CultureLabel Blog

18Jan2012 Pick of the week

Enter the Dragon…

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In Chinese mythology the dragon is a mystical creature from the heavens, seen as a powerful, almighty king because it is made up of different parts of animals such as a tiger, fish, snake and an eagle. Instead of a threatening or scary creature, the East view the Dragon as a symbol of power, superiority and rule and predict 2012 to be ‘magical’ year that has the potential to breathe ‘life-shaping fire’… oooh err!

Brush up on more dragon facts with Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons by English Heritage or check out CultureLabel’s curated Chinese New Year edit selection, which includes Panda art prints by Woop Studios, lucky red bow ties by Neck Tuesday, and golden accessories by Wolf and Badger.

Find the full Chinese New Year collection on CultureLabel here.

18Jan2012 Art Insider

Magpieus Belleus: To Permanently Borrow & Make Pretty Things

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London based Clare, aka Magpie Belle, creates delicate and ethereal fashion illustration prints which are bound to seduce you.

Here, Clare talks to us about her artistic inspiration, fashion and cooking disasters…

How would you describe Magpie Belle?
As an extension of myself and an expression of my personality. Beyond that I’d say sparkly, tactile, considered and light-hearted. It’s clearly not art to ignite serious debate.

Where did your design philosophy, Magpieus Belleus, come from?
It’s lesser-known Latin. Very lesser known. Magpie Belle stems from the way I would describe I work. I collect things that catch my eye and stow them away until an idea calls for it. I chop up a lot of magazines and read a lot of books so anything that interests me can find its way onto my drawing board.

Which artists inspire your work the most?
I admire a lot of artists from different fields but their work can influence me in a very abstract way. I listen to a lot of music too. Lyrics can often be very poetic so a few words can shape an idea for me. I’m influenced by fashion but not the cutting-edge.

As far as illustrators are concerned, I’m drawn to hand-rendered work where I have to study the piece to understand how the artist has created it. Kareem Ililya, Sophie Toulose and the paper artist, Su Blackwell, appeal to me for this reason. Their work has an otherworldly quality too which I love.

Some of your work features quotes. In those pieces do you start with the quote or the image?
I always start with an idea, usually from something I have read. The quotes always have a resonance within my own life and the idea sparks from there. If I started with an image and then tried to find a quote to fit, I think it would feel contrived and prescriptive and probably wouldn’t work. A couple of my drawings are a reference to my own cooking skills, which are less than impressive, and the blueprint for those came to me whilst I was deactivating my smoke alarm, yet again!

Find Magpie Belle’s prints on CultureLabel .


16Jan2012 Pick of the week

Win Tickets to London Art Fair!

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CultureLabel is offering one lucky art lover 2 complimentary tickets to the London Art Fair!

Opening with a VIP preview tomorrow at the Business Design centre, The London Art Fair presents work from over 100 galleries including CultureLabel’s TAG Fine Arts, Other Criteria, Opus Art, Bearspace, Jealous Gallery and Glasgow Print Studio. This year’s fair brings together artworks from world famous artists such as Damien Hirst, Eduardo Paolozzi and Tessa Farmer, as well as exceptional contemporary work from emerging artists.

To enter simply answer the following question:

What is the name of our loan scheme that offers you the chance to spread the cost of your artwork over 10 months?

Email the answer to competition@culturelabel.com with your full name and name of your nominated guest.

We will choose one lucky winner at midday on January 18th – Good Luck!

14Jan2012 Pick of the week

Malika Dalamal’s CultureLabel Edit

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The London editor of Daily Candy creates her CultureLabel wishlist…

DailyCandy London handpicks all that’s fun, fashionable and culturally stimulating in the city. Malika’s always on the lookout for the latest desirable designs and the best places to shop. As she explains “Why settle for a boring gift when there are so many unique and inspiring products out there?”

Find Malika’s full edit on CultureLabel here.

 

13Jan2012 Art Insider

Dominic Wilcox: A call to arms

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CultureLabel is very proud to present British artist and designer Dominic Wilson’s 10th anniversary celebration of his infamous War Bowl…

Since its creation in 2002, the War Bowl has gained notoriety, being exhibited and sold in prestigious art institutions such as The Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Design Museum in London.

To celebrate the design’s 10 year success, Dominic has created two new limited edition bowls of the Battle of Waterloo in Red and the English Civil War in black, both stamped with date and edition number and now available to buy on CultureLabel here.

The War Bowl is made by melting historically accurate plastic soldiers from past battles. If you look at the bowls closely you can even distinguish between the Battle of Waterloo’s British Artillery and French Infantry and the Royalists and Republicans in the English Civil War.

Find out more about Dominic’s work on CultureLabel here.

12Jan2012 Pick of the week

Introducing YOKE

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Welcome to the bright and bold world of creative dynamic duo Mark and Zoe, aka Mr and Mrs YOKE!

Mr and Mrs YOKE create their vibrant illustrations from their home on the bonnie banks of the river Tay in Scotland. YOKE’s philosophy is to create beautiful illustrations that are guaranteed to make you smile.

Every illustration starts life as a paper cut which are then transformed into stylish hand printed tea-towels and totes, including YOKE’s signature hand pulled screenprints.

If you’re wondering why Mark and Zoe called themselves YOKE, the answer has nothing to do with Eggs. As Mark and Zoe explained “A YOKE is a farming tool used to join two oxen together when ploughing. We loved this because it’s exactly what we do as Mr & Mrs YOKE- two coming together to work as one. Perfect! (A YOKE is also the bum bit of your trousers but we’ll ignore that for now…) So there you have it, we’re not eggs we’re actually two beautiful heffers working together!”

YOKE have grown from strength to strength since their debut at London Design Week in 2011. See their full CultureLabel collection here.

11Jan2012 Pick of the week

Maxim’s CultureLabel Edit

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MM, aka Maxim of the Prodigy curates his favourite artworks from CultureLabel’s Art Store.

His edit includes a variety of artworks from Victorian inspired art by emerging artist Stephen Kenny to art from his own critically acclaimed collection.

MM has been painting for over a decade and used it as a mean to relax between touring periods. As he explains: “I feel a sense of freedom when I paint. There are no restrictions and you can let your imagination run wild… I now see everything under one umbrella: music, art, fashion…they are all about creativity.”

See Maxim’s Edit here and find out more about his collection here.

03Jan2012 Art Insider

Art Pick of the Week: Kenny Hunter

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Stimulate some grey matter with Kenny Hunter’s thought-provoking works…

Kenny Hunter studied Fine Art and Sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art during the mid 80s and since then has exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad. He also had a number of high profile commissions for Scotland including ‘Cherub/Skull’ (1997) for the Tron Theatre, and ‘Citizen Firefighter’ (2001) outside Glasgow’s Central Station.

Over the past few years he has turned his hand to print making and has started producing text-based prints which are designed to get you thinking rather than assert any specific position. We are rather taken with “Then the Animals said God” print that does just this, evoking a biblical reference whilst subverting it to suggest a Darwinian perspective.

Find out more about Kenny Hunter’s print here.





25Dec2011 Pick of the week
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Christmas Day Sale

CultureLabel’s Christmas Day Sale launches with brilliant discounts across some of our bestselling artist-designed homeware and accessories, including animal cushions by Chloe Croft London, retro prints & homeware by I Love Retro, Russia-based designers Square Lust and the brilliant jewellery-maker Lucie Ellen.

You can also kick start your new year’s art collection with generous discounts on limited-edition art prints, including BluePrints by by Donald Short, photographic work by CSukriti, an exclusive Map of London typography print by Ursula Hitz and Contemporary Landscape Editions by Olivia Bliss.

Check out the full CultureLabel Sale here.

23Dec2011 Art Insider
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Introducing Delphine LeBourgeois

Artist Delphine Lebourgeois has been quite the buzz word of late, especially since her resounding success at this year’s The Other Art Fair in London. We love her delicate and surreal work, with its intense use of colour…

Delphine is a collage artist in the making of her images, as well as in the way her ideas are built: incongruous elements play with each other and compose a beautiful, surreal and often humorous universe.

Fascinated by hats and other head-dresses, many of her figures are adorned by a piece of excentric millinery, sometimes no less than a fragment of land or a firing volcano. These headpieces act as poetic metaphors hinting at the subject’s dreams, fears and aspirations.

Delphine’s work tackles intense emotional states and desires to achieve a balance between a conceptual approach and a seductive, decorative aesthetic. She creates an imagery that is nourished by her love of quirky narratives and beautiful designs and invites us all to wonder with her. And wonder we do…

Delphine graduated from Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and from Central St Martins and has been in London ever since working as an artist and illustrator for more than ten years with clients including The Guardian, Penguin Books, Macmillan & Bloomsbury. Delphine received the IMAGES 29 Critics Award in 2009 and has more recently been selected for the prestigious 3×3 international competition 2011.

Delphine’s images are poetic, yet conceptual and stray away from the obvious. As she explains: “My work is about solving problems with elegant, economic and surprising solutions. I am happy when I find an idea that startles me enough that I can start drawing.”

You can see Delphine’s works in A Little Bit of Art and Gas Gallery on CultureLabel with limited edition prints ranging from £95 to £750.00

16Dec2011 Art Insider
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Art Pick of The Week: Bristol’s Antlers Gallery

The ‘nomadic’ Antlers Gallery was launched in Bristol in 2010 when Jack Gibbon realised that a gallery was needed to showcase the abundance of artistic talent across the city… here we talk to Juliette Burke, Assistant Director about nomadic galleries, rising art stars and what the future holds for Antlers…

Why and when did you open Antlers Gallery?
The inspiration behind Antlers came from seeing such strong and unique work being produced in Bristol and the lack of any suitable galleries to promote and sell this work. By setting up a nomadic gallery model, moving locations with each show we could massively cut down overheads and therefore concentrate on showing the best possible work without commercial values dominating. 

Antlers first exhibition was the group show ‘Grotesques’ which opened in an unused office space. Since then, Antlers have launched five more shows in spaces throughout Bristol that would otherwise lie empty.  

Why did you choose to set up in Bristol?
Bristol has such a vibrant and diverse art scene, there are so many people creating really great work within the city and we wanted to provide a strong and reliable platform to promote and sell their work.

Can you tell us more about being a ‘nomadic’ gallery?
When starting the gallery we were keen to cut down on some of the key overhead costs which often impede the development of galleries. Having no fixed location other than our website and social media sites means we have a great deal of freedom and flexibility to adapt our shows to different locations, cities and even countries. It is also great for developing our audience base as each show brings excitement to the area and with that a new set of visitors and clients. 

How do you choose which artists to exhibit in your gallery?
At present we are really keen to support and promote the work of Bristol based artists, as their is so much great stuff out there. Many of the artists we represent use traditional techniques such as drawing and painting to address timeless or contemporary themes. Often people describe the work we show as slightly dark or macabre but we like to think of it as more on the uncanny or bizarre side! 

How many artists are you currently working with and can you pick out a couple of ‘ones to watch’?
Over the past year we have worked with about 25 artists in total, however there is a core group of around 16 who we work really closely with. One’s to watch  – that’s tricky as obviously we think they are all great. Anouk Mercier and Ellie Coates  are constantly astounding us with their immense drawing skills, Amy Timms’ use of colour and precision in her flat gouache paintings is amazing and well Charles Emerson’s photographs are impressing everyone including Creative Review and the Sony World Photography Awards. 

What’s in store for the future?
We have just launched our Winter Shop which will be open until the end of the year. For this project we have brought together a more diverse range of products from T-shirts to ceramics to Christmas cards and books. We also have a great selection of new small original works, we are particularly in love with Alexander Korzer-Robinson’s new book sculptures – soon to be available to buy on CultureLabel! 

Check out the full collection here.

14Dec2011 Pick of the week

Last Minute Stocking Fillers

Stocking Fillers

Fill your stocking this year with unusual, handcrafted from a range of talented designer-makers and artists…

CultureLabel has curated a standout selection of unique and affordable stocking fillers this year – you can see the full range here in our Stocking Fillers and Gifts Under £20 Guide. And don’t miss some of our favourites here too:

For the animal lovers, a Yellow Wooden Bird Brooch will brighten any outfit through to Spring

For the foodies, a pair of  Low Res Apple Ornaments will be a permanent fixture in the fruit bowl

For the crafty, these Christmas DIY Paper Animal Figures will keep them entertained through to Boxing Day

For history lovers, why not let them share a cuppa with Charles Dickens…

and for those who just can’t seem to embrace the festive spirit, the Festive Sick Bag is a must!

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