I love artists that come up with great ideas, and this is the best new movement I have seen in a long time: Reverse Grafitti. Instead if spraying or painting on a wall, you simply clean the city dirt off to make your art! What an excellent idea! Also, it starts a discussion of legal issues; is it really against the law to remove dirt..? Companies are also using it for advertising!

Christian Louboutin exhibition!

Love art. Love shoes. What could be better than the Design Museums latest exhibition on Christian Louboutin! Goes from 1 May until 9 July. Here is their own presentation: This exhibition celebrates Louboutin’s career showcasing twenty years of designs and inspiration, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps. Be taken on a magical journey of style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance.

The Design museum is great, it is the perfect sized museum, small enough to visit just for half an hour or two. Always interesting exhibitions and a great location too, close to Tower Bridge.

recommended art exhibitions this week

Two great exhibitions to go to in London this week: Wimbledon Art Studios Open House 10-13 May. Various artists opens the doors to their studios in a warehouse-type house in Wimbledon. A good variety of quite unknown artists: sculptures, paintings, drawings and other creations. A lot of junk, but a lot of goodies too, so well worth a visit!  I´m going to check out the following artists: Arabella Stewart who makes beautifully simple scetchings:

 Elisa Cantarelli with her pink telephone:

 Matt Kemp using recycled and used materiels for his art:

 and Maria Genko with her really nice clothes:





Also open 10-13 May The Other Art Fair is an exhibition where you can buy art directly from the artist. 500 artists applied, 100 were chosen for the exhibit. None of the artists are represented by a gallery. Yet...  Marelybone Rd NW1.

Can really recommend the British Design exhibition at V&A in London! Brought my 6 year old along with a couple of friends, and they loved it! Lots of crazy things to look at; an egg shaped dress, a table made of a mannequin etc. The exhibition is on until August 12th. If you go after May 19th you can also see an exhibition on beautiful ballgowns, red carpet evening dresses and catwalk showstoppers!

DIY with postcards!

A friend of mine have made these really nice pieces of art from postcards: Such an easy, beautiful (and cheap!) idea! These are postcards of book covers (she is an author and journalist). These specific postcards you can order from Amazon.com, but of sourse you can use any postcards you like.

Living Etc interior tour

The interior magazine Living Etc arranged an interior design tour of private homes around London Friday which a friend of mine was lucky enough to get tickets to –and invited me along!

In an area of London not precisely known for exquisite taste and glamour, was the most amazing house. I could move in and stay any day! Every room was decorated with carefully selected and sourced antiques, mixed with new modern funky things. Look at these very inspirational pictures!

 I actually have the small mirrors in my home too, they come from Umbra.

The wall paper below is actually hand made!

I would love to enjoy breakfast here!

The woman living here also had these shoes made of delicate fabric in a box,quite similar to the paper shoes I have, made by Jennifer Collier.

And here are my shoes made bu Jennifer Collier:

I went to eight other houses on the tour as well, but in most of them we were not allowed to take photos, and none of the houses were nearly as good as the one above.

Some more pics from the same house:

Would love to do this tour again next year!

Favourites of the Affordable Art Fair; In Battersea Park until Tomorrow!

Went for a quick visit to the Afordable Art Fair in Battersea Park yesterday and today. Here are my favourites!

At the gallerist Bernard Chauchet I found these delicate trees, about 20 cm tall, made by Lebanese artist Nayla Gabriel. They are made of thin wire and cut out tiny tiny leaves. The tree above has leaves made of flags, the one below is called "The Wealth Tree" and has leaves made of dollar bills.

You can also get a "generation tree" with names on all leaves. The leaves ón the ground symbolising passed generations. The dollar tree costs 2500 pounds. I´m not surprised since there are many many hours of work behind each tree. They were really beautilfully made, the detail and quality was amazing. When you get close to the tree the thin branches and delicate leaves starts to vibrate from your movements. Beautiful!

A very clear trend at the fair was hologram art work. This piece displayed in Hicks Gallery was my favourite, I would LOVE to own it!! Check it out, it´s a film: 

I WANT!

The super-cool Marilyn Monroe piece is made of Martin Richardson, the professor in Modern Holography at De Montfort University. It is very well made, it actually looks like you are watching a short film clip of Marilyn. If I would pick one piece to invest my money in at the fair, it would be this one, for sure!

Recycled and Upcycled exhibition in Chiswick

Visited one of my favourite shops today, The Old Cinema on 160 Chiswick High Road. It is a large place with loads of antique, really funky furniture. I want it all! Now and until Sunday 25th March they focus on not only recycled things, but UPcycled. Meaning upgrading and putting a modern edge to something old. Saw some lovely things, like Lucy Turners furniture. She laminates chests of drawers with mothern patterns. Looks really cool!

There was also a lot of furniture made of scrap metal, like old aeroplanes. Not sure I like it, but If you´re in to aeroplanes, I´m sure it´s fascinating. Here is an old emergency exit door that is now a mirror frame. Made by Stephen Burrows.

Andy Bridge metal art work

I just found a new artist I need to keep my eyes on. Andy Bridge makes illustrations for book covers etc, but also makes really interesting original pieces in wood, metal and wire.

This is a shooting gallery with dictators and other "badies". If you shoot, they actually flip back, just like at the Fun Fair!

I really like this one, a Travel Box with all you can think of reminding you of your travels. Have not seen it in real life, so I´m not sure about the size, but if that passport is real size, the box would be quite big.

Art that makes me happy is the best art! Who would net get happy with a wheel of Fortune on the wall! You can actually spin it! 
Check out Andy Bridges other stuff at http://www.andybridge.com/

Glass Cathedrals

"Sweet dreams"

detail:

I think art should make you happy. It should be inspiring to look at, over and over again, and preferably have some humour. One artist i really-really like who´s art ticks all my boxes is Lisa Swerling. She found "her thing", and her thing is making beautiful glass boxes made with love and humour. Or as she puts is herself: "Lisa Swerling’s Glass Cathedrals are a series of artboxes containing brilliant tiny worlds, each making their own small statement on our complicated lives."

"Faith in Superglue"

Detail:

I bought "The Night Job"a couple of years ago:

Detail:

And this one would be great as a wedding gift:

It is customisable; haircolour, gender, age, children. letters etc can be of your choice.

Take a look at Lisa Swerlings web page: http://glasscathedrals.com/

In case of dullness, blow.