Will Broome/ Bill Woodrow

London Printworks Trust has launched an imaginative initiative to raise vital funds. The campaign, called Counter Feat, was launched at an event at their Brixton base on Tuesday November 29. The Trust is currently threatened with closure if funding cannot be raised in time – to fill the huge gap left following the shock withdrawal of Arts Council funding earlier this year.

The idea was conceived by Lorna Dallas-Conte, LPT’s Executive Director, who told us, “We are addressing this crisis by literally printing our own money and we have been excited by the enthusiastic response from eager art collectors. The art notes are set to be a run-away success, not only artistically but in saving a unique specialist textile resource that is vital to the creative ecology and many printmakers working in London. We hope art notes might even become an annual event in the future.”

Launched in time to make a perfect Christmas present for your creative family and friends, the art notes are available as a limited edition, all hand printed at LPT. You can invest in the full impressive set – or simply choose a favourite from one of the great designs by ten distinguished artistic friends of the Trust. Fashion designers Eley Kishimoto, Jonathan Saunders, Holly Fulton, Heikki Salonen and Zandra Rhodes, have joined forces with sculptor Bill Woodrow, illustrator Will Broome, artist and textile designer Pat Albeck, textile designer Sarah Campbell, and Hemmingway Design. This outstanding line-up have all donated their time and talent to support the initiative. Spread the word and snap them up now while you can!

Pat Albeck/ Eley Kishimoto

London Printworks Trust was established in 1992. Their specialist facilities have recently been upgraded and offer a fantastic spacious working environment that is available with on-site industry assistance if required. The Trust offers internships and bursaries and is a vital support for emerging talent in print. RCA MA graduate and one of Texprint’s 24 of 2011, Lauren Bowker is currently based there. Lauren can’t yet afford to set up her own studio, so the opportunity she has been given at the Trust has been a lifeline. As well as supporting emerging designers, the Trust runs an exciting programme of events, courses and exhibitions and has a vital community outreach remit, including programmes for adults with learning difficulties and a 14-16 engagement scheme.

The Arts Council recognised the value of the Trust in its recent statement: “London Printworks Trust has a strong role in providing unique expertise and production facilities for artists and designers. In light of the limited resources available, it was with regret that Arts Council England decided not to fund the organisation’s application through its national portfolio.”

Zandra Rhodes/ Printing at LPT

To buy the art notes visit
counterfeat.co.uk

For further information on the Trust and the Counter Feat initiative contact:
lorna@londonprintworks.com

Rupert Meats

The Printa Academy has a reputation for bringing the best international graphic designers and illustrators to Budapest. For this year’s Design Week, Printa exhibited a series of brand-new silkscreen prints created by none other than Rupert Meats of British design label Rude.

Rude was founded just over a decade ago by Rupert and his partner Abi Williams with a view to produce visually exciting t-shirts, but soon after they began producing lots of other products and have since lent their creative skills to the likes of Nokia, The Guardian and Sony Playstation.

For ‘This Is Rude’ at Printa, Rupert is flying solo with a series of prints which deal with his love of London culture, travel and his recent discoveries in Budapest. The images all contain Rupert’s typical blend of bright colours and playful text and imagery. All but a handful of the pieces were produced in Printa’s own print workshop and are available in a limited edition.

Rupert Meats

A few of our favourite pieces on show included Rupert’s graphic realisation of one of Budapest’s signature thermal bathhouses and an almost lurid print of a camera in shocking neon colours. Most of all we loved the fun mural created on the wall of the gallery which depicted a mish-mash of London icons like Big Ben and the London Eye, with famous Budapest monuments such as the beautiful Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

This Is Rude runs from 7th October-6th December at Printa Academy, 10 Rumbach Sebestyén utca, 1075 Budapest

Budapest Design Week Website.

Printa Academy Website.

Inca Starzinksy, 'Slice'

Located in the Brompton Design District, this pop-up exhibition showcases the most recent work of three Royal College of Art, London design graduates, Inca Starzinsky, Henny van Nistelrooy and David Weatherfield.

Inspired by the surrounding ‘blurred design landscape,’ textile designer Inca Starzinsky advised: ‘We are three independent designers who converse continually about our thoughts and design influences, we have the same attitude to design and our projects.’

Inca’s ‘Slice’ is a series of six scarf designs featuring different fruit and vegetables. Originally passionate about screen printing, Inca soon found her perfect creative outlet when she discovered digital printing. A great lover of photography, digital printing allows her to express herself more accurately and she believes that there is a unique quality that comes only with digital printing. These scarves are printed onto chiffon silk demonstrating Inca’s love for vibrancy and simplicity.

Henny van Nistelrooy, 'Revolver'

‘Revolver’, by Dutch product designer Henny van Nistelrooy is a shelving system developed as part of a retail design commission for specialist bicycle shop Velorution. The versatile shelves can store products both vertically and horizontally while metal rails allow clothes to be hung if necessary. Running on a cantilever hooking system the layout can be adapted as required making it a good investment for any retailers.

David Weatherhead, 'The Toymaker's Clock'

David Weatherhead, the final exhibitor at The Ground Floor Arrangement Band, showcases ‘The Toymaker’s Clock’. Inspired by everyday objects and design with ‘particular gesture and semantic,’ David’s recent projects provide a running theme of playfulness, geometry and colour. These pendulum clocks are so simple, yet so aesthetically pleasing, they are the perfect finishing touch to any interior. Manufactured from screen printed balsa wood, these clocks are modern and fun.

The Ground Floor Arrangement Band, 1a Cromwell Place, London, SW7 2JE, running until 25th September. Open 11am-6pm.

For further details visit the Ground Floor Arrangement Band Website

Inca Starzinksy
Henny van Nistelrooy
David Weatherhead

Popshot magazine issue 5/City Abyss (Beata Szczecinska)

Popshot magazine, a bi-annual UK publication championing contemporary poetry and illustration, was founded by Jacob Denno in 2009. His goal was simple – to reclaim poetry from the ‘clammy hands of tweed jackets and school anthologies’. Five issues later, Jacob has launched ‘The Print Shop’, an online store which allows you to buy limited edition prints of some of the magazine’s finest illustrators. ARTS THREAD caught up with Jacob to learn more.

ARTS THREAD: What inspired you to set up Popshot magazine?
Jacob Denno: Popshot was conceived when I was 21 with no background in publishing whatsoever. The inspiration for starting the magazine was born out of slightly arrogant innocence. After trawling through the shelves of Borders, I felt that poetry magazines were doing poetry a gross misjustice and I could do it better. So that’s where it started! I felt that by combining poetry with design and illustration it could become much more appealing and help give the art form a sense of context.

Tom Hovey/Davin McGrath/Esra Røise

AT: Naming a magazine is always difficult, was Popshot your first choice?
JD: As far as I can remember, it was pretty much the only choice. The name materialised at almost the same time as the idea for the magazine. There was never any more discussion than that. It was only after I had bought the domain name and we started gathering poems for the first issue that I realised it was a porn industry term. Kind of adds to the charm, I think.

AT: How do you go about pairing the poets and illustrators for the magazine?
JD: First, we do a call for poetry submissions and of the few thousand poems that we read through, the best 20 poems are picked. We then pick 20 illustrators whose work fits with the theme. It’s kind of like a giant dot to dot but when you get it right, there’s this tremendous feeling that in a few weeks you’re going to receive an incredible illustration.

Mydeadpony (Raphaël Vicenzi)

AT: The themes of each issue are always quite abstract, is this intentional?
JD: They definitely started off more abstract although in recent times have become a little more broad. I like the challenge of creating an issue that has a theme that most magazines don’t cover – although it can end up putting readers off. Few people would be interested in a poetry and illustration magazine that addresses the theme of waxed fruit so sometimes it’s good not to go too leftfield! Apparently magazines that are on the theme of Sex always sell at a higher rate than any other so that could be worth doing. It’s a shame that sex poems are usually so painful to read…

AT: A lot of creatives dream of setting up their own magazines, what advice would you give to them?
JD: Come up with a strong idea and execute it beautifully and clearly. Print magazines need to become more and more beautiful in order to create a tactile experience for the reader that they can’t get from their iPad or online. Also, make it obvious what the magazine is. There are so many titles that even after flicking through for 10 minutes, would be difficult to describe to someone. Quality editorial breeds word of mouth and that’s what makes a great magazine.

Sam Green

AT: What do you look for in an illustrator or poet who is submitting work to Popshot?
JD: In terms of poetry we look for writers who can approach a theme from an angle that casts a new light on the subject matter. Love has been a really difficult theme because it’s hard to be original about it. However, of the 20 poems that got in, there are some really novel ways of looking at love and its many facets. Oh, and it has to be beautifully written with either a strong message or some incredible imagery in it. In terms of illustrators, we look for more editorial image makers who are able to condense a whole poem into one perfectly summarised image. It has to be strong, bold and profound, that’s what I look for.

AT: Where did the idea come from to launch The Print Shop?
JD: It’s been mentioned by so many people over the last 2 years but I never felt the time was right before now. I think it has slightly grown out of the fact that there are so many amazing illustrations that grace the pages of Popshot, that really deserve a bigger format platform. Illustrations come into their own when you blow them up and print them onto fine art papers and I wanted to take some of my favourite images and transform them into art that can hang on a wall. They’re utterly mind blowing when you see them in the flesh so I’m thrilled that we finally decided to do it!

AT: Do you plan on including more artists in The Print Shop?
JD: Depending on how well it goes, I would love to add more Popshot illustrations to The Print Shop in the future, and maybe even go beyond the work published in Popshot. There are some incredible illustrators out there making utterly stunning work so I would be really up for helping get that work onto people’s walls. Watch this space!

——————————————–

Popshot Magazine Website

András Baranyai & Detail, Printa

This past year has been an exciting one for Printa. Since opening in January 2010, the Budapest based screenprinting studio has exhibited numerous works from the likes of the Swiss Urban Salon and Supalife. To celebrate their first birthday, Printa is exhibiting a collection of limited edition serigraphs produced by some of Hungary’s finest contemporary artists.

Exploring the mediums of watercolour painting, street art, photography, drawing and graphic art, the majority of the pieces were produced specifically for the exhibition and were created in the Printa workshop.

Amongst the seven artists involved is András Baranyai with his bold, graphic serigraphs which draw inspiration from 1970’s and 80’s toy robots and spaceships.

“These pieces are remixes of some older graphics of mine with some new elements thrown in. I work mostly with vectors so it’s easy to transfer my graphic elements into different images – it’s fun to experiment and try new combinations.”

Tomi Budha & Detail, Printa

Tomi Budha juxtaposes black and white photography with street art in his series of prints which appear at once like a proposal for a future street art ‘installation’ and like a strange fantasy scene where Tomi’s graffiti characters have come to life, peeled themselves off the wall and are running riot in the streets of Hungary.

Klára Petra Szabó, Printa

Klára Petra Szabó counters the more graphic serigraphs of Tomi and András with her series of exquisitely detailed watercolour paintings which explore the themes of mimicry, camouflage and street fashion.

“When people are wearing clothes, we are able to see their style, their mood, or their social status. In this way the clothes become the medium,” explains Klára. “For Readable Clothes I painted models who I asked to wear a t-shirt with text. Every text is personal and holds a message which is important to the model who is wearing it.”

Atilla Stark & Detail, Printa

Roham magazine designer Atilla Stark also contributes to the show. Atilla combines naïve-style illustrations with hand rendered typography to produce prints awash with his trademark humour and cheeky innuendo.

Perspectives on Serigraphs runs at Printa til February 09 2011.

András Baranyai
Tomi Budha
Klára Petra Szabó
Atilla Stark

Lindy Yeates, Resist, RMIT

RMIT’s 2010 Printmaking graduate exhibition, Resist, presents a diverse range of seventeen students’ work which focuses on the concepts of “process, materiality and politics” as well as debates surrounding “gender, globalisation, identity and sustainability”.

The intricate detailing of stained glass windows and wood work from churches around Melbourne were the inspiration for Lindy Yeates’ pieces in her final work, Meditation. The four works presented in this series feature elements of nature, such as shells, leaves and a bird’s nest, which have been combined with the swirling silhouette of a stained glass window and elegant handwriting from a historic church document. Drawing on her Christian heritage, Lindy finds solace in meditation and contemplation that is apparent through “closer examination of the spiritual in the everyday” and manages to capture via etching, watercolour and ink.

Impending Storm, Marrianne Mitakis, Resist, RMIT

Dream Diary, Rhi Liesch, Resist, RMIT

Rhi encourages the viewer to thumb through her journals and believes that “by presenting visual interpretations of my own unconscious thoughts, I am referring to aspects of shared human experience, where individual manifestations are varied and abstract.” Rhi’s eclectic collection of works invites the viewer on a journey into her creative thought process, revealing her ideas captured at specific times.

William Erickson, Resist, RMIT

Through His Eyes, Carla Hobbs; Still, Here, Kathryn Gribbin, Resist, RMIT

“My intention is to produce a series of mood landscapes that evoke a strong sense of unease and disquiet within the viewer, whilst at the same time being strangely seductive”, says Kathryn Gribbin of her work in Still, Here. Kathryn’s landscape images are captivating and haunting, exploring “the darker, more serious side of nature”. Whilst Kathryn’s images subtly present feelings of calmness and tranquility, they also contain an underlying sense of foreboding.

Resist continues at Red Gallery, 157 St Georges Road, Fitzroy North, Melbourne until December 11 2010.
RMIT

Batutçu, Rosie Irvine

Rosie Irvine’s work has an intriguing, nostalgic charm that hints at stories just below the surface. She has had considerable success with her editorial work and her designs for book jackets. We loved her distinctive pieces, created with a combination of drawing, stencils and stitching, Rosie says, “I like to work by hand and make a mess.” However, she does use a computer to scan and piece together some of her pieces. We loved the slightly fractured ‘coloured in’ feel and the bright colour and merged tonal effects reprising faded family photographs.

CACM, Andy Gilmore

Peeper; Poor Little Rich Girl - Detail, Jesse Auersalo

Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton & Detail, Hvass & Hannibal

Olde Thyme Circus, Whimsical Orchestra; Four Season-Spring, Natsko Seki

Rosie Irvine
Andy Gilmore
Jesse Auersalo
Natsko Seki
Hvass & Hannibal

The Strange Adventures... & Detail; The Man with a New Idea is a Crank until the Idea Succeeds, Lorenzo Petrantoni

Old is Cool; Rolled Gold, Alex Trochut

Jess Wilson’s colourful prints maintain a great ‘hand-drawn’ charm, pulling people in to concentrate on their quirky details, while Melvyn Galapon’s bold graphic statements were also drawing lots of admiration.

Jess Wilson; Love is Blind, Melvyn Galapon

Owl; Portrait of a London Fox, Claire Scully

Catch Pick Me Up while you can at Somerset House until May 3rd 2010.

Brecht Vandenbroucke; Landfill/Manymono

Landfill/Manymono; Ryan Todd

Landfill/Manymono; Steak MTN; Sister Arrow

Landfill/Manymono

Woodblock printing, Peepshow

Woodblock printing, Peepshow

Woodblock printing, Peepshow

Peepshow at Pick Me Up

Peepshow was started in 2000 by graduates of the University of Brighton and specialises in illustration, animation and art direction. Illustrators in the collective include Luke Best, Jenny Bowers, Spencer Wilson, Andrew Rae and Marie O’Connor.

Peepshow at Pick Me Up

Pick Me Up runs from April 23 to May 03 at Somerset House, London.
Peepshow