Galleries - November 2014

being sponsored by Ibis (their Sweet Bed in particular!), but nonetheless a nice idea imaginatively carried through in that the twelve artists involved at Gallery Different (from 24 November) are being asked to sleep in one of these beds in the gallery and then create a new work inspired by that night’s sleep. The exhibition grows daily and becomes as they say, “an installation space for the exploration of sleep and creativity.” Given the significance of dream states in our artistic and intellectual life there would seem to be some real possibilities to it. They have got some good names to participate too, among them Came Griffiths, who will be working with calligraphic techniques, graphites and liquids and focusing on the creation and manipulation of the drawn line. Not Doing the Maths In our Thumbnail on Paul Crotto’s ‘After Matisse’ show at Webbs Fine Art Gallery in Battersea last issue, we miscalculated the artist’s age as 94: Mr Crotto is in fact just 92, so our apologies to him for speeding the march of time. The exhibition of his bold and colourful serigraphs continues until 22 December. Pride of place this year is given to the Society’s bird migration project, undertaken in collaboration with the British Trust for Ornithology, in which four artists spent two weeks in Senegal with BTO scientists looking at the wintering grounds while others visited summer breeding grounds in the UK – their amazing journeys being told in the resulting work. Lots of other wonderful stuff besides this of course, plus free entry if you produce a copy of this magazine at the Gallery Desk . . .! Also at the Mall Galleries later this month is the New English Art Club’s annual show (from 27 November), the last in its usual pre-Christmas slot before it moves to a new date in June 2015. This is another society doing a lot to sharpen up its image with a new £5,000 Zsuzsi Roboz Prize being awarded to an artist who “demonstrates excellence in draughtsmanship in painting or drawing.” If you have never been to one of their shows, I suspect you’ll be greatly surprised by the sheer range, variety and excellence this venerable and, once perhaps, slightly sleepy society now puts forward . . . Sleepytime Well, I have to say this is a first for me – an exhibition which actually takes sleep as its inspiration. Not entirely surprising, in that the show is 12 GALLERIES NOVEMBER 2014 ANTENNAE Hang the Lot! The CGP London Cafe Gallery ’s Annual Open (from 19 November) has been going only one year less than this publication, 30 years in fact, and it was, like us, something of a pioneer in its field, its unheard of policy of hanging everything beginning with its first show in 1984. It thrives, with hundreds of small works, 2-D, 3-D and moving image, at often deeply attractive prices, while this year’s distinguished selector of the ‘best in exhibition’ is Robin Klassnick, Director of Matt’s Gallery. And, if you’re an artist, this editorial can, if you are quick about it, still serve as a call to enter – no advance application is required, just deliver to the gallery on 8/9th November, £8 a work or 3 for £20. Full details from CGP: listing on map 29. Wild Life Readers of this column will be well aware of my predilection for wildlife art so, here I go again, with news of the Society of Wildlife Artists’ annual show at the Mall Galleries (to 9 November). This is a society which has done a great deal to keep itself in touch with contemporary trends in the field – rapidly changing in recent years particularly – and there is nothing fuddy-duddy or old-fashioned about the artistic attitudes they like to encourage, as this show makes very plain. Harriet Mead ‘Tack Hammer Deer’ found object steel and M ax Angus ‘Alexanders and Racing Hares, North Norfolk’ linocut. Society of Wildlife Artists at Mall Galleries