My blog
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coming soon...
Sunday, Oct 18, 2009 12:13PM / Standard Entry
So, i haven't blogged for a while, been soooo busy working on a huge installation project which will be up April next year in an enormous 20,000 sq ft space right here in Hong Kong. The show is a mixture of films, sculptures, installation and perfomance. There'll be a number of crazy innovative pieces of art, stuff you've never seen before. More about that later. In the meantime, I've got to pay for all this upcoming production so I've been painting non-stop. I've just finished an exhibition in Los Angeles and am now preparing for a small one in Central, Hong Kong.
Here's a preview of some of the new stuff, before, after, details and in various stages of progress.....
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Venice Biennale, 2009
Friday, Jun 12, 2009 1:01PM / Standard Entry
Last week my manager calls me up from Italy and says 'Get your ass on the plane, you should be in Venice right now!'. I've been so crazy busy I'd forgot all about the Venice Biennale, probably the biggest and most important event in the art world. It happens every 2 years and is a non-commercial temporary exhibition that includes hundreds of artists from all over the world.
The main parts are the Gardinari where ma y countries have there own unique exhibition space, a little pavilion each where they show their local artists, and the Arsenale which is a huge curated section where the Biennale director chooses who and what goes in. On top of this there are countless satellite events all over Venice.
The Biennale runs until November, here's a few images from my brief, 4 day, adventure:
Venice is tiny, you can walk across the whole town in an hour but mostly you take water taxis through the canals. No roads, no cars, only walk or travel by boat or gondola.
heading into venice in style baby!
so, these shots are from the curated section, beautiful and massive warehouses called the Arsenale.
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No much painting to be seen but these in the Italian paviion were fascinating.
These sculptures were one of my favourite things in the whole show.
Wonderful skies while i was there.
My hotel interior.
Every where you look is a postcard moment.
Your boy!
The mos impressive thing in Venice were the churches. I'm not religious but these buildings and the paintings and sculpture inside really put the whole Biennale to shame.
went to a killer party on this rich guys boat.
these shots are from the Gardinari part of the biennale where each country had it's own pavilion.
no, this is not an ikea showroom, it's the german pavilion.
this is the outside of the american pavilion by Bruce Nauman, actually pretty good this one.
This is a collateral event at the Peggy Guggenheim collection, Robert Rauschenberg sculptures from the eighties. great stuff.
This was very impressive, a private museum by a super rich French collector named Pinault. He had work by every major artist you've ever heard of, Rachel Whiteread below and Richard Prince just to the left. Sorry for the crap photos but they kept hassling me not to take shots so i sneaked these in with my camera phone.
The Chapman Brothers second version of their work 'Fucking Hell'. The first one burnt down in Saatchi's fire.
Sigmar Polke, doesn't look much in photos but these huge varnish soaked canvases were wonderful.
These sculptures by Cattelan were solid marble.
Man, I'm sick of Murakami but I always loved these huge manga figures from his earlier work.
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ArtHK 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009 10:55AM / Standard Entry
OK, so the art fair is on fire! Amazing this year. The show opened Wednesday and I have never seen a crowd like it, just absolutely packed. A wonderful thing to see in HK, so many people engaged by art.
If you didn't already go, it's open until tomorrow. May 17th,at the HK Convention Centre in Wanchai.
Here's some cool stuff from the show...
This is my work at the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery booth
Aanish Kapoor had a few things on display
Man, I'm so sick of seeing Mao in Chinese art but this was kinda cute...
Tiny little video, very cool...
Marc Quinn, love it...
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Basquiat, always blows me away...
Japanese artist, a real stuffed leopard in there...
Anthony Gormley, wonderful.
Dress made of porcelain, amazing....
Dresses made from mah jong tiles, cute....
A ton of Julien Opie. Kinda seems like design to me but nice anyway...
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I'm in Miami, bitch.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:18AM / Standard Entry
Not a great title for the blog but it just about captures the essence of Miami. Miami is loud, brash and all about 'glamour', parties, getting crunk and lying on the beach with thousands of fat Americans. No offense to slim Americans but, well, there really are a lot of very large ones in Miami.
The best selling t-shirt in Miami really does have the words 'I'm in Miami, bitch' written on it in big letters.
It's a real party, holiday town where the filthy rich meet the just plain filthy. It's kinda like Las Vegas on the beach, without the casinos.
Here's the take off from LA, spent a few days in there in Venice and Santa Monica, surfed every day, sweet.....
Touch down in Miami....
The only flight that worked for my schedule was American Airlines, possibly the worst airline in the world. If you want to eat something on the 5 hour flight to Miami from LA, you gotta pay for it. $6 for a sandwich and $6 for a beer. How fucking low rent can you get. They can't even afford paint for their shitty planes, most of it is bare aluminium.....!
Aw yeah, I'm not in Hong Kong now.....
Blue skies every day but one heck of a boring beach....
Outside of the beach and the nightclubs, there is a great little art scene, to which I've just contributed with a solo exhibition which opened last week.
The show was at a great new art space called AE District which is run by Max Pierre and his crew, possibly the nicest bunch you'll ever meet. The opening turned into a party with an awesome new band from NYC playing called 'Rick Lucy' (google them, they're on MySpace).
The show was a great success which was a relief because America is really hurting from the financial crisis.
myself with gallery owner Max..
Your boy, Simon Birch.....
The opening was sponsored by a vodka company and they made a special cocktail just for me!
It was yummy of course!
While in Miami I checked out some cool stuff, these first 2 from the Museum of contemporary Art who has a trippy abstract video art show on:
But more impressive than the state run museum was this private museum owned by some super rich family called Rubell. This is their own museum, double the size of the MOCA, and just an amazing collection of work. The show I saw was of 30 black artists, just wonderful stuff:
And that concludes todays blog
I'll try to do a report this week on the Hong Kong Art Fair. It opens today and is on until Sunday at the convention centre in Wan Chai. It's awesome!!! and my work is on display there too!!
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Miami, here I come!
Tuesday, Mar 24, 2009 11:41AM / Standard Entry
Haven't managed to get a blog done for a while because I've been chained to my studio working on a new exhibition. This next show, 'Raw And Loved', opens in Miami on May 9th at an awesome new gallery called AE District, right in the middle of Miami's famous design district. Here's some preview shots as we got the work packed up and shipped off and I'll add more when I get there next month.
I had some work show in LA last month with much success but the Miami show is my first major solo show in the States so very excited about it.
The artist at work, looking a bit grump but quite happy really.
This is the latest work and it's progression over a few days.
A finished new one.
Studio is a mess, I've been here 24/7 for the last few months.
Crating guys packing the works, 20 new paintings.
On the truck and ready to roll.
Miami better get ready, here we come!
