Oxford, Paris, and other things

Now you see it. And here we are again: about trying to write a review, not sure yet I'm going to bother with the Oxford Times... also I don't feel 100% honest now because I HAVE JUST BOUGHT MY FIRST ART PIECE... very excited about that! Let's speak about other stuff seen tonight then... the most striking really is Julie Monaco's work called well I'm not sure how it's called actually but it is made completely from a computer: no acrylic painting, no pictures re-worked on photoshop, no: completely from the machine. Julie even went all the way to some LA image studio to learn the craft... It is like a bit of a plane that comes crashing into a stormy electronic sea or a compacted and slightly pxssxd off Japanese letter jumping out of a dark page... fascinating. Dark though, very dark, very un-human (et pour cause...) so for a bit of comfort, you can rest your eyes for a moment on Barbara Petzold's Snowberry Bride : tender touch of paint on canvas, pink colours...

Something strange will happen this summer, 26 June-20 July 2009 @ 10 St Clements, OX4 Oxford (the ex-pram store) Five emerging German artists: Max Frintrop, Martin Galle, David Ostrowski, Michail Pirgelis, Sven Weigel "Something strange will happen this summer" is the first show of Notfamousyet , a new art consultancy and gallery in Oxford created by Gabriele Dangel. In true Diaghilev -like manner Ms Dangel went to Germany, invited David Ostrowski , who in turn invited some of his friends and she went back to England with the little troup she is now looking after. The use of a "discarded unstylish environment" that is a recently abandonned shop is very intentional: it is about illustrating the urban themes of the five artists. There are very different styles and media here, from art-objects to mixed techniques on canvas, from the more traditional oil on canvas to video installations. David Ostrowski is definitely my favourite with his fantastic collection of owls, ...