We Made This

Herb and Dorothy

We've just been sent this trailer for the award-winning new documentary Herb and Dorothy, which premieres in New York on June 5, and it looks just great.

The film is all about Herbert and Dorothy Vogel. Herb was a postal clerk, and Dorothy was a librarian, and despite their modest incomes, they built up an incredibly important contemporary art collection, living off Dorothy's salary and using Herb's to collect art. The only criteria was that the work should be affordable, and small enough to fit into their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment.

Over thirty years they collected more than 2,000 pieces, including works by Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Chuck Close, and a host of others. In 1992 they gifted their whole collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; despite the fact that thanks to their fine eyes, the collection was worth millions of dollars. How cool is that?

They still live in the same apartment, with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They're still collecting.

Here's hoping the film makes the jump across to the UK some time soon.

House of Propellers

Just downstairs from We Made This, the good folks at Represent have just opened up their new gallery, House of Propellers, and have kicked things off with a tasty little show by illustrator Rupert Meats from Rude.

The show riffs on travel and location, with a particular London twist, and features a mix of originals and rather fine limited edition screenprints.

House of Propellers should be a space to watch, with upcoming shows from James Graham, Will Broome and Clare Shillard. Check out the HOP Facebook page for more information.

Monumental

This is a tasty little number. It's a screengrab of a daily timelapse, shot from the top of London's recently re-opened Monument.

The Monument View is an "ambient responsive outdoor installation" by Chris Meigh-Andrews, which shoots a continuous timelapse birds-eye view of the city. You can use the Explore button on the top right to search through a back-catalogue of the sequences.

Brilliant.

Swifty at No Vacancy

After we recently posted about Swifty, Ken Tan from the urban art online store Project Midas (based in Singapore) got in touch to tell us about the new exhibition of Swifty's work they're hosting at the No Vacancy gallery in Melbourne.

Ken revealed that the show will feature original work, as well as "a remix of the classic Vegemite brand, limited edition prints and t-shirts, plus a live painting of a Suzuki Swift car".

The show runs from 5 to 14 March 2009.

Here's Johnny

This looks like it should be really interesting: More 4 are showing the award winning documentary Here's Johnny (February 17, 10pm) about the comic book / horror artist John Hicklenton.

Hicklenton has worked on raft of fantastic strips, including the daddy of British comics, 2000AD, and the groundbreaking Crisis. He's also suffering from MS, and the show explores both his work and the frustrations of living with the disease.

Giant horse to welcome visitors

Remember the Ebbsfleet Landmark Competition to create a new piece of public art at the upcoming international train station in Kent?

The competition was launched in May 2007, and they've just announced that the commission has gone to the public's favourite piece, Mark Wallinger's 50m high white horse.

We think it's the best of the bunch (here are the losers), and suitably bonkers. As you ride in on the no-doubt much slower than anticipated train, you can look out at the giant steed, and think, "Hmmm, I'd probably get there quicker if I was on that".

As Jonathan Jones points out, it's a mash-up of George Stubbs and Magritte - a smart horse at a surreal scale. It might be a one-liner, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some art can make you think, some can make you really think, and some can just make you smile.

Wireframe Lamborghini

How yummy is this?

A life-size wireframe model of a Lamborghini Countach. In flouro orange.

We caught sight of it on Saturday over at The Classic Car Club on Old St. It's the work of artist Benedict Radcliffe, and you can read more about it on this Jalopnik post.

Vrmmmmmm.

Pictures on Walls Open Weekend

Hmmm. Wonder if this will be insanely busy, or just ridiculously busy?

The folks at Pictures on Walls - they're the go-to-guys for Banksy's work, and put on Santa's Ghetto each year - are having an open-weekend at their print studio in Shoreditch.

They're having a lottery where four people will win an edition of Banksy's 'Very Little Helps' print, and the next hundred get first refusal on buying a copy. Which is gonna guarantee queues round the block, particularly with the tickets just a quid each, and proceeds going to Sightsavers International.

We'd be far more chuffed to get one of Antony Micallef's prints though. Lovemaker (above) and Bethlehem (below) are both up for grabs in the same way as Banksy's. The prints were created from originals painted by Micallef after last year's Santa's Ghetto in Jerusalem. Banksy might drum up the headlines, but Micallef is the man. You can pick up a tasty book of his stuff over at Lazarides.

There's going to be a stack of other new work, and there was talks of tours round their studio too. It all happens from 11am to 7pm on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 December at the POW Studio, 16 Willow Street, London EC2A 4BH.

See you in the queue.

Mutate Britain

We made our way across to Cordy House on Curtain Road on Friday evening to catch first show in the new Behind the Shutters gallery that's just opened on the site.

And as first shows go, it's a belter. Mutate Britain is hosted by the Mutoid Waste Company - you might have caught their huge junkyard sculptures and performances at Glastonbury - and there are some incredible pieces MWC members Joe Rush and Giles Walker (including Rush's Home Guard, above).

It's a great exhibition - a bit like a fantastic degree show in a squat. Arranged over four floors, it's got a mix of sculpture, prints, installations, performances, and even a live screenprinting area run by Print Club. Check out Alistair's Flickr set for more exhibition goodness.

The gallery is open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 1.30pm to 10pm, and it looks like the show will be running until Sunday 21 December.

Roadsworth

While we were out in Amsterdam, we came across the work of Canadian stencil artist Roadsworth (Peter Gibson), and really liked it, so we thought we'd share.

He's been doing his thing since 2001, using stencils to adapt the existing road graphics, mainly on the streets of Montreal, initially as a protest against the lack of cycle lanes, but increasingly as a commentary on car culture, oil dependancy and authoritarianism. We're not sure how successful it is on those counts, but as a way of injecting a little wit and lyricism into the urban landscape, it rocks.

Check out this short documentary about his stuff.