CHRIS STEIN: ME, BLONDIE, & THE ADVENT OF PUNK

Posted on 2014-10-27

On the occasion of Blondie’s 40th anniversary, Somerset House will showcase a series of iconic and previously unpublished photographs by Chris Stein, co-founder of Blondie, providing a behind the scenes look on life in the trailblazing band, from their underground early days to global sell-out shows and chart domination. Blondie and other icons of the 70s and 80s new wave world, including Andy Warhol, David Bowie and The Ramones, are captured intimately and inimitably by Stein. Featuring over 50 images, the exhibition will serve as a snapshot to the punk scene that Blondie pioneered and show how their influence on music and fashion is just as relevant today as it was four decades ago.

Exhibition runs from November 5th to January 25th, 2015

Somerset House
The Strand
London
WC2R 1LA

www.somersethouse.org.uk

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SOHEI NISHINO – NEW DIORAMAS

Posted on 2014-10-27

Sohei Nishino’s new series of Diorama Map’s comprises of the following cities: Berlin, New Delhi, Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Bern. Nishino has been internationally lauded for his beautifully crafted Dioramas, and earlier cities such as London and New York are now found in important private and museum collections around the world.
The project is a joyous mixture of photography and cartography, inspired in part by the 18th century Japanese map-maker Ino Tadataka. To make his “Diorama Maps,” Sohei Nishino spends months in a city, exploring its many vantage points. During this time he shoots thousands of pictures, which he then painstakingly hand-prints, trims to size, and compiles into huge tableaux collages from which he issues the limited edition photographic prints in two sizes. The effect is not a traditional bird’s-eye view but a wonderfully fragmented, enlightened way of seeing three dimensions in one plane.
Nishino’s more recent maps see his talent and skill much matured. They have all the detail and playfulness of his earlier Dioramas, and now also added elements, such as his insertion of colour photographs into the mix – for instance the carnival scene in Bern, or the many faces of his friends in New Delhi, thus further evoking the vibrancy of the places he depicts.

Opposite – Diorama Map, Kyoto, 2012

Exhibition runs from November 30th to January 7th, 2015

Michael Hoppen Gallery
3 Jubilee Place
London
SW3 3TD

www.michaelhoppengallery.com

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MARK NEVILLE – LONDON/PITTSBURGH

Posted on 2014-10-27

In 2012 Neville was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for a commission by New York Times Magazine in which he documented the stark contrasts inherent in London society and subcultures. He subsequently lived amongst divergent communities in the industrial heartland of the US, creating work under commission by the Andy Warhol Museum.

Neville exhibits thirteen works two significant projects, side-by-side for the first time. The pairing of Here is London (2012) and Braddock/Sewickley (2012) contrasts British and American society, further emphasises social disparities, and yet reveals behavioral characteristics which are shared regardless of economic circumstance, cultural factors or geographic location.

In both series the artist confronts viewers with uncomfortable truths about imbalances that still exist in both countries. The artist’s concerns about division of wealth and racial segregation reverberate throughout Braddock/Sewickley. Sewickley is a community originally made prosperous by the steel industry, where the wealthy and almost exclusively white population socialise at exclusive country clubs, revering antiquated ideas of British high society. By contrast, neighbouring Braddock is a town with a mostly black community that has fallen on hard times with the collapse of the steel industry and where the crack cocaine epidemic of the early eighties is still having an affect.

The race divide in Pittsburgh, is startling in comparison to Neville’s images of the cosmopolitan British capital but Here Is London reflects how the divisive effects of class and money have changed little in the UK over the past forty years. Images of traders at the London Metal Exchange and dancing crowds at the society nightclub Boujis are exhibited alongside photographs of activist groups like Occupy London and life at community centres in Tottenham.

Opposite – Rumshakers, Nightclub no. 3, 2012

Exhibition runs from November 21st to January 24th, 2015

Alan Cristea Gallery
31 Cork Street
London
W1S 3NU

www.gagosian.com

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