This coming Saturday 24^th July I will be painting the public on Hounslow High Street in London across two giant surfaces for four hours from 12-4pm. There will be, of course, be loud sweet music (punk, ska, reggae, electro, trash, rock n roll – the good stuff). I want to push together action painting and figurative drawing for this event, and in doing so ask new questions and open doors for both outlets.

“Shopping will be even more fun on Saturday 24 July when painter Elizabeth Hepworth brings her own inimitable style to Hounslow. But leave the kids at home, it might give them the wrong idea.”

See:
http://www.watermans.org.uk/live_events/performance/live_action_painting_in_hounslow_high_street/
http://www.watermans.org.uk/
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109052399143191&ref=ts

See you there. Bring your face

I will also be discussing the event, other works, public art and possibly life/insects on the Hayes.FM (91.8) drivetime show with Angela Kanwar this Friday between 4-7pm. The precise time will be confirmed on my website soon.
Come by on Saturday and be preserved in paint. Or sit and eat icecream observantly. x

June saw 3 works in IKAS art, Bilbao Exhibition Centre, Baracaldo, Spain (also published in IKAS 2010 book). I have never exhibited photography in a group show before so slightly exotic move, I wish I could have made it over. Looked to be a great show.

I’m still showing in the Lunasol Gallery in Berlin’s Kunsthaus Tacheles, but it’s going to be completely shaken up with new work when I return to Berlin in a week.

The UdK Rundgang 2010. I was showing in Raum 146 with artists Thibault Bourgoing & Marc Siebenhüner (special boys!)

Ours was one of the least ‘decorated’ rooms; lacking strobe lighting, music, a bar. We just cleaned the room and hung our paintings, a surprisingly unconventional approach. The reason rooms are cleared beforehand is surely to avoid distraction of attention to the art, so to add sensory clutter like disco balls and DJs (without connection to the work but in the same space) feels like a step backwards. If the props attracted, I question how many of them just wanted a drink, and if the distractions for some where just a product of confusion or insecurity. Surely, the art should speak for itself. To put it another way, I would rather have few people who want to experience painting than a crowd who want to buy beers and leave. The turnout, incidentally, was sensational. Berlin you never cease to amaze

My work chosen by Rundgang curators are below: ‘My blood knows the way from my heart to my brain’ (x2) and ‘Ohne Titel’.

copyright Jan Sobottka 2010

click to enlarge. Oil on canvas, currently displayed in the Kunsthaus Tacheles (Lunasol Galley), Berlin.

http://www.greatbritishartdebate.org

I have been based in Berlin since March, and so far so inspiring (at the time of writing I am here until at least October). The hostility of London being wiped away as suddenly as a two-hour flight is as refreshing as an august super-soaker showdown. Special.

As soon as I saw Berlin I wanted it, and fortunately I’m in the habit of twisting dreams into reality. I am working under scholarship at the Universität der Künste Berlin, an institution which has to be experienced to be believed, especially if one is accustomed to the British education industry; industry being the operative word. Freedom, brilliance, red squirrels tumbling around like giddy children. My studio is in a castle, really. London – forgive my adultery – I’m in love.

Europe, flock…

CURRENT EXHIBITION: Kunsthaus Tacheles (Lunasol room), Berlin, Germany. April 2010 onwards
FUTURE EXHIBITION: IKAS art, bilbao exhibition centre, Baracaldo, Spain. 17 – 20th June 2010

Here is the last piece I made before the move to Berlin. It’s called ‘Chocolate’.

Charcoal on linen 2010

In the mean time, a brief study…

Oil and charcoal on wood
2010