Judging Panel announced for Artist of the Week!

Salon Contemporary has the pleasure of introducing you to the five FANTASTIC judges, interviewing our ten AoW winners this Friday 5th November...

Samir Ceric:  Gallery Director and Founder of Salon Contemporary.  The panel's moderator.

Ceric will be looking for artists that challenge the current art scene, both conceptually and aesthetically.  

 

Ben Young:  Internationally acclaimed artist and mentor to the final AoW winner.

Ben’s experience and raw talent as a painter will be greatly appreciated on Friday.

Jean-Phillipe Vernes:  Experienced Art Collector

Vernes has snapped up works by the most established British artists, before they were recognised.



Medeia Cohan-Petrolino:  Acting Head of Alumni Relations for University of the Arts London where she runs the unique Emerging Artist Programme


Medeia will be keeping her eyes peeled for the rising stars of the emerging art scene.



Tigz Rice:  Editor for Creative Boom and professional photographer.


Tigz edits the cultural magazine, which attracts around 10,000 unique visitors everyday.




Click here to read a more detailed description of our AoW Judging Panel!


The short listed artists will be chosen by 5pm on Friday 5^th November.  Once they are announced, the public will be allowed to vote for their favourite Artist of the Week, via the voting poll that will be situated on THIS BLOG once the announcement is made.  The closing date for voting is 5pm on Monday 29^th November.  

The judges will then discuss the outcome of the public’s choice, which will assist them in nominating the final Artist of the Week winner, who will be announced at the opening of the AoW Christmas Show on 1^st December.  What an incredibly exciting month November is going to be for Salon Contemporary. 

Don’t miss your chance to get involved!



Alyona visits space to prepare for window projection

AoW winner Alyona Larionova visited the Salon last week to measure our window space for the Artist of the Week November teasers!  Some of our talented winners will be displaying their work in the window each week of November.

Alyona will be projecting one of her videos onto the floor (seen above) of the window space for a week beginning Monday 8th Nov.  We welcome any art that promotes public interaction!

Performance collective Akleriah to perform this Mon 1st Nov!!

The stunning, eccentric and colourful arts collective Akleriah will be performing in the window of Salon Contemporary this coming Monday 1st November.  Don't miss the fantastic, other-worldly display they have in store!  Akleriah (our 2nd AoW winners) will begin performing at 2pm throughout the day.  

We CAN'T WAIT!

Visit Akleriah's website www.akleriah.com

Remember, Remember the 5th of November.........

The 5th November 2010 is not only the day for remembering the near destruction of Parliament (and an excuse to set off fireworks)......BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, it is when the 10 Artist of the Week winners will go head to head, to see who will win a place in

Salon Contemporary's Artist of the Week Christmas Exhibition! 

All 10 will be interviewed by a  judging panel of professionals here at the gallery.....and the lucky bunch shortlisted will be exhibiting come 1st December! 

THERE'S MORE................

There can only be ONE winner of the show; one 'AoW'. 

AND we're getting the public  involved. YES, YOU GUYS.

SO, after the lucky exhibiting artists have been decided by our wonderful judges, WE WANT YOU TO VOTE WHO YOUR FAVOURITE IS! You can vote right here on our blog!!

Voting opens Monday 5th Nov 5pm and closes Monday 29th Nov 5pm.

GET INVOLVED!

Joao de Brito Vidigals 'Warmup'

João de Brito Vidigal - AoW Winner 10! 25th Nov '10

CONGRATULATIONS to our 10th Artist of the Week!  Now in the running with the other ten winners to be part of the Salon Conemporary AoW Christmas Show!!

A Few Facts About Vidigal

It is rather hard for him to decide on a favorite song. He is extremely ecletic in the first place; having played piano for three years, sang in a professional choir for six years, dj'ing since 2000, produced music, programmed concerts, worked on stage and having part of his artwork as sound art.   The best he can do is set a top 10 playlist of the songs he's currently listening to as he cyle's through London:
LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change
Them Crooked Vultures - No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
Yuksek - Tonight
Gorillaz - Stylo
Queens of the Stone Age - Song for the Dead
Editors - You Don't Know Love
Hot Chip - One Life Stand
Faith no More - RV
Chromeo - Needy Girl
Digitalism - Taken Away

His three favourite things about Portugal are sun, food and party.  His favourite food depends on the mood. From a light salad to a heavy Porrtuguese "feijoada", a good beef steak to a fresh fish, a hangover burger or a late night prawn cocktail!  He describes himself as 'Humbrilliant'.  In his spare him he likes to make noise and find/create new ways of doing it.

Joao feels colors are mood describers... he is currently orange.

Dance 07, Acrylic and Black Felt

Joao's work is inscribed in the universe of the everyday life.  He attempts to unveil new perspectives, points of view and ways of looking at the curious things that come accross his lifetime.  The artists work constantly attempts to question the relationship of the human being in space, in the contemporary age.

'Dance 11', Bronze

Jo does not centre his practice around one medium but in the possibility of medium transformation, as he translates audio data to performance, to video, to visual data and text.  Committed to work within the possibilities of the digital, he sees technology as a tool to achieve an end.

Video Stills from samples of video responses to 'Dance 01'

'ON/OFF Box' Wood.  Arduino. Swith and Buzzer

Joan recently met Arduino and Pure Data, widening his approach on interactivity and generative art.

Arist of the Week has shiny new blog!!

Welcome to the new and improved Artist of the Week blog! 

We're approaching the 10th week of the competition....and AoW winner 10 will have a chance to exhibit in the 'Artist of the Week Christmas Show'!  So, there's NO excuse not to get involved.  Have a look at the fantastic selection of talented artists below -  Comment, like (..or dislike if you're game), tweet, blog, SHARE!  

Let us know what you think.

Who's your favourite?

Jung-Hua Liu's 'london'

Artist of the Week winner 9 Jung-Hua Liu's 'London Wi-Fi walking'

Jung-Hua Liu: AoW Winner 9 - 18th Oct '10

Chicago

A Few Facts About Liu 

When he saw the fascinating paintings
of Diego Velázquez as a child, Jung-Hua wanted to
become an artist and 'depict the inner nature from
the appearance', just like Velázquez.  The artist would love
to display his works at the Tate Modern, to enable
people from all over the world to view his work.
The inventive PHD students favourite food is roast duck
with fried rice.  Favourite smell? Chinese tea.  Jung
describes himself as complicated, and the best book
he has ever read is "Norwegian wood" by Japanese
author - Haruki Murakam.

Walking 2

 Liu majored in anthropology and archaeology, and as a result is interested in the representation and materialisation of invisible landscapes in our daily life.  Jung-Hua's recent artworks were inspired by Taipei Wi-Fi Project. The artist has taken further this idea in four cities, including London, New York, Chicago and Hong Kong. Liu independantly collected BSSIDs and recorded moving routes, BSSIDs, dates and routes constitute the pieces.

London

To create artworks to express the ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks, Liu chose colour charts on webpages as the media. Colour is both of human and machine. In human societies, colours have their cultural and spiritual meaning; for machine, colours are sets of numbers and alphabets. Besides colours, a series of charts could be the beginning and the end. Webpage is the popular media to embody the imagination, especially dynamic pages in our contemporary societies. PHP, a script language, was employed to create my dynamic and colour chart artworks. Furthermore, the webpages were printed as posters to materialize Wi-Fi networks in tangible and touchable artworks.

Hong Kong

Click on the following links below to view more of Jungs work:

Personal Page in School Website
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/fine_art/03_Postgraduate_Research/Shared_Pages/jl.html

Wi Fi Art Project:
http://fireant.itaiwan.net/wireless/en/

Wi Fi Art Blog:
http://wificolour.blogspot.com/

Artist of the Week no.8 Gabo Guzzo's sound piece - Pure impure

Gabo Guzzo: AoW Winner 9 - 11th Oct '10

Eco - elegy  (Snake skin waste, goat fur waste, human hair, resin)

Gabo Guzzo’s work explores the potential of living within a dynamic ‘open system’, investigating the relevance of establishing a difference between draftness and completeness and thus questioning originality.

Untitled

The concepts of self-invention and self-expression presented in his work, clarify how an empowered human being is today, not only able to take control of the Natural system, but in fact engages in extended hybridizing practices. After the era of the carat - where mankind pursued purity, of races, geographical boundaries, identities, gender, metals, raw materials, languages, cultures, faiths and genealogical lines – our society now embraces the era of the bastard, in which we worship exoticism, hybrid and contamination.

Sound Installation 'Pure Impure'

Gabo Guzzo is an Italian-born, London-based artist. Educated at Central Saint Martins College, his approach to art encompasses painting, photography, drawing, text and sound. Gabo often merges media together, infusing multiplicity to create a hybrid form of language. His art has been recently exhibited in London at The Whitechapel Gallery and Centre for Recent Drawing, amongst others.

www.gaboguzzo.com

Jonathan Velardi: AoW Winner 7 - 4th Oct '10

Flamingo Parade (Digital Illustration)

A Few Facts About Velardi

Describing himself as ambitious and a perfectionist, the artists key inspiration is Barbara Kruger's most recent commission for the Whitney in New York's Meatpacking district. He describes the work as 'utterly arresting' liking the fact that 'her messages are speaking to an elevated audience - a greater society so to speak.' Velardi's dream would be to display his patterns and animated illustrations on all the LED and static billboards in Times Square, New York. His favourite colour combination is camel and royal blue. He enjoys completely switching off on a Sunday, and the occasional G&T!

 

Crack (MDF and Sparklene)

Since graduating from The Slade School of Fine Art in 2007, Velardi has explored the boundaries of his practice by placing his work beyond the physical and psychological limitations of the gallery and institutional space. t predominantly focuses on print through digital and illustrative processes where he has produced repeat patterns that act as decorative interventions amongst the urban landscape, with the intentions of stimulating a dialogue between non-traditional art audiences and incidental viewers. 

Bigger, Better (Digital Illustration)

Interested in the mechanics of advertising, Velardi finds inspiration from meticulously analyzing symbols and stereotypes from the everyday: themes of aspiration and consumerism are appropriated and reinterpreted through notions of the decorative. Patterns are formed from the cross-fertilization of social and cultural identities from the familiarity of both the past and the present. With the opportunities of commissioned and self-initiated projects, Velardi has been able to realise these concepts in the shape of animated billboard displays and large-scale wallpaper installations within the public realm.

Semper Fidellis (Hand Printed on 100% Cotton)

Similar concepts of familiarity when looking at aspiration and desire shape Velardi's three-dimensional work, and play an equal part in creating a seductive landscape as stage-like

installations - seducing the viewer through curiosity and inviting them to challenge their social assumptions. Velardi's work is the epitome of what the current art world should be: accessible. Passers by indulge in an experience no matter who they are or where they are from.

Heart (37 Mirrors)

Velardi also works with mix media, animation, film and sculpture - check out his website

http://www.jonathanvelardi.com/

  

Artist of the Week winner 6 Alyona Larionova's film 'Untitled' 2010

Alyona Larionova's 'Please Find Enclosed' installation, 2010

Alyona Larionova: AoW Winner 6 - 27th Sep '10

Please Find Enclosed Installation

 

 

A Few Facts About Larionova:

Larionova describes herself as her favourite colour; yellow. On a Sunday she likes to indulge in Ernest Hemingway and JG Ballard, especially when it rains. Inspired by the work of Sophie Calle, she enjoys listening to Frank Sinatra's 'My Way' for the songs meaningful lyrics. Her favourite smells are the Underground in Paris and Moscow, tulips and home.

Please Find Enclosed

Despite being a recent Photography graduate from London College of Communication, Larionova, predominantly uses video and installation as her mediums. Larionova combines objects and processes that are recognizable in our daily experiences in order to comment on the relations between stillness and movement, duration and immobility. These intimate and softly presented narratives are made by the artist to test the limits of the mediums she works with. For instance in ‘Please Find Enclosed’, where the medium becomes almost a solid object. Larionova’s film pieces are delicately formed and considered in style. In her “Pleased Find Enclosed’ series we notice a golden light projected across stark landscapes with a curious structure. The context is clearly driven by sensitivity to the concept and intuition of the actions she wishes to capture.

Please Find Enclosed, Part 2

Exploring the dissolution of boundaries and indeterminacy between space and time, between still and moving, Larioniva presents beautifully her findings though the inner and outer of the installation forming a single continuum – one reason, as she explains, for why the medium of writing is used as an allegory for both photography and film. The process of writing is very similar to the process of recording with a film camera. In such a manner photography becomes the text, which is the carrier of meaning and an index. The whole narration is at risk, should the story be faced with the likes of a missing page. The questions and uncertainties evolving around still and moving are just starting points, the work does not stop there. It talks about the ideas of boundaries and separation on a much larger scale. ‘Please find enclosed’ represents to a certain extent my position as an artist and to the ideas that I express in this body of work. Rather than being separate from each other, still and moving are enclosed within one another.

Dragana Jurisic: AoW Winner 5 - 20th Sep '10

A few facts about Jurisic:

Jurisic moved out of her hometown 10 years ago and left with it many secrets. Having a passion for music and eating anything with berries in it, her next travel destination will be Berlin. She describes herself as restless.

Such a Waste

 Dublin-based photographer Dragana Jurisic questions the nature of photographic seeing with her fresh and aesthetically governed eye for cutting-edge imagery with a provocative hint of nostalgia and emptiness. Are photographers standing back and taking the wider view which separates them both physically and psychologically from their subjects ‘like the gods gazing down on the earth with Olympian dispassion’; or are they hiding with their presented vision, the hurt that they experience in the process? Are photographers tricked by beauty? Juristic has developed a strong style and is exceptionally considerate in how she boldly presents and composes her works.

(Pissing on) The Heart of the City

Dragana Jurisic completed Masters in Fine Art in Documentary Photography at the University of Wales, Newport, receiving a distinction for her work. In 2009, she was selected as an Axis MAstar, “An annual selection of the most promising artist from the UK’s leading MA courses” and shortlisted for the Emerging Visual Artist Award. In June 2010, she was selected as one of the finalists for The Julia Margaret Cameron Award, a worldwide competition for women photographers. Dragana is also shortlisted for the European Women's Lobby Photography Prize and is recipient of the Travel and Training award by Arts Council Ireland. Over the last year and a half, she had participated in fifteen group exhibitions in UK, Germany, Slovenia, Canada and Ireland, and she also had a critically acclaimed solo exhibition ‘Seeing Things’ in Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff in March 2009.

Mark Riboud

This outstanding Croatian artist is currently researching and establishing contacts for the planned book Trouble With Seeing that will consist of interviews and photographs of world leading photographers. This book will also try to marry my previous career path – psychology, to my current one – that of an artist and a photographer. Jurisic is also working as a co-producer on Get The Picture?, a feature length documentary (Ferndale Films) about the history of photojournalism, narrated by John G. Morris, the legendary photo-editor.

www.draganajurisic.com

Helen Gorril: AoW 4 - 13th Septemeber 2010

  Fushe Kosove Sex Cafe Chair

A few facts about Gorrill :

Whilst living in an isolated rural community where no-one really understands her artistic ways, Gorrills studio is filled with prosthetic legs and strange props as inspiration for new work. She enjoys red wine and sticky toffee pudding, and believes standing up for what you believe in is the best feeling ever.

Chisinau Girls Graduation Gown

The position of the woman artist in a patriarchal society remains problematic, female artists often seen as extremists rather than activists. Gorrill is currently working with sculpture and embroidery, the latter being a medium traditionally understood as 'feminine', devoid of the traditional values associated with masculine high art. The art of embroidery, once the most valued cultural form of ‘medieval ecclesiastical culture’, was progressively de-professionalised, domesticated and feminised by a male dominated art world. Rather than using the thread as metaphor for the increasing restrictions on women’s power that occurred in the development of Western history, She uses embroidery as a medium with a heritage in women’s hands, and thus as more appropriate than male-associated paint for making a feminist statement.

Detail of Legtop Sex Cafe Chair

Gorrill's work looks at post-feminist concepts of power and control, investigating enforcement, reinforcement and reactions to patriarchal society. Particularly within the idea of patriarchy and how it has been moulded by scripts for male power, using cultural criticism of male scripts (the bible and popular culture) to challenge existing social norms. 

Selling Olga, The Slave Market 1

 
The use of critical theory (Foucault’s regulation and control of the body in constructing power narratives; and Hegel’s slave-master dependency theories) offers a glimpse into worlds outside of texts and a map of the effects of knowledge upon identities that inform and give weight to Gorrill's enquiry.

www.helengorrill.com

Eleanor Barreau: AoW Winner 3 - 6th September 2010

A Natural Choice

A few facts about Barreau:

Growing up just five minutes away from where Lucien Freud used to live, Barreau enjoys watching the leaves turn brown and listening to Leonard Cohen. Her favourite advert is a 1960s Jeager advert because of its aesthetic appeal and hidden messages. The driven artists top painting tip is PVA Uni-bond and she thinks Morrisons is a splendid fish monger.

Part Of Today's Family Circle

As this year has progressed Eleanor Barreau has engaged in an investigation using advertisements to portray certain concepts and observations of my perception of the change that has occurred in the culture of western society, through the act of painting. The focal point of these observations was to reassess the representation of the ideal of the 2.4 family unit as well as gender roles within advertising in the past 60 years. 

Home To That Good Meal They Needed

Through the research that she has undertaken, either through readings of the psychology behind advertising or my own analysis of the source material that she has collected, it has become clear that the very subtle development and alterations within these adverts not only reflect a change in the Zeitgeist of an era but also the psychological influence adverts have had on this ideal. When Barreau first started this inquiry, evident in the first series, she was trying to reinterpret and subvert these saccharine advertisements to create humorous and subtle comments on the representation of this ideal. However, as the work has developed, she began to collage different adverts together to heighten the quixotic nature of advertisements.

www.eleanorbarreau.co.uk

Akleriah: AoW Winner 2 - 30th October 2010

'GENUISIZEDUCKLINGART'

Akleriah is an honest philosophy of "reality". We are all solitary dreamers of senses we sometimes don't understand, tastes we can't speak of. Where is that land of our childhood eyes? Does everything make sense until we are displaced into others reality?

What was the faith of Andersen's 'Ugly Duckling'? It is a story of the "beautiful" signet who just happened to be blown by circumstances into different "reality", not tailored for it. It became "ugly".

Akleriah's motto is about fashioning to the size that fits everybody everywhere. It changes perception of believes systems, everyday rituals, gestures and learned behaviors.

Akleriah explores the way we look at ourselves and at each other through the mirror reflection of the inside to the outside. Life is art of flow. It is like bubbles, that are blown to show the magical colors for the moment that lasts just long enough before they pop!

Let's change the rhythm of the clock!

A Few Facts About Akleriah

They have an Akleriah drink special: pomegranate juice, vodka, vanilla, gin, a splash of red wine, rose syrup, a sprinkle of ground coffee, stir and serve in larger iced glasses. The experimental, spontaneous group feel that songs and lyrics are like clothes: would you wear the same outfit every day of the year? Their best memory from University was when collaborating at London Zoo, where they took on the role of caged animals (see images below!) They believe that depth, laugh, sorrow, symbolism, cats, glitter, triangular relationships, souls, red wine, rituals make the best performances.

Imitating Cage Anmicals at London Zoo

Akleriah wants to make art both entertaining and intellectual. Themes range from the political to the spiritual, the philosophical to the magical, folklore and the psychological... They are inspired by their Czech and Russian backgrounds and use their origins as a filter for more challenging and provocative thinking.

The duo, Lenka and Anna, are both singers and dancers and love to involve other performers such as musicians, actors, dancers which makes their work captivating for the viewer.

Alex Mazitelli: AoW number 1, 23rd August, 2010

A Few Facts About Mazitelli
Working under the motto, 'You won't know if you don't try', Apple Mac fan Mazzitellia is ambitious.  He grew up in a town lacking in creative venues and wishes to soon visit Berlin and Prague.

Dead Prrot In The Sky, 2010

Alex takes influence from everywhere; films, exhibitions, artists, books, design and fashion, even walking and seeing things in the streets.

What Junk You Got In The Trunk, 2010

Mazitelli feels strongly about challenging the accepted in order to stimulate and provoke people’s emotions. He enjoys watching viewers question what it is they are seeing, and why the things they are seeing are brought together in my sculptures and installations. His work hints at the figure as well as at the animal, combining both forms with found objects to relate the work back to the real world.

Mazitellis sculptures are made from found objects, recycled materials, taxidermy animals, plaster, wire, scrim, and laytex. I am always on the lookout for something interesting and unique to be used within my work. Each item I find, buy, or make is very important, the textures, colours, and materials all are taken into consideration. His recent body of work is metamorphosis or combination of animals, the human body and objects bring them all together to create fun but also curious and sometimes bizarre looking sculptures. He has also used himself in his sculptures, using casts of his body and taking photographs, making a performance piece into a film of himself as one of the sculptures.

Stuffed In Mouth, 2010

"Animals are living organisms that live along side humans, with the same rights to a good life, but once an animal is dead, its movement has stopped, and the function has gone, it is no longer alive. Therefore it is now another object to be recycled, why let it rot away when it is a beautiful object to look at and enjoy.  I use them in my work because I am interested in the way we see animals out of their natural habitat, and how they sit alongside the other objects I use within my work." Alex Maxitelli