::: N E W S :::

New Blog

2010-04-30T22:48:00.001Z

From now on the blog has moved to

This blog will remain accessible as an archive.

Semple Tells Your Fortune

2010-04-28T08:59:00.003Z

Semple has collaborated with iconic duo "The Girls" on their Third issue of The Paper Eaters creating a "cut out & keep" fortune teller on the back page of their magazine.

Artists in Residence in Selfridges Ultralounge, "The Girls" have been documenting and creating photo story magazines all April- the last day in store is Thursday 29th April & is open late! The only way to get your issue is to pop in store or visit The Photographer's Gallery bookstore (�2.80).

"The Paper Eaters : Long Live The Photo Story" Issue Three

The Girls in action
Photo: Helen Jermyn

2010-03-16T09:29:00.000Z

Haiti Fundraiser- limited edition Tees

2010-03-13T10:10:00.005Z

"Put Your Hands Up For Haiti"

Stuart Semple 2010

A limited edition of just 50 Tee shirts have been produced for the Haiti Earthquake Fundraiser. These super rare designs have been created by artists including Pete Fowler, Stuart Semple, Rankin, The Chapman Brothers, Paul Hosking and others.

click here for more info and to buy

Pete Fowler

Chapman Brothers

Tools For Thought - auction to Rebuild Haiti, Sotheby's NYC

2010-02-24T08:23:00.005Z

Tools For Thought: Rebuild Haiti

Sotheby's New York

1334 York Avenue

Monday 15th March

7:00-9:00

This major art auction is being held to raise funds for Partners in Health, an organization working directly on the ground in the earthquake-ravaged country. Curators from PS1, the Studio Museum, the Warhol Museum, Neue Galerie and more are joining with young gallerists from Gagosian Gallery, Marlborough Gallery, Robert Miller Gallery and James Cohan Gallery, to name but a few, for the auction, which will take place at a star-studded event at Sotheby's NY on March 15 � complete with a concert by the legendary Patti Smith. The auction has begun with silent bidding open to the public via the Web. Place bids here.

Artists include: Dan Colen, Alex Katz, Terence Koh, Jeff Koons, Nate Lowman, Richard Prince, Lou Reed, Ed Ruscha, Stuart Semple, Kiki Smith, Patti Smith, Michael Stipe and many others.

click here to view artists and lots

TOOLS FOR THOUGHT draws on the will of artists to make a difference. In the spirit of Marcel Duchamp and the readymade, the efforts of Tools for Thought unite the art community in using its greatest tools ready-at-hand: the generosity and goodwill to provide aid and support to those in need.

�No Tool at All�

Acrylic, graphite, paint marker & glitter
on canvas
12 x 12 inches
Stuart Semple 2010

Rihanna - rude boy music video

2010-02-16T08:44:00.001Z

"Nobody Gets to See the Wizard. Not Nobody. Not Nohow."

2010-01-20T19:45:00.006Z

"Nobody Gets to See the Wizard. Not Nobody. Not Nohow."
Curated by Doug McClemont

Anna Kustera Gallery
520 West 21st Street, New York, NY.

January 21 - March 6, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 21st, 6-9pm
Special Guest Performance @ 8pm

Artists include

Charles Atlas, Nayland Blake, John Brattin, Kathe Burkhart,

Martin Creed, Scott Ewalt, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Robert Gober, Deborah Kass,

Sean Mellyn, Dan Miller, Caroline Polachek, Stuart Semple, Susanne M. Winterling

Ding Dong (Maggie's Dead)

MDF, plastic, gloss paint, leather and electronics on aluminium

2009

RUBY SLIPPERS

Published by K2 Screen Jan 2010
In an edition of 5 + 3AP & 2 HC
Acrylic on 160 grs rouleau papier noir
120 x 150 cm (3.5� x 5�)
Hand finished with glitter, paint marker, acrylic and household gloss

Hefner- "The Day Thatcher Dies"

Online store is open

2010-01-18T07:52:00.001Z

Check out:

the Stuart Semple limited editions and multiples in the Semple Store

here

Lady GaGa

2009-12-20T14:25:00.002Z

"I would buy every magazine that I could get my hands on and I would tear sheets out of imagery and that is the most Warholian thing about what I do is that I embrace pop culture. The very thing that everybody says is poisonous and ostentatious and shallow. It�s like my chemistry book, and I look through everything and I make what I believe to be art out of it"

� Lady GaGa

Mat Collishaw, Hysteria @ Freud Museum

2009-12-20T14:04:00.004Z

Hysteria
by Stuart Semple
(originally published by Art of England)

Before the idea of curation and curators were banded about in contemporary art circles James Putnam was plying his trade over at the British museum in the Egyptian department , making his own work out of hours, and trying to convince major institutions to look at ancient objects as the works of art that they were in their day. You see to James, all art was once contemporary, and he�s got a point.

He never really won the battle in bringing ancient things into a contemporary environment, rather he bought the contemporary environment into the museum with resounding success when he introduced a who�s who of contemporary artists including Francesco Clemente, Stephen Cox, Brian Eno, Andy Goldsworthy, , Marc Quinn, Kiki Smith, and Kan Yasuda to the Egyptian department back in 1995.

Since the 90s , after being called upon by the Freud museum to help with authentication of their collection �as nobody had really looked at it�, James has been co-ordinating a contemporary program there. Having already opened up Freud�s house to artists including Sophie Calle, Sarah Lucas, Richard Clegg and Tim Noble and Sue Webster, I met up with James on the first day of Mat Collishaw�s new exhibition �Hysteria�.

Above Freud�s iconic couch hangs a photo in which French neurologist Jean Caracot shows his students a woman during a hysterical fit. Opposite Collishaw conjures memory and fantasy as three tree trunks sprout from the ornate rug. On top of these a fiberglass records spin, their grooves reminiscent of the historical recording device of it trees; their own rings. Birdsong subtly fills the room as our hysterical patient�s subconscious collides with reality. From this point two worlds open up: our inner world becomes visible.

Until the 17th century hysteria was believed to be a particularly female problem, supposedly stemming from a uterus that hasn�t received enough sexual intercourse. As such, a large portion of the works utilize antique photographic images of women in various contorted states. In this day and age they look melodramatic, over emphasized, creepy and in many ways unbelievable. However, perhaps in some ways they weren�t genuine depictions in the first place for a variety of reasons.

Collishaw performs as the hidden cloaked magician with his arsenal of tricksy new world electricals. Even his anamorphosis work is brought bang up to date with a beautifully fabricated stainless steel cylinder and re-working of Victorian side table. It�s more gritty than that though, behind this slickness is the darkness and depth that�s always been there with Collishaw, a bravery and a bombastic attitude that rams the point home.
An old wormery has a series of archival photographs projected on it�s glass surface, the holographic quality leading to the playful illusionary nature of the Victorian parlour game, the papa�s ghost type trick that so excites Collishaw throughout his oeuvre.

As we continue the tour James quietly informs me that many of the so called hysterical photos from the time were probably played up for the camera, and standing there watching the giant projections that linger on the phosphorescent cabinet before being reflected on the opposing wall and disappearing into the far reaches of recollection, one is instantly struck by the freakish, theatrical nature of this depiction of hysteria, a sort of pseudo demonic exorcism under the guise of scientific enquiry. For me this is also one of the strongest examples of how these contemporary interventions speak with the architecture of the places they inhabit. In this case freezing a moment of time, as the museum itself does for Freuds memory. However, here rather than some forced film set, with it�s knick knacks neatly arranged a la John Lennon�s white piano with round glasses placed just so, or some set designers vision of Bacon�s studio, this place feels fluid and lived in, even now.

A whiff of underworld vice has always hovered around Mat�s works, often pushing taboo areas of hidden Victoriana to the extreme by shifting the envelope to the present day with cutting edge production methods. He�s not hiding anything, rather he�s on the quest to make it undeniably clear, and this is crystal high definition.

On the staircase, large photos of crushed butterflies in glorious colours, like vibrant microscope slides, resemble broken childhood dreams, a regressed violence that spills onto these giant reflective surfaces, beautiful, fragile, and absorbing, capturing the last explosive climax of the creatures life; it�s untimely death. This is where Collishaw comes into his own: we can�t help being seduced by the colourful lusty saturation of those colours. Is it so very wrong to absorb beauty from suffering? He makes the point so eloquently and so concisely.

Julian Stallabrass once described Collishaw as the nastiest of the YBA�s, and that�s somewhat fitting as we find in another corner an even darker side lurking. Childhood �beating fantasies� literally come to life, as we watch an animated version of Freud�s eroticized aggression.

The centerpiece of the show has to be Collishaw�s zoetrope, in which several 3d sculptures come to life, as they spin and hit the right frequency it flicks away, personifying the clash between the past and the present, the static artifact and the present day, analogous to James� curatorial process, the ancient looking artifacts are re-animated. A small impish child stabs a very lifelike snail, butterflies and birds flap, and a birds nest�s eggs are mutilated at the hands of another child who smashes them with a club.

Through these smashed eggs, uteruses, and slimy snails being damaged Mat is asking us, the viewer, to analyze ourselves. Quickly one finds oneself shocked at just how twisted our inner thoughts are and all of a sudden we�re on the couch. The frightening thing is that Collishaw is our therapist.

The whole drama fittingly takes place in Freud�s daughter Anna�s bedroom. Anna spent her life conducting pioneering psychoanalytic work, especially with children. Both Sigmund and his daughter were interested in the cruelty impulse in children and its link to sexuality - I�m sure we�ve all chopped a worm in half before to watch if it still wriggles or pulled the legs off a spider.

There�s a difficult balancing act going on here in so many ways. We�ve got quite a conceptual contemporary artist having to be explicate enough to communicate with the Freud fan club, we�ve got an environment that would seem at first the complete opposite of what an artist would normally require around their work, a huge chunk of white space. In fact, Freud�s house is chock full of knick knacks and collections of things, that there�s every chance things could easily become lost. The balance works, and it works surprisingly well. Where one might expect some kind of tussle between old and new, we find a gentle swell, where Collishaw�s imagination bubbles from the surface of reality to subtly reanimate a cinder of cerebral archeological spark.

It occurs to me that the other invisible magician in the piece is actually James Putnam, this fleeting Svengali apparition is in the kitchen behind the museum representing an interface between an old world curator or keeper of objects, and an active dialogue with the present and perhaps in this case the future.

In another room what appears to be a picture frame becomes a two way mirror as woman�s face appears in true Disney haunted house style from a hypnotic swirl of smoke. It�s easy to read a Freudian argument into almost anything: after all it�s based on our deepest thoughts, that in many ways underpin our whole reality. However in this exhibition we get something truly symbiotic, we find ourselves starting to read the Collishaw perspective into the Freud universe. We could place almost any object here and instigate a Freudian reading: it would make the curator and artist�s job infinitely simpler, but this isn�t about an easy life. It�s a very genuine thread of investigation that�s grown out of Freud�s legacy.

On chatting further to Putnam, it becomes increasingly obvious to me that through the introduction he�s made between the artists he�s worked with here and the Freud scholars at the museum, the artists have taken a huge wealth of inspiration that�s fed into the works ever since. Collishaw, like Lucas and Calle before him leaves stronger than he came in. Which strangely is the whole point of psychoanalysis isn�t it? By getting to know ourselves better we become more connected to our whole being, ultimately somehow more resolved. I know from my visit that I�ve uncovered some parts of my subconscious that I didn�t realize were there, I just hope I can get them back in the can without having to pay a fortune to sit on Mat�s couch.

For more information see: www.freud.org.uk

New Nancyboy works on eBay starting at �2

2009-12-03T22:06:00.008Z

10 Brand New Nancyboy paintings will be added to eBay over the next few days.

All proceeds will go directly to UK charity Mind.

Click Here to bid

100% Trojan

mixed media on 190gsm Saunders Waterford cold pressed paper?

56 x 38 cm

2009

Click Here to bid

There will be just 10 of these works in the world ever with 100% of the proceeds going directly to mental health charity Mind.

Mind relies entirely on voluntary donations to fund its work to improve the lives of everyone who experiences mental distress.With 180 local Mind associations around the country, Mind provides crucial local services from drop in sessions and sheltered housing to therapies such as counseling. Appropriately, artistic expression can be highly beneficial for people with mental health problems, and art therapy is available at some local Minds to help people express their thoughts and feelings through creative activities.

For more information on Mind please visit www.mind.org.uk

ABOUT NANCYBOY: ?Stuart started of selling his works nearly a decade ago under the alias � Nancyboy� through eBay, when the Internet phenomenon was still very new. Selling daily to a community of supportive collectors around the globe. In many ways pre-empting the Urban art movement. Although Nancyboy stopped producing his works in 2003, the collecting community is still extremely active and the works remain hugely desirable.

For more information on Nancyboy please check out the Nancyboy blog? http://nancyboy.stuartsemple.com

"It�s been a whirlwind of a decade, Nancy was laid to rest moons ago. Quite often I�m reminded of him, and asked if there�s any chance of something new. I never look back so the answer is no.

Michael said, this is it. And this really IS IT. Last orders�10 new nancyboys, 10 days� eBay. Mixed media, waterford paper. Bids start at 2 pounds. Shipping�s free. I�m excited!

WHY?

100% of the proceeds will go to the charity MIND. Please check out their wonderful work and you�ll quickly get the idea of why I want to do it."

With Love,? Stuart Semple

PLEASE BID GENEROUSLY THIS IS AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY FOR AN AMAZING CAUSE.

click here to bid

Gold Rush - London Show on now

2009-12-03T10:00:00.002Z

Stuart is currently in a two man exhibition with Hugo Dalton at Roberta Moore Fine Art in London.

GUARANTEED RETURN
Currency, steel, wood, laser ink & acrylic on paper
Dimensions variable
Edition of 10
2009

see more editions from collection here

Stuart is showing a new series of smaller paintings drawings and multiples that present a satirical take on the commodification of the contemporary art market.

Dirty Cash
acrylic, vinyl, glitter and gold leaf on canvas
75 x 75 x 5 cm
2009

10 Shalcomb Street, London SW10
19th November 2009 - 18th December 2009
Viewing by appointment only
www.robertamoore.co.uk
roberta@robertamoore.co.uk

Scope Miami 2 December- 6th December 2009

2009-12-03T08:00:00.001Z

Now open

SCOPE MIAMI

2 December- 6th December 2009

Let It Die

mixed media on canvas

30 x 30 cm

2009

Roberto Clemente Park

101 NW 34th Street

Wynwood Art District, Miami

Watch the live feed from the Opus booth here

Esquire - Stuart Semple for Umbro

2009-11-06T21:35:00.003Z

British artist Stuart Semple teams up with Umbro to create super exclusive limited edition Speciali art boot.

scroll down for your chance to win a pair

Click images for larger version

for your chance to win a pair of the super rare Speciali's visit esquire.co.uk

Pavilion of Art and Design London

2009-10-14T08:37:00.003Z

You can see some of Stuart's paintings at the Design Pavilion in Berkeley Square in London during this years Frieze week.

'I was never Here' - Stuart Semple, 'Self Portrait' - Jean Michel Basquiat, 'No More Heroes' - Stuart Semple

14th October 2009 - 18th October 2009

BERKELEY SQUARE, LONDON

www.padlondon.net

Hong Kong Exhibition - lipstick/vogue

2009-10-06T11:01:00.005Z

We are pleased to announce Stuart's first solo show in Asia, opening on 7th October 2009 at The Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong.

Gold Digger, 2009

Stuart will show a new series of drawings, paintings and prints.
You can download a catalog of works here (pdf)

LIPSTICK / VOGUE

8 October 2009 - 7 November 2009

THE CAT STREET GALLERY
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ROBERTA MOORE FINE ART

222 Hollywood Road
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Tel : +852 2291 0006

www.thecatstreetgallery.com

www.robertamoore.co.uk

Stuart Semple Vs The Prodigy : "Thunder"

2009-09-14T11:03:00.010Z

The Prodigy have collaborated with Stuart Semple to create a series of limited edition art pieces.

Their first collaborative print �Thunder� is available now from www.theprodigy.com.

or view here

In an edition of just 75, each are personally hand finished by Semple who has added a secret image only to be seen in the dark. A super rare deluxe edition of �Thunder� limited to just 25 prints will also feature gold foil detailing.

Each print is published by Little Art Book using traditional hand silkscreen printing techniques and is embossed and hand signed by both The Prodigy and Stuart Semple.

Available now via www.theprodigy.com

Thunder

Published by LAB, August 2009

5 colour hand finished screen print

on 250 gsm Somerset paper

In an edition of 75 (yellow teeth) & 25 (gold teeth)

www.theprodigy.com

Thunder (gold teeth) detail

Available now via www.theprodigy.com

Turk, Emin, Quinn, Semple and Dumas in Sotheby's 'Art for Africa' next week

2009-09-07T12:08:00.004Z

Leading contemporary artists have joined forces to pledge work for Sotheby's Art for Africa exhibition and charity auction.

Art for Africa is in aid of the Africa Foundation and Ikamva Labantu, two charities which fund and facilitate the care and support of orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa.

For further details or to make a donation please visit www.africafoundation.org and www.ikamva.com

Artists who have donated to Art for Africa include Gavin Turk, Tracey Emin, Marc Quinn, Stuart Semple, Yinka Shonibare, Marlene Dumas and Richard Wentworth. The auctioneer for the evening will be Oliver Barker, Senior International Specialist, Contemporary Art.

�The auction promises to be one of the highlights of the year. We expect interest from many prominent contemporary art collectors and philanthropists and we hope to raise a great deal of money for these deserving charities� - Oliver Barker

The Auction was conceived by Cape Town artist Beezy Bailey, who has donated a collaborative work with David Bowie, and philanthropists Tara and Jessica Getty.

�Jessica and I are passionate about the Africa Foundation�s successful and sustainable projects in healthcare, and people development.
�For almost 15 years, we have had the privilege of witnessing many inspiring examples of human achievement among the rural people of Africa. Through Africa Foundation, we will continue to provide support to extraordinary individuals, their families and communities.
�Many children and their extended families, who are afflicted by Aids and HIV, will benefit directly as a result of the generosity of the artists and sponsors.�
- Tara Getty

Exhibition dates:

Wednesday 16 Sep 09, 9:30 AM - 04:30 PM
Thursday 17 Sep 09, 9:30 AM - 04:30 PM
Friday 18 Sep 09, 9:30 AM - 04:30 PM
Sunday 20 Sep 09, 12:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Monday 21 Sep 09, 9:30 AM - 04:30 PM

Auction:

Monday, 21 Sep 09, 6:30 PM - 10:00 PM

34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA
Tel: +44 20 7293 5000

for more information visit www.sothebys.com and www.artforafrica.org.uk
or see www.thetimes.co.za

Save Corinne's Day

2009-08-10T20:05:00.003Z

Iconic photographer Corinne Day is well-known for not only her amazing talent, but also for the stunning images she has taken of Kate Moss through the years.

Sadly, for the last decade she has been battling brain cancer and now needs to see a specialist in Arizona. So to raise funds, a set of 300 unpublished images of Kate by Corinne are being released to the public. The money raised during Save the Day will go directly to the treatment that Corinne needs, which costs up to �100,000.

Not only are these up for sale, but Kate will also sign each print, which will retail for �100. It goes without saying that these will sell fast, so if you�re interested contact emily@premieremodelmanagement.com or call +44 (0)20 7333 0888.

An image of young Kate Moss by Corinne Day

Banana pi�ata, Journey and a combine harvester - Art of England August 08

2009-07-29T11:49:00.007Z

This month I�ve totally driven my nearest and dearest away. I�ve become unhealthily obsessed with a classic 80s rock track by the legends that were �Journey�. Everywhere I�ve been, every second in my studio, everyday, again and again and again. My excuse? It makes me feel good� really good! For some strange reason it�s impossible for me to get board with it. Some things deserve to live on, not because they are genius pieces of art, not because they define the times better than anything else but because they simply �work�.

And the tune certainly worked the other night for �pass the parcel� at a party I threw in my studio to celebrate Andy Warhol�s 80th, the shards of my giant Velvet Underground bright yellow banana pi�ata are still everywhere along with wrapping paper and half eaten birthday cake littering the place, if the gauge of a good party is the resulting rubble, this one was brilliant. But I�m not there now�

�What sort of an idiot made this vessel? If this ship goes down� I�m taking the rest of you with me� oh and any chance of popping Journey on that stereo?� I�m sat in a makeshift raft on the top of the Hayward gallery, the London skyline grey today and falling to nothing. The water supporting my rickety vessel fades off the edges of the roof. I can�t fathom the point. Is it some branding idea to make people talk about the gallery or is it really saying something? I�ve never been much of a rower, more of a splasher, and with my wonky arm I just seem to go in circles. The poor attendants desperately wanting me back on terra firma to give another tourist a chance.

Little did they know but I�ve had one of the most hectic months yet, and this boat symbolized my dearly needed moment of recreation, and as I sat there I just couldn�t bring myself to enjoy it. I felt like Jeremy Clarkson at a combine harvester convention, I wanted more juice, more meat, and more action. I don�t want to strain to smile. I just want to love it! If art has to be about entertainment to squeeze us from our comfy, homely nooks then for heaven�s sake entertain me. No, the reason why I�m grumpy is that I�m a rubbish rower and fed up that our pop stars aren�t a patch on the ones from the past. Why when I�m sat on this roof am I thinking about how we�re going to compete with the Chinese over the Olympics? I have a sinister feeling that a couple of Morris Dancers, and high tea won�t cut it. Still I�m not here to worry about that. I�m here to tell you about my month.

Before I leave the Hayward though, I want to take you to a small makeshift dome on another part of the roof in which they were screening films, I sat enthralled by a film about Robert Smithson�s �partially buried woodshed�, in which he buries part of a woodshed in the grounds of Kent State University with earth. His point being about entropy and the returning of everything to the ground, to the place it came from. It was a brilliant piece because it clearly undermined humankind�s arrogant domination of nature. To me it was the perfect antidote to the other works in the show that celebrated our imposition over environment. Humm, do I think that bands, pop and films are prey to this force, a brash presence that fades into nostalgia. Perhaps my resurrection of �Journey� is analogous to resurrecting poor Smithson�s little (and now long gone) shed.

On my way home from the show, which was actually pretty good, I popped into Space studios which I love as a concept, not only because they are wonderful and affordable places for artists to make their work but because their commitment over the years has helped establish the East End as the exciting artistic hub that it is. One of my best friends Piers Secunda keeps his studio there, so he invited me down to their 20th birthday celebration. It seems some of the biggest name artists of the last two decades have passed through its spaces. To celebrate the occasion Sir Nicholas Serota took a breather from juggling the Tate�s completely inadequate acquisitions budget and popped down to deliver a warm and passionate speech. From inside his pauses I could see a genuine concern for the survival of these kinds of initiatives after the Olympics leave the area. As I saw him wave his bus pass to the driver of the number 55 on the way home I knew that our Tate was in good hands.

This month there�s been one destination on my list, a total must see for me. That was of course the Mat Collishaw show at Haunch of Venison. I�ve been a follower for many years and I�m always intrigued to see where he�s gone next. This time he took me on an incredible adventure; sometimes disturbing, often challenging but always absorbing. I found myself in a large space coated in phosphorescent paint, where images were flashed onto the walls, staying there briefly before disappearing into the building. These images of child prostitutes from the Victorian era (some recreated by Mat) were all the more perfect for the fact that death was implicit in their own beginnings. The girls� existence was fleeting at best during that era, and in this piece of work fragility had been perfectly preserved. Upstairs I watched a strobe light breathe life into over a hundred sculptures before my eyes, twisted Minotaurs, she wolves and the three graces, spun rapidly on a gigantic roundabout before blurring, freezing and then animating themselves like twisted little golems. Previous myths, mechanized by the sinister rotation of this strobe lit zoetrope, showed the animalistic nature of procreation in it�s true light. To me it spoke about the idea of the moving image, art versus Hollywood in the entertainment stakes and in that moment, to me it won.

I left for the opening of �Mashups� a show I had curated for the Design and Artists Copyright Society, with my eyes twitching and my head spinning. I arrived to a bigger crowd than expected and a very lovely atmosphere. Nathan, Nicky, Adham and Piers had certainly done DACS proud with the work, and as the subliminal girls rocked through their upcoming single �Self Obsession� from the confines of a glass box, I knew my job there had been done, I had a sense that the visitors understood what the artists were conveying, which was my sole intention. Existing elements can be ours too; we can use them and tell our stories in this way. Popular culture is not a one-way street, not only can we use it to talk back, but I believe we must.

Tim Dunbar�s passionate introduction to the Northern Graduates 2008 exhibition at Curwen & New Academy Gallery, spoke of a point where students become artists. They stop becoming clients of an institution, victims of initiatives seeking to create employable members of cultural industries; rather they are creatives in the wide world sharing their minds and passions. Tim along with fellow Manchester colleague Henry Walsh had trawled the degree shows for two weeks to provide a broad but focused offering. It was in the work of Amanda Spawforth that I found my refuge though. She has been working on paintings of her first times, her first binge, her first kiss and tonight was her first smoke. What gets me about what she�s doing is the nostalgia towards the experiences, recreating them with her, as she is now, memorial moments untouched by time. In one way non-emotive, dead pan documentaries with every blemish preserved, very brave for their externalisation of the personal, with a very smart vagueness around their narrative where their knowing irony even contradicted itself. For me self-portraiture is inevitably doomed to be non-objective, but with Amanda the balance is there. I hope that she continues to find pivotal first experiences as she replaces her student sneakers with her well-earned artists shoes.

As I scrape another load of jelly and ice cream from a paper bowl into the bin and push some birthday balloons out the way I overhear that the American court has ruled that Youtube have to hand over their user data, (basically who�s watched what videos on their site). I�m waiting for �the knock� of the law. If there�s a royalty payment to be paid Journey must be entitled to a minor windfall for my incessant looping of their �keep believing� live in Euston. I picture them in their retirement home, playing cribbage. Being interrupted by some sharp suited, dark shaded dude from the record label with a briefcase of wonga from me. I break from my daydream to pop the tune on again, once more won�t hurt!

For more tune into www.artofenland.uk.com

New works 2008- 2009

2009-06-15T18:35:00.005Z

New works have been uploaded to works section

click here to view them

Angelus

Acrylic, charcoal, chalk, graphite,
vinyl and paint marker on canvas
240 x 170 x 7 cm
(2009)

Everlasting Nothing Less - extended to 31st July

2009-06-14T17:26:00.003Z

Everlasting Nothing Less

Anna Kustera Gallery
New York

May 16 - July 31st, 2009
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm

AnnaKustera is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in New York of bold, young British artist Stuart Semple.

The artist will show a series of new, large-scale paintings and installation pieces dramatically inspired and conceptually informed by his obsession with the reproduced and constructed image. Remarkably original, Semple carries the Pop Art tradition to a new, highly relevant and provocative level. Writing in Artforum.com, critic Adam Ganderson described him as �The offspring of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, as styled for MTV.�

Semple dizzyingly reconceptualizes multiple fragments of cultural detritus and effortlessly synergizing the profane and the commodified to create startling new signification. Beyond the surface, beauty of the ever bright and enticing surreality of the Pop landscape is a secret dread that Semple innately understands and Semple�s compositions are infused with that dark foreboding.

�They all have this idea of a failed moment or the collapse of a particular situation... they occupy this place where the tragedy has happened, where atomization and individualism have reached a peak and the individual is literally stranded. I think the key word for everything here might be entropy.� - Stuart Semple

download catalogue here

'Ding Dong (Maggie's Dead)'

Let Forever Be

for more information and to view images visit annakustera.com

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 6pm

Anna Kustera Gallery | 520 West 21st Street | New York | NY | 10011

Stuart Semple & Art Car Boot Fair: These Pure Eyes (don't look the same)

2009-06-13T15:00:00.006Z

Those Pure Eyes (don�t look the same)
Fuji Crystal Archive Print & Vinyl
23cm x 15cm
2009
Edition of 100

Available @ Art Car Boot Fair
14 of June 2009, 12-6pm
Truman Brewery Brick Lane London

check our online store for availability

view other limited editions here

Kurt, Kate and Courtney- Art of England July 2008

2009-06-10T08:14:00.001Z

I�d love to write to you today as a voice of optimism, a cheery twitter of joviality, however I need to warn you I�ve had a rotten old month. It ended with a �crunch� as I stepped on one of my dear friend Piers Secunda�s gorgeous pieces last night whilst curating a show and started slightly worse by narrowly escaping being taken down for copyright piracy, but before I get to that I need to tell you that I used to look like a farmer, well at least I had the big hairy side-burns. They�ve not graced the side of my face for over a year now. Even so, this month I�ve found myself paying them homage by pulling my green fingers out of early retirement.

Yes, I�ve started farming chilli plants. It seems in the studio window now I have the makings of a forest, and as I rummage Bill Odie style through this undergrowth I wonder how original they are. They are from seeds of their mother plants; they are surely some kind of progression of a long linage of chillies. A species moving towards the day the perfect chilli is birthed. Maybe these fledgling creatures could catapult me to notoriety by gracing me with the ultimate specimen. I can see the best of breed awards before me now like a proud father. Perhaps my superstar grower daydream was just a way to distract myself from what had happened the night before.

I�d been asked to give a talk for DACS and Own-it (who give free intellectual property advice to creatives) at The Prince�s Drawing School. Before a sea of various people from creative industries I flashed up one of the gigantic paintings that I finished last year, one I particularly like. I could see the shock on the front row�s faces, a pure horror. What had I done? Then I went on to talk about Warhol�s soup cans, how he didn�t have permission to use them 50 years ago and how now they were an icon of the modern age, I touched on Banksy and some edgy illustrations that I�d made with my friend in New York for a magazine in which we re-mixed high end fashion advertisements. When I finished, I scanned the room. Something was wrong, very wrong. All my lips could manage was a vague mumble of �any questions�. A guy storms out screaming, �Artists create parasites copy�. My fight of flight response kicked in. In my mind I could see the copyright police coming to take me away, the handcuffs and a life in prison because I�d utilized Tesco, Disney and Cobain. Perhaps Courtney Love was at the back, her cross hairs zeroed ready to take me down for using Kurt�s likeness.

When I was a child to be an artist was a brave life choice, it really wasn�t a way to get paid, it was at best a calling to be an art teacher and a worst a commitment to a life of meths swilling and cardboard homeless signs reading �will doodle for cash�. If I were in this thing to make money from other people�s visual ideas I�d be selling fake t-shirts outside Beyonce gigs.

I walked home churning 50 years of art history in my head. Were Koons, Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol and Prince really criminals? None of what they did is essentially new; well at least the things they document aren�t really. It�s the way they do it that�s unique. It�s their perspective that changes us.

During my journey back I find myself on my daily ritual. Stood in the bookshop I�ve visited for about a decade, thousands of perfectly constructed images stare seductively from magazine covers, row upon row of perfection. It was wonderful when I cast my beadies over the sullen face of Mark Jacobs as Andy Warhol, in a fittingly iconic cover for his old publication �Interview Magazine�. Then the penny dropped - its founder would have been 80 this August. The new editor, remembering Andy, put it brilliantly that perhaps the world now is �one big Warhol� and standing there in that moment surrounded by those images and advertisements I could have agreed he was right. Dearest Andy, great grandfather of a media obsessed culture did YouTube flash by your prophetic gaze when you imagined that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes in the future? Would you have painted Kurt and Tesco? When you made your first appropriations were you too a parasite?

Adamant to celebrate his Birthday in style and put my guilty image thieving mind to rest I find myself staring at one of his fright wig prints from the second half of the 80s, melancholically produced in a sombre monochrome, leaning against the wall. My enchantment brakes as a friend and collector of my work Damian Delehunty pointed to a small room through the back of his Mount Street galleries. I dodged gigantic Banksy�s, the odd Doig and a glorious suite of Chapman brothers etchings, almost scuppered, but ultimately circumventing a perfectly preserved Joan Collins, who perfectly personified glamour in her light-refracting airbrushed splendour, like a living, breathing, Warhol superstar painting. Her gaze from behind an iconic exterior was perfectly empty, but I�m sure honoured that Andy had once used her likeness.

I finally make it into a little room that Damian has curated wonderfully. To my left Banksy�s version of Kate Moss with a Marilyn Monroe smile stares blankly at a Warhol retrospective piece in which he has reproduced one of his most famous images through a narrow cross. There�s almost none of the doomed starlet left. Banksy and Warhol face to face separated by a glowing gold Hirst skull. Both pieces the same price. Warhol Vs Banksy. The old and the new. Warhol does Marilyn now Banksy turns Kate Moss into her, the theft of an idea or a tongue in cheek nod to art history? Their silent gold, dead referee certainly couldn�t tell me.

Perhaps I need to ask someone who was close to Andy and with the auctions in town, little did I know I would get that exact opportunity. I�m at a private party with my work hanging upstairs in a secret solo show. I natter with my friend Tara about her career in a big American TV series and her upcoming film roles, a guy talks to me about the 60s in London and the psychedelic gig posters he made for The Who, Pink Floyd and others. Then the moment arrives. I bump into Andy Warhol�s dealer, Irving Blum who tells me about giving him his first exhibition and showing his soup cans in Los Angeles, how controversial they were and how none of them sold. It turns out Irving bought them in instalments for $100 each. I suppose the rest is history. Just as I�m about to ask if Andy thought he was stealing from Campbell�s I get swept into another conversation and Irving disappears back into history. Before I know it I�m in another space down the street. It seems one of the guests wants to show me his private collection and I�m about to see just how private that gets. Past museum quality Doig, Picasso, Bacon and Mondrain paintings, I find myself with my hands over my eyes in his office, back to the wall. He explains to me that last week he had a very important conference call and his phone system wasn�t co-operating so he had to call out BT. The engineer took one look at what was behind me and then stormed out. I nervously remove my hands from my eyes as I turn to see why. I�m in hysterics. It seems this collector�s latest acquisition is a gigantic Jeff Koons photo depicting the artist in a very intimate sexual position with his then porn star wife Cicciolina. At a grand scale of about five foot I can see how that kind of post-irony could have been lost on the crowd from the night before. There�s nothing new about erotic art but there really is something in the humor of this situation.

A few days later I found myself at the Serpentine, looking at several decades of work from Richard Prince�s private studio collection. Photos of his girlfriends, his own versions of pulp fiction book covers, his collections of the books themselves, his giant text based paintings where he retells jokes and stunning car bonnet sculptures. And Richard, I need to thank you dearly from the bottom of my heart because that night as I chopped up a fresh chilli into a con-carne I realized something. The chilli may be nothing new but it was delicious. You talk about your work as a continuation rather than an appropriation. To me that�s a liberating thought and if continuing popular culture is a crime I�m happy to do my time if you�re in the cell next to me.

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Stuart Semple & Moncler campiagn / L'Uomo Vogue / Venice Venice Biennale edition

2009-06-08T19:17:00.003Z

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