Dad and replaced him with Myra Hindley. I wanted to see what she would look like in such a quintessential family group.
I was at the time a staff writer for the Daily Mail and I had been there for fifteen years, drawing a substantial salary. I was promptly fired, and the story, and the painting, made the front page of The Guardian.
Unlike the Mail, which divides people into respectable and monsters, I am fascinated by the nature of evil. I attribute much human catastrophe to problems in early childhood and within families. I like to project my ideas backwards to look at the past and ask: What if?
For instance, the Roman emperors almost all had abusive, chaotic childhoods. Hitler could only feel intimacy and trust with animals, not people. Like Myra they projected their inner torment outward with terrible results. I like to imagine them in different situations with all the monster stripped away.
I am also currently working on some religious paintings, to see if that kind of narrative is possible in this secular age without becoming sentimental or mawkish.
It is almost impossible to paint religious figures convincingly. My painting, ‘In the Juvesence of the year came Christ the tiger, shows christ, as a tiger, being mocked by TV celebs, Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, and by the pusillanimous Archbishop of Canterbury.
I am also working on some themes from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, linking them to my own life as a lone woman, a woman who still misses the salary and the lifestyle she had on the Daily Mail! On the other hand I am proud to pauper myself and paint.
I also enjoy painting with purely painterly ideas: nudes, still life, landscapes, seascapes. I relish oil paint - nothing can top it.’

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Walking the Bristol AAF with Neil Jones

‘Twice round,’ said Neil. ‘First you must get immediate impressions of what you like, then you can return to have a closer look.’ This we did, while chatting about all things art and exhibiting at Cristus.

We’ve known about Neil for some time, emailed but never met, and marvelled at the impossible realism of his creations.

Like the whole of Bristol, the AAF is impressive on the day. The building in which it functions is a Great Western delight, gothic and massive, with the expected rubbish hanging pipework and overspilling guttering. Somehow, there is comfort in seeing this abuse of our heritage, a reminder of good old British Rail. Neil, a man of gentle nature and refinement, agrees.

Art fairs are the way forward, they say - a way of connecting the seller of art with the buyer. No need for galleries with their limited choice and intimidating ways. Certainly, the format seems to suit everyone. The galleries know that anyone willing to pay £6 to park and £5 to enter is likely to be bristling with art money. No time-wasters here. While the collector no doubt enjoys the sight of gallerists smiling nervously, fiddling with keyboards and constantly rotating their stock. The occasional outgoing brown-paper parcel is evidence that business is being done.

Neil is kinder than me about the quality of the art. On our second circuit, it all starts to become a picture show, but Neil calms me and gets me to look at the positives, not least the amount of meticulous oils on offer. Painting in oils has returned and replaced the splodgy acrylics and conceptual piles of the last decades. If this is a reaction, then I’m broadly in favour of it. Like the old masters, these artists are declaring ‘I can paint feet and hands in oils. Can you?’ But much of the purpose of art is lost if nothing is being expressed, apart from technical excellence.

This is why Neil’s work is so exciting. His painting of ‘Alfred’ is a display of his mastery, while the expression of the sitter’s character prevents a superficial viewing. Similarly, his sculptures have to be touched; and they are so real, it’s like they’ve just died in your hands.

See Neil’s specially commissioned pieces at the forthcoming Cristus Gallery H. G. Wells Festival Exhibition, which forms part of the H G Wells centenary event. Preparations are also well advanced for a Neil Jones solo show in the autumn.

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Wish by Jessica Stride

A stunning portrait by Jessica Stride showing her typical mastery of colour. Acrylic on canvas, 20″(h) x 16″(w). Presentation is on a deep box canvas and is therefore unframed. Buy the original here. 

Buy an open edition print here.

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