New Damien Hirst prints available at White Cube

Red Bird and Parrot with Shark Jaw

The White Cube gallery has three new Damien Hirst prints available to buy in their online shop. They are of paintings in the 'Two Weeks one Summer' exhibition. Each print is in an edition of 75 and measure 19.5" x 15". The price is £1800 each, which is more affordable than a lot of Hirst's recent prints have been, but these are only lithographs, so posters really...

Having said that I like the paintings, particularly 'Two Parrots' - very nice! For more info go to White Cube's web shop here.

Two Birds with Blossom

Two Parrots

Jenny Saville - Continuum exhibition catalogue

 Continuum is the new book of Jenny Saville's paintings from the Gagosian Gallery. It is both a catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, as well as an overview of other works from 2005-2011.

 I have all of the other books and catalogues about Jenny Saville (most of them are detailed in other posts on this blog) and I have to say this might be the best one yet.

 It is large scale both in size and page number (120 pages) and has many reproductions of paintings that do not appear in any of the other books including the many different studies for the 'Stare' painting, it is very interesting to see the processes involved here.

 There are also installation views from the Continuum exhibition at the Gagosian, these go some way to giving an idea of the impact of scale at work.

 The book has a retail price of $100, but is currently available at a great price here. I strongly suggest you get hold of a copy of this book while you can, the earlier monographs like Territories and Closed Contact sold out very quickly and have increased in value quite considerably.

What Katy Did book sculpture

 'What Katy did in the Woodshed' is my latest book sculpture inspired by the children's classic by Susan Coolidge.

 If you don't know the story Katy is told not to use the swing in the woodshed because it is not safe - Katy ignores this, the swing breaks and she falls and hurts her back.

 In this picture you can see the tiny broken swing through the woodshed door.

 I have used dollhouse lighting in this piece, it has a lovely soft, trembling light to it, very eerie.

 This piece will be part of my exhibition in Cambridge during July this year.

 In darkness the case gives some lovely reflections, I've tried to capture it in this picture, but it looks much better in the flesh.

Roe Ethridge C-Print available form ICA London

Eronja for Dazed and Confused, March 2012 by Roe Ethridge is a new limited edition print available from the Institute for Contemporary Art, London. An edition of 25, signed and numbered by the artist, this C-print is £750 for ICA members (membership is only £10) or £1000 for non-members.

More information can be found on the ICA website here.

Wind in the Willows altered book sculpture

Wind in the Willows is my latest book sculpture, an interpretation of the stories by Kenneth Grahame.

It is another private commission, the brief was to include toad driving a Morgan car, otherwise I could do what I wanted.

 The river is Palladium leaf and the sun is gold leaf.

 Took about ten attempts to get the car right, quite pleased with the end result though.

Justin Rowe - Pushing the Envelope 2012

Pushing the Envelope is a Charity auction, in association with the National Literacy Trust. Each year celebrities are asked to make a design on an envelope, this is then auctioned on eBay.

 I was asked to contribute this year, this is my offering and bidding is now live!

Entering its seventh year in 2012, the Pitney Bowes Pushing the Envelope campaign is looking to build on the success of previous years and gain support from a broad range of personalities - we've been supported by Fearne Cotton, Kate Winslet, Stephen Fry and Damien Hirst in the past. As in previous years, this is a unique chance for the public to own an original design from favourite celebrities or artists. This year our theme is 'Inspiration' and the designs by our famous supporters will reflect this. The finished artworks will be auctioned in March 2012 and all funds raised from the auction will be donated to the National Literacy Trust.

Yayoi Kusama's Alice in Wonderland

'Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with artwork by Yayoi Kusama' to give it it's full title is a new publication from Penguin Classics. It features the full classic text, but with new characteristically idiosyncratic illustrations from Kusama.

It is a highly coloured book and some interesting typographic touches. It is nicer to look at than read - I have always found the text very difficult to get through, particularly hard to read aloud to children!

 It is currently available at a good price here. There is also a new exhibition of Kusama's work just opening at the Tate Modern, info here.

Since childhood, Japanese artist Kusama has been afflicted with a condition that makes her see spots, which means she sees the world in a surreal, almost hallucinogenic way that sits very well with the Wonderland of Alice.

She is fascinated by childhood and the way adults have the ability, at their most creative, to see things the way children do, a central concern of the Alice books, by Lewis Carroll.

The Kraken altered book sculpture

 The Kraken is my latest book sculpture, it was specially commissioned, the brief was 'a Kraken taking down a Galleon.'

 The Kraken if you didn't know if a mythical sea creature like a giant squid or octopus, the kind of thing you would find in Jules Verne.

 Each of the tentacles is overprinted with Kraken Kraken Kraken to make them darker and angrier looking.

 The pages of the book made into a roiling sea.

There are now cards and prints available of this sculpture in the shop.

 One poor sailor plucked from the decks...

Twenty/12 photography project Kickstarter appeal

Interesting looking photobook project brought to my attention by one of the contributors John Edmonds. Looks like they already reached their funding target, but you can still get some nice looking goodies by donating. Have a look at what's on offer here.

Empty Stretch is a photography collective interested in exposing & publishing emerging photographers. Over the past year we have self- produced short run zines, including; Empty Stretch: Home, Mediations 1-4, as well as Aaron Canipe's Eden & My Golden Girl of Summertime, Jordan Swartz's Pickpocket Blues series & Nathaneil Grann's Aspects of Patriotism. TWENTY/12 will be our first venture into the book publishing world. 

Twelve photographers located in different parts of the world all photographed on New Years day. It is a day of new beginnings, fresh starts and for some a clean break. By having multiple people photograph under the construct of a single day; traditions, reflections, resolutions, commonalities and differences are brought forth. The New Years day becomes more then just a single day but rather a precursor of things to come. TWENTY/12 is the document of these twelve photographers findings and new beginnings.

The photographers include:

Aaron Canipe
Caroline Carpenter
John Edmonds
Michael Evnen
Nathaniel Grann
Mark Harley
Veronica Melendez
Jordan Swartz
Justine Tobiasz
Liora Valero
Tucker Walsh
Sara Winston

Sam Taylor-Wood print available at 20x200

Jonathan is a new limited edition print by Sam Taylor Wood. It is available at several sizes and prices, the edition of 100 at 10"x8" looks pretty good value at $60 this size is nearly sold out, so move fast! You can buy it here.

I'm slightly put off by 20x200 only coming with a signed certificate of authenticity rather than the print itself being signed and numbered, this seems fine for the small prints, but a 20"x16" in an edition of 50 for $600? or the 40"x30" in an edition of 10 for $3000? These don't seem very good value compared to her editions from White Cube and Counter...