My friend Taka was talking about this a few years ago finally I found the book!

Will Self has written the foreword to Little People In The City: The Street Art Of Slinkachu

Synopsis:
‘They’re Not Pets, Susan,’ says a stern father who has just shot a bumblebee, its wings sparkling in the evening sunlight; a lone office worker, less than an inch high, looks out over the river in his lunch break, ‘Dreaming of Packing it all In’; and a tiny couple share a ‘Last Kiss’ against the soft neon lights of the city at midnight. Mixing sharp humour with a delicious edge of melancholy, “Little People in the City” brings together the collected photographs of Slinkachu, a street-artist who for several years has been leaving little hand-painted people in the bustling city to fend for themselves, waiting to be discovered…’ Oddly enough, even when you know they are just hand-painted figurines, you can’t help but feel that their plights convey something of our own fears about being lost and vulnerable in a big, bad city.’ – “The Times”. sourced http://will-self.com/   http://little-people.blogspot.com/

FANTASTIC VOYAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tsuyoshi Ozawa is an intriguing Japan-grown contemporary artist. His works challenge the establishment and people’s existing systems, as well as perceptions about their daily lives. Yet Ozawa also approaches these issues with both gentle humour and clever irony, quite often throwing his viewers, with great relish, into a maze of the actual and the virtual: for example in works such as his Museum of Soy Sauce Art, a parodic look at Japanese art history, or his long running Vegetable Weapons project. Despite a conventional education at art university in Japan, where he studied painting, Ozawa, from the start of his artistic career, has always resisted creating his work in an isolated environment. He frequently collaborates with other artists, and often draws on audience participation, using his work as a kind of "art weapon" for opening dialogue.

In this artist talk, Tsuyoshi Ozawa will reveal to the UK audience for the first time the unique artistic path he has walked over the past decades, explaining the creative process behind many of his compelling works. In a discussion to follow, he will be joined by Adrian Favell, Professor of Sociology in Paris and a writer on Japanese contemporary art, to further examine Ozawa’s relation to contemporary Japanese society, his significance in a global context, and issues of "relational art" in his work, part of an important trend in contemporary art practice.

Curator Talk by Mizuho Kato and Jonathan Watkins
27TH July 6:30pm
at Japan Foundation, London  10-12 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EH

Atsuko Tanaka (1932-2005) is without doubt one of Japan’s most important avant-garde artists. As a former member of the Gutai artist group which was founded in 1954, Tanaka has challenged the conventional notions of art through her powerful works including the iconic “Electric Dress”. Whether it be in paintings, sculpture, electric sound and light installations, or performance pieces, a commonality to Tanaka’s work is a distinct realism closely corresponding to her choice of materials.

In conjunction with, and celebration of, the UK’s first comprehensive exhibition of Atsuko Tanaka at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, the Japan Foundation has invited two of the exhibition’s curators, Mizuho Kato, Visiting Associate Professor, Museum of Osaka University and former Chief Curator of Ashiya City Museum of Art & History in Japan, and Jonathan Watkins, Director of Ikon Gallery, to introduce the life and work of Atsuko Tanaka. As well as discussing the significance of the exhibition which covers the breadth of Tanaka’s career from her earliest works up to paintings completed just before her death, they will also highlight Tanaka’s achievements and their continued relevance to our contemporary visual world.

More Info about the exhibition at Ikon Gallery, please click here
More info about the talk at Japan Foundation, please click here

Friday, March 18 — Sunday, June 12
Japan Society 333 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212.832.1155

50% of all admission sales will go to Japan Society's Earthquake Relief Fund.

Curated by David Elliott, founding Director of the Mori Art Museum, Bye Bye Kitty!!! is a radical departure from recent Japanese exhibitions. Moving far beyond the stereotypes of kawaii and otaku culture, Japan Society’s show features sixteen emerging and mid-career artists whose paintings, objects, photographs, videos, and installations meld traditional styles with challenging visions of Japan’s troubled present and uncertain future. Each of the three sections, “Critical Memory,” “Threatened Nature,” and “Unquiet Dream,” not only offers a feast for the senses but also demolishes our preconceptions about contemporary Japan and its art.

The sixteen featured artists are: Makoto Aida会田誠; Manabu Ikeda池田学; Tomoko Kashiki樫木知子; Rinko Kawauchi川内倫子; Haruka Kojin荒神明香; Kumi Machida町田久美; Yoshitomo Nara奈良美智; Kohei Nawa名和晃平; Motohiko Odani小谷元彦; Hiraki Sawaさわひらき; Chiharu Shiota塩田千春; Tomoko Shioyasu塩保朋子; Hisashi Tenmyouya天明屋尚; Yamaguchi Akira山口晃; Miwa Yanagiやなぎみわ; Tomoko Yoneda米田知子.
source:　www.japansociety.org/event_detail?eid=359309d1

BANKSIDE - PECKHAM - DEPTFORD

 'South London Art Map' is a user-friendly guide to galleries in South London. The South London Art Map runs tours and hosts a late night opening of all galleries in south London on the last Friday of every month.　Take a walking art tour led by a local artist or curator to visit key galleries and studios and be introduced to gallery owners and artists along the way。

South London has been bubbling away creatively for the last 10–20 years. Local Artists Damien Hirst and Anthony Gormley started their careers in South London, which was home to the Young British Artists and both Goldsmiths & Camberwell College of Art. More recently Tate Modern opened its doors south of the river creating a central focal point for the area. In 2011, there are now over 100 galleries and studios with more opening weekly, from exhibitions in car parks to art studios in old police stations. Be one of the first to discover this exciting area.

Three hubs are highlighted where there are clusters of galleries and studios, in Bankside, Peckham and Deptford. These areas are surrounded by Bermondsey, Vauxhall, Kennington and Greenwich. Start in the main areas and travel further afield to discover more galleries hidden in other locations.
Julia Alvarez, Director, South London Art Map

'The South London Art Map will help you see through the eyes of an artist.' Bob & Roberta Smith

It’s high time that South London’s art scene was put, literally, on the map, from large-scale museums to warehouse complexes, commercial galleries and pop-up spaces. Ossian Ward

source: www.southlondonartmap.com

p.s. For people living the trendy east London, "come down to the south, it's a good occasion to try East London Line."

I have bumped into David Spero in Camberwell, south London. He took me to a show which he was exhibiting. It was very nice show indeed !

Curated by Sian Bonnell  Elusive
'.one can force the camera to create the unpredictable, the improbable, the informative.' Vilem Flusser - Towards a Philosophy of Photography  

Artists: Suky Best/Karen Brett/Karhryn Faulkner/Anna Fox/Toby Glanville/Laura Guy/ Fergus Heron/Jane Hilton/Juneau Projects/Uta Kogelsberger/Chrystel Lebas/Anthony Luvera/John Miles/Wendy McMurdo/Trish Morrissey/Heidi Morstang/Spencer Murphy/Magali Nougarede/Chino Otsuka/Helen Sear/Self Publish, Be Happy/Nigel Shafran/David Spero/Tansy Spinks/Eva Stenram/Clare Strand/Patricia Townsend/Steven Tynan/Verdi Yahooda

Elusive brings together the work of 29 artists. It features photography, video, performance and book works. Although all the imagery relates to the camera, none is about photography itself. It could be argued that the camera apparatus, although a recording instrument, also offers a space for play.  The idea being explored here is of the camera as conduit, a space for the imagination. Light enters the interior space, some kind of magic occurs, and it exits transformed. This will not happen every time a camera is picked up - you have to make it happen. The results can be erratic and fickle, elusive even. The work featured in this exhibition gives us an opportunity to examine imagery which is unpredictable, improbable, informative and capricious - but never dull.
source: www.camberwell.arts.ac.uk/elusive.htmz

         

David Spero                                                 Clare Strand

It's funny to see toilet paper ready to spin on a fan hung from Tate Modern's high ceiling. Not only toilet papers, Orozco also uses simple everyday objects like rusted tins, burst tires, water melons and duct from tumble-driers to create elegant and lovable work.
In Tate Modern, you can even play with his objects, then you are confronted with a scull with graphite drawings on. Play and death are his big themes. A glitterly diamond encrusted scull is beautiful but with the added gridded pencil drawing one is somehow much more echoed to my heart.

Open Draw's first moving image blog !

ALASDAIR DUNCAN: An Introduction to the Future
Theodore : ArtEcoartspace 53 Mercer St. NYC 10013

昨年始まったアートプロジェクトALLOTMENTにて、トラベルアワード2011年度募集を開始しています。

トラベルアワードの目的は、若手美術作家が活動していく中で日常生活と作家活動の両立に伴う様々な問題、または作品を継続して制作していく中での閉塞感といった問題に直面する作家に対して、新たな行動の機会を与え、前進する制作の手助けを行うものです。

------------------------------------------------
＊  ALLOTMENTトラベルアワード2011年度要項
応募対象：25歳から40歳までのアーティスト（学生は不可）
受付期間：2010年10月18日（火）~  2011年3月15日（火）

要項の詳細はこちらのリンクをご覧ください。
www.allotment.jp/travel.html
--------------------------------------------------
＊  ALLOTMENTアーティストアーカイブ
www.allotment.jp/archive.html

作家名＊　佐野陽一、吉田夏奈 、城戸保、太田麻里、隼田大輔、平川 祐樹、村上友重、眞島竜男、アー・ユー・ミーニング・カンパニー
--------------------------------------------------



Open Draw is pleased to announce ‘Mintmuffle’, an exhibition of collage and paintings by Sarah Kate Wilson. Wilson's paintings embody the delight and rebellion of contemporary painting.

Loss, transformation, myth, the bizarre, excess, beauty, bad-taste, frivolity, devastation and spectacle are all themes that weave throughout Sarah-Kate’s practice. Paintings and drawings allude to spaces where things are disrupted, the logical is shifted, the viewer is left trying to understand how that space operates.

“I realise I am a somewhat awkward nomad. Born in the Caribbean, living in Saudi Arabia, then growing up in England my life is a abundant with objects and references. I have to learn constantly how to impact on a new destination whilst staying true to the various itinerants on the way. I do this through the collection of objects that are nostalgic across multiple geographies and histories. I am a magpie; my paintings are the product of overwhelming tendencies to hoard, collect and accumulate eclectic cultural stimuli. The studio is a treasure trove of things - marbled balloons, sequins, rabbits, Christmas tree decorations and Indian wood blocks.”