The Secret Art Salon

After ten months of successful exhibitions “Sunday Art Salon” is re-launching this Sunday weekly as “Secret Art Salon”. It remains Brockley’s best kept secret due to its location and has a growing following of genuinely curious art lovers who, largely by word of mouth, are starting to discover this hidden art market on their doorstep for themselves.

The House Style is a mixture of figurative and abstract contemporary painting with a changing roster of artists from across London and beyond, as well as an eclectic gallery of original vintage paintings and collectables.

This Sunday we are delighted to introduce a very special selection of beautifully designed silver jewellery by architect and designer maker, Susan Wainwright, as well as the paintings of Charlotte Kessler, Charlie Hodder’s work in oil and acrylic and Consuelo's illustrative art using mixed media. Our resident crooner, Graham Cole will also be singing songs from the Great American Songbook from 3.30pm.

Brockley Art House is open Sundays 1pm -5pm. Go to www.sundayartsalon.co.uk for further details.

Friday the Thirteenth at Lewisham Arthouse

An evening of music, film and movementFriday 13 September 2013, doors 7.45pm start 8.15pm - Entry £5/£3

Viv Corringham, electric voice, Nick Doyne-Ditmas, electric double bass, Charles Hayward, drums and keyboards. Watch.

Jo Thomas will unfold her elegant and mysterious soundworlds. Watch.

Gone House, Ghost House (film plus live soundtrack by RABBIT with butoh interventions/actions by Bridget Scott). Watch.

Lauren Jackson at Room 104

The community-run art gallery at the Tea Factory may have failed, but the building's role as an art space survives in the form of Room 104, which is available for hire. The latest exhibition starts next week:

Monday 2nd September - 13th September 2013

Lauren Jackson studied BA Contemporary Art Practice at the University of Leeds and Cyprus College of Art. Her work has been displayed in Stratford upon Avon, Cyprus and Melbourne. The experiences of living, working and travelling in different. Countries has significantly developed the concepts and form of her visual work over the years.

All the artwork is available to buy, please drop in any time Mon-Fri 10am-5pm (Green Tea Architects will open up the gallery for you) More information at www.room104.co.uk

The Nunhead Corner Pop-Up Gallery

Our Nunhead forum does such a good job of documenting Nunhead events, that it's been a while since we've run a story about the area. However, this gallery opening seems like a good excuse - the first private view is this Friday, then the second stage opens on the 18th September. Visit their Facebook page for more details.

The Ladywell Tavern closes for a minimum of two months [UPDATED]

One-time Lewisham pub of the year The Ladywell Tavern, closed at the weekend. The landlord's plan is to shut the pub for a minimum of two months, to allow for refurbishment while the high street roadworks drag on.

The Misty Moon Gallery, located in the pub's premises, will remain open throughout this time.

As we've seen with Jam Circus, pub-reopening timetables can slip badly and it will be reassuring to see the builders and decorators move in. The loss of the Ladywell Tavern, even temporarily, is a big blow for Ladywell, which is now pretty short of places to go in the evenings.

With thanks to Lorna and Melanie for the news.

Feed & Read at Bearspace

 

Jo writes:

My friend and I set up a pop-up about 6 months ago called Feed&Read. We do an event once a month selling cakes made from seasonal fruit and vegetables, organic tea and a book-swap-and-shop. We do it at Bearspace Gallery in Deptford and we're holding one this Sunday between 12 and 4.

We sell quality crafts made from salvaged and saved second-hand books, and run a book shop-and-swap of pre-read, pre-owned and pre-loved books recommended by unknown friends. Full details on Facebook.

The Dancing Plague of 1518

A performance piece by Nicholas McArthur and Robert Molloy Vaughan An event curated by Franco La Russa and Annie Jael Kwan Event night: Tuesday 4th June 8pm - 11pm (Admission free) For the closing party of the exhibition Grace Before Meat by Espira, we are pleased to present a live performance work by artists Nicholas McArthur and Robert Molloy Vaughan.

This apocalyptic celebration starts at 8pm at cueB Gallery with a special music set inspired by the event, created by the artists. Come join us.

£10m Peckham Complex to transform South East London art scene

Peckham has been threatening to be "the next" somethingorother for a while now - mostly, the next Dalston on account of its nightlife and arts scene. This analysis also confirms Brockley's status as the new Stoke Newington - nearby but more bourgeois.

Hoping to confirm Peckham's ascendancy and their own place at the heart of that story are Bold Tendencies, the phenomenally successful arts group led by Hannah Barry and Sven Mündner, who are to Peckham what Jay Jopling once was to Hoxton. Having created the Bold Tendencies summer sculpture show (topped off with Frank's Campari Bar) in Peckham's 10 storey car park, they now want to turn the building in to a permanent art complex.

The Standard reports:

Barry and the team plan a mixed-use reinvention of the building to incorporate the existing PeckhamPlex Cinema on the ground floor. “There will be light industrial spaces, studio spaces and we’re very keen on Kunsthalle-style [independent] galleries.”

Now that Peckham is a newly desirable location (thanks in part to the East London Overground extension) the fear is that a developer could make a multi-million pound offer to bulldoze it and build flats.

Hence the pre-emptive strike. Barry and Mündner are not against regeneration but would hate the site to be cannibalised. “With the arts centre, we can propose a model that is stronger than selling the car park and generate more rates and more cash in terms of jobs,” Barry says.

There are relatively few major tourist draws between Greenwich and Bermondsey, but Bold Tendencies has already attracted 500,000 visitors in its first six years. If these £10 million expansion plans succeed, then the challenge for areas like Deptford and Brockley, which offer plenty for art-lovers, will be to soak up some of the visitors drawn to this part of South East London.

- Click here to visit the Peckham forum

Gaggle Cave at the Royal Albert

Sarah writes:

I'm part of the band/all female alternative choir Gaggle and, 30th May - 21st June, we are launching a pop-up concept shop/project space/hang out in the Royal Albert pub's new gallery project space InSitu which is next to the pub on New Cross Cross Road.

We're calling it the GAGGLE CAVE and we will be putting on talks, performances and artists in residence along with selling products and holding dozens of workshops that we hope will empower and enthuse people - from 'Sound Engineering for Girls' to 'Feminist Choirs for Boys'. We'll also be teaching other skills from drumming to welding! The aim is to be as affordable and accessible as possible and we hope it's going to be an exciting few weeks. We really want lots of people who live in the area to sign up to take part.

You can find out most info here: http://www.gaggle.tv if you click on workshops. The Opening hours are Mon – Fri: Midday - 8pm and Sat & Sun: Midday to 11pm.

Utrophia: Things to Come

Utrophia, the itinerant arts collective currently based in Deptford, is leaving its home on Deptford High Street, to make way for an Antic pub called The Jobcentre, which the Deptford Dame reports is currently going through the planning process. They write:

We're leaving the High Street at the end of April and packing up the Utrophia project as we've known it for the past ten and a half years to return as something a little different. Keep your eyes peeled for what happens next. 

There'll be a party of course, and prior to that we'll be in the space selling off a lot of good stuff on market days (Weds, Fri, Sat), so come down, say a fond farewell and pick up something wonderful, useful, or both. 

Utrophia's extension, "trading post" Extra Bones also has to make way.

With thanks to Sophie for the story.

Narnians Awake!

Ladydrome: An Evening with Richard Kiel

The Misty Moon Gallery is ploughing an admirably eccentric furrow, staging everything from fright nights with bevvies of scream queens to alien Easter eggs-hibitions and doing for Ladywell what Alex Cox did for Sunday nights. The newest event in our local Den of Geek is a night with Richard Kiel, Jaws from James Bond.

Via the Ladywell and Lewisham forum

Sunday Art Salon Returns

Christopher Clack, On Off

Sunday 17th March 11am-5pm 
Hilly Fields Studio, 12 Montague Avenue

Four contemporary London artists will be showcased at the spring show:  Martin Grover, Christopher Clack, Emily Toscano-Heighton and  Malcolm Brebner.

FAN Bags of Brockley will be launching their new bespoke collection of designer retro vintage chic handbags, Wild Brockley will serve afternoon tea. and a sumptious selection of homemade cakes, scones and homemade jams and there will be a unique collection of vintage art and furniture.

The Blind Pig pop up bar / exhibition

If phase one of Brockley's East London Line-led regeneration ended in 2012 with its cafe revolution largely complete, phase two is going to be mostly about booze. This will be a good thing. We've now got a daytime economy. Time for the night. Following the news that Brockley is due to be blessed with two microbreweries and the return of Jam Circus comes news of a pop-up bar in Drakefell Road.

Jo Dennis writes:

The Blind Pig is a pop up bar and exhibition space at the end of a suburban south London garden. Speakeasys or “blind pigs” were a product of prohibition and this DIY art space and social gathering spot, created by artist Jo Dennis, is in part a response to the chastened times in which we live.


The exhibition is a solo presentation of paintings and drawings by the artist. Her work uses disparate components,dark humour and personal symbolism. In this collection they reference vanity, identity and what it is to be human. Some of her ideas manifest as portraits - some surreal, some abstract - and others a mix of all three.

“When I moved in there was this awesome shed at the bottom of my garden, I have trawled around skips and scaffolder’s to find reusable and free wood to make the shed fit for purpose.

I made an installation in it last year for the Telegraph Hill Festival open studios and the response was brilliant. This year it will be opening for the festival again but the instal will be a complete change from what people saw last year.” Jo Dennis.

Jo Dennis graduated from Goldsmiths College in 2002 and has exhibited nationally and internationally including showing at the ICA and The Royal Academy. In 2010 she partnered with artist Dido Hallett to set up Asylum, an arts space in a derelict chapel in Peckham. Asylum is on The South London Art Map
and was voted one of The Guardian’s top 10 London Art spaces 2011.


Opening party Friday 8th March 6pm -10pm. Open Sat 9th, Sun 10th and Sat 23rd 2pm - 7pm. 200 Drakefell Road, SE4 2DR.