News — blog

 

I understand that I will never understand, however, I stand. I repeat this statement almost like a mantra over and over. While watching the horrifying news reports of George Floyd’s death, while scrolling through social media feeds tracking the developments of the protests or outpourings of grief and love, when looking at photos of marches around the world where signs emblazoned with this mantra fleck the crowds. Powerful posters on our news feed remind us, “Silence is Violence”, “Racism is a Pandemic”, “Being Black is Not a Crime”, and call to “Defund the Police,” all highlighting the need for urgent change. There have been mass demonstrations in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement before. This time though, the energy seems to be different; a unifying force is brewing; encompassing all ages, sexes, and races with a strong statement: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

The 58th Venice Biennale, also known as the Art World Olympics, opened at the beginning of May in one of Italy’s most heavily tourist-populated cities. Non-Venetians here take one of two forms; those who come to slurp a €20 coffee on San Marco Square or pay €80-100 for a gondola ride and those that come every two years to witness the most significant display of international art in the most unique location possible. Since 1895, the Venice Biennale has been hosted every other year. In addition to the grand national pavilions in the Giardini, in 1980 the Arsenale (the old...

Patricia Cain is a multi-award-winning artist living and working in rural Scotland. Widely recognised for her large-scale pastel drawings that vacillate between figurative and abstract art, Patricia tells readers about why she sees herself as more of a 'drawer' than a 'painter' and how her immediate environment is central to her practice.  You are a practicing artist living and working in the beautiful countryside of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, but previous to that you lived in Glasgow. Why did you decide to relocate and has the change of environment influenced your work? I lived in Glasgow for about 13 years...

Just in time for Women's International Day, we interview Sarah J. Stanley, the painter from Glasgow, about her new series of artworks, entitled '1 to 6000'. She talks about how her strict Christian cult upbringing is the stimulus to her nonconformist art and how outsider artists, Z B Armstrong and Howard Finster have heavily influenced her love of grids and text.

We recently interviewed visual artist Daryl Rainbow. Daryl studied illustration at Camberwell College of the Arts and now lives and works in Hackney, London. Alongside a career as an editorial illustrator - for publications such as, Pickles, These Football Times, and Wall Street International, - Daryl creates and sells figurative works of art that look at the transience of youth culture and technology.