Shoes shined by a one eyed clown, what’s all that about then? Stereo blaring just as loud as it can? We’re mostly just throwing links at you here, really your choice what you do with them really, curiousity would demand a click if I were to find myself in your shoes? What colour are your shoes today anyway? Nu-shoegazers trip the dark fantastic – nah, we’re not having that, nothing is nu, nu is just lazy, old nu.  The Black Ryder are in the country, they bring their delicate beauty to the following places on the following days,  Fri 13 Mar – Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 14 Mar – Antwerp Mansion, Rusholme, Manchester, Sun 15 Mar –  The Fleece, Bristol, Mon 16 Mar – Birthdays, London. Here’s some sounds and visuals, you make your own mind up about their glorious beauty…

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Couple of new shows opening at Stolen Space tonight,. Rather like the energy and turn around at Stolen Space, like the way the shows constantly evolve, how things change so quickly, rather like how they use that space and those two rooms.

Tonight in gallery 2, a show from PIXEL PANCHO called MEMORY OF OUR LIFE’ opens (and runs until April 12th).

“With a formal art education from the Academy of Fine Arts in Valencia, Pixel Pancho is not your typical Urban Artist. Influenced by painters such as Joaquin Sorolla and Salvador Dali, both can be seen to influence Pancho’s unmistakable style being both painterly and figurative with a Dadaist twist.

Pancho started painting in the streets while at art college and the theme which expresses a personal stamp on all his works is the focus on the humanisation of the robotic form.

Androids made up of metal, screws, and gears, resembling characters from futuristic films or sci-fi novels. With rusty exteriors and mechanism’s exposed, Pancho’s robots are extensions of human bodies and the reflections of mankind trying to be gods by creating them.

Known especially for his huge robot-filled murals, his love for graffiti has taken him all around the world. For his first exhibition in London, Pixel Pancho will be transforming gallery 2 with an installation which will transport viewers into a surreal robotic environment.

His new body of work entitled ‘Memory Of Our Life’ will focus on the circle of life and the different moments portrayed as we grow, learn and make mistakes, showing this parallelism within his whymsical characters. Pancho’s work mirrors the same feelings and emotions we experience to conjur up reactions within the viewer”.

Meanwhile in gallery 1 –  DAVID BRAY, ‘WRONG TURN’

“As a child artist David Bray would apparently draw images of space travel, where hewould depict himself and his friends visiting other Planets and Universes. As he grew older his naive scribbles began to explore a dark, egotistical fantasy world, always relying on his imagination to fuel his compositions. This could be partly due to being surrounded by art and artists for as long as he could remember. His late father worked for over thirty years at the Royal Academy of Arts in London – so by default Bray was brought up in an environment of creativity and imagination.”We were allowed to wander the galleries before the Royal Academy opened in the morning, so we had all this art to ourselves.” With minimal security before opening, and no cctv in those days, Bray jokes that he was able to touch and on the odd occasion lick these great works.

This warped sense of humour and tone of voice is evident through his work, using basic drawing tools, such as pens, pencils and paper, Bray creates delicate and time-consuming drawings which explore emotion, utopia and a world of fantasy through his subject matter mainly focusing on the beautiful and the un-attainable female form.

The drawings for his new body of work are heavily influenced by hand poked naive tattoos and inspired by Eric Gill, James Ensor, Eric Stanton, Bart Simpson, ancient Greece, to name but a few. There is indeed a reason for such a random selection.

“Having spent a few weeks last year getting lost in America on a trip with musician Georg Lubitzer. We encountered a character called Yossarian who gave me a list of names, subjects and even specific compositions that i should use in my work.”

David Bray is staying faithful to that list. “To stay faithful to this would open up channels to a world of magical thinking, he promised, who am I to turn down such a promise?”

Stolen Space – 17 Osborn Street, London,  E1 6TD

 

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