…the neon hub blog…

NEON always knew our friend Taffy was a handsome chap, and if we ever forgot he would never be too far away to remind/tell us. So we were naturally very proud when he graced the cover of Design Week, despite being covered in dripping paint he’s under there somewhere.

Taffy features in Boo Ritson’s latest paint orgy Back-Roads Journey, a two-site show about a fictional road-trip across America. Part 1 is titled The Diner and showing at the Alan Cristea Gallery, here Boo introduces the characters in a small town diner. Part 2 features our painted face chum at The Gas Station and follows two characters from the diners as their lives cross along the road. This is showing at the Poppy Sebire Gallery.

Boo Ritson paints the subject, literally, the results photographed while the paint is still wet. There is a window for this of 20 minutes before the household emulsion dries and Taffy is forever a trucker in a Hawaiian shirt.

The results are vivid and it is such an unusual technique you want to stick your nose up close to the pictures and touch to see if it is actually wet.

Both exhibitions close on November 21st and it is pleasant ten minutes Mayfair meander from Alan Cristea to Poppy Sebire to catch both Part 1 and Part 2. If all this glossy Americana gets you in the mood for Yankie fare Goodmans and Automat are local.

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Following the success of the last two 501® Jeans Live Unbuttoned art installations, Levi’s and VICE have come together to find the UK’s most talented painters, illustrators, designers, sculptors, artists, whatever to have their work displayed on HUGE sites throughout London.

There are absolutely no guidelines for this project, other than that your work should try and capture the essence of what it means to “Live Unbuttoned” – living un-restrained and celebrating self-expression and creative freedom. This may involve freedom, creative expression, full-frontal nudity or however else you interpret the project. Basically, this is an offer to have your work displayed in the capital on a huge scale, no strings attached.

If you are selected from the teeming hordes of hopefuls to have your work featured as part of the Live Unbutton campaign, your work will be blown up to HUGE proportions, and displayed in Camden (The Lock Tavern), Shoreditch (Village Underground) and Soho (The Breakfast Club).

The winner will work with the project mentor, Ben Freeman, a regular Vice contributor and general expert on design, graphics, photography and the publisher of all round amazing magazine FUN, to translate their work from small scale, to ‘size of a large building scale’. Once up, your work will remain on show for one month (21st September – 21st October).

Your work need not be in any fixed medium or format, be it oil painting, papier-mâché, carved granite – whatever, we want to see it. All entries simply need to reflect the essence of the 501 jeans Live Unbuttoned campaign.

The competition opens on the 3rd of August and closes on the 1st of September.

For further information on the competition or to submit your entry please visit www.viceland.com/liveunbuttoned

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The VICE Photo Exhibition 2009 will run for two weeks at London’s The Printspace 74 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DL – before touring Spain, Italy and France. The exhibition celebrates the VICE annual photo issue – the biggest edition of VICE Magazine with 205 pages published in 22 countries simultaneously.

The exhibition will showcase work by leading VICE photographers and includes highlights from the 2009 annual photo issue, both of which use portraiture as their starting point. The exhibition includes newly commissioned work, material from previously unseen archives and new work from the likes of Richard Kern, Angela Boatwright, Maggie Lee and Dana Goldstein.

The exhibition is FREE to attend and runs from the 13th – 26th of August. Opening Hours – Monday to Friday: 9am to 7pm.

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