Drawing Now, Paris March 29th - April 1st
News posted on 9 March 2012
Island Lepers - sheets I & II (2012), Ink, watercolour and collage on vintage Intaglio print, Ruth Marten
We are extremely pleased to be exhibiting again at Drawing Now in Paris. Please find further information here. We shall be exhibiting new work by Ruth Marten, Fabrice Cazenave, Hans de Wit and Sarah V. Please contact us for complimentary passes as we have a limited number available.
Jamie Reid at Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles
News posted on 9 March 2012
For the first project of what will be another busy year for Jamie, Ragged Kingdom opens at Shepard Fairey's Subliminal Projects gallery space on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. Further details available here.
Triple Major Nomad Store
News posted on 20 January 2012
Isis Gallery and Triple-Major of Beijing are very pleased and excited to present Nomad Store in London during London Fashion Week February 16th to 23rd, 2012.
Triple-Major is a Beijing based multi-disciplinary project helmed by Ritchie Chan that beautifully encapsulates the exciting global worldview of young Chinese people today. Although essentially a fashion collective producing their own collections and presenting them internationally, Triple-Major is very concept driven and invites international artists to install work in their three story space in the old hutong district of this most exciting of 21st Century cities. Additionally they helm the Nomad Store, which appears in different cities across the world. Previous emergings have included Los Angeles (Jul 29th-Aug 14th 2011), Shanghai (Jan 11th-Jan 22nd 2010) and Hong Kong (Nov 24th-Nov 30th 2010). This is the first time that Nomad Store has come to London, in a perfect clash with London Fashion Week.
Please read more about this exciting project here.
Jamie Reid 'Out Of The Dross - Liberty' 8th Dec-14th Jan
News posted on 1 December 2011
Out Of The Dross, 2011
Unique screenprint on Somerset Radiant White Velvet 330 GSM paper
112 x 72cm
Please note: This exhibition will take place at Paul Stolper Gallery, 31 Museum St, London WC1A 1LH
We are extremely pleased to announce the forthcoming collaboration with Paul Stolper Gallery, London - Jamie Reidʼs exhibition ʻOut Of The Dross - Libertyʼ. The show is made up of unique works on paper together with sequences of hand-screened works
that are perfectly in time with the energetic cacophony of now. In an increasingly visual world
the power of the graphic image to define a moment is clear. As political and social reform
movements undermine and confront moribund systems of fiscal and cultural entrapment it
seems the time is now for artists to step forward. Indeed there has been precious little
response from the art community to the crises that surround us...
You can read the full press release here.
Jamie Reid - Peace is Tough, London 27th Oct - 20th Nov
News posted on 23 October 2011
Last Days (1972)
Print on gummed paper
10cm x 17.4cm
27th October – 20th November 2011, Bear Pit, Park St, London SE1
Private View 26th October 6pm-9pm
Isis Gallery and Merge Festival are extremely pleased to announce the opening of Jamie Reid – ‘Peace Is Tough’.
Hot on the heels of Reid’s wonderful Ragged Kingdom installation for Isis Gallery at Londonewcastle Depot in June, Peace Is Tough revolves around two polarities – one being principal elements of the Jamie Reid Archive which has recently been exhibited at the CCBB in Rio and MoCA in Los Angeles. The second being a presentation of the 365 paintings that comprise the core of Reid expansive and delightful Eightfold Year project. Read more here.
You can also see a sequence of installation images here.
Isis at Bear Pit, London 14-16 Oct and Cutlog, Paris 20-23 Oct
News posted on 30 September 2011
Isis will be at two events over the coming two weeks - please do try to join us for at least one of them! The first is a group show at a wonderful, raw venue called The Bear Pit just behind Tate Modern on the South Bank in London. This event will run concurrently with Frieze and is very close for those visiting the Gerhard Richter show. This event is organised in association with L-13 and Carter Presents. We will be showing work by Ruth Marten, Martin Erik Andersen, Alice O'Malley and Martin Griffiths. Further details here.
The second is the third edition of the Cutlog art fair in Paris. A great variety of galleries from all over the world, including China, Japan, USA, Germany, Italy and France will be exhibiting at the Bourse in Paris during FIAC. Isis will be showing in association with L-13. Artists include Alice O'Malley, Fabrice Cazenave and Ruth Marten. Further details here.
Fabrice Cazenave - Drawing under hypnosis
News posted on 26 July 2011
French artist Fabrice Cazenave (1975) has now undertaken a fascinating project for which he has been searching for a willing accomplice. Parisian hypnotherapist Jean-Francois Hirsch recently agreed to take the artist into a hypnotic trance to open up a new area of exploration. Cazenave has extensively drawn 'blind' with his eyes closed, expressing particular experiences and their relation to the inner body through marks on paper, using his touch to both map the space and chose the hardness or softness of pencil to use. Here Cazenave goes even deeper, removing himself yet further from the controlling influence of both gaze and premeditation. You can find out more about the artist, watch footage from the sessions and see the extraordinary results here.
Ragged Kingdom - Jamie Reid July 2nd - July 30th
News posted on 11 May 2011
Isis Gallery at Londonewcastle Depot, 1-3 Wenlock Road, London N1 7SL
July 2nd – July 30th 2011
Gallery open Noon-6pm
Tuesday-Saturday
Preview: Friday July 1st 6-9pm
.
Ye of the Plough, Ye of the Bower,
Ye of the Mill and Ye of the Tower,
Ye of the Way and Ye of the Tree,
Ye of the Stars and Ye of the Sea,
Rise Up to the Cry of the Commoners Storie,
Our Ragged Kingdom - a Kingdom of Glory!
Anon (Trad)
Jamie Reid is world renowned for his work with the Sex Pistols, but there is so much more than this. Reid’s collaboration on the Suburban Press (1971-1975) was an early coalescing of his political convictions and artistic intuition, and his output after the implosion of the Pistols extended his artistic drive through many genres - music, publishing, performance. After a long creative residency at the Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch and three years as visual art director for Afro Celt Sound System, he has for the last ten years, immersed himself in a daily painting practice to explore and reveal the Aspects of the Eightfold Year (www.eightfoldyear.org).
Ragged Kingdom installation view by Declan O'Neil
Ragged Kingdom will manifest as a Peace Camp in our midst - a place to pow-wow. Eight custom-made tipis with magickal adornments will be drawn up into a protective circle with a ritual space at its axis. Tipis traditionally represent Shelter, Wonderment, Harmony, Peace, Beauty and Community. For Ragged Kingdom, each tipi will be a world in itself, internally representing eight aspects of Reid’s career to date – Suburban Press, The Cat Book, Sex Pistols, How To Become Invisible, Afrocelt/Visual Stress, Strongroom, a Festival of Sleeves and the Eightfold Year.
The exterior of Isis Gallery at Londonewcastle Depot will feature a giant montage of selected posters, glyphs and symbols by Jamie Reid.
Ragged Kingdom/Pay No Poll Tax, 2011, 100 x 70 cm on 310 gsm Hahnemuhle Satin Photo Rag with acrylic screen print, Signed, numbered and titled by the artist
Additionally six special editions of unique overscreened prints by Jamie Reid have been co-published with L-13 and are available to view and purchase along with signed poster editions here.
Trajector Art Fair, Brussels April 30th/May 1st
News posted on 26 April 2011
Tabboo! NYC, (2008), Silver gelatin print, Alice O'Malley
Isis will participate in the Trajector Art Fair in Brussels over the weekend April 30th/May 1st during the forthcoming Brussels Art Fair. This satellite event takes place at the Hotel Bloom. "In part a celebration and playful game with the role of non-profit organisations, project spaces and independent curators within the art commerce systems, Trajector takes the original concept and reconfigures it as a hotel art fair in Brussels' top design hotel. Tongue-in-cheek, critique or hardcore commercial? That's largely up to the participants and audience to determine." Trajector 2011
Isis will present work by Alice O'Malley, Jamie Reid, Fabrice Cazenave, Martin Erik Andersen, Hans de Wit, Ruth Marten and Martin Griffiths in a freeform presentation entitled Confessions Of A Radical Traditionalist.
We were also extremely interested to read the response of Archedeacon of North West Europe John de Wit (no relation but also art historian and former Ashmolean curator) to Martin Griffiths' First Light installation, which you can read here, accompanied by some installation images by Richard Deveraux.
Jamie Reid - Art In The Streets MoCA Los Angeles
News posted on 9 April 2011
God Save The Queen - Swastika Eyes (1977), Newsprint collage with ink on paper, 420mm x 297mm, Jamie Reid (Private collection Houston, TX)
We are very pleased to announce Jamie Reid's participation in the forthcoming Art In The Streets extravaganza at the newly Jeffrey Deitch'ed Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles 17th April - 8th August 2011. Over a dozen extremely important original works will be on show - including the Ransom Note and Swastika Eyes (above) God Save The Queen collages. Other artists include Charlie Ahearn, Futura, Gordon Matta-Clark and Jean-Michel Basquiat. There is an extensive interview with Jamie in a special issue of Juxtapoz Magazine.
Further items from the Jamie Reid Archive will also be on view at the forthcoming exhibition Live! Art & Rock That Changed History at the Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Pecci in Prato, Italy 22nd May - 7th August 2011.
Drawing Now/Salon du Dessin Contemporain, Paris March 25-28th
News posted on 21 March 2011
Untitled (humeurs I) (2011), Charcoal, pencil, pastel, 30 x 40 cm, Fabrice Cazenave
Isis ventures to Paris this week for the Drawing Now/Salon du Dessin Contemporain Art Fair at the Carrousel du Louvre. This will be a wonderful opportunity to see recent works on paper by Fabrice Cazenave (Paris), Hans de Wit (Eindhoven) and Ruth Marten (NYC) - and to meet them to discuss their work as they will all be attending throughout the fair.
Additionally we shall have a limited number of guest passes to the fair which we will be happy to distribute on a first come-first served basis. Email us at contact@isisgallery.org if you wish to attend.
Martin Griffiths' First Light
News posted on 10 February 2011We are extremely pleased to announce the opening on March 1st of Martin Griffiths' First Light installation at Lincoln Cathedral.
First Light installation view at the Cloisters, Lincoln Cathedral 2011
Meticulously conceived and precision engineered to very fine tolerances, First Light will be Griffiths most ambitious sculptural work to date, both in terms of scale and aesthetic reach. Martin describes the project thus: ' First Light, a new eight piece light sculpture installation sourced by natural energy, has been inspired by the beautiful Cloister at Lincoln Cathedral, and by the aspirations of the original cathedral builders. Emerging naturally from the form, dimensions and rhythms of the architecture, it extends these into the medium of light.
The work presents contemplative encounters with the horizontal and vertical directions of space in a composition or radiant light-lines which is intended to build, like a piece of music, to a culminating experience of light, taking the viewer through a progression of metaphysical states: introspection, ascension and expansive outward focus.
This movement of focus is accompanied by a journey of upwardly de-materialising light effects. In passing through and circulating amongst the elements of the installation, the viewer will experience firstly absorbed light, then reflected and transparent-tinted light, and finally pure transmitted light.
As natural light flows through the work, it will give different experiences at different times of day, lighting up at sunrise and extinguishing itself at sunset.'
You can read more about the conception and development of this project by reading Martin's diary entries and viewing photographs and engineering drawings here.
Visiting hours: Monday to Saturday 10am-4pm. Sunday 1pm-3pm. Admission is included within the Cathedral entry charge.
News From Nowhere - November 2010
News posted on 16 November 2010We are extremely pleased to announce the forthcoming opening of Martin Erik Andersen 'matter and mind - slipping through our fingers' from December 16th to February 6th. This is the award winning Danish artist's first solo show in the UK.
This exhibition is a co-operative action for Isis with Sprovieri in London, who will host the installation. You can find out more details and read the press release here. As always, everyone is welcome to attend the preview on December 15th.
Martin Erik Andersen installation view courtesy Galleri Riis, Oslo
Jamie Reid's ambitious and rewarding Eightfold Year online project is now up and running. This exploration of the Druidic lunar calendar offers a new painting for each day of the year, with moon phases, seasonal plant information, festivals and so forth. This project promises to grow in reach and content as the year turns through the seasons and is co-managed by Isis.
We would also like to draw your attention to a special live performance by Simon Fisher Turner of Derek Jarman's Blue at the Duke of York's in Brighton on Wednesday 1st December - World AIDS Day. 'The viewer is immersed in a field of blue light, pure cobalt blue, to fully focus on the soundtrack as Jarman free associates around the artistic, philosophical and metaphysical meanings of blue - sky, water, flowers, a boy named Blue, sadness, the infinite - connecting them to his life and body of work. As the blueness of the screen seems to pulse, the evocative sound collage from longtime musical collaborator Simon Fisher Turner provides the film’s narrative, its pictures and its emotional core.'
Simon Fisher Turner and Alyson Shotz have also recently collaborated on a beautiful installation at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Houston, Texas.
News From Nowhere - September 2010
News posted on 14 September 2010
Earlier this year we were fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with the great and mighty NY legend Alan Vega, to discuss plans for next year’s first ever exhibition of his work with us here in the UK (and play some amazing dates with Suicide and Iggy & The Stooges on the side). Alan has a long career in the visual arts, working with pivotal NY gallerists Ivan Karp, Barbara Gladstone and Jefffrey Deitch in the process. We took the opportunity to make a short film with Nick Abrahams, which you can see here. We will keep you posted for location and dates.
The Jamie Reid Archive is a repository for many wonderful things – work amassed by Jamie from 1968 to the present, encompassing early Suburban Press agit-prop press work, right through the Sex Pistols maelstrom and on through theatrical and esoteric explorations to the present day. Jamie and Isis are involved in an ongoing cataloguing process and monograph project that will be promoted through web and print in the coming year. In the meantime, we are very pleased to offer some selected items from the archive for sale - principally items from the Sex Pistols period. You can browse these items here. All of these items are straight from Jamie’s archive. These items are available exclusively through Isis and not available anywhere else.
We shall soon be announcing a very exciting collaboration for Isis with an internationally-renowned London gallery to present Danish artist Martin Erik Andersen’s first solo exhibition in the UK. We are also very pleased to offer these editioned works on paper for the first time in the UK. Martin’s ritualistic and quixotic work is beautifully represented by these pieces, which you can see here.
From early collaboration with Jon Savage to recent purchase by the Saatchi Collection, Ruth Marten’s exquisite and elegant turns of visual phrase are suffused with what Dominic Nahas succinctly nailed as ‘erotic effervescence’, Ruth has recently turned some of her most popular détournements of small eighteenth century prints into large editioned prints. You can view a selection of these here.
Lastly, but perhaps most wonderfully, we are very pleased to announce a new working relationship with the young Paris-based artist Fabrice Cazenave, whose extraordinarily adamantine drawings we first exhibited in the group show Gone to Earth in 2009. Since then he has produced a sequence of exquisite series that are testament to his emerging talent. Fabrice is also now working on illustrations for the quintessential French fashion house Givenchy.
News From Nowhere
News posted on 24 May 2010As we are working on a number of off-site projects at the moment we would like to update you on events in a slightly different format to our regular e-mailouts.
Storme DeLarverie, Chelsea Hotel (2010)
Silver gelatin print
Alice O'Malley
Alice O'Malley is featured in Greater New York, which has just opened at MoMA/PS1 in Queens NYC. Alice writes of the above image "The image of Storme has a prominent place in the gallery... she's at the head of the table. Storme is 89. She threw the first punch at a police officer during the Stonewall Riots. She was a Big Band singer and the only female member of the legendary drag troupe, the Jewel Box Revue. This photo was taken in March at the Chelsea Hotel where Storme lived for 31 years before she was moved last month to a nursing home against her will." Storme is our Hero for Spring.
You can see more images from this series here.
Additionally, Alice was selected by Lou Reed for his curatorial contribution to the recent New York Photo Festival
Martin Erik Andersen is currently working on a new project with the assistance of London's Freud Museum. We have now uploaded two films - one a short interview with Martin done during the installation of the exhibition The Veil in November 2009, (with Paul Reid), and the other an artist film entitled Home Is Where The Buffalo Roam (1996), for which Martin has supplied the conditions of production which are of considerable interest to those following his practice.
» Continue reading "News From Nowhere "
World Without End - Hans de Wit
News posted on 30 December 2009
Ahab (2009)
Pastel and pencil on paper
150 x 280cm
Jan 9th - Feb 20th 2010
Private view Friday Jan 8th 6pm-9pm
Looking at the work of Dutch artist Hans de Wit (1952) is a dizzying, exhilarating experience. These drawings hit you in a number of ways at once - organic and inorganic forms colliding, morphing, deteriorating, pushing, pulsing, falling and twisting; the scale is often huge, and then there’s the rush of howling sound. As we move closer to enjoy these visions that somehow recall the epic gestures of John Martin (1789), we begin to recognise elements; the dark and threatening hull of a submarine, a bushbaby...a gonad?... getting lost in the distance from edge to edge of the paper and the depth of the artist’s imagination.
De Wit moved his practice from painting to drawing some years back in a bid for figurative clarity and depth that was hard to capture in oil. Since then he has steadily built a major body of work that has been exhibited and collected widely in his home country. Exhibiting superlative technical facility combined with the most extraordinary visual ingenuity results in works that allow us, in these times, a rare sense of wonder and draw us into a ‘labyrinth of endlessly significant complexity’ (The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley, 1954).
Isis gallery is very pleased to host this, Hans de Wit’s first exhibition in the UK.
The Veil - New work by Martin Erik Andersen and Paul Reid
News posted on 4 November 2009
Isis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of a new space and a new exhibition – The Veil - an exhibition of new work by Paul Reid and Martin Erik Andersen. The exhibition opens on November 20th 2009 from 6-9pm and will be on public view from November 21st to December 19th 2009.
For his first exhibition with Isis, Scottish artist Paul Reid (1975) will show a body of new paintings which are a continuation of his exploration of myth and classicist technique with graphite, ink and oil paint.
Also exhibiting with Isis for the first time, Danish artist Martin Erik Andersen (1964) will exhibit two recent works which expand his well-established language and process of accretion – yarn, metal, electrical elements, paper...
The Veil refers to the veil of consciousness which needs to be drawn back to see the true Meaning of Things beyond conception. The apparent differences between Reid and Andersen are stark. Reid’s works are a fascinating exploration of nominally obselete sacred narrative and technique. In the vernacular of contemporary art, Reid’s objectives in this timely display of painterly skill may remain a mystery to the viewer.
In contrast, the materiality of Andersen’s work resonates within our own time – spatial, artful and poetic. Yet, of course there are narratives to be discovered in Andersen’s works also - there are multiple moments to be encountered which create layered and polyvalent spaces for meaning. They point beyond language and to a space that exists beyond formal register of the works themselves.
In exhibiting Reid’s and Andersen’s work together The Veil performs an act of alchemical conjunction. On the surface the radical visual dissimilarity between each artist’s work makes them appear strange and uneasy bedfellows. However, The Veil focuses on the antinomies and incongruities that lie behind and unite these two seemingly diverse artistic practices. It offers an opportunity to see and understand how artistic meaning is generated and approached. It is precisely this question that is revealed when the veil of forms and material things is pulled back.
Isis Editions presents The Great God Pan (2009) by Paul Reid
News posted on 4 November 2009Isis Editions is very pleased to announce the publication of Paul Reid's first editioned work, printed and produced in association with London Print Studio.
The Great God Pan (2009) is signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 25 and is hand printed on 385mm x 280mm 300 gsm Somerset paper with a plate size of 240mm x 170mm.
» For more information and to purchase, visit Isis Editions.
Docetica!
News posted on 1 November 2009Those within striking distance of Rome may be interested to visit David Tibet's exhibition 'Docetica!' at MOTELSALIERI until 28th November. This exhibition features work from the Invocation Of Hallucinatory Mountain cycle of work, previously seen at Isis London.
"I paint apocalypse cartoons and call prayers to God. I use coloured pastel and white ink on black paper. I have depicted how I see and love and fear the world around me and the world to come for me. I have pictured the back of the stars tremble and fall. I have written all the night and its names. I have turned cats into comets. I have stood at the Hallucinatory Mountain, full of trouble and colours, and seen the Kingdom of Heaven roaring like a lamb." God is Love, David Tibet, Hastings, September 17, 2009.
David's work has also recently entered the collection of the wonderful new Museum of Everything in London.
Installation image of 'Doctica!' David Tibet at MOTELSALIERI, Rome
Hans de Wit joins Isis Gallery
News posted on 28 September 2009We are extremely pleased to announce that the renowned Dutch artist Hans de Wit will be joining Isis Gallery. He is a master draughtsman with a most singular vision whose works are held in the collections of major European institutions and private collections. We shall be hosting de Wit's first exhibition in the UK in 2010.
Pencil Poem #1 (2009)
Pastel and pencil on paper
45 x 100cm
Labyrinth of Skin
News posted on 3 August 2009The British poet Andrew Staniland has written an extraordinary response to a work by Paul Reid entitled A Minotaur (2009).
Please follow the link here.
Gone To Earth exhibition extension / Paul Reid joins Isis Gallery
News posted on 16 June 2009The current group exhibition Gone To Earth will be extended for a further two weeks until Saturday June 27th. This exhibition features work by Sarah Lucas, Derek Jarman and Samuel Palmer amongst others.
Installation image
work by Sarah Lucas (sculpture on left)
and Derek Hyatt (paintings on wall)
We are also extremely pleased to announce that the Scottish painter Paul Reid will be exhibiting with Isis Gallery in London. Dates to be announced.
"Since he burst on to the British art scene three years ago, shaking up received notions of what contemporary art was about, Paul Reid has been gathering a loyal audience with his unique take on the apparently redundant tradition of neo-classical painting. Yet he has also made as many people wish he would go away. His art is unlike anything else you will see on the contemporary scene."
Iain Gale Scotland on Sunday, 30th January 2005
Reid's extraordinary works are so out of kilter with the current herd of post-Kippenberger Philip Guston vs Terry Richardson Dumas/Tuymans copyists that his crafted explorations of myth, drama, composition and process seem positively anarchic.
Theseus and the Minotaur (Version 1) 2006
Oil on canvas
71.1 x 81.3cm
» For more information on Paul Reid click here.
Isis Gallery presents: Gone to Earth
News posted on 24 April 2009an idiosyncratic survey of artistic responses to 'land', 'landscape' and 'the landscape'.
2nd May - 13th June 2009
Adam Chodzko Derek Jarman Fabrice Cazenave Sarah Lucas Samuel Palmer Alan Kane
Jamie Reid Derek Hyatt Eric Geddes
He moved out now into the middle of the road and surveyed the landscape. As he did so, two very distinct and contradictory odours assailed his nostrils. There were no houses across the way, nothing but a foul-smelling ditch, the receptacle of sewage from an adjoining pig-yard: and beyond that an enormously high hedge, on the top of which, where no child could reach, grew clumps of honeysuckle and sprays of wild roses.
Wolf Solent (1929)
John Cowper Powys
If the Romantic movement developed through disillusion after the bloody horror of revolution, it follows that this rush to the Liberty of Eden was a very British, post-Enlightenment sanctuary search for those wealthy enough to perhaps have seen the Great terror firsthand or to have the time and energy to read and discuss the issues of the day. For those less fortunate, this rural idyll was harsh and brutal, cold, depressing, desperate, impoverished and isolating...
6 Eyes
News posted on 8 April 2009We are very pleased to announce the opening of 6 Eyes at Galerie du Jour Agnes B. This exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Isis Gallery and includes works by Antony, Peter Hujar, Alice O'Malley, Kiki Smith, Barbara Cummard, James Elaine and William Basinski.
Details as below.
Jamie Reid - Onwards and Upwards (Universal Majesty Verity Love Infinite)
News posted on 10 March 2009March 24th - April 25th 2009
For four weeks Isis Gallery will be the home of the Jamie Reid archive for the purpose of research, documentation and exploration as a major new monograph on this most iconic of artists is prepared.
Untitled (To Summon From Unkown Depths/Flying Blue Imp) (1970)
Ink and Gouache on paper,117mm x 132mm
Those interested to see the archive should call the gallery on 020 7636 7222 to arrange a suitable time as usual opening hours will not be observed during this period. Please also note that this will not be a static exhibition but rather an evolving, revolving installation.
When The Earth Had Many Moons (1985)
Unique screenprint, 270mm x 350mm
Isis Gallery presents: Antony - The Creek
News posted on 23 December 2008January 17th - February 28th 2009
Mountains and the Sea (2007)
48" x 71" C Print
(primary materials -newsprint, ink)
Isis Gallery is extremely proud to present The Creek - the first exhibition in the UK of artworks by the renowned singer Antony.
Antony's artworks open up dream landscapes: often fragmentary in appearance, these images map his dreams and liminal states; polymorphic realms give way to indicated spirits; pen marks and scratches conjure archetypes and invite conscious and unconscious visions to emerge.
The primary elements go through many stages - drawn on, burned, soaked in the rain, thrown away and reclaimed, drawn on again, stained or dried over a fire. These are then arranged and photographed. The intimacy of this unique gallery space then heightens the focus and clarity of these private spells. Recalling the notebooks of William S. Burroughs and Antonin Artaud, Antony's works describe the arc of a dream atlas in which each diverse aspect is unified through the desire for healing.
For his work in this exhibition, Antony has collaborated with performance artist Johanna Constantine, model Dr. Julia Yasuda Ph.D, photographer Don Felix Cervantes, and artistic advisor Joie Iacono.
For press enquiries please contact John Marchant - john@isisgallery.org
Isis Editions presents Some Gnostic Cartoons by David Tibet
News posted on 26 November 2008Isis Editions is delighted to announce the publication of Some Gnostic Cartoons, the catalogue for David Tibet's exhibition - Invocation of Hallucinatory Mountain (Some Gnostic Cartoons).
• Bound in maroon cloth with copper blocking to front cover and spine
• Printed endpapers with black/white painting by David Tibet
• 84 pages long
• 32 colour plates printed on gloss art paper
• Introduction by David Tibet
In addition, Michel Faber, author of The Crimson Petal and the White amongst many other books, and Tod Wodicka, author of All Shall be well, and All Shall be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall be Well have respectively written a Foreword and Afterword to the volume.
» For more information and to purchase, visit Isis Editions
David Tibet - INVOCATION OF HALLUCINATORY MOUNTAlN (Some Gnostic Cartoons)
News posted on 19 November 2008
Birth Canal Blue, 2007
Pastel on paper, 297x210mm
Recent works on paper inspired by Apocryphal, Gnostic and Hallucinatory scriptures.
Private view: Friday 28th November 2008 6pm-8pm
29th November - 10th Jan 2009
11am-6pm Tuesday to Saturday
For INVOCATION OF HALLUCINATORY MOUNTAlN (Some Gnostic Cartoons), David Tibet will install a beguiling cycle of recent works on paper that have sprung from his intense study of scriptural and apocryphal Gnostic and Christian texts in the Coptic language as well as from his joyous exploration of the Canon of Apocalyptic Cartoons.
David Tibet's visionary drawings are those of the artist as scribe illuminating the contours and spaces of our shared spirit worlds. Tibet's work is profoundly magical in intention and it portrays and describes the dimensions of hallucinatory bodies and their worlds, where writing and image are both fluid and entwined. His drawings are child-like, playful and comical, as he continues his colouring in of the universes. In these spaces the hierarchy of human, animal and spirit forms is dissolved: masks dream of planets and grin at moons.
The imaginative world that Tibet gives form to is one in which writing and speech are divine, full of promises and threats. This investigation of word and form is rooted in his studies of the Coptic language, as well as in readings of ecstatic canonical and non-canonical Christian texts. However, these ideas are filtered through a uniquely English sensibility that places him in the tradition of such diverse figures as Enid Blyton, Aleister Crowley and Louis Wain. His idiosyncratic and passionate work shines an inmost light on the pleasures and horrors of the divine comedy that we all inhabit.
» More about INVOCATION OF HALLUCINATORY MOUNTAlN (Some Gnostic Cartoons)
Simon Fisher Turner: "In A Pure Land" limited 12" vinyl edition
News posted on 15 October 2008In celebration and response to the popular group show In A Pure Land at Isis Gallery (Nayland Blake, Martin Griffiths and Alyson Shotz) we are thrilled to announce the release on Isis Editions of musical counterpoints to the works of the three artists by world renowned composer and musician Simon Fisher Turner.
Simon Fisher Turner is probably best known for his collaborative work with Derek Jarman on the films Caravaggio, Edward II, The Garden and Blue. A more extensive biography can be found here.
These three pieces are released as a limited edition clear vinyl text-free 12" on Isis Editions. Edition size: 333 copies. Cost £10 plus p&p. Please follow the link below for sound clips and to order. The 12" will be exclusively available from Isis Editions and Touch.
Additionally, due to popular response to In A Pure Land, this exhibition will now be extended to November 8th.
» Purchase the limited 12" edition at Isis Editions
» Purchase the limited 12" edition via the Touch Shop
In A Pure Land - an exhibition of new sculpture
News posted on 2 September 2008In A Pure Land: group sculpture show featuring works by Nayland Blake, Martin Griffiths and Alyson Shotz.
Alyson Shotz - Luminous Harmonic, 2008 (detail)
Private view: 6-8pm, 12th September 2008
13th September - 25th September 2008
In a time of communal unease, bad news, moral panic and government-induced fear, an invaluable role of the Arts is to uplift the spirit.
“It is simply a weakness of thinking in which one indulges when one assumes the existence of rigid, eternal atoms. What we find when our thinking deals with reality is that all material is perpetually dissolved right through into nothingness. People only speak of material constancy because as material perishes new material incessantly arises.Where material perishes in the human being, becomes appearance and then new material arises, that is where the possibility of freedom is situated and that is where the possibility of love is situated. Freedom and love belong together.”
Rudolph Steiner, 19th December 1920
In A Pure Land Isis Gallery, London installation 2008
Jamie Reid and Comme des Garçons
News posted on 21 July 2008Isis is extremely pleased to announce the launch of the Jamie Reid/Rei Kawakubo collaboration for Comme des Garçons.
The Autumn/Winter 08 menswear collection is entitled Time For Magic after Jamie Reid’s eponymous work from 1995, and features images and text-based works from 1972 to the present. This collection was previewed in Paris in January and has just been launched worldwide.
As a special project Comme des Garçons commissioned Jamie to create a special work for their flagship store in London – Dover Street Market.
This work features a multiplicity of images from Jamie’s archive plus revisited works from the Time For Magic collection; pasted, over-pasted, torn and repositioned in a manner that is beautiful, arresting and startling to encounter in the pristine environs of Mayfair.
This collaboration has been project-managed by Isis Gallery.
Click here for further images of the collection, the Dover Street Market window installation and a video of the January 2008 catwalk show.
Time For Magic indeed!
ps. Ruth Marten’s work can also be seen at IT group’s exhibition of Comme des Garçons imagery in the 798 district of Beijing. Visit www.hypebeast.com for more information.
» Jamie Reid and Comme des Garçons: images and video
Isis Editions presents Community of Elsewheres by Alice O'Malley
News posted on 17 July 2008On the occasion of Alice O'Malley's beautiful first exhibition in London, Isis Editions presents 'Community of Elsewheres' (48 page, 18 plate, hardback) in a signed, limited edition of 500. Also available, 'Christopher (floor)', NYC 2000, 10" x 8" silver gelatine print, titled, signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 40. Visit the Isis Editions section to purchase online.
Alice O'Malley
News posted on 6 June 2008"...startling, exciting, and memorable. This could be the start of something big."
Vince Aletti, New Yorker
Isis Gallery is proud to announce the opening of Alice O'Malley's Community of Elsewheres, running from June 14th to July 26th 2008.
"O'Malley's formal studio portraits of artists, performers, and friends depict untraditional people, whose defiant presence counterbalances the increasing obsolescence of such individuals currently being witnessed in New York City today. The Lower East Side has long been a place in which art and the avant-garde function as integral parts of urban life. O'Malley's portraits provide an intimate look at the people who give it this character."
Lia Gangitano, Participant Inc, NYC
This is Alice's first exhibition outside the US.
Isis Editions will also be publishing 'Community of Elsewheres' (48pp, hardback) in a signed, limited edition of 500 on the occasion of this exhibition.
» More about Community of Elsewheres
Ruth Marten
News posted on 28 March 2008Isis Gallery is extremely proud to announce the opening of Histoire Un-Naturelle by Ruth Marten on the 26th April 2008. For her latest body of work Marten's embellished recombinants of 17th and 18th century engravings seamlessly weave radical alterations, subtle visual humour and ecstatic fantasy into delirious social landscapes.
Isis Editions will also be publishing 'Histoire Un-Naturelle' on the occasion of this exhibition, featuring plates hand coloured by the artist.
» More about Histoire Un-Naturelle
