As we gear up for the opening of Joel Clifford’s Arcam show next Wednesday, Joel has kindly given us a sneak peak behind the scenes as to what as been happening in the studio.  We hope you can join us on Wednesday the 9th of May.

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New York based artist José Parlá creates a textured representation of experience in the inner-city.  His mixed media and acrylic works offer a tale of woe, with measured and detailed chronicles of the transforming and every illusive nature of the lone experience in an urban environment.

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Often we view buildings like people, their weathered and bruised facades reflective of their life and all that has come with standing strong, telling a story entirely of their own existence. Erin Murray’s crisp paintings of commercial and residential buildings borrow from the language and grammar of portraiture. Depicted as individuals, wearing the evidence of their personal histories on their skin, adding depth, to their tenure and just as we imagine how their surroundings have morphed and developed, the buildings themselves have us contemplate their future existence.

Erin’s work is something we truly admire and her approach is similar to that of forthcoming ODG artist Frank Laws. His portrayal of the cold reality of London tower blocks is testament to the grim reality of inner city life and the shallow conditions of the capital.

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We’re big fans of the Brooklyn based Alex Roulette. The Hyper-Realist painter creates works, primarily oil paintings that look like photographs, with a new series of works entitled ‘Fabricated Realism’ injecting a heavy dose of the surreal.

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As the internet exploded with a wave of Tupac content over the last few days, we were drawn back to some iconic images of the rapper.Michael Miller is the man responsible for many of the photographs we’ve become so use to seing which have in no small part immortalised the contentious artist. The LA based photographer has an exhibition of West Coast Hip Hop history opening in San Francisco at the much loved SF24 gallery. Following from his show in LA and the launch of the book by the same name.Freshjive recently put together a great interview with Michael which you can check out below. His work is most certainly worth exploring further.

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Joel Clifford, artist, has collaborated with London-based musician Arcam to produce a specialist screen print series in response to each track of Arcamʼs forthcoming album, August. Friendship and mutual aesthetic ideas related to sight, sound and environment have formed the foundations on which this interactive exhibition has been created.

Joel Clifford is an illustrator and professional printmaker based in London. His work has a graphic style shaped by the layering nature of screen printing. He doesnʼt draw; instead he thinks in collage, mentally layering and combining shapes, colours and found imagery. He collects inspiration from many sources and experiments with the aesthetics of the original image, forming a narrative that draws upon the past, mixing in contemporary artworking.

Arcamʼs album August was recorded intermittently between 2007 and 2012 but written as a single composition in which each track contributes to an overarching narrative exploring themes of time, memory and loss. Track titles reference changes in seasons and the movement of the sea is a recurring metaphor. Natural imagery and the angular modernism of the prints represent contemporary and nostalgic themes using printed paper, wood panels and hand-made printed blankets.

August is comprised of recordings formed entirely of sounds originating from a single source: the guitar. Yet, while the tonal qualities of an electric six-string are evident throughout, they appear in a modified state having been digitally re-rendered to form tones, drones, swells and surges, resonant textures, clicks and cuts.
This is a multi-media exhibition. Each artwork has been assigned a QR code. By scanning these codes with a smartphone, exhibition visitors can stream the audio track associated with each artwork on their phone. Visitors are encouraged to bring a smartphone with headphones to the gallery to experience the exhibition in full.

Visitor Instructions
1. Install a QR code reader on your smartphone (we recommend QR Reader, available free for iPhone and Android with ads or £0.69 for ads-free version)
2. Open the QR code reader app
3. Point your smartphone camera at QR code
4. Your phone should open a webpage containing an image of the artwork the code relates to. Below this you should see a soundcloud music player. Click play on the player to stream the audio track associated with the artwork.

The tracks can also be streamed from www.arcamexhibition.com

August will also be available to purchase on limited edition CD from Orange Dot Gallery for the duration of the exhibition and will be released digitally to co-incide with the exhibition opening.

August litters over the last tread of the day, and hope ever swells in all our dark places…

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Our monthly radio show on StrongroomAlive is now up on Mixcloud. Featuring an interview with Richard King the author of How Soon is Now?: The Madmen and Mavericks who made Independent Music 1975-2005 and as always we’re joined by Double Denim for all the latest on the independent music front.

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“Almost three years ago to the day, I was at one of those First Thursday things in East London where it’s generally more about the beer and the people than it is about the works. In fact the work that evening, or at least the portion i managed to see, had been unusually bad.

That all changed, when I bumped into an old friend of mine Catherine, who was running The Outside World gallery. I went in to catch up with her and saw the artwork on display without looking at it.

It was only when i started chatting to the artist, Dan, and he was talking me through the paintings that i saw the work. We shared a love of things esoteric and exchanged recommendations on books. The paintings, a reworking of famous Old Masters, weren’t necessarily the last word on a subject on which a lot of artists riff but they were an indication, to me at least, of a highly unusual talent. The taste of things to come was very very intoxicating.

After a discussion with my business partner which lasted all of five minutes, we bought most of the paintings on display.

It was a costly chance encounter with an old friend which I haven’t regretted for a single minute.

Dan and I stayed in touch and he sent me images of works in progress from his new base in Riga and we had scheduled a show for September (2011). The new work (seen on a computer screen only) were definitely indicative of the talent we had noticed that Thursday evening.

Sadly, fate decided on a different play. I received a phone call from Dan’s Mother, Dee, with some very sad news.

Nevertheless we decided to carry on with a show on what would have been his birthday to celebrate a talent and a life cut short.”

– Vikas Malik, co-founder The Orange Dot Art Gallery.

Dan Jupp was born in Jamaica in 1980 and spent his childhood there as well as Bangladesh, Singapore and the UK. He moved to Riga, Latvia in 2009. This nomadic lifestyle had great impact on his perspectives of the World. His art draws on thoughtful interpretions of different ideologies and philosophies which fascinated him from a young age. As a practitioner of various types of yoga and meditation and an avid reader of esoterica, ideas from Hinduism, mystical Christianity, Sufism and Zen Buddhism infuse his work. Much derives from a deep psychological and emotional level, all of which drive a metaphysical necessity to heal and improve. Although the subjects sometimes seem dark on first sight closer reflection reveals often ultimately uplifting sentiments; blood turning into roses, phoenix rising, transmutations of evil into good. Many of his pieces are deliberately satirical and mock the excesses of modernity and accepted dogma.

Dan studied Special Effects at Wimbledon School of Art , London where he learnt his skills as a sculptor (and worked on one of the creatures in the HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy film); however he taught himself painting skills and painting in oils and acrylics became his preferred milieu for several years. His debut exhibition was at The Outside World Gallery in London in May 2009 where he sold a number of pieces – a remarkable achievement for a debut exhibition as the gallery owner recalls. Subsequent exhibitions were held at Red Gate Gallery, London (September 2009 and July 2010) and Gallerija L, Riga (April 2011). His influences range from Bosch to Banksy, Dali, H.R. Giger, Nerdrum, Kahlo, Grey, Mueck, the Chapman Brothers and John Currin. He draws upon literature, life experiences and music, primarily that of TOOL and Bob Marley.

Dan suffered bouts of depression and following a mugging incident in early 2011 in Riga experienced serious panic attacks. He took his own life on June 1st, 2011. This exhibition was planned for September 2011. He was really looking forward to it. It would have been his fifth. Dan was adamant that he wanted his art to be in the public domain and he would be a successful recognised artist and to further this we re-scheduled the exibition to April 2012.

A charity is being established in his memory. Called Anando Dan ( which means ‘Giving Joy’ in Bengali) it is intended to give underprivileged teenagers in a slum in Bangladesh the opportunity to explore creative arts and have fun.. Dan spent those same years of his life in Bangladesh and was always very concerned about those who did not have the same chances that he had. Poceeds from the exhibition will support Anando Dan

Private View is 11th April

Show Runs from 12th April to 27th of April

RSVP HERE

For more information please contact lawrence@theorangedot.co.uk

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We’re beginning to see the makings of one the most exciting shows we’ve exhibited here at the ODG. Frank Laws will be on show here at the gallery in July and to coincide with the Olympics we chose a show that truly reflected the London we see everyday. Frank’s famed for his detailed and atmospheric paintings of London buildings. As such we were really pleased that he was up for exhibiting a new body of work and he has begun producing a series of tower blocks and flats for the show. Frank is blogging the development of his work and it provides an unrivalled insight into the artistic process, adding depth and feeling to his work.

Much like the construction of the buildings themselves, Frank’s showing the layers and depth that go into each piece, reminiscent of the process that went into these buildings that have become iconic to the residents across the capital.

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This past Saturday we hosted our second show with Strongroom Alive.  The live radio show aired on Saturday night and featured a great insight into the history of the gallery.  Alongside an interview with Over It & Co and highlights from the opening as well as live catch up with Double Denim from SXSW in Texas!  Plenty of music and good chatter for your saturday night.  Our next show will be live on the 14th of April.

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