The ongoing adventures through art, music, underculture and the occasional dropping in through a different yellow door (have you been through Pablo Delgado’s yellow door yet,. times is running out, it is the must see art show of right now, if you can call it a show that is).  “Why didn’t you cover that show in the Car park last weekend?” asked someone, well as we pointed out last week when we mentioned it was coming up, we don’t exist, we’ve written lots about previous car park comings together of course, none of that really existed either, feel free to use me (I’m sure it was all covered adequately by the others, you don’t need us getting in a froth about it). Pele wasn’t though a yellow door actually, just the walls painted yellow and blue (and Santos green).

Santiago Montoya

Rather looking forward to the new show from Santiago Montoya at Halcyon, Unfinished Business – “an exhibition of new works by Colombian artist Santiago Montoya. The solo exhibition, Montoya’s third at the gallery, provides a striking culmination of the artist’s endeavours since his acclaimed first exhibition at Halcyon Gallery, The Great Swindle (2012).” opens tonight (October 21st) at the New Bond Street gallery, will it be as good as that recent Pete show? Loved that Pele show, New Bond Street isn’t our usual stomping ground, but that Lucy Sparrow show in a Soho sex shop meant we had to pass to get back for more at Frieze and Pele, that really couldn’t be missed, could have gone via that Cavendish Square car park, but hey, we no longer exist….

Santiago Montoya? All about the Money as a very fine band once said…

Saint Silas Intercession had unfinished business, they evolved and became Miraculous Mule somewhere along the line, one of the finest bands at there right now (as we’ve said several times in these pages). You need to go and see Miraculous Mule, you really do need ot be in a room right there with them.  The Mule play tonight at the Black Heart in Camden

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“Unfinished Business sees Montoya continue to develop his dialogue spotlighting society’s contemporaneous relationships with money and the economy at large. Using uncirculated bank notes, he creates canvases which boldly illuminate tensions; questioning preconceptions and offering new pertinence to complex social constructs. The clichéd titles of Montoya’s work add an element of humour to his work enticing viewers into the debate.

Montoya views bank-notes as ready-made painted surfaces, as snapshots of time, theatres in which political propaganda and historic events play out. Yet these paintings come with their own pre-assigned commercial value which forms the basis of all international trade, relations and infrastructure. The result is artwork saturated with layers of meaning.

Santiago Montoya

“For so many years, we fought nature to survive, and I wonder if, for some of us, the economy has taken its place. We´ve anchored our expectations for wellbeing, success and happiness on the economy. The economy has become a new god, which we all cease to understand. An incomprehensible mystery of which many prophets write about, at times becoming holy, and at others, an evil in disguise. For better or worse (interdependently inseparable), as inconclusive as things are in the sacred fields of religion – and economy, it seems that we have quite a distance to go before we conclude… all I pray is that in my time, it remains forever Unfinished Business.” Santiago Montoya”

Pelé: Art, Life, Football

PELE @ Halcyon (2015)

Of course football is art, of course it is life, how could it not be.  Dropped in to the Halcyon Gallery in New Bond Street last week (while dropping of course), you’ve missed now (if you didn’t catch it), still worth a mention here.

Beautiful show, a celebration of Pele, one of the finest footballers ever of course, an artist on the pitch, a proper icon in that famous yellow shirt (in a time before that Nike logo), a god from a time when football was at its purist, was there ever a better game of football than that England Brazil game in Mexico in 1970? That hand shake between Pele and Bobby Moore at the end?  Pelé: Art, Life, Football is a beautiful show, beautifully created, curated, hung and celebrated, Yellow walls, Santos green, Brazil blue, the stardust, the photos, the pop art, the Warhol pieces, a glorious show from a time when football was far less crass, far more about the art of the game, an excellent celebration, some beautiful art and a fine tribute to ne of the best  (SW)  .

PELE @ Halcyon (2015)Pelé: Art, Life, Football