Each project I do is unique to the space its for. Gapfillers at Wasps Briggait spaces last year was a 5 day 40hr drawing performance that took the idiosyncrasies of the front of house project spaces as its starting point. It was an exhibition that united repetition, accumulation and endurance alongside specific references to the site.

Gapfillers, 2015

Gapfillers, 2015

I‘m keen to bridge the anomalies between the spaces organisation and the interrelation dynamics of moving in and around those same spaces. I worked out how many pairs of post it notes would fill the gap between the length of one space and the other. I would then apply this rule to making marks that occur across a regular gap between pairs of post-it notes in an accumulative act of repetition, I continue this until the post-its don’t stick and fall off. As an outcome the resulting wall drawings led by their rules and processes, in seeking to fill those anomalies within the site may in fact be renouncing itself in the very act of extolling its presence. In doing so Gapfillers may be less a ‘fullness of space ‘and instead a ‘fullness of emptiness’.

Scapelands at DrawingBox Belgium sought to extend and immerse the viewer in what exists between what Blanchot refers to as the ‘two spheres that didn’t know each other, two moments in time perhaps entirely foreign to each other and yet coming together within their shared foreignness’. This could be identified as the body meeting the site and how one activates it. The spaces were measured with A4 sheets that were numbered then were rolled up, the last sheet rolled up determined where the ‘rolled space’ would be placed. Alongside this, a system of drawing 1000’s of coloured squares (done in the order of the dryboard markers as they come in the packets). The rule was the first line of squares (which was based on the length of the doorway or pillar opposite etc.) would determine how many rows of squares should be made, that would determine the next block of squares until only one square was left. The result was two bodies of work, one extending an imploded space, the other an expanded activation of space.

Scapelands, 2015

Scapelands, 2015

Scapelands, 2015

Of late the performative element sees me interrogate the conceptual framework of drawing, from drawing as a means to cover, to a form of grafting of one space onto another through absurd acts measuring space.

This is best seen in the bad drawing/ paper cell for The Prison drawing project in March this year where I presented a film grafted onto the space that is the cell. It takes the notion of drawing as an act of covering and form of measurement, in an immersive act of attempted liberation. Measuring using rolls of paper, the film chronicles what could be seen as a bad day wallpapering a space, no assistants, paste or ladders just a desire to cover and negate the cell. Only stopping when exhausted, I’m offering up to the viewer a spectacle of endurance undaunted by a failure doomed from the start. In my attempts to be free of the cell, I’m potentially submerged in the paper as a result. The outcome is a film projected across the cell walls that unites the tension between the restricted, solid space with a fluidity and potential of the performative act. Consequently, the solid and static of the prison cell could be in doubt and liberation maybe indeed may be possible.

bad drawing/ paper cell, 2016

I only use office materials ranging from post-it notes to highlighter pens and photocopy paper alongside process led, rule based repetition, endurance, accumulation and duration. Taking anomalies of the space, I’m seeking to test or expand alternative body/site relations with regard to space and thinking. The results in the form of wall drawing, films, performances and installations, propose new dialogues and frameworks that aim to generate a condition of becoming, translation and flux instead of stasis; a site of experience rather than merely location.

bad drawing/ paper cell, 2016

 I’ve a bookwork coming out next month on my project/residency/ /exhibition WhiteNoise, which took place at The Centre for Recent Drawing in London last year, published by marmalade visual theory in London, I’m showing some performances in Concept  at Czong Institute of Contemporary Art (CICA) in South Korea next month, other projects this year include commissions for a walking drawing/ game in France and another for a cultural Centre in France where I’m working with a Brussels based dance company that will result in a series of wall drawing works and live performances where they wear the drawings quite literally albeit the ‘outfits’ so to speak will resemble nothing akin to clothing.

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zabelê by Brazilian illustrator Willian Santiago

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Celebrating the best of international contemporary art practice, the annual RSA Open Exhibition has a long history of over 180 years. The exhibition in the RSA’s Lower Galleries showcases a wide range of small and medium sized works (max. 80cm in any direction) selected through open submission and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, electronic media and photographs.

The RSA Open showcases nearly 400 artworks each year and incorporates the ever-popular Own Art scheme. Find out more about Own Art on Central Station here.

There is a small entry fee and all artists will need to register and complete the online application process at www.regroyalscottishacademy.org.

For more information, please see the guidelines and FAQs online.

Deadline: 18 October

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Find more opportunities in our weekly bulletin here.

Louise Bourgeois is one of the greatest and most influential artists of our time. In a career spanning seven decades, from the 1940s until her death in 2010, she produced some of contemporary art’s most enduring images, making sculptures, installations, writings and drawings which, in mining her own psyche, have entered the collective unconscious. There are currently two major exhibitions of Bourgeois’ work on display in Edinburgh.

Fruitmarket Gallery presents I Give Everything Away, an exhibition of work on paper with some of her most intimate work, both drawing and writing on display until 23 February. The exhibition begins with a labyrinthine presentation of Bourgeois’s Insomnia Drawings, a remarkable suite of 220 drawings and writings made between November 1994 and June 1995. Also in the exhibition are two suites of large-scale works on paper, When Did This Happen? from 2007, and I Give Everything Away, made right at the end of the artist’s life in 2010.

This exhibition complements a major ARTIST ROOMS exhibition of work by Bourgeois on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – Louise Bourgeois, A Woman Without Secrets, 26 October 2013 – 18 May 2014. This exhibition highlights her late work, showing for the first time, an outstanding collection of works on loan to the national ARTIST ROOMS programme, including Poids (1993), Couple I (1996), Cell XIV (Portrait) (2000), Eyes (2001-2005), and two late masterpieces, the cycle of 16 monumental drawings A L’Infini (2008-2009) and the artist’s final vitrine, Untitled (2010). These works will be augmented by important loans from Tate, The Easton Foundation and private collections.

There are special events linked to both exhibitions – see Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art events here and Fruitmarket events here.

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Alpha-ville EXCHANGE is a one-day event on 17 January at Rich Mix, London designed to offer the art, tech and creative communities the opportunity to connect, exchange ideas, get inspired and discover new talent.

Participating in Alpha-ville EXCHANGE is visual artist, Shantell Martin who is expanding conventional definitions of drawing and animation to transform visual experience in the design, fashion and music industries. Here is what she recommends:

MUSIC:
I’m excited by the release of Sasha Perera’s debut LP called Everlast. I’ve been listening to Sasha’s music for years actually even back when I lived in Tokyo, mostly in the form of the group Jahcoozi.

You can get the LP on Vinyl, CD or as a digital download via Bandcamp or Boomkat or iTunes.
Stream ‘Everlast’ via Soundcloud.

MARKER:
2013 would have looked very completely different to me if it weren’t for the Krink K-51 marker. I make sure to have a few packed in my suitcase on all of my adventures.

FESTIVAL:
The Eyeo Festival is probably one of the best festivals I’ve participated in and would love to return to in the future as an attendee. The Art Walker centre in Minneapolis is a great venue and the vibe of the festival is super open and fun with the caliber of people speaking is very hard to match.

Image source

MOVIE:
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty feels more like getting very close to someone thoughts and dreams without personally knowing them. Always want to ask Terrance Nance how much of it is real.

ARTSPACE:
More and more people are collecting art and I really enjoy how Artspace is apart of this new way or seeing, buying and sharing artworks. They have some great pieces including some of my own; two of which are rare in the sense that there is colour in them.

Only One YOU by Shantell Martin

Please visit here for the full Alpha-ville Exchange programme.

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Scottish painter Leo du Feu was born in Edinburgh in 1984 and is based in nearby Linlithgow. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2006 and has since worked as a full-time freelance artist. Regularly sketching and painting out of doors, Leo explores the landscapes and nature of Scotland thanks to generous support from rail operator ScotRail. He is a keen birdwatcher and supporter of conservation and volunteers for the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology. Birds are increasingly flying, hopping and swimming into his paintings. This is where he makes.

Leo du Feu, giants’ sentry box, Isle of May, 34x16cm

My regular studio is nothing overly special. It’s a cosy and fair-sized room in my dad’s house in Linlithgow but it’s not ideally set up to be an artist’s studio. The location however is inspiring; outside the windows is a big garden of fruit, veg, shrubs and trees. The list of visiting birds and insects is large. This is where I paint my acrylics and any large works and finish off field work. It’s also where I spend far too much time doing office work.

Leo du Feu, razorbill, Isle of May, 15x21cm

My other studio is the rest of Scotland – anywhere outdoors where I find things that interest and inspire me. I spend a lot of time travelling the country in search of landscapes and birdlife. I make my explorations primarily by rail, thanks to support from ScotRail. My outdoors materials are watercolours, pencil, pen. I have painted along most of Scotland’s railway lines and even on some train journeys. I often sketch on the train, glimpses of scenes and details as they flit past.

Leo du Feu, Loch Awe old station buildings

Leo’s art is exhibited across Scotland and the UK and has been recognised through awards from The Bet Low Trust, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, and the Royal Over-Seas League. Leo also carries out tutoring and commission work.

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.

What:
The Folk Ye Bump Intae is an online drawing diary by Stuart Murray. Murray regularly uploads drawings of his everyday life, documenting the people he meets. An exhibition of his drawings took place in October 2011 at Glasgow’s Project Room, Trongate 2013.

Why we like it:
Murray’s drawings and text are honest (and often humorous) portrayals of his everyday encounters with people. Step into the world of a postman in Glasgow and decipher the Scots’ dialect here.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

No Man’s Art Gallery was founded by Dutch ex-lawyer, Emmelie Koster in 2010. In a very unusual career move, Koster suddenly decided to take up painting whilst in the second year of her masters degree in law. Unhappy with her paintings, she sold them online under a different name (Bob Koster) and set up an a fake art gallery to promote them. Soon afterwards, real artists began sending Emmelie their portfolios looking for representation. By the time she finished her studies and started her job as a lawyer, she realised that the gallery had become a project with serious potential and quit her legal career to focus on realising that potential.

© Max & Charlotte, Ou est Charlie, Piscine Pontoise, Paris V, 2009

The name ‘No Man’s Art Gallery’ refers to No Man’s Land, the land that has no laws and no set boundaries. No Man’s Art Gallery now provides an international platform for young artists by organising pop up galleries all over the world. Every three months they take on a different city to find local young artists with great talent. They exhibit the new-found artists’ work in their local city and travel with No Man’s Gallery to the next city. The exhibitions always show a wide variety of young artists, coming from all over the world. Previous exhibitions have been in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Mumbai, Paris, Copenhagen, and most recently in Shanghai.

Works by Sarah Wijzenbeek at the Mumbai Exhibition

The gallery has its headquarters in Amsterdam as well as a recently opened office in Copenhagen. They aim to promote artistic collaborations between the Netherlands and Denmark in addition to organising their pop-up galleries worldwide. No Man’s Art Gallery is the first art gallery to organise pop up galleries in a different country every few months. The exhibitions are open for a week before they are gone again and are always an adventure to visit. The location is secret, and only disclosed to those who sign up beforehand. So far, they’ve exhibited in special locations worldwide; the ruins of a cotton mill compound in Mumbai, a chapel on Vestre Kirkegaard in Copenhagen, a harbor building in Hamburg, an atomic shelter in Amsterdam.

© Daniel van der Noon, Mertropolis, 2012

In the three months preparation for a pop up gallery, they face the challenge of finding a location and setting up a complete network of artists, art lovers and buyers, members of the press, sponsors and local partners. They select their artists in a new city by contacting all art schools and visiting young ateliers to find the talents that the city has to offer. Everyone in No Man’s Art Gallery gets a say in the selection, and the final decisions are made by Emmelie Koster and Emma Sofie Jensen.

© Participant of the No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest, Black Sludge, 2011

They also hope to be able to organise the No Man’s Art Slum Photography Contest annually. In 2011, private sponsorship for analogue cameras and film rolls was organised for 45 children from Dharavi, Mumbai, the biggest slum in Asia. The children were taught how to use the cameras in a short workshop and sent off to capture the moments in life that they enjoy the most. The results were absolutely amazing. All the children received the prints of their photos and a selection of the photos are now exhibited and for sale at No Man’s pop up galleries. The proceeds go directly back into buying new film and development of the film.

Mumbai Exhibition

Lyrical Artist Justus Raapgaarde reads his poetry at the Hamburg Exhibition

No Man’s Art Gallery’s latest pop-up gallery exhibition was in Shanghai. The exhibition featured local Chinese artists alongside the artists that were discovered at previous pop-up galleries in Copenhagen, Paris, Mumbai, Hamburg and Amsterdam. Additionally, three Chinese artists will be chosen to travel with No Man’s to their upcoming future exhibitions. Find out more here.

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Potato Fountain #3 at RSA, 2012

Why we like it:
As well as his finished sculptures, we like seeing Andrew’s detailed technical drawings of proposed works.

Potato Fountain #3 Technical Drawing, 2012

Hidden treasure:
Andrew keeps a separate blog for reference material. See if anything catches your eye here.

Where to find out more:
Website | Blog | Flickr | Vimeo | Twitter

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Why we like it:
Drawing, painting and sculpture are all explored in Hackett’s amusingly unconventional style. We like her brazen attitude towards topics such as streaker Erica Roe and naked rambling.

Hidden treasure:
Drawing other people’s intimate moments was posted last summer and caught our attention.

Where to find out more:
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