In this issue: a full feature on the artist and the work of Kayla Mohammadi. An authentic abstract painter who works out of Boston, USA. Plus interview with Dave Bez Manchester (UK). Article and feature with David Tycho from Vancouver, Canada. Plus UK artist Colin Taylor tells about his new adventure in Chile. Tubes artist contributor has written a thought provoking article about the ‘women’ of Mondgliani’ plus a review of “defining the elemental” exhibition at Dean Clough Mill UK. Great issue full on super art content.
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3 ‘the editor gives a run through of the content in this issue...’ “...so far this year has flown by, but none the less, Tubes have interviewed many excellent painters. In this issue: a full feature on the artist and the work of Kayla Mohammadi...(pages 4 to 10). An authentic abstract painter who works out of Boston, USA. I also had the pleasure of visiting Dave Bez...(pages 11 to 16) in his studio in Manchester (UK). I have known Dave and his work for quite a while now, so it was great to finally see his ‘personal’ work close up. Not so long ago, I was lucky to view the work of a painter who is based in Vancouver, Canada, despite the geographical distance, David and I exchanged conversations which resulted in the article on him and his paintings, work that I really like and I can’t wait to see in the flesh, David Tycho...(pages 17 to 23). Colin Taylor... (pages 24 to 28) is a painter who I have exchanged many talks about art with. It was at a lunch time meeting last year when we discussed the idea for a three part series of essays about time he was planning to mountain climb in South America. This is an excellent artists project that I am delighted to read the beginnings of in this issue. I think it will result in a brilliant series of paintings by a very accomplished English painter. David Traves... (pages 29 to 33) Tubes resident artist contributor has written a thought provoking article about the ‘women’of Mondgliani’, it’s a unique and creative conceptual take on the 20th century painter. Preben Saxild... (pages 34 to 41) Another painter I have known for over 20 years, but this is his first full feature on work which I viewed in Copenhagen last year. His new mixed montage paintings offers the chance to make up your own stories. Last but not least, is a review on the exhibition “defining the elemental” exhibition at Dean Clough, Crossley Gallery, 27th October through to 12th January 2019. featuring 10 painters and a writer...(pages 42 to 45). + Special report...are art fairs the future for artists? (pages 48 to 52)painters Tubes magazine is designed & produced by Studio 5 Publishing Partnership. Sweden and the UK Admin office: Ekerodsvagen 253, 266 95 Munka Ljungby Sweden.telephone +46431441050 mobile: +46 (0)76b 19 19 007 email:[email protected] - www.painterstubes.com ptmag- issue#10 2018.09.26
4 the representational suggestiveness paintings of... Kayla Mohammadi
5 Kayla Mohammadirepresentational suggestiveness paintings.Kayla Mohammadi is a painter that Tubes first shown a glimpse of in the special edition on abstraction ((issue # 4). Her workis delicate and features strong colour which draw the eye and encourages the viewer to linger to discover what lies beneath thesurface of the painting.Kayla is now based in Boston, MA and Walpole, Maine, but grew up in San Leandro, California in the 1970’s. Her motherand father are from very different cultures from two parts of the world. Her mother being Finnish and her father from Iran.Consequently Kayla visited both Scandinavia and Iran as a child, more than once, which she believes, opened her eyes toa world of beautiful cultural variety, colour and design. The family moved from California to Washington State [during the1980’s]. As a child her direction for life seemed centred on an education in business and as a young adult she gained a businessdegree from the University of Washington. It was perhaps her childhood natural attraction to design [Finnish in particular] andcolour [perhaps the textile patterns of Iranian carpets] that initiated a desire in her to ‘create’To start with she took evening art classes then later studied art and obtained a degree in painting from University of Washington.Later she achieved a MFA from Boston University. These qualifications gave her all the encouragement needed to fuel anambition to become a full time painter.Recognition of her talent was first spotted in 1998 when she was given the Jurors Choice Award at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery(University of Washington) in a group show. What followed were several group exhibitions culminating in a solo exhibitionat the Sacramento Street Gallery in 2004. Since that time Kayla has participated in many shows, both solo and groupsexhibitions consistently. Last year she took part as an exhibitor, 2016-2017 Biennial, at the Centre for Maine Contemporary Art.
6 Over time she has won numerous awards and painting prizes. The art critic (and lecturer in Art in Maine, USA) Britta Konau in 2011 talked about Kayla’s work in which she described Kayla’s paintings as; ‘representational suggestiveness.’ And went on to say that: “...individual forms in the paintings themselves intimate that Mohammadi works from observation. However, these allusions to the three-dimensional world of objects and spaces feel more like afterimages of the observed.” This was an astute description, Kayla herself provided Tubes a statement only last month, that really highlights what Britta observed in 2011. “ My paintings begin with a shape - a pier, a sunset or a bay – as a way to start a composition, but this is secondary to the formal arrangement of the painting. Colour, space and mark are the main components of my work. I draw from the landscape, but my interest is in abstraction. Through drawing and collage I work towards a simple expression of what I am seeing and feeling.” Kayla has said in the past that her lasting inspiration was Velasquez and Matisse and specifically the paintings “Meninas” [Velasquez] and the “Red Studio” [Matisse] - although like most artists on a journey of discovering their own voice, she also admires and gains impetus from 20th century painters such as Picasso and the American authentic naıvist artist James Castle. She also has had a great interest in the uniqueness of Aboriginal and African art.
7 “From day one, I have been influenced by Matisse. When I was in my 20’s I travelled to Paris, to my surprise there happened to be a Matisse exhibition at the Pompidou. At that time, I was taking art classes in the evenings. Looking at Matisse, I thought that if I could have a conversation him through painting that would be a satisfying life. He continues to give me inspiration today.”From a technical viewpoint, Kayla forms her work process around laying acrylic paint on a surface togain a point of composition and colour balance. From here she then employs oil paint to resolve the work.Here she explains to Tubes her thinking behind this practise.“I remember reading that Max Beckmann would start his painting with coloured chalk to draw out his composition and figure out colour before starting a painting. Acrylic paint is another way to start a painting and create an under-painting. Oil paint comes out after the idea and colour are worked out. Sometimes the work finishes with just the acrylic which also pleases me.”Kayla has also experimented with montage and various ways of applying paint onto a surface, i.ethick and thin applications and soft and hard edge. It’s the diversity and experimentation that gives herboth surprising results and sheer pleasure of creating ‘different’ works of art. An artistic attitude thatencourages her to progress with her art and take risks. “ I have always been interested in flattened space and colour. Even with this focus there are many ways to explore it with paint. “(and below is another quote from an interview that was published in the well known USA journalPainters Table, back in 2011). “Over the last couple of years, I’ve started to use other materials besides the paintbrush tomake marks. These include a brayer and packaging materials. I find that this has opened up my work in new and surprising ways.”
8painters Tubes took at careful look at her most recentexhibition at the Caldbeck Gallery [Rockland, Maine,USA] which was mounted in July to August this year.The striking and large painting ‘Summer Garden’ 72inches x 60 inches - 1829mm x 1524mm (Tubes issue#10 front cover) demonstrates the mix of observationalreality with an abstract interpretation. The outlines of a‘plant and a plant holder’ are outlined with a black linethat seems to echo ‘Cloisonnism,’ a term coined froma mediaeval enamelling technique which individualsurfaces were set in compartments in fillets of metal,which Gauguin and Bernard adopted as a style of painting,contouring their colour surfaces with thick lines of colour,during their time together in Pont-Aven, circa 1887.Whereas, ‘Landscape and Columns’ 59 inches x 45 inches- 1499mm x 1143mm -previous page), illustrates Kayla’sa more formal abstract approach, where the surfaceis broken into a definite pattern of repetitive angularshapes filled in flat colour married with the indication offalling leaves, flower petals and the indication of waterreflections.A smaller, but equally as attractive paintings as the largerworks is ‘Fall Night’ -16 inches x 12 inches- 406mmx 305mm - The high horizon line places the viewer ina landscape with a sunset yet refuses to give a realityof the view but rather suggest the feeling of what wasexperienced during warm and pleasant sensations duringan Autumn evening.The intriguing painting ‘Shape of Sky and Water’ 24inches x 18 inches - 610mm x 457mm - is obviouslyan abstracted nature piece, yet once again there is asuggestion of the human figure.Perhaps suggesting that we’ humans’ are an integral part ofNature, and not separate from it. It is painted in free largebrush strokes that give not only texture but also indicatea vigour of application.Kayla Mohammadi is obviously a joyous painter thatclearly thoroughly enjoys the whole process of creatingart that is positive and intertwined with the natural world.Her investigations outcome with abstraction continues tosurprise her, and consequently her audience are surprisedwith each new series is exhibited paintings these pages: left (and front cover) “Summer Garden” acrylic and oil on canvas 72 x 60 inches -829mm x 1524mm, top right “Fall Night.” oil on panel 16 x 12 inches - 406mm x 305mm bottom left “Shape of Sky and Water” oil on linen 24 x 18 inches- 610mm x 457mm
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10People really engage with Kayla’s work, probablybecause they ‘give’ off a feeling of the joy that isimbued in her work. Tubes look forward to viewingKayla’s work in the ‘flesh’ during the planned visitto the USA during 2019.Her studios are at Fenway Studios Boston,Massachusetts. Maine. To view more of the artistswork please visit her website website:www.kaylamohammadi.comThe artist also lectures at Massachusetts College ofArt (MassArt) in Boston, MA. Kayla Mohammadi has been a visiting artist atThe University of Washington, Seattle, WA; St.Mary’s College in Maryland, Brandeis University,Waltham, MA; UMass Boston; NortheasternUniversity in Boston; Dartmouth College in NH,and Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Her awards includeThe Purchase Prize and Exhibition at the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters in NY, 2014,. The2008 Joan Mitchell FoundationThe Dedalus Foundation Award for a fellowshipat Vermont Studio Center in 2008, The LudwigVogelstein Foundation Grant for 2006 and theBlanche E. Coleman Award for 2004, and more. Kayla exhibits in New York City, Boston, Rockland and Portland, Maine. Upcoming shows. Fall Group Show at Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Maine. www.caldbeckgallery.com and the winter of 2019 at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia . www.maiermuseum.org images this page: top. “Red Pier” acrylic and oil on canvas 59 x 45 inches - 1499mm x 1143mm left “ Fuschi, Cream and Olive (flower)” acrylic and oil on board 18 x 18 inches 457mm x 457mm
11in the studio with......Dave Bez
12 “in the studio with Dave Bez.” interview with Denis TaylorI have known Dave’s work for some years.We’ve bumped into each other at various openingnights in Manchester City Centre galleries.Our exchanges were a mixture between mutualrespect and a healthy dash of humorous banter.His work has always attracted the ‘Northern’traditional painting supporters and he has satisfiedthat particular genre in his own unique way.His ‘City- Deconstruction’ paintings are a sort ofcontemporary view of City living and is an ongoingseries, one which his talent and understanding ofpaint-handling is clearly visible.My interest however was firmly founded in whathe calls his ‘personal’ work. I had long talked aboutgoing to his studio to see it and this August I madethe definite arrangement which resulted in a cloudyManchester Monday morning visit. His studio is notthat far from the City centre of Manchester whichmade my journey short enabling plenty of time tohave a good discussion and an in depth look at thisspecific work.As is normal in a Tubes interview we chattedabout Art in general over a cup of tea and a bag ofmini Kitkat’s, I had brought along. We shared ouropinions on the Contemporary Art Scene in NorthWest Manchester, which were were in sympathywith each other, not that surprising, for althoughseparated by a decade or so in age, we attended thesame Art School (The Manchester High School ofArt). Our mutual respect for that unique Schoolgave both of us an art-base that, sadly, is notubiquitous in today’s art world.Dave is by nature an artist who explores what hisArt can achieve by way of integrating a naturaltalent, an ‘out of the box’ thinking process coupledwith a sharp artistic visual intelligence.Much of his ‘popular-public’ work still has afeeling of uniqueness, as Dave doesn’t followpainting trends (as such) or whatever the currentmethodology of paint application may be.Although he did admit that to ‘pay the rent’his more ‘Northern UK work’ is a returningmotive, because they are very popular and do sellconsistently and well. However, he does take greatartistic pleasure in creating work that has completeauthentic originality.
13Currently and for some time, he has been workingon figurative paintings which are historicallyconnected to ‘Past Empires’ - These works showthe integration of figurative and abstraction, an areaof painting that some enlightened artists have beendeveloping and exploring for a number of years.These paintings are created with drawing as its baseand are worked on with overlays and glazes untilthey reach the stage that Dave feels he cannot workon them any further.There is a common painters habit of putting workaside, sometimes for days, weeks and in somecases, years. Dave, follows this common habit alsoand he surrounds himself with his creations andworks on many paintings at any one time. It’s onlyafter a period of time that artists finds themselveswith several works, or indeed a complete series,completed, or at least taken to ‘resolved’ state andcannot work on them further. His studio is a silentwitness to this practise.It’s this way of working that enables artists to‘move-on’ stylistically and onto other subjectmatter, concepts or new ideas, being the premisefor a whole new series of work. It is also theopportunity to be surprised how the artist findsthemselves changing how they actually paint. It’sa natural process, although many artists do notembrace the change and continue to paint as theyhave done for many years, sometimes decades.It seemed to me that Dave was not an artist whowould ignore a total change of style, indeed myfeeling was that he would celebrate it, as no doubthe has done in the past.The different forms of drawing and art lyingcasually about his work benches belies the depthand seriousness of the art of Dave Bez. And likemost good art, it takes looking at over time to really‘get’ what he creates, despite the immediate imagebeing understandable to ones eyes, the underlyingpainting process is complex and done with greatskill and care.top: [a work in progress], one of many of theempire series of paintings.below: “Lepidoptera” this is a word tocategorise an order of insects that includesbutterflies and moths.
14 “Neptune” acrylic on paper 21inches x 15 inches - 533mm x 380mm one of a series of paintings
15After some time Dave and I fulfilled our prior arrangement and went to a local bar to buy each other a beer.This was in celebration of our common Art Schools (as former fellows) and of our meeting of artistic minds and tofirm up a friendship. It was also a chance to continue with the common ground thinking we shared discussing thecurrent scene of Art, artists and art galleries in Manchester and beyond. A discussion that will remain between us.What I can say is that we both felt that Manchester, a City that, in the past, has been more renown for its brilliantmusic and the extraordinary Artists that created it, rather than it visual art, is finally waking up and challengingLondon as hotbed of unique and new contemporary visual art.Albeit not at the speed of light.Our conversation continued, with breaks of witty remarks, as Dave walked me round to the nearest Taxi rank.The need for me to get to the railway station quickly was urgent as my booked train to another appointment was timesensitive. Dave and I said good bye, with a promise to link up again.Usually it is at this point in the writing of an artists interview that I would normally sign off.However, in this particular case my that was not the end of it.“Coral Monach.” (acrylic on paper) 21inches x 15 inches - 533mm x 380mm one of a series of paintings
16 ...My taxi-driver was a very friendly and chattyperson. As normal, I sat in the front next to the driver. Hequizzed me on what I did for a living and why I did it. Hiseyebrows lifted when I told him that I was both an artist andwriter. Our conversation then expanded considerably as itbecame obvious that my taxi driver was a highly religiousperson, and seemed to want to convince me how ‘God’ wasthe only Artist that humankind should give thanks too. Notbeing an orthodox religious sort of person, I then sort ofbegan writing [verbally] this essay, based on my time notonly with Dave, but on the many dozens of artists I hadinterviewed over the years.As artists many of us have private thoughts about what youcould call ‘the creative force’ - It’s not a religion, in theusual sense of the word, nor is it a belief as such. It’s moreof ‘accepting’ that the total creative experience cannot beexplained by a simple subconscious separation from theconscious mind methodology (a system employed in theearly stages of most good artists development). Nor canit explained as only a mysterious spiritual intervention, orenergetic emotional explosion aided perhaps by music ordrugs. It’s far deeper than that. And often this ‘mysteriouscreative force’ can be experienced in total calmness andsometimes even sadness or indeed clinical [physical]depression. My taxi driver wasn’t convinced, but listenedin silence with nods and shakes of his head. I hoped Ihadn’t confused him on what an Artist could be, and thenrealised that perhaps it is only practising Artists who wouldunderstand my ‘whittering’.Artists that come close to the feeling of a real force ofcreation, even though it’s not on an every day occurrence,experience its brilliance. And this gives an artist theinspiration to continue creating anew through their personalproblems, artistic doubts, anguish and the real pain of notgetting to where they wanted to be [in their art]. But thentake a deep intake of breath and determined try again, andagain and again to reach the impossible.Being “...in the studio with Dave Bez.” was a one of the You can meet Dave in person on the 19th October at the eventmany great experiences of seeing the ‘after-effects’ of the organised by Hawthorn Gallery, 156 Mottram Road, SK15 2RFcreative force [i.e. the work] close up. And for me, it bothdelighted and gave me the drive to carry on meeting and ”An Evening with David Bez.”writing about artists and sharing ‘artistic’ thoughts with 6.30pm to 10pm - all are welcome.them. It also proved that for me, it’s important to assistother artists in their endeavours, something I have done Dave’s work can also be seen at:since 1996. This self imposed mission, also encourages me Trent Art Gallery,to continue to explore my own Art, because that brings withit a greater understanding of not only of Art, in general and 19 Brunswick Street, Newcastle under Lyme, UK.others Art, but indeed ‘Life’ itself.As is usual with a Tubes magazine Artist studio interview,something very positive was gained for the interviewer andthe interviewee, and this particular time a taxi driver. Denis Taylor was in the studio of Dave Bez 3rd September 2018
17 discovering the art of......David Tycho
18 discovering the Art of.. David Tycho In my position as Editor of Tubes I spend a great amount of time looking at literally hundreds of paintings in any one month. Every now and then one work has that ‘uniqueness’ and the paint application encourages me to go back and look thrice. When that happens it’s a sort of mix of artistic instinct and curiosity that propels me to find out more about the artist who created it. This year, one such artist was David Tycho. It was his painting ‘When Night Falls” that initiated my investigation. It’s not that the work exploded with ‘brilliance’ as such, but there seemed something behind the piece that promised to uncover an artist with authentic originality, and whose work was created with tension, authenticity and honesty. Here is what I discovered about David Tycho, the artist and his Art. David was born in Vancouver [Canada] and he attended the University of British Columbia, where he was fortunate to have as a tutor the highly respected Canadian artist [British born] Gordon Smith [to view Gordon Smith’s work go to the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition documentary on: https://vimeo.com/239001094], whose main concern is the application of paint on a surface in a representative/abstract painting method. The other important influence that fu- eled David’s desire to be an artist was his other tutor, Jack Darcus, whose thick paint application [impasto] impressed Tycho and influenced him to tune the creative craft aspect of his own art, subsequently helping him to paint with greater clarity and confidence. His work at this time was based in figurative painting. David qualified with a teaching Fine Art degree from university in 1983, but without good prospects for employment as a teacher, due to the economic environment at the time, he struggled to make a living and was forced in having to take on odd jobs to make ends meet. By chance, he saw an advertisement for a teaching position in Japan. After speaking with a few people who had already taken a job [in Japan] who told him it was a valuable experience, David saved enough money to travel to Asia. He stayed in Asia for four years teaching English. However, he was always involved with art, in one form or another. Tycho was particularly impressed with the calligraphic work of Japanese monks, who used large mop-like brushes loaded with black ink to create expressive images. By 1988, upon his return to Canada, the experience of the Japa- nese monks and their methodology, combined with a degree of influence from Frans Kline and Robert Motherwell, encouraged David to attempt painting in pure abstract forms. After initially struggling for a year with the complexity of abstraction, his dedication, hard work and natural talent gained him an offer for his first solo show [in 1993] with art dealer Paul Kyle, who ran the Alexander Gallery in Vancouver at the time. The exhibition was commercially suc- cessful and David resolved to further develop his art through series of expressionist paintings under the influences of the renowned American abstract expressionists, especially Willem de Kooning and Richard Diebenkorn, and by 1994 David had expanded his colour palette to include ‘landscape’ hues and tonalities.
19David’s interest in abstracted landscape painting resulted in three series of work from 2007 up to 2011, atwhich time he decided to revisit Japan. Here his direction changed again as he discovered and rendered theexciting forms, colours and energy found in large cities.He began with a series of paintings dedicated to Tokyo, which he later expanded to include the urban land-scape of cities such as Hong Kong, New York and London. This abstracted urban painting absorbed Daviduntil when in 2016 he changed his focus again: from loose, painterly semi-abstractions to more geometric,abstract compositions. His main concern here was the ‘grid’ systems of cities and somewhat reminds one ofMondrian’s first impressions of New York, which resulted in his ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ painting of 1944.The ‘grid-format’ echoed in David’s ‘Station to Station’ series [an inspiration from the late great artist DavidBowie album of the same name] which in part, concentrated on transportation and its allegorical implications.By 2017, nature called once more to the Artist. His plan was to paint nature from wet to dry employing thewettest places and the driest places accessible to him as sources of inspiration. This involved a road campingtrip that saw the artist travel from ‘Cascadia’ (Pacific Northwest) all the way south to Death Valley inCalifornia. The entire series was given the title ‘Fire and Rain’ which reflected the extremes in geography andclimate that David had experienced.I became very impressed with David’s bank of work, in particular when I first saw the painting “When NightFalls.” This is a return to the original subject matter that David began his artistic path on, i.e. Figuration. Hefelt now that he was more wise and complete [but not yet completed] as a painter, he wanted to see what hecould now achieve with the human form and integrate those figures with all that he learned from 1993 to2018‚ some 25 years of painting experiences. “When Night Falls” 36” x 48” 914mm x1220mm - 2018 “the next pages show the depth of David’s work which he has narrated in his ownwords, which I believe gives the reader a unique insight into to the development of a very fine artist who creates work of substantial quality and beauty.”
20 Examples of the work in David Tycho’s own words [ paintings from1993 to 2018] “Configuration with Black” 60” x 48” - 1524mm x 1220mm 1993. This was from the “Archetype Series” in which I combined elements from my experiments in abstract expressionism and my exposure to abstracted Japanese calligraphy. Watching Zen monks painting with mop sized brushes on paper laid out on the floor in some ways opened my eyes to the expressive potential of black gestalts, and runny, drippy paint. This painting was included in my first solo show in 1993.“Black Tusk No. 21” “Elements No.6236 x 48 in. 915mm x 1220mm. 2007 48” x 36” - 1220mm x 915mm 1994 to 2003A backpacking trip up a dormant volcano nearVancouver, aptly called Black Tusk due to its canine shape, Starting in 1994, I began to add landscapeinspired a series of the same name. In early summer, as the colours and forms to my abstractsnow and ice melt, the black lava flows are exposed, and the gestalt shapes, the result beingmelting glaciers fill the turquoise lakes below. It is a very sur- a synthesis of these two seeminglyreal landscape and the abstractions are ready made, no need for disparate elements.drastic changes. This approach would remain my focus for many years, sometimes leaning more towards the representational, and then sometimes more to the abstract.
21 “River” No. 18 48” x 36” 1220mm x 915mm 2008Continuing with another wilderness inspired series, I spent weeks camped along the rivers of western North America, primarily in the Fraser and Columbia River basins. The resulting works often have a band of blue running through them, which became a motif or icon in many of these abstracted landscapes. “Tokyo Rhythms” No. 2 40” x 30” 1016mm x 762mm 2012 A trip to Tokyo inspired my next “Japan Series”, when I decided to focus on urban forms, colours, energy, themes and motifs. Again, some of them are more representational, others more abstract. I was after the feeling more than any sort of accurate rendering, and I allowed myself a great deal of artistic license. “Urban Rhythms” No. 16 24 x 36 inches 610mm x 915mm 2014 A continuation of my exploration of urban themes and motifs. Eventually, this“Urban Rhythms” series became completely abstract, with virtually nothing recognizable in the paintings other than the feeling of the frenetic energy experienced while in large cities such as:Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York and London.
22 “Urban Rhapsody” No. 24. 18 x 24 in. 457mm x 610mm 2016 One of my “Urban Rhapsody” series: more hustle and bustle of urban life. These urban series from 2012 to 2017 sort of bleed into each other, and each one is only separated by an annual solo exhibition. After each exhibition, a new urban series begins, moving forward in a different direction. Each new series becomes a variation of this on-going urban theme. “Urban Composition” No. 6 30” x 24 “ 762mm x 610mm 2016 One of my “Urban Matrix” series, in which I explore the sterile, sometimes alienating, grid-like plan and form of many modern cities. The development of the series also became a formal exploration of geometric shapes. “Station No. 1” 18” x 24” 457mm x 610mm 2017 One of my “Station to Station” series, which explored industrial and postindustrial transportation and distribution hubs. A bit dark and gritty. I decided to name the series after the David Bowie’s album and song of the same name. He was always a favourite of mine, perhaps in some ways an influence due to his chameleon-like artistic sensibility, and I wanted to pay respect to the man and his music.
23 “Forest Rhythms” No. 5 48” x 36” 1220mm x 914mm. 2018. Back to the land. One from my “Cascadia Suite” series, which wasan account of a trip I took through the wettest areas of North America: frommy native British Columbia, and then down through Washington and Oregon States in the USA.The region is commonly referred to as the Pacific Northwest, or more recently, Cascadia... ...Think wet and lush. “Steppe” 60” x 48” 1524mm x 1220mm 2017. One from my “Southwest Suite” which was a continuation of the trip I took that inspired the “Cascadia Suite”. I went from the wettest point in North America, near Tofino, B.C., to the driest, Death Valley in California. I travelled from temperate rain forests, up through alpine pass- es, and down onto the dry side of the Sierra Nevada, finally arriving in the great canyons and deserts of California, Utah, and Arizona. The contrasts were striking, so I exhibited paint- ings from each of these two series in an exhibition which I titled “Fire and Rain”. This painting was inspired by the transitional zones between wet and dry: drier than a prairie, but slightly wetter than a desert. And to finish off this article it was interesting to hear David quote, and take to heart from the words of the famous Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai: “I have drawn things since I was six. All that I made before the age of sixty-five is not worth counting.At seventy-three I began to understand the true construction of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes, and insects. At ninety I will enter into the secret of things. At a hundred and ten, everything‚ every dot, every dash‚ will live.” David can be found working at his spacious studio, located on the top floor of a large converted warehouse on Parker Street in Vancouver, where he also occasionally sets up as a showcase for new work. To view more of David’s work, visit his website on: https://www.tychoart.com/
24 Colin Taylor special feature in three parts In Summer of last year Tubes discussed an idea with the artist Colin Taylor. This involved his passion for mountain climbing and hiking in nature. Colin has travelled around to the globe to both challenge himself and perhaps inspire his art. His latest adventure this year, found him in Chile. This was the opportunity to fulfil the concept that Tubes editor had discussed with him. The outcome will be unknown, painting wise, for as artists know all too well, art is a journey in itself. This issue include the first article of the three part series, and hope- fully will culminate in a whole new bank of landscape paintings by Colin for our readers to enjoy.
25 Through a painted landscape, from cut edge to ice shelf.The first (of two) essays about how one painter swaps Manchester’s cityscape for Patagonia and all the doubts in between.In January 2018 I knew I would be going to Aysen, a relatively unknown region in central Chile, and part ofPatagonia, to climb, bike and kayak and I thought I might make some paintings about its landscape.There was nothing unusual about that, I’ve been working that way for a long time now,(in fact I only paint landscape that I have personally experienced) - and each time the same questions re-surface. How do you make paintings of a specific landscape ?Can personal experience transfer across to visual image?I don’t believe that a landscape painting is just a representation of what you see, I’m or rather it shouldn’t be - it isabout what you know of that landscape. I’m equally convinced that all we know cannot be explained and is not lim-ited by simple leaden fact but, rather a multi-layered assembly of observation, belief and experience mediated througha single image. It follows then that painting is not a linear process. Neither is it a simple extraction of thought thatleads inevitably to a visual conclusion. But it is a process of finding things out and long before you pick up a brush ora piece of charcoal, that process has already commenced...“...I do not start with the idea, but with the experience.” (Peter Lanyon)photograph: ©Colin Taylor “So... back to the climbing trip.”My perception of Patagonia was relatively well informed as I’d climbed there before and so had useful experience ofa similar landscape; it’s scale, physicality, climate and culture. There was also plenty of reading and online foragingto be done. Google leads you to lists of various ‘Adventure travel’ companies extolling the virtues of its sheer sizeand the fact that it is the least populated region in Chile having only been settled in the 20th century.The term, ‘Destination Management System’ became common parlance in the tourism industry in the 1990’s.A web-based ‘DMS’ became a ‘must have’ for cities and regions who saw themselves as visitor destinations and theirDMS a repository for the independently-minded traveller who could surf around professionally produced imagery,build a personalised itinerary and select their accommodation prior to the journey itself.The DMS would be built and managed by the local authority or tourism partnership and,
26 we (at one time, I was employed in that game), would discuss ‘market segmentation’ and ‘visitor data’ until the cows camehome; it was a fundamental truism to say that tourism began at home.Being able to access visual content via the web is of course a recent innovation - 30 years maybe?The further back you go, the more inaccessible regions and places could only be reached by those with either a purpose and/or the means to get there. In 2018, the Aysen economy is not yet driven by ‘tourism’ and central and regional government isonly just cottoning on to those economic opportunities. The landscape is pristine and undeveloped and because there havebeen relatively few reasons to go there, it’s an obvious assumption to make that few landscape paintings of the region fromthe first half of the 20th century, exist.An interesting parallel might be to compare that with the huge numbers of ‘picturesque’ paintings made each year ofEngland’s Lake District, and here I should declare includes my own contribution. The correlation between landscape paint-ing and tourism is an obvious indicator of the maturity of a region‚ it’s economic development and it also speaks about howthat landscape has been managed and used by its indigenous and transient communities. Landscape paintings reflect thatbroader history, and not just the picturesque scenery on view and they have nothing to say, except what we say to them. Is a painting of Haweswater of beautiful scenery? Or is it about its archaeology? above: “Haweswater” Lake District. UK -20 x 20 inches Oil, acrylic and charcoal on paper by Colin Taylor©The lack of rainfall during the summer of 2018 exposed that history and invites a completely different interpretationof any painting made about it. Google.. ‘Mardale Green.’ Tourism on a mass scale is a post WW2 phenomenon,and in Britain at least, it coincided with research into new kind of imagery.For a few short years in the late forties and early fifties The Borough Group of artists, David Bomberg (1890 - 1957),Cliff Holden (1919 - ), Miles Richmond (1922 - 2008), Dorothy Mead (1928 - 1975), Dennis Creffield (1931 - 2018) andothers, engaged in a creative laboratory that acknowledged the deployment of all the senses, and championed the ideaof painting as an emotive response to the world around them.
27Bomberg is the most prominent name, but at the time, he hadn’t painted a landscape in ten years.After a summer in a tent in Cornwall, he returned to Andalucia and found his voice through collaboration anda mutually productive relationship with his students.However you rate their creative output, and here I readily acknowledge my own allegiance, it was a committedarticulated methodology and produced a focused body of visual research at a time when there were few, if any,alternatives. The problem was that nobody listened to what they had to say.Kenneth Clark, would publish his broad survey of the genre, ‘Landscape into Art’ in 1949 and whilst he declared thatthe ‘landscape’ had liberated painting from its former religious obligations, but he offered no suggestion for its futuretrajectory. Later in 1956, ‘This is Tomorrow’ the seminal exhibition curated by Bryan Robertson of the ICA lookedacross the Atlantic for traction. With hindsight we know that landscape painting, as a predominant theme in postWW2 British art would soon lose its position to be replaced by figuration and ‘kitchen-sink’ imagery.For quite some time, I was perfectly content to subscribe to the to the phrase, that ‘my work was, not an optical ex-pression, but an emotional one’ and I used it within exhibition material. It evolved out of a friendship with bothCreffield and Richmond and it neatly tidied up my arts practice in half a dozen words. But, I couldn’t shake off a nag-ging doubt that it was incomplete. Above ‘Zahara’ by Miles Richmond. 39 x 31 inches.Oil on Canvas. Collection of Colin Taylor.What was different between their allegiance and my self-doubt? It was exactly a not a road-to-Damascus moment butI realised that everything was different. The philosophical, physiological, environmental, economic and technologicalterrain in which we perceive the landscape in which we inhabit had shifted irrevocably.If light and matter have a common factor in ‘experience’ then how is that presented to the imagination. Experience isof course, continual and constantly evolving. “A painting about personal experience of landscape leads to something else which retains traces of the original and communicates beyond human language.”
28 *Sky blue cut edge’ (2017) 24 x 18inches. Acrylic, pastel, charcoal with card relief on linen. ©2017Colin Taylor Just prior to Aysen, my most recent paintings were of a built landscape, of Manchester’s cityscape. and I’d invested considerably in looking for a visual solution to the impermanence of a skyline in constant change. I needed to move away from the cut edge and sheet glass of the city and this seemed to be a way of making that switch. My experience of Aysen has been generated by a belief system and lifestyle inconceivable at the time of the Borough. I can only see landscape in terms of land management, mass tourism and conservation. The work, the landscape paintings themselves would come later. Here are two of early sketch-work for a the new series of landscape paintings from the climbing trip are outlined in this article. Tubes look forward to publishing Part Two of this unique story and of course we wait to view the paintings...as they are created by Colin, and how he transends from a specific urban styling and perhaps a new way of landscape painting...(for Colin and maybe others?) ...check out our next issue... #11 For part two of this story.
29Modigilani’sLes Femmes article by artist contributor David Traves
30 Modigliani Les Femmes By David Traves The title of this article has been in danger of becoming Modigliani and me, so central has the Italian-Jewish Painter of the Belle Époque become in my life of late. I mean this in the literal sense, as a large print of a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani of his mistress stares down at me from my living room wall. But I am getting ahead of myself, to begin I must go back a couple weeks to when I first conceived of this article. I was in the hillside town of Taormina in Sicily, whose spectacular amphitheatre (too well preserved to be truly called a ruin) was built by the Ancient Greeks in the third century BC. My girlfriend and I were spending just two days of a longer holiday in Sicily in Taormina, which as well as being remarkable for its amphitheatre, is as well known for its stunning views of Mount Etna and some of Sicily’s most beautiful coast line. In season it plays host to large numbers of the impossibly rich, whose Super Yachts can be seen in the harbour far below the hill top town. It was walking past the designer shops that attest to this clientele’s large market share, along the pedestrianized central way that also housed our hotel that we spotted the unmistakable almond eyes and elongated female face of a Modigliani painting. It was in fact a banner advertising “Les Femme” which turned out to be not an exhibition of Modigliani’s paintings but a “multimedia experience” housed in the exquisite Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II. We soon discovered this exhibition comprised of 50 HD back lit digital recreations of paintings by Modigliani all of them portraits and nudes of women he had known or who had sat for him. These images of his paintings were supported and contextualised by photographs, unpublished documents, early silent film and new animations. However, as the title would suggest, this was first and fore-mostly a homage to Modigliani’s love of women and the female form. That his relationship with and admiration of womanhood is voiced loudly in his paintings is a decided understatement. heading image showing Modigliani’s 1919 portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne (au foulard). Estimated at $40 million- Sotheby’s London 2016)
portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne 31 “Madame Pompadour” The knowing almond eyes and seductive features stared out at me from every direction, more powerful for being back lit in a purposely dark and sombre period setting. His nudes were even more impactful, voluptuous life models and almost certainly more than one of them had been his mistress. It has been rightly pointed out that in the premier galleries of the western world there is a disproportionately high number of female nudes depicted! This is so much the case that whether they be classic renaissance paintings or surreal cubist interpretations of the female form, we have become immune to seeing their very nakedness. Modigliani is an exception to this, so completely does he allow us to see these women through his eyes it goes further than recreating the stark realism a good photographer can reproduce and instead makes us a part of that intimate collaboration between painter and sitter. Looking upon Modigliani’s paintings of women we become both voyeur and collaborator, engaging in his highly charged appreciation of the female form: the same highly charged representations of womanhood that had caused police in 1917, to shut down his exhibition in Paris. None of this came as a surprise to me pre-warned as I was by my girlfriend’s impressions of Modigliani, which she had enthusiastically related to me. This was after returning from the Modigliani exhibition at Tate Modern, armed with the print that now takes pride of place on our living room wall. The painting is entitled “Madame Pompadour” which is a reference to Louis XV mistress but is in fact of one of Modigliani’s mistresses, the English poet Beatrice Hastings. As it turned out this distinguished woman was just one of Modigliani’s mistresses and what followed was a well told summary of the diastole DO YOU MEAN “Diastole” which is a technical term referring to an action of heart function? Do you mean “dissolute”? bohemian life of a talented but tragic young painter and sculptor. Of Italian-Jewish decent, Modigliani was born in Lavern, Tuscany. After studying the art of antiquity and the renaissance he moved to Paris in 1906, where he met a young Pablo Picasso and found himself at the epicentre of the avant-garde. He settled in that shelter of the great and the penniless of the art world, Montmartre, specifically in a Le Bateau-Lavoir a commune for poor creatives. It might be a reasonable question why a Sicilian town would host an exhibition of a Tuscan born artist who did his best work in Paris, without a single original painting to back it up.
32 above: “Jeune Femme a la guimpe” below: Portrait of Lunia CzechowskaTaormina is a peculiarly Modigliani-esque kind of place,beautiful, steeped in culture, with bars and restaurants aroundevery corner of the snaking back alleys (even lining the stairsdescending its hilly terrain) and has played host to similarlyflamboyant geniuses such as Oscar Wilde and Truman Capote.Although poor and never fully appreciated in his own timesModigliani was unfailingly stylish and said upon meetingPicasso that even though the man was a genius, that did notexcuse how he dressed.Within a year of arriving in Paris the young Modernist was thequintessential tortured artist, with a studio in Rue Caulaincourtand heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol.As his story unfolded I was left in little doubt it was bothfascinating and scandalous in equal measure, but it was clearlyhis relationship with his great love and muse Jeanne Hébuterne(a beautiful 19-year-old art student) that had most keenlycaptured my girlfriend’s imagination.Hébuterne family forbade the relationship, which is alwaysa good strategy - if your object is to assure a passionate andlasting connection that is - and the couple moved into a studioon the Rue de la Grande Chaumièr.Hébuterne posed for him frequently, the evidence of whichcan be seen in the exquisite portraits of her he produced. Thepair went on to have a daughter and upon a second pregnancyfinally were engaged to marry, when something even moredifficult to overcome than her parents’ disapprobationintervened. Modigliani developed tuberculous and in a bidto both cope with and cover up his illness began frequentlydrinking until he blacked out. He continued to paint butbecame rapidly sicker, until a neighbour who discovered himdeliriously clinging onto his beloved Jeanne called a doctor,who pronounced him to be in the final stages of tubercularmeningitis.One day after his vast funeral which was attended by muchof Paris’ art community, the inconsolable Jeanne Hébuterneflung herself from a fifth-floor window. She was eight monthspregnant. This story couldn’t help but make an impression onme and had I not been so frequently regarding the beautifulbut mask-like features of Modigliani’s Madame Pompadourlooking down from my living room wall; Modigliani wouldhave still been in the forefront of my consciousness when Istumbled across this exhibition.I found much in his story to connect with. Italy is a placeI have just begun to explore recently but Montmartre isa place I have found myself drawn to, returning over theyears with girlfriends. I have tried (without a fraction ofModigliani’s success) to capture female beauty through myown photographic portraits and as a writer and critique of artI am always searching for a human story first and series ofbrush strokes second.
33 David Traves painters Tubes magazine Artist ContributorAs a writer my work is both informed and fuelledby the sum of my experiences.Some of those experiences have been lengthy,carefully planned endeavours, like my year spenttraveling and working inAustralia, New Zealand and South-East Asia;my English Literature and Cultural Historydegree; or my three years spent as librarianand writer in residence at an English specialismacademy.Other experiences have been shorter and moreself-contained, many of these have introducedme to high culture and historical context, such asvisiting the Guggenheim in New York, the Pho-tographers Gallery in London, or exploring thecatacombs beneath Paris.Some of my experiences happened in just a mo-ment and parodically those are experience thatshaped me the most and therefore have the great-est influence on my writing. These experienceshave been deeply personal to me but are ironicallynearly universal human experiences.The moment you look at parent with a life-threat-ening illness and realise that whether it comessoon or decades in the future, that one day theywill not be there for you.It’s the moment you realise you havefallen in love and the moment you realisea relationship that meant everythingto you is over. Moments so intimate it feels wrongto even touch on them, in something as functionalas a bio. But writing, real writing should come ata cost, nonfiction or fiction, escapism or real-ism, it should all reveal something truly personalabout the writer. Putting a part of your person-ality, shaped by the some of your experiences,on display for public consumption is a uniquelyterrifying experience.My writing exists as art reviews, poems,children’s literature, travel blogs, articles, shortstories, research papers, and more.It can be seen beneath paintings in exhibitions,published online, in blogs and on amazon.Each piece is in its own way personal and gives aprofoundly personal insight into my perception ofthe world around me.
34 Preben Saxild... ...telling stories
35 “painted from memory” 1100mm x 900mm (44 inches x 32 inches) painted 1998 Preben Saxild...telling Stories by Denis TaylorI have known Preben as both a fellow artist and as a curator of exhibitions for many years (from around1998). He is based in Copenhagen, Denmark which is the country of his birth.When I first viewed Preben’s paintings, in real life, they were very much in the abstract expressionists style.The work had a story to tell, one which the viewer discovered as the imagery cleared through the manyapplications of layers of paint. Three paintings that struck me as very intriguing at the time were,“Man in the Moon,” “Mind Citadels.” And “Painted from Memory.” The titles for these three abstractexpressionists paintings were important, as it gave a lead and began a sort of game with the viewer andthe painting. And the colour balance, tonality and technique of paint application was to my mind, not onlyexcellent works of art but also shown the artists superb colour understanding. I had no second thoughtsabout including these three paintings in a major International Swedish Government Trust Fund sponsoredExhibition in Stockholm, one that I was Lead Artist and Curator for “Heart 2 Art,” held at theSteninge Palace Kultur Center, in January 2002.Over the decades Preben has tended to keep this ‘mind-game’ approach to creating Art through the naturaldevelopment that he has experienced as an Artist. Today his main bank of work continues to involve tellingstories, but at this time he has developed a technique that employs both montage, paint applied by hand andphotography. But his current work is not simply an attractive image or a clever use of ‘props.’Once again the titles play an important role. These new works are created in a variety of carefully positionedimages where ‘artistic instinct’ and ‘creation at the point of process’ occur naturally.
36 “Man and the Moon” 1000mm x 950mm (40 inches x 38 inches) painted in 1998 “ “I have over the last 20 years or so worked with a wide “mind citadels” variety of artistic expressions, mainly abstract painting in various forms from abstract expressionism to 1000mm x 1000mm (40 inches x 40 inches) painted in 1998 abstract landscape painting. I have also tried my hand at portrait painting and assemblages, using found objects such as driftwood and old T-shirts and more recently collages.” Preben is a artistic voyager, constantly on the move intellectually and always accompanied with his unique ‘Danish’ wit and quite ironic commentary in the artwork. Perhaps the most appealing part of Preben’s current work is that the viewer can ‘make-up’ a story solely based of the title provided, which in most cases is not pedantically thrust upon one or indeed that obvious. For example in ”Welcome to the Party” the composite is made of 20th century political heroes and villains, depending on which side of the political opinion one stands. The ‘Welcoming Party’ could be the Communists or the Capitalists. Various ‘super-heroes are also seen as are beautiful women, a gun lying around on a table innocently? Or as protection or to do harm perhaps, monsters and strange words that in themselves mean either nothing, or something, i.e. “the Third Rule.” It’s this sort of ‘game’ that Preben manages to combine into one image that makes a viewer feel that it would great to display on their walls for dinner party discussion, or in an art collection. Despite perhaps the darker undertones of the story, or rather because of it, as everyone can have a different story that they can see (and make up) for themselves. “In my collages, I try to tell a story by using the various items I find in magazines, books, postcards, posters or even street-posters, often relating the story to the title of the collage. My aim is to create a carefully balanced picture, both with regard to colour and images. I also work with both mixed media collages on canvas and paper and digital collages created on a tablet using various software and mainly my own photographs.” This visual enjoyable game continues in another work “Take That.” An obvious play on a Pop Band’s name or perhaps even the title of a Roy Lichenstein painting, one that was ‘borrowed’ from a comic illustrating USA dog fights in one or two of their many wars. But you can take a look at this (and the others examples we have obtained from Preben) yourself in this article, and then make your own story up. I have given as much space to the work as possible to enable the work to be seen as ‘large’ as possible, for they can tell a far better story than I, or more accurately our readers can make up their own story.
37 “welcome to the Party.”mixed media collage with cut and torn posters, acrylic and spray on canvas 1000mm x 1000mm (40 inches x 40inches)
38 “Take That.” mixed media collage with cut and torn posters, acrylic and spray on canvas 800mm x 600mm (32 inches x 24 inches)
39“A Man for all Seasons.” digital mixed media collage printed to size as required
40 “Silhouetts.” digital mixed media collage printed to size as required
41“The Moon is Down.” digital mixed media collage printed to size as required Preben shown his new work earlier this year at Copenhagen Art Hall, where he is a regular exhibitor. His work is always very well received. It’s odd and quite quite remarkably that his work has never been exhibited in a high street gallery? But his early and current work have been collected by National plc and global corporations and many astute private collectors around the world for the last four decades. paintersTubes magazine is proud to be able to represent him in the new Tubes Artists Gallery Of which issue #1 to be published in the very early part of December this year.
42 “Defining the Elemental” Exhibition Preview by Tubes Magazine Editorial This is a show that has ten painters and writer who has created poems for the works on exhibition at the Crossley Gallery venue inside the expansive Dean Clough Mills. In the introduction to the exhibition David Traves points out the inspiation of British 20th century painters such as David Bomberg, Leon kossof and Frank Auerbach, that some of the participating artists may have been inspired by, although that is referring to paint application, more than it is to the subjects. The original concept and title for the exhibition. “Defining the Elemental” was Shaun Smyth’s original idea and it conjures up a whole range of meanings behind it. Essentially the artwork to be shown is primarly based in nature, although one or two of the artists have expanded that to include the human figure and pure abstraction, work that perhaps has broader and more cerebal meaning, as far as the human species is concerned. i.e. “initium aquam” (Latin translates as: ‘Life began in Water’) by Denis Taylor and “Rebuilding ground zero” by Jeanette Barnes. Richard Fitton, another fine art painter, shows some new work, one in particular that is removed away from the impasto paintings he is known for to a more delicate surface finish and his growing concern for the drawing content in his creative output (e.g: “Amy” mixed media. On loan from a private collector). Ian Norris exhibits his highly developed semi-abstract work with his accomplished and exacting handling of paint, his work is always backed by dedicated charcoal sketch works. Nicki Heenan and Miranda Richmond are to exhibit their delightful and unique landscape paintings along with the ‘imagined’ landscape paintings of Richard Clare and the more definite subject based work of Stephen Stringer. Shaun Smyth shall be showing a large panoramic painting of the Mersey Gateway Bridge, one of the many works that are to be shown at the Brindley Gallery, Merseyside with the exhibition ‘Constructing the Mersey Gateway Bridge’ (18th February 2018 to 5th April 2019- https://thebrindley.org.uk/exhibitions/). Shaun will also demonstrate his dedication as a fine draughtman by placing several charcoal sketch pieces next to his large painting. Barry De More, a painter whose work gives more than a nodding reference to Kossof and Frank Auerbach, will show works that range from the local enviroment of Keighley and Bradford (Yorkshire) to images of industrial workers engaged in their labours. All the painters have a dedicated poem or prose which has been created by David Traves. His writing also extends to the introduction of the exhibition catalogue. David concentrates on his own reaction to each of the painters and his response to their work and gives his own personal interpreation of the essence of each artist, words that are skillfully laid out in short lines of prose, with perhaps deep meaning behind them, meanings that makes one think a bit more about the creation of Art. (Please go to pages 30 to 33 to read David Traves writing on pages). All the work is available for acquisition by art institutions, public art galleries and the private art collector. Interested parties should contact Crossley Galleries at Dean Clough directly on: https://www.deanclough.com the exhibition runs from: 27th October 2018 through to the 12th January 2019 Dean Clough, Crossley Galleries, Halifax HX3 5AX The following pages show the artists and an example of their art to be exhibited.
43Shaun SmythRichard Fitton Jeanette Barnes
44 below “cellular abstraction” Denis TaylorIan Norris
45Richard Clare Nicki Heenan Stephen Stringer
46 Amanda Richmond Barry De More David Traves
47 John Walker recent paintings Alexandre Gallery 499 Park Avenue NYCpremiere evening Sept 26th through to March 30th 2019 www.alexandregallery.com/john-walker
48 Art Fairs, are they the future for artists? a personal view of the future of global Art Fair Shows by Denis Taylor.The world today is more ‘globalized’ than ever before in history. And despite the negative viewpoint of the economicglobalization of industries and big business that many in the Western world hold and seem to debate incessantly in the massmedia, the absolute reality is that socially and a business global connected world in every sphere of human activity will not goaway. The internet and the world wide web is also here to stay and with it brings with many positive and quite a few nega-tives, but like anything that has had a revolutionary beginning, and it is still a developing platform expanding quickly within aglobal net-worked world.We are at the stage in the early 21st century where the ‘bumps’ of all enlightened societies are still being painfully ironed out,with attempts to resolve the differences of opinions of how ‘humans’ should behave ethically, morally and socially and notrely on the entrenched past cultural beliefs or systems, and reaching solutions with compromises, ones that are suitable foreveryone on our unique planet.I believe visual Art is on the threshold of leading the debate by encouraging progressive thinking that is projected by itsunique power, more so perhaps than the art of the written or spoken word, because visual art has the simplest and most directform of conveying concepts, emotions, or human feelings. All the human conditions that allow people to think and feel forthemselves and not a dictatorial or with bias tendencies, negatives that are much witnessed in the world and reflected by themass media. It could be that Global Art Fair participation is the beginnings of a huge cultural alignment of artists, their work,and hopefully the entire world.“Visual communication is perhaps theoldest form of communication, so oldthat it has been said that it was the firstmethod of communication that enabledthe advance and the survival of the hu-man race. With these thoughts in mind(and on behalf of Tubes magazine),I decided to investigate Global ArtFairs in general. I looked around andwas delighted to find an array of Fairsthat shown Art on all levels, and in allcountries. Choosing one to highlightwas not easy. I then read a number ofarticles that discussed Art in general,art on the web, and what the futureholds for visual Artists, before decidingon the 13th Asia ContemporaryArt Show”The first point I should make is that I am already aware of, how the world of art collecting has dramatically grown anddeveloped to encompass many levels of society in our new century. We all know how the traditional national art fairs arepresented and marketed in a professional way to appeal to the new generation of Art Collectors. On a National level Art fairsare normally highly organised and held in large venues for that precise purpose. Formally they were more for commercialart galleries rather than the independent artist, but the trend, especially over the last few years, has changed to become inclu-sive rather than restrictive. That does not mean that ‘all comers’ are accepted as artist exhibitors. To maintain quality Artistsare ‘selected’ for the most astute and subsequently well attended art fairs. Even so, the costs of taking part in Fair is not tobe sniffed at, and the independent ‘newbie’ artist should ensure that they are also prepared for some hard work and dedicatedattention to the type of Art they exhibit, to gain most from the exposure (and selling possibilities) that the Art Fair offers them.Most Art Fairs (shows) are held over a short but intense period - 4 days - is normal. It is worth remembering here that whenartists are given a show by a gallery (on the high street) the selling point is usually on the day or evening of the premier day,with the odd sale over a two week period. If you accept that as a fact, then four days of intense viewer attention and acquisi-tion possibilities then exhibiting at a Fair is comparable to having four premiers in a high street gallery.
49 13th Asia Contemporary Art Show As its title suggests it is not exactly a ‘new’ art fair show. However, it is a different sort of show. Gone is the purpose made exhibition hall idea where almost identical white painted booths give the overall impression of market stalls. Gone are the extra costs for spots lights and the ubiquitous ‘directors chair’ where artists sits and waits for someone to ask a question or show some interest of the art on his stand. The 13th Asia Contemporary Art Show is to be mounted at the Conrad Hotel over three floors (floors 40 to 43) and runs publicly from 28th September to October 1st, with a private invitation only premier day on the 28th September. The Con- rad Hotel is located in the centre of Hong Kong’s business district, and is indeed the last word in elegant luxury. The artworks are displayed in room situations and the guests can comfortably move from room to room and from floor to floor to examine the exhibited artwork before making a deci- sion to purchase. “The Fog Paintings 1” The difference of this concept is clearly a move away from Chris River 600mm x 500mm the traditional Art Fair presentation. This year they will Oil on Canvas. United Kingdom exhibit more than 2000 works of art with one complete floor dedicated to independent artists. This is truly an international “Big Cosmos II” exhibition with represented counties that include, Australia,Kristina Sretkova 550mm x 460mm China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Myanmar, Philippines, Rus- Oil on Linen. Germany, sia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK, Vietnam and more. It is this cross section of art and artists from across the world that makes this fair an exciting cultural interchange opportunity possible. The organisers of Asia Contemporary Art Show was founded by collector and gallery owner Mark Saunderson, along with business partners Douwe Cramer and Sarah Benecke who also produce Asia’s leading art website Asia Contemporary Art Buyer with artworks listed from over 1.600 artists. The company also have a dynamic space in Sheung Wan under the banner of the Fabrik Gallery sharing the space with twenty galleries, all of whom have annual full calendars of exhibitions. This integration of fair organisers and gallery expertise is in itself a slightly different set-up to the national Art Fairs in many countries in Europe. And it is not surprising that this particular fair has enjoyed a growing success over the last 6 years. “On this page and over the next few pages Tubes Editor has selected a small number of the artworks that will be featured in this year exhibition in Hong Kong, work that demonstrates the depth of the work exhibited at this years fair, obviously it is impossible to show all the artists, so the selection is based on representing as many countries as possible.”
50 Abstract Painting with Cat” Chen Hong Hsin, UNIQUE ART, Taiwan. “Village of St. Tropez on the mediterranean coast” Jean-Marc Peyer France, “Red Sea” Lydia Moawad Lydia Moawad Gallery Lebanon,