Previous Exhibitions at The Crypt Gallery info@cryptgallery.org.uk       Homepage Current Exhibitions at The Crypt Gallery About The Crypt Gallery Plan of The Crypt Gallery Find / Contact The Crypt Gallery Links   For a short walk through one of our previous shows ">click here 23 - 29 May 2013 FLESH A group exhibition by twenty-five London-based artists: Jaye Cook, Andrew Wyatt, Chris Browne, Maria Christoforatou, Gerald Mcaree, Rose Cleary, Iwona Cislo, Maria Juchnowska, Sabrina Kaici, Lewis Jones, Dave Keeping, Catherine Harrison, Elizabeth Wheeler, Emma Donnelly, Myura Amaranath, Pawel Jaskulski, Ludmila Bebjakova, Zohra Lopez Milian, Paula Hillis, Amber Black, Max Reeves, Alexey Moskvin, Pandora Ryan, Ilana Levine and Ignacio Miranda. Alongside the pursuit of our own creative practices, ranging from sculpture to photography, from painting to film, as well as other forms, we all work for the internationally-known, Tate Modern and Tate Britain galleries. The exhibition will showcase the outcomes of our explorations and interpretations of the theme flesh in relation to our own practice. The result is an exciting mix of work that will challenge and excite the audience. An eclectic, cornucopia of personal responses to flesh, unified by the exhibition space. 15 - 21 May 2013 SEEKING ARTEMIS Artists - Chris Spencer, Helen Wilson, Marian Murphy, Miriam Weaver, Janette Bright, Rebecca Herbert When six artists decided to join together for an exhibition at the Crypt Gallery of St Pancras Church, they turned to the architecture of the building for inspiration. Built in the Greek revival style in the early nineteenth century, one of the church's most iconic features is the caryatids that are set above the entrance to the burial vault on the side of the facade. The caryatids are often thought to symbolise the goddess Artemis, and from this the title of the exhibition Seeking Artemis was born. Chris Spencer has set off on a search to explore the symbolic connections between the female and the sea. Using felt and mixed media she has created hangings and three dimensional works to explore the roles that women take on throughout their lives, combining this with natural imagery and innate awareness of symbolism the individual often has hidden deep within. For Miriam Weaver it was the idea of strong women that inspired her. There are many women throughout history and into the present day whose strength is seen in a supporting role much as the caryatids support the fabric of the church. Using modern quilting techniques she has created a set of images to honour such women. Prompted by the architecture of the church Marian Murphy, was inspired by the fact that the crypt is still populated. She was particularly moved by the idea that these souls are now "putting down their burdens" to lie beneath the church and her mixed media images of figures are seen both appearing and disappearing into plaster walls. Artemis as the huntress combined with modern ideas about body image has been the inspiration behind the work of photographer Rebecca Herbert. Staged in the natural setting of the hunter, images combine woodland with fashionable objects of desire. For Helen Wilson it was the inspiration of one woman, Angela Burdett-Coutts, who has been her starting point. As a wealthy, philanthropist Burdett-Coutts was behind many charitable schemes. She was known as the 'Queen of the Poor'. Her charitable giving extended to numerous and varied causes, including education, housing and the setting up of animal charities. A friend of Florence Nightingale and Charles Dickens, many aspects of her life have been translated into pieces that combine watercolour, print, stitch and collage. The Foundling Hospital and the lives of those who used its services two hundred years ago has been a theme of research behind the work of Janette Bright for many years. In her installation she has concentrated on the mother's role exploring some of the reasons why the Foundling Hospital became a place of safety for their children in a world very different from our own. The six artists have come together in the hope that this dynamic exhibition shows how from the same starting point many facets of life, (and even death), can be discovered. For more information about the group visit http://seeking-artemis.blogspot.co.uk/ or find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SeekingArtemis 1 - 11 May 2013 REFLECTIVE SPACE Participating Artists: Dick Barnard, Nicky Callaby, Kim Logan, Debbie Lyddon, Laura Pymer, Heather Wadsworth Our memories define us and are dependent upon how we bring together the fragments of the past. Acts of memory are about entering reflective space and recalling ourselves and others, places and emotions, through time. Reflective Space showcases recent dynamic and experimental work by a group of six artists who explore the influence of memory on their practice. It will feature work in a range of media, including painting, drawing, photography, mixed media and textiles and seeks to demonstrate how each artist utilises these processes to bring together fragments of the past. 19 - 27 April 2013 NEW WAVE PHOTOGRAPHY 2013 The second edition of the New Wave Photography exhibition is brought to London by United Creativity, an organisation representing emerging contemporary photographers from Central and Eastern Europe. Following the success of the 2012 edition, this year's exhibition recognises the rise of contemporary photography from the CEE region. From 19th to 27th April the Crypt Gallery in London will host 12 artists, exhibiting fine art photography from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Surrealism, minimalist landscape, classical nude photography, gum print, lomography and digital montage demonstrate the diversity of the work on display. United Creativity is committed to selling affordable art both at their exhibitions and through their on line gallery. Represented artists are provided with a platform to exhibit their work and to excel at the beginning of their careers. All works on display are limited edition prints, selling up to a maximum 30 images per photograph and represent a strong collectors value. The prices which range from £120 make fine art photography accessible for all who wish to add to their private collections or work spaces. New Wave Photography introduces art enthusiasts to contemporary photography, providing visitors with an opportunity to purchase within the gallery space. The Crypt Gallery, situated in the historic catacombs of St.Pancras Church, proves to be a perfectly contrasting venue for this vibrant exhibition. The photographs on display satisfy and confound expectations of Eastern European photography, demonstrating ideas that are both experimental and highly ambitious. After the London event, New Wave Photography will move to Krakow where the exhibition will continue from 13th June - 29th July 2013. For more information visit the website: www.unitedcreativity Artists: Surrealism figures strongly at this exhibition with striking work from Hungarian artist Sarolta Bán. Her photographs show dream-like narratives through a series of digital montages. Sarolta has exhibited extensively throughout Japan, Luxembourg and Hungary and was recognised as 2011's 'Best Young Talent' by Elle Magazine. Benedek Bognar's photographs epitomise the experimental spirit of the exhibition. His series 'Interrogation' was created using a baggage inspection device. The X-ray images suggest an intriguing narrative through a number of incriminating objects. The work draws inspiration from the painting 'The Seven Deadly Sins' by Hieronymus Bosch. Slovakian photographer, Zoltan Bekefy is another artist who draws inspiration from classical imagery, yet he manages to transform his grande landscapes into contemporary minimalist scenes. His adopted home in Ireland is the source of inspiration, photographing subtle black and white landscapes of turbulent seas and dramatic headlands. Maciej Boksa is originally from Kielce, Poland. He graduated from the School of Creative Photography in Krakow. He creates abstract forms, focusing on enigma, reflection and contrast. His series, "Doors of Perception" (2010-2013) is an example of macro graphics. 'The photographs are intended to guide the viewer into an alternative perception of reality. While they try to imitate the beauty of dreamlike visions, they create a new dimension of imagination. It takes the viewer into a microscopic world - elusive and ethereal, imperceptible in everyday life.' Martin Hruška, originally from Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic is showing a collection of his marine life photographs. 'Underwater photography is the only way that a diver can share his experiences under the surface with others. These pictures were taken at different coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea. Schools of fish, Turtles, Stingrays, Angelfish are only small part of this colourful underwater world'. Martin has been photographing wildlife and landscapes since 2005. Lucie Jestrabikova's photographs have been created by using her body to create fascinating abstract compositions. Digital techniques in photoshop have allowed her to combine two of her artistic skills: 'My photography is more like painting than photography. Like a painter I use the movement of my body to make strokes and create the pictures. Then in post-production I have created the final compositions'. Lucie studied New Media at the Institute of Art, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. She works with a variety of media including photography, video, performance, painting and drawing. Reka Koti explores the creative boundaries of Lomography (an analogue technique, inspired by the effects of the Lomo Kompakt Automat camera). Her series 'Driftwoods' shows influences from fashion photography and figurative painting. Her work has featured in American Iconology and at the Pecha Kucha exhibition, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest. Slovakian artist, Veronika Otepková proves that digital photography can be both innovative and classically beautiful. She draws most of her inspiration from historical events and poetry. Despite her traditional inclinations she is undaunted by the possibilities of digital manipulation. Her use of textures and tone mapping creates an oil paint surface on which she composes her images. Despite the wealth of digital mastery on display there is also some refined traditional techniques on offer, including work by Polish photographer Przemysław Kuciński. He uses a 19th century handmade technique called gum print to create black and white nude images. By using a combination of chemicals a gum, paint-like surface is produced. The original images were developed on canvas. "All That I Love is not only a title of the series, it also refers to the whole process of producing the work." Pawel Piotrowski's digital series Jasność absolutna was developed over a three year period. The photographs represent an epic perspective of art, philosophy, psychology and religion. 'The main inspiration for me was the natural processes and spirituality at every level of existence. Only after some time I realised how much I was consumed by the work. I realised how deeply it reflects my inner state.' Karel Vojkovský specialises in studio based nude photography. Originally from Frýdek-Místek in the Czech Republic, he has worked for the last 10 years as a professional photographer in Prague. His intent to study the 'dynamic extent of the human body' has pushed his models to the limits. 'I see the human body as a machine, enabling me to consider forms from a different point of view, not looking for sexuality and desire rather perceiving them as a tool of my creativity. I know that everybody is unique. I'm fascinated by human movement and the grace of shapes.' Karel has exhibited throughout Europe in Croatia, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic and has recently received the gold award at the 7th International Salon photography competition in the Ukraine. Miroslav Zselinsky's series In Bloom, depicts a kaleidoscopic world of dead, withered flowers. 'The appearing forms encourage the viewer to make associations. On the other hand, the pictures were inspired by flowers, which used to be vivid, but later withered and are reborn as new, organic forms.' Practising as a photographer and graphic designer, Miroslav, originally from Slovakia, is now based in Budapest. His work has been shown at several solo and group exhibitions in Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Belgium. He is a member of the Studio of Young Photographers. Curators: Maria Loades, Edward Loades Sponsors: Vertus, Antyramy.eu, Loades EcoPark, Szymon Gostyński Law Firm, Reklamex, Supporting Institutions: The Royal Photographic Society, Polish Cultural Institute, Czech Centre, Embassy of Slovak Republic in London, Balassi Institute- Hungarian Cultural Centre, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design. Media Partners: GUP, Silvershotz, Flash Art, Aesthetica, Image in Progress, F-Stop Magazine, DE Magazine, ePhotoZine, Camera Obscura, Art Guide East. 4 - 13 April 2013 RADIATOR A new installation by Canadian based, new media pioneers Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow. The ex-Einstein's Brain Project duo explores the crypt beneath St Pancras Church. The space is illuminated by a radiant form generated from ambient sound. Video captured by cameras operating at the limits of their capacities, and struggling to resolve images in the dimly lit space, are analysed using state of the art pattern recognition algorithms to populate the Crypt with images and sounds from a dreaming, hallucinating machine. Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow have been working in collaboration since 1996 and have produced electronic and computational installations, performances and texts that have been seen and read worldwide. Using Damassio's idea of identity as a moment-to-moment construction, Metzinger's notions of the phenomenal self, and Guattari's grasp that the technical object cannot be limited to its materiality, the work of the Alan Dunning and Paul Woodrow suggests that the world is increasingly populated by entities that are manifestations of the energy flows of a new electro-biotechnical space, spawned from the perturbations of bodies in motion. Set free from the constraints of time and space, from the territorialisation of both mind and matter, these are considered as atemporal and aspatial beings existing in a nether world at the intersection of material and being. Electro-technical reproduction has changed the nature of images that occupy new media spaces. Moving from pareidolic imagining towards a new symbiosis between man and machine in which the pareiodolic act is modified and amplified by the interpolative acts of a machine, images are detached from matter, increasingly non-indexical, and, significantly, auto-indexical. This echoes what Brian Winston has called technologies of seeing: Digitalization destroys the photographic image as evidence of anything except the process of digitalization. The physicality of the plastic material represented in any photographic image can no longer be guaranteed. For documentary to survive the widespread diffusion of such technology depends on removing its claim on the real. There is no alternative. Some years ago Dunning and Woodrow imagined a series of bodies in an attempt to identify presences that inhabited the energy fields that we engineered. Briefly these were: the Conscious Body (a body linked to consciousness, the awareness of both the external and internal functioning that can be felt, sensed, and expressed through non-verbal feelings), the Absent Body (a virtual body that must be consciously and repeatedly reanimated to maintain its purchase in a virtual world), the Active Body (a point in space from which emanates events and forces that ripple through and alter the immediate and distant environment), the Mnemonic Body (a repository for memory and events), and the Amplified Body (the body projected into the world, as the processes of the body are made visible and audible). What at the time seemed all too fanciful and insubstantial now seems too physical, too lodged in earlier conceptions of matter, and need be replaced by conceptual entities even less rooted in the physical world, and even more situated within the electro-biotechnical medium that is deterritorialised matter. This medium contains only flows and charges. Positive and negative moments that cause undifferentiated matter to move to new locations, and potentially form pattern. Always in flux, the medium pulses into new arrangements faster or slower than can be perceived. The electro-biotechnical medium cannot contain either fixed or indexical moments. Given this what kinds of entities can possibly exist within the medium? This was exhibition was made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L'an dernier, le Conseil a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l'art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. 22 - 27 March 2013 NO HEROICS, PLEASE No Heroics, Please brings together the work of four artists in a group show. Anneli Holmström, Jessie Makinson, Emma Pratt, and Kadie Salmon produce varied and often contrasting works of art, but they are united by their interest in narrative and story-telling, and how these qualities or references are manifested in visual art. If a picture tells a thousand words then an exhibition has the potential to be something of an essay; however in creating an environment of pictures, imagery and visual provocation, context and sequence become crucial to interpretation and understanding. To think of art as language and to allow form and colour to tell a story is a beginning, but even if a single image can be quantified as just a thousand words, then the translation of each word allows for variation and exponential mutation of the artist's story in their uptake, keeping the ending fluid in a way that a final page, falling curtain or rolling credit cannot be. 9 - 14 March 2013 Sweet'Art collective presents '#1' A show in aid of international women's day Exhibiting artists: Alice Cunningham, Ali Webb, Angela Morris-Winmill, Claire Rye, Christine Gonzalez, Charlotte Elliston, Charlotte Meddings, Connie Sides,Corrina Eastwood, Dagmar Rieger, Danielle Hodson, Elspeth Scott, Fiona Wylie, Gavin Round, Helen Gorrill, Jessika Wahls, Jerome Beresford, Jo Dennis, Joanna Layla, Juni Ross, Laura Jean Healey, Laura Harvey Leoncia Flynn, Lucy Sparrow, Leena McCall, Lyndsay Martin, Mangham & Lindsay, Maya Wild, Mourl Ferryman, Ng'endo Mukii,Nicholas Brown, Nat Norton, Raine Kenny, Roseanne Artisan, Salit Krac, Sara Abbott, Shara Hayz, Victoria Coster,Yannick Perichon, Zahava Hanan Founded by Charlotte Meddings and Corrina Eastwood, two women who have a wealth of experience working in the arts for many years, Sweet'Art has decided to launch as a collective with a show in aid of international women's day. International women's day has been observed since in the early 1900's, now held annually on the 8th of March, and brings together a global web of rich and diverse activity connecting women from all over the world. A celebration of the achievements and contributions of women as well as a critique of the way in which women are perceived, shaped and contained within society, '#1' is an exhibition where artists, regardless of gender, are invited to explore through any medium themes surrounding female form, female issues and the roles of women in today’s society. Sweet'Art as a collective is dedicated to the promotion of art that is thought provoking, intelligent and challenging in its consideration of both aesthetic and concept. '#1' as the launch show will reflect this in showcasing a range of work that follows a positive, feminist ethos with consideration of the way in which imagery representing women can so often be created in a context of negative conditions as determined by gender. We are pleased to announce that in taking donations on our private view night we shall be supporting the amazing charity Wise Dolls. Wise Dolls supports female survivors of domestic violence through Arts Therapies. http://www.wisedolls.org.uk/ Click here for the promotional video https://vimeo.com/57169902/ 29 January - 3 February 2013 GRAVELAND GRAVELAND - A playful art and photography exhibition that explores cemeteries from around the world and how we remember the dead. Graveland is a vibrant exhibition that looks at cemeteries and tributes from around the world, exploring the idea of memorial. Photography, stories, objects and decorations will show some of the many different ways we commemorate people worldwide, from the traditional to the more unusual. This will be further explored by artwork including drawings, sculpture, installations, photographic art, film and craft. It is a participatory exhibition that also asks the audience to get involved and contribute to the show with their thoughts, ideas questions and play. Graveland seeks to help dispel the idea that death and remembrance are solely sad or morbid topics. It will create a space, which is beautiful, inviting, informative and respectful, yet playful, in which people can take a look at these things from a different angle. Death is one thing we know we can be sure of and is something we all have in common yet it is also something that is often pushed to the sidelines. We want to bring the subject to the forefront in this exhibition, and create an environment where we can discuss this, learn, think, create and enjoy. People visiting the show will be able to get involved in games, write and make artwork themselves, giving their views on the questions asked. And those who want to read more widely on the topic will be able to spend time in our library area. During the week we will be making the most of the space by holding a creative workshops and a Death Cafe, as well as holding an opening event with performances. Exhibiting Artists and Photographers: Carla Conte, Hin, Pablo Delgado, Sabra Lawrence, Giovanni Ferri, Shehnoor Ahmed, Robin Bath, Candida Lucca, Steve Ferrar, Rachel Wallace, Tina Bueno, Mathew Fleming, C.J. Chandler, Pia Interlandi, Adam Charlton, Patrick Harrison 19 - 27 January 2013 IN THE VOID A group exhibition of painting, photography, drawing, installation, video and green-graffiti by four young, international, contemporary artists: Bongsu Park (South Korea), Ema Kawanago (Japan), Wonji Seol(South Korea) and Jonathan Longuet (France). The title 'In the Void' represents an invisible and dematerialised space that exists between human beings and is a key concept between these 4 artists, alongside their own recognition of the world. 'Void' connotes a space existing but being absent simultaneously that implies an infinity and endlessness of artistic exploration. For this occasion, the participating artists will take a creative journey across phenomenological issues of human being, birth and death, biological and psychological relations, and ethical, artistic, psychological implications as well as an ultimate approach to the human body. Such personal investigation into our intermingled lives will be drawn in the exhibition space in adoption of a new methodological approach to perceive art as a medium of communication amongst human relations. BONGSU PARK, South Korean, lives and works in London, 'Cube', performance video & installation video 'Cube', Silkscreen images 'Cell', photography Through my work, I have endeavoured to grasp the answers to rather fundamental questions about life; birth and death; being and becoming on my own terms. Such questions have intrigued and fed my thought. My approach to those questions is not necessarily based on a metaphysical philosophy or a religious belief or scientific analysis; however, I have taken them as a way of viewing the world and life and also as an inspiration for my work. I have tried to employ any possible practices, processes and media for my work to show my art world. For example, video clips with performance and installation; organic materials; knitting and weaving; photography and silkscreen. www.bongsupark.com EMA KAWANAGO, Japanese, lives and works in Bordeaux, France 'Welcome to Japanese society', installation 'We never know', painting 'Left brain-Right Brain', video My work is built around the relationship levels. Themes appear in a variety of different aspects and scale: biological and physical relationships between distance, space, time, and also social relationships between human beings, cultures and countries...The differences and similarities between humans and other living beings have always intrigued me. Influenced by my studies in biology (Master 2 specialty ecosystems), I use a variety of techniques ranging from two-dimensional representations (painting, drawing and photography) to large three-dimensional works (installations) to explore these different areas of interactions. "The practice of multi-media is a necessity in order to present the different levels of relationship" Emakawanago.wordpress.com JONATHAN LONGUET, French, lives and works in Bordeaux, France 'Stunning series' paintings living plant / green graffiti, I work with a living plant paint (Graffiti Green) and in the development of autonomous organic paintings. "The idea for this project is to share with the public aspects of my experimental works and their ethical implications: philosophical and artistic. Green Graffiti is made from algae, these paintings evolve like a plant, grow slowly during time depending on conditions. "Green Graffiti Paint" comes from personal research and cooperation with several biologists and lichenologists since 2005. The work is made of living algae harvested around the foot of Bordeaux's buildings, cultivated and applied to a canvas or a wall. A simple microscopic observation of green graffiti allows us to see: territorial wars, food, duplication, waste management... these same problematic issues that we find in the heart of our contemporary civilizations apply to complex systems of plants. By giving humans forms to plants, I try to open a dialogue between human beings and their biological environments, highlighting their common traits, their reactions to the reality of survival, their necessity to live in a community, what is the definition of an eco-system. peinturevegetale.blogspot.fr WONJI SEOL, South Korean, lives and works in Seoul 'Folding', installation 'Untitled' installation, collages As the image of the human body, its changing body composed of folds, small hollows, bumps, wrinkles and other features that make us what we are, I wonder in my artistic work about contractions, expansions, breaths and silences that punctuate and compose the instant, the elusive identity. 'Folds' in this installation, I fold, unfold, a collection of papers folded layers as a slow breathing space. 'Untitled' is a series of collages from assemblies of images from magazines and newspapers. http://sulsiksik.blogspot.kr/ With support from: http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/in-the-void-crypt-gallery-london-exposition-d-art-contemporain / 14 - 15 December 2012 Honey & TAR: A Salon Show Honey & TAR is a brief survey of 2 Dimensional by 11 upcoming artists. It is an amalgamation of incompatible practices linked together by one aim: To question the role of painting in times when it is considered a purely commercial endeavour. By incorporating the traditional within the contemporary, it aims to provide a wholesome view of painting as a contemporary art practice. Artists: Ekaterina Golubina, Holly Upton, Lewis Blake, Malaika Sellen-Ferere, Mouna Osman, Minsun Kim, Nazanin Sharif, Sheila Miranda Maurice-Grey, Sacha Sukasam, Shristie Budhia, Woody Kim 8 November - 3 December 2012 SPAIN (NOW) 2012 23 artists from across Spain. Curated by Blanca Soto This exhibition takes us on a journey through contemporary Spanish drawing with the work of 23 artists from across Spain, artists with different trajectories and with different ways of approaching drawing. It comprises the most simple and rudimentary techniques to new technologies applied to drawing, that include: Pencil on paper by Sofía Jack, Sito Mújica, Oscar Seco, José Luis Serzo and Domingo Sánchez Blanco. Digital prints by Marina Núñez, Enrique Radigales and Daniel Silvo. The geometrical abstraction of Ruth Quirce, to the simple abstraction of Abraham Lacalle and the pure line of Imanol Marrodán. The drawing-video hybridisation of Juan Zamora. The nod to antiquity of Manuel Barbero. The instant drawings of Juan Ángel Gónzalez de la Calle. The oneiric drawing of Luis Quintero. The comic of Luis Pérez Calvo. The landscapes of Santiago Talavera and Jesús Zurita. The conceptual geographic drawings of Lola Marazuela and Paco Mesa who create a real drawing, a great global drawing, from an imaginary line. Click here for a review of the exhibition: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art410389/ 9 October - 4 November 2012 DARE TO WEAR Curated by Sue Kreitzman, the Wild Old Woman who created 'WOW'. and 'Flashier&Trashier' Twenty seven visionary artists explore profound wardrobe conundrums: Will flamboyance set you free? How many kilos of weird jewellery are correct to wear on any given day? Will wearing beige really kill you? And...What should we wear on the way to the afterlife?? An all new, exuberant riot of profound junk: Art is not just for museums, white cube galleries, or the carefully chosen walls of one's home. It should never remain closeted in the perimeters of one's life or in the back of one's mind. If you love art, and long for more colour, texture and pizzazz in your life, If you want an innocent and potent drug that will change your life, If you tire of the same old, same old and wish to break free, then... DARE TO WEAR! Don't leave art to languish on the walls. Wrap yourself, festoon, engulf and adorn yourself. Glory in texture, colour and spectacle. Erupt into the world: brash, glittering, bejewelled, and multicoloured. Dare to be a graffito, a collage, an assemblage. Burst into art, and you will change your world forever. We are Wild Old Women, and a few Wild Old Men. And this year we have added some Wild Young Artists to the mix as well. Our materials are usually salvaged, frequently kitsch, often surprising, and we use them to tell profound and colourful stories. This year, we are all about adornment: exaggerated depictions of jewellery and clothing. We look at both from the point of view of talismans, amulets, superstition, storytelling, psychological and spiritual armour, disguise, exuberance, weird joy, and - of course - art. We present clothing and jewellery (outrageous, peculiar, lushly eccentric), along with other works of art that celebrate the topic: paintings, assemblages, dolls, sculptures, masks, installations chandeliers (!)... The gallery will be filled with an exuberant riot of colour and texture, and will offer a profound comment on the nature of joyous/superstitious/artistic wardrobe obsession. Think tribal. Think about foiling the evil eye. Think over the top, in your face, unfettered flamboyance. ARTISTS: Sue Adden, Kate Bradbury, Amanda Caines, Debbie Cicalese, Chris Czainski, Tatty Devine, Ella Guru, Sheona Josiah, Sue Kreitzman, Fernanda Latif, Yvonne Mabs Francis, Lucy Martin, Georgia Mathews, Rosemary McLeish, Liz Parkinson, Quimetta Perle, Alicia Piller, Claire Pinney, Lauren Shanley, Julia Sisi, Karin van der Plas, Gini Wade, Felix Wightman, Phil Wildman, John William, Malcah Zeldis Curator: Sue Kreitzman suekreitzman@yahoo.co.uk Assistant Curator: Peter Herbert 25 - 29 August 2012 CRYPTA SILENT MONOLOGUE: Part 1 of an On-going Contemporary Art Project This exhibition brings together 16 artists who make a diverse range of works that push the boundaries of the fields of contemporary art, and present interdisciplinary art practices that explore concepts, forms and techniques from across the fine, media and performing arts. The Latin term 'crypta' originally defines as an underground room or vault beneath a church used as a chapel or burial space. While the crypt's traditional context is one of religion and memorial, this exhibition attempts to redefine this use by looking at an artist's personal expression in such a meditative space. Being inextricably interwoven with the artists' own poetic voices about their personal affairs in everyday life, their practices represent metaphors for anger, sadness, dilemma, mindless self-indulgence and humour, delivered by the artists' inner monologues. They have found ways to transform everyday subjects; mundane or familiar things are presented in witty and unexpected ways. This exhibition aims to present an experimental way of looking at the relationship between architectural attributes engaging with the chilling aesthetic and the mystical atmosphere of the crypt and various forms of groundbreaking contemporary art practice - incorporating film, installation, light, sound, sculpture and photography - through their manipulation of the space. These artists attempt to show how the juxtaposition between the space and their practice naturally reflect each other. The exhibition will suggest a new direction for the interdisciplinary art practice in the 21st century. Crypta Silent Monologue featuring the artists: Matt Gee; Maria Emilov Silvestar; Tugce Karapinar; Priscilla Namwebe; Alex Lewis; Marta Molka; Sarah Edgington; Eirini Georgopoulou; Katerina Georgopoulou; Russell Morton; Murray Anderson; Ruyi Wong; Mirei Yazawa; Fabio Lattanzi Antinori; Cedar Zhou; Sandra Robinson and Catherine M. Weir. For any press-related enquiries please email yennashin@yahoo.com Website: http://cryptasilentmonologue.com/ 16 - 21 August 2012 CONCRETE MIRRORS Concrete Mirrors is an exhibition about the ethereal, the intangible and all things invisible. The 26 artists that are part of this show explore ideas of desire, expectation and faith, in different times, through the spectrum of their personal experience, observation and discourse. The exhibition title takes its cue from the Acoustic Mirrors that were built prior to the invention of radar. Early warning systems against the possibility of an airborne invasion, the Acoustic Mirrors pointed their faces to the sky collecting sound in giant concrete dishes. Alia Bilgrami, Álvaro Brito, Antonella Ferrari, Carey Garris, Fagner Alves Fernanda Brenner, Fernando Silva, Funa Ye, Ilsun Maeg, Inês Moura, Joana Roberto, Joao Sousa, Jorge Coelho, Josephine Reichert, Kate Janes, Nikos Varitimiadis, Olympia Polymeni, Paloma Bosquê, Pedro Henriques, Pedro Pires, Sara Bichão, Sarah Gilbert, Sascha Mikloweit, Sérgio Fernandes, Sofia Costa Pinto, Warren Garland 27 July - 1 August 2012 POINTS OF CONTACT An exhibition showing the works of: Andy Charalambous, Kay Clinton, Clifford Gabb, Elaine Ginsburg, Maureen Klingels-Pruss, Stephanie Magnin, Jane Musgrove, Mladenka Ninkovic, Celine Samson and Phoebe Smith. The artists of this exhibition met through the Working Men's College and work in a wide range of media. 'Points of Contact' features many of their more recent works. Facebook events link: https://www.facebook.com/events/228227667293742 13 - 22 July 2012 SURFACE II Coordinators/Curators: Louise Harrington 07932 063808 - louise.harrington1@ntlworld.com Fiona Chaney 07934 440678 - fionasonja@hotmail.com Surface II is the second exhibition to be presented at The Crypt Gallery by curators Louise Harrington and Fiona Chaney. This unique gallery space located in the heart of Central London instils an atmosphere of timeless serenity; a space in which the artists participating in Surface II reflect upon and continue themes explored during the first exhibition, Surface I, presented at The Crypt Gallery during the summer of 2011. The notion of surface remains a tantalising and surprising constant, a question never far from language, thought and practice within the arts, science and philosophy. From the ancient world of Aristotle to the Twentieth Century of Avrum Stroll, the perception and interpretation of surface has excited profound and often contradictory points of view. The beginning and end of a questionable boundary, to be crossed or not. A provocative demarcation of differences and similarities whether constructed or evolved. A tactile or phenomenological experience where the qualities of surface share a complex relationship of interactions and possibilities, a balance between the physical and the psychological. Is surface a facade obscuring an object or image, or the visible plane of a hidden geometry in which space and object form an inseparable relationship. Is surface line, edge or space, or an expression of time or critical disturbance? In Surface II, a multi-disciplinary exhibition, 26 selected artists use a range of media to explore the notion of surface, with each practitioner demonstrating an individual interpretation and perspective by exploring the inescapable, immediate and continuous surface of walls that turn corners, follow corridors, entering recesses and alcoves within The Crypt Gallery space. Participating artists: Louise Harrington, Fiona Chaney, Sophie Cordery, Regina Valkenborgh, Lyndsey Searle, David Donald, Hazel Walsh, Stephen Buckeridge, Juliet Guiness, Sarah King, Sinéid Codd, Susan Eyre, Kelvin Burr, Amy-Louise Watson, Jessie Rayat, Nina Ciuffini, Hélène Uffren, Jo Lovelock, Sarah Rose Allen, Debbie Lyddon, Susan Francis, Samantha Blanchard, Maria Gaitanidi, Cynthia Ayral, Natasa Stamatari, Alexandros Alexandridis 4 - 8 July 2012 LAYER ON LAYER featuring Isabel Albi, Janet Brooks, Jenny Bush, Clare Cammack, Sara Eustace, Thalma Goldman Cohen, Stephanie Herbert, Helga Lee, Ralph Overill, Claire Pinney, Kate Poland, Wendy Roberts, Julia Tester. Layer on Layer is an exhibition by a group of artists practising painting, printmaking and mixed media. Each artist has travelled their own path; a journey of challenges, experiments and exploration. Experiences are absorbed, ideas are developed, a gradual depositing of layer upon layer meaning and making. We welcome you to the cavernous corridors of the Crypt Gallery and encourage you to look beyond the surface. 29 June - 1 July 2012 UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON TEXTILE GRADUATE EXHIBITION 2012 BA (Hons) and Master of Design Textile graduates from the University of Brighton showcase the highlights of their Final Major Projects. Over the past four years, these designers have honed their skills and pushed the boundaries within the disciplines of knitted, woven and printed textiles. The exhibition provides insight into a project that has been one year in the making. Having taken a specific subject matter and developed it within their medium, each designer has individually explored means of showcasing craftsmanship and innovation within their specialism. The projects explore a vast range of concepts and themes; knitted garments and structures based on themes such as icecaps, crystals or dance performance, Woven textiles have been inspired by the likes of tribal culture, religion, flora and fauna. Printers have been creating cloth inspired by space travel, architecture, poetry and even food. As modern textile designers, the graduates proudly combine traditional technique and craft with contemporary innovation and consummate skill. This exhibition marks the end of a four-year creative process and the beginning of the journey to apply their skills and learning into their varied chosen careers. 9 - 24 June 2012 SUPERSATURATION Sean Fairman, Luci Metcalfe, Carol Cooper, Adrian Tobin, Rebecca Fairman, Jenny Merrell, Melanie Titmuss, Dave Martin, Tony Sullivan, Sheila Fairman, Dan Smith An exhibition of contemporary art practitioners working in ceramics, painting, assemblage and drawing. 20 May - 6 June 2012 POVERA: with a touch of colour Michael Connell, mixed media artist Michael's work of vibrant colour and his unique way of regenerating (recycling) materials into art form promises to be a very exciting event. He shows us that sometimes waste materials are not necessarily the end product but can be the beginning of something wonderful and creative. Over the years Michael has salvaged many used items from skips and building sites for use in the pieces of work that will be on display. This exhibition is a must for everybody interested in abstract mixed media art. www.michaelsart.co.uk Sponsored by Neonclass Ltd www.neonclass.co.uk 10 - 16 May 2012 BERLIN: the Forger's Tale An exhibition by Kevin Broughton & Fiona Birnie BERLIN: the Forgers Tale follows the life of Twentieth Century forger Georg Bruni using his original, highly individual visual 'diary' (produced by drawings made on banknotes throughout his life) as a narrative guide, and with the use of archive material, paintings, drawings, sculpture, posters, photographs and multi-media installation we explore his involvement in the First World War, Cubist Paris, Germany's social & political upheavals, the astoundingly creative artistic culture of painters, film-makers & performers, & the legendary nightlife of the short lived Weimar Republic. Bruni's adventures in both Berlin & Paris examine his use of multiple identities & their relationship to his collection of masks, his craving for the company and desire to mimic the famous - artists, performers and the emerging stars of the film industry, also his nefarious dealings in the clubs and cabarets of Berlin's nightlife. The forger's journey provides many parallels with contemporary life questioning issues of identity, the importance of individual status, and our reliance on and desire for the manipulated information which contributes to and constructs our world reality. Artists Kevin Broughton & Fiona Birnie are interested in the influence modern technology and the media have on contemporary life and their part in the construction of our identity and society. Using adapted found material to construct images, objects and installations that question and comment on our notions of past, present and future realities. http://theforgerstale.co.uk http://www.broughtonbirnie.co.uk/ 4 - 5 May 2012 24 EYES A multi disciplinary exhibition by a small group of graduating students from the University for the Creative Arts Epsom. Works explore narratives of storytelling, performance and costume using moving image, textile desgin, photography and illustration. 26 - 30 April 2012 LOOCHOO In the second half of the 18th century British Navy ships ran aground near Okinawa . The kindness and help of the Ryukyuan (people from Okinawa) at that time is well recorded. The British called Ryukyu "Loochoo", and reported that they were deeply impressed by Ryukyuans' culture and hospitality. The culture of the Ryukyu Dynasty still has a significant effect on both Okinawan artists and designers. In this exhibition the artists and designers, who are all, in some way, related and influenced by Okinawan culture and traditions, have created works that respond in very personal ways to their conceptual thinking about 'Time' Hiromi Tsuha - visual artist(London based) Tsuha's work is shown and is drawn from a very personal starting point. Almost autobiographical in nature her art has an ephemeral quality that arises from the transient nature of the objects she uses. Tsuha often seeks to locate and present memories within her site specific art and her choice of her materials is always crucial. Simultaneously poetical and playful her work continues to explore the motivations we all have to find a place of our own in the face of all that we have lost, and the decisions we must encounter to realise our desires. For the Loochoo show, Tsuha admits her desperation for time and looks at her own reality when confronted by it. She projects this through installation work inspired by Okinawan winter scapes. HP: http://hiromitsuha.com/ Atsushi Izena - ceramist Atsushi Izena is a ceramic artist and creates pieces with an emphasis on functionality and how they serve people. For this exhibition, he looks at the topic of death; a subject inspired by the crypt itself. It is well known that in some cultures, death is a taboo subject. Izene wants to confront this by introducing to us a unique Okinawan cinerary urn that he designed.He states that "The process of creating and making an urn is one way of accepting the inevitable... how time affects us all. It could be a starting point for us to talk about our own design for death." Izena hopes that his piece will open up conversation about death and dying in an open and relaxed way. VIVACHE HP: http://www.vivace-life.jp/ Hiroshi Tanaka - textiles designer Hiroshi Tanaka first worked at a design company in Tokyo. He returned to Okinawa to set up his own interior design company specialising in shop/store outfitting. Tanaka's evolving career led him to collaborate with his wife who introduced him to the world of textiles and later established himself as a well recognised bland YOKANG's textile designer in Okinawa. His work is hugely influenced by traditional Okinawan Bingata, a technique that dates back to the Ryukyu Kingdom of around 14th century which uses dyed fabric and patterned paper stencils. Tanaka has taken this ancient technique and has adapted it to his own artistic style using very precise details and colour schemes. His innovative work has an enthusiastic following.YOKANG HP: http://www.yokang.jp/index.htm pokke104 : Yukino Ikeshiro - illustrator Yukino Ikeshiro, better known as Pokke104, is recognised as one of the leading female illustrators in Okinawa. Her inspiration comes from traditional designs of Okinawan handicraft. Her work includes vibrant motifs of plants and sea creatures in unique display. She has undertaken a variety of projects including collaboration with HONDA. In recent years pokke104 has been exploring 'Ryuka' a type of Okinawan lyrical poetry dating back to the era of the Ryukyu Kingdom(15th -19th centuries). In this show pokke104 uses 'Kajadefu' - a song which suggests the joy of new life. She attempts to express the warmth and welcoming nature of 'Ryuka' through the medium of painting. Her use of colours and shape translate the traditional words and sounds of 'Kajadefu' into a visual commentary. pokke104 invites people with 'Shurei' which means to welcome with kindness and hospitality. pokke104 HP: http://www.pokke104.com/ LEQUIOSIAN : Taichi Naka, Eriko Naka - fashion designer LEQUIOSIAN's aim is to use a set of creative textile designs. Expressing the image of the 'LEQUIOSIAN' people - a fictitious nomadic tribe, in a different context. Their unique designs, with photo images of Okinawan landscapes, characterise the methods and fabric of Okinawa in an efficient and economical sewing style to provide versatile and flexible use of clothing. It could be said that the basic concept of their style is a 'thinking design'. For this show, an interactive approach to their work is encouraged, whereby the medium and participant, together become a vehicle in the creation of new abstract art modelled against an atypical setting. How and what will the emergence of Okinawa in the London Crypt unfold? cochinda studio blog:http://ameblo.jp/cochinda Kyota Matsudo - visual artist (glass) His major at University was sociology. He led the production and design of blown glass at a glass studio in Nagasaki following the Tokyo glass art institute. He then left for the USA and produced works at "UrbanGlass" then introduced his work to the gallery and shop whilst he was attending 'National academy of design school of fine arts' in New York.Matsudo's site-specific work in the exhibition is inspired by the Crypt's history and space. He pays homage to the 557 people buried there, by introducing his piece as a traditional Okinawan ritual of honouring the dead. His work is an embodiment of his living presence at a moment of time in the present, connecting to and contrasted with, the dead and of a time that once was. Blog : http://www.commons-sense.net/blog-08 decco : Moritaka Nakamura, Satoko Nakamura - potter unit decco creates predominantly tableware. Porcelain is their signature work. Their creations have appeared in numerous articles and magazines. The popularity of their work is mainly due to their collaborative approach, working with artists of various disciplines and concepts. For this exhibition, decco challenges the concept of time through their refined methods of craftsmanship. They hope to elicit dialogue with the viewer through their interactive work.decco HP : http://www.decco.jp/2010/index.php Aya Taira - visual artist Aya Taira ponders the connections between nature, the cosmos and time and tries to tie all these elements together in her work. She uses empty larval cases of the Cicada. The larval cases are not just husks of empty space; they hold echoes of the past and signify life anew. Just as black holes elude our comprehension, the life of the Cicada remains, for most part, out of sight and mysterious. Their empty vessels are black holes; black holes of forgotten memories and of stories untold. Taira thinks about her ancestors, the Ryukyu people and how they are like constellations. We look to them in wonderment but there is so much that's unanswered. However, we are somehow all connected by a mysterious thread. web album: https://picasaweb.google.com/tairaaya Eiten Oshiro - painter Oshiro is both a 2D and 3D artist and works with different mediums such as paint, iron and steel. He has held several solo exhibitions and has collaborated with musicians in his 'live' work. Oshiro's unique familial background of mediums has led him to take an interest in the spiritual world. Communication between the physical and spiritual world is characteristic of ancestral worship in Okinawan culture, a traditional practice that goes as far back as the Ryukyu period. For this show, Oshiro tries to make connections between the historical past and the present, the physical and the spiritual, nature and the cosmos; all the elements that he believes are inherent to what is the 'Okinawan vibe', and expresses this as lines and colour in his work. HP:http://www.eiten-style.com/ Chihiro Furugen - paper jewellery designer Furugen has worked in various design fields but eventually specialised in jewellery design. Her allergy to certain metals led her to search alternative materials. She grew a fascination with paper, its nature and qualities, and pushed the boundaries in its use in jewellery design, achieving interesting and creative results. For this exhibition, Furugen explores the ephemerality of paper juxtaposed with the idea of regeneration. The paper that she uses is made from the Okinawa 'Ge-tto' plant, valuable to the Okinawan people because of its many uses. The motif in her paper object is inspired from the flowers produced by the plant. She hopes that her work will inspire people to think differently about paper and its usage.blog : http://chihirofurugen.ti-da.net/ HOME : 12 collective artists - moving image 'HOME' , a concept jointly planned by Tsuha and Taira in Okinawa in 2010 has been screening at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum of Art, Club Else, Z space . Each artist from Okinawa and London depicted the HOME within a 5 minute video work. This is a first screening in a foreign country. Artists based in Okinawa Aya Taira, Masahiro Sonobe, Daniel Lopez, Kin Mari, Kobashigawa Kei, Togase Teppei and Sayo Yamazato Artists based in London Hiromi Tsuha, Daniel Bevan, Guler Ates, Andrew Kean-Hammerson, Wiktor Gacparski and Guy Oliver e-mail: http://info@loochoo.jp Loochoo HP http://loochoo.ti-da.net 14 - 22 April 2012 RESONATE This show presents seven London-based artists whose experience in creating site-specific art has led to surprising interventions that resonate within the unique space of the Crypt Gallery. The contrast between the bustle of the Euston Road, the quiet calm of St Pancras Parish Church and this dark and mysterious burial place have led to reflections on the fragile nature of human existence, memory, loss and decay. Installations incorporating found objects, multiples, constructions, kinetic form, sound, light and video explore the atmosphere and architecture of the Crypt. Chris Avis uses mannequins to explore, identify and reveal elements of human experience. Ali Darke's improvised still life scenes delve into the hinterland of memory where fact and fiction play in the mind's eye. Annette Freeman's 'Plane Song: Reverie' is a text-based work relating the experience of the London plane trees around the church. Jan Goodkin's new installation is inspired by a 20th century vocal score which gives voice and vision to an improvised idea about life and death. Heather Meyerratken uses found objects to tell poignant and sometimes subversive stories. David Pike responds to the architecture of the crypt through a contemporary take on the caryatids facing the Euston Road and encryption of various 'writings on the wall'. Richard Sharples presents a video installation that is concerned with the process of aging and the clash between suffering, dignity, growth and decay. A shared interest in responding to surroundings, and a space which links past and present, has produced thought provoking works in an exhibition that asks the viewer to engage with the essence of this place. CHRIS AVIS Chris Avis uses mannequins to explore, identify and reveal elements of human experience. For the Crypt Gallery she has produced two sharply contrasting installations. A deceptively light approach to the search for identity reveals a darker message related to the traditional expectations of women. In the shadows, the second installation presents a self-indulgent but dignified approach to decay, nature's inevitable outcome of the human cycle. The quest for understanding and the acceptance of life's limitations resonate throughout the building, where past generations have spent time considering the disturbing relationship between life and mortality ALI DARKE Theatre designer Ali Darke's In the Wings appropriates the detritus left when the show is over. This collection of fragments and found objects is placed in odd places in order to reveal new narratives out of past dramas. The 'still-life' works mix abandoned and imagined thoughts in relation to her memory and experience. These collaged scenes have been freely improvised to resonate with the Crypt spaces and explore the hinterland between fact and fiction. ANNETTE FREEMAN Plane Song (Reverie) is a text-based work which relates the urban experience of the London plane trees around St Pancras Parish Church. Beginning with Wordsworth's poem, the Reverie of Poor Susan, this work explores experience, memory and the natural world and considers the link between the rural idyll of nature and the urban reality of the plane tree. Plane Song (Reverie) is part of a wider project which focuses on the London plane. Annette Freeman is interested in how people see and experience the natural world and how the natural world experiences us. JAN GOODKIN Jan Goodkin's work focuses on ways of capturing ideas about our transient journey on earth. The first piece expresses a sense of loss, suspending time in this special place; the second a subtle inner portrait using manipulated x-ray images; the third is a sculptural interpretation of our momentary existence. These works have been inspired by Judith Weir's 'Grand Opera' King Harald's Saga. It is with humour and integrity that the opera condenses eight characters plus the Norwegian Army into a ten minute musical drama, scored for unaccompanied solo soprano. Jan Goodkin will be performing Act 2 of King Harald's Saga (lasting 3 minutes) at the private view on Friday 13th April 2012. HEATHER MEYERRATKEN The poignant feelings which are evoked by 'things left behind' have intrigued the Australian artist Heather Meyerratken for most of her career. Her conceptual work often contains elements of loss, identity, memory and emotion. Her work invites the viewer to react with all five senses. She believes that this mix ensures that the emotional response will stay with the viewer long after they have left the 'scene'. In the Crypt Gallery Heather Meyerratken shows a slide collection which documents the life of an unknown lady from Prague through personal remnants gathered from a skip. DAVID PIKE This work engages with the architectural and spatial qualities of the crypt as well as the church above. An architectural model presents a contemporary take on the plight of the female Caryatids forced as punishment to carry the weight of the Erechtheion porch on the Acropolis and have been reproduced as a feature on the outside of this church. David Pike suggests that today's parallel is the disproportionate burden that women appear to be carrying for the reduction of the world's financial deficits. In addition he takes the word 'crypt' and its link with the decoding of messages to explore 'writings on the walls'. The viewer is invited to decode the graphic texts using the Mensula Jovis, an ancient 'magic square' of the numbers 1-16. RICHARD SHARPLES Richard Sharples presents a video installation that is concerned with the process of aging and the clash between suffering, dignity, growth and decay. Accompanying the installation are a number of new sculptural works. 4 - 10 April 2012 UNCHARTED TERRITORIES INNER EARTH MYSTERIES Karin Denk Photo Art Charting microscopic fragments encased in crystals from Namibia, one of the earth's oldest geological regions, Munich based photographer Karin Denk offers a rare glimpse into the world beneath. Her lens opens a way of seeing and experiencing the alchemical process of the evolution of life. The photographer manages to capture the realm where the finite and the infinite touch and merge into new structures that encompass scientific reality, mythology and meditation. The photographs offer a glimpse into a world of light that grows in darkness. Light within Form + Spirit within matter Images leaving whispers in the subconscious and traces in the mind. All Images shown in the exhibition can be purchased during the exhibition. Information: e-mail. presence1@gmx.de www.karindenk.com 15 March - 1 April 2012 STILL SOUNDS A Solo Show by Margaret Moore The tension between the power and fragility of nature and memory is Margaret Moore's inspiration. It leads to work in different media - sculpture, photography, print, film, sound and installation. In her practice Margaret considers history and heritage in relation to our increasingly globalised world. Collecting and cataloguing family photographs and cuttings are an important part of the process. Still Sounds remains a work in progress. It is a large scale walk-through installation with sound and video. Margaret created Still Sounds as a series of screen prints on tissue paper from her family photograph collection. She then presented it as a walk-through installation of printed and painted hangings for her degree show in 2011. Still Sounds will be Margaret's first solo show. The work will be displayed at the Crypt as layered hangings on lightweight see-through fabric to conceal and reveal simultaneously. Moving through Still Sounds, the viewer becomes part of the work. The accompanying sound installation combines song with recordings taken over the last three years in Glasgow and the Western Isles where Margaret's family originates. It explores the ability of voice to evoke memory, redefining our sense of time and place. www.margaretmooreart.com 2 - 10 March 2012 AND YOU, WHAT DO YOU WORSHIP? 'The most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude - but the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. So let's get concrete' David Foster Wallace, 2008. Curator and artist Marinette Kaus and the Crypt Gallery present: And you, what do you worship? - A group show of 30 artists in response to David Foster Wallace 2008's speech: 'Plain old untrendy troubles and emotions'. The show will present young British artists including Catlin Guide artist Adeline de Monseignat, Marinette Kaus, Valeria Alevra, Hannah Luxton, Rosie Edwards, Simon Foxall, Chrysostomos Tsimourdagkas, Thomas Jenkins, Lee Suh, Raphaël Tiberghien, Pauline Bickerton, Sam Bailey, Sarah-Bernarda Melcer, Vanessa Maurice-Williams, Isabelle Genevieve Marie Gressel, Michele Am Russo, Arthur Prior, Marija Nemchenko, Lara Kamhi, Jonas Schnyder, Lewis James Davidson, Jean Feline, Nancy Cogswell, Tom Leamon, Tazelaar Stevenson, Jack Spencer Ashworth, Charlie Abbott & Tilly Shiner, Marie Isabel de Monseignat, Camilla Emson, Isabelle Southwood. Marinette Kaus, instigator and curator of the exhibition, says: 'On a daily basis we make decisions to what has meaning and what doesn't; we are looking for little truths. What you'll find in the Crypt is the work of artists investigating the 'Capital-T' Truth of their practice. It is about simple awareness - awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us. (David Foster Wallace)'. David Foster Wallace's speech can be found here: www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/20/fiction For more information about the exhibition please contact Curator of the exhibition, Marinette Kaus: marinette.kaus@gmail.com 18 - 26 February 2012 NEW WAVE PHOTOGRAPHY Emerging talent from Central and Eastern Europe The atmospheric catacombs of St.Pancras Church, Euston, venue of the gallery, hosts 11 young photographers from 6 countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic. The exhibition demonstrates a high-level of technical ability as well as bold experimentation. Slovakian photographer, Peter Cibak introduces computer-generated figures into digital photographs in his series 'Zygota'. Monika Stacho's strikingly personal images demonstrate digital layering to create illusionary compositions of her childhood memories. Polish photographer, Katarzyna Niedzwiecka combines digital photomontage with gum print, a rare 19th century technique to create her surreal series 'The Animal Called Human'. New Wave Photography challenges the perception of Eastern European photography by displaying vibrant, experimental work that celebrates the youthfulness of the artists themselves. All photographs shown at the Crypt Gallery are available to purchase during the exhibition. Entrance to the exhibition is free. Please view examples of the work and information about the exhibition at: www.unitedcreativity.org 13 - 22 December 2011 LONDON SOULS An exhibition of London work by painter Ed Gray "By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show." Samuel Johnson Gray is a chronicler of London who has painted the evolving story of London life over many years. Inspired by the hurly-burly of Hogarth's London Gray's mission is to unearth the passion and energy of the city by sketching London souls and preserving their precious interactions on canvas to share with the viewer. The London that every Londoner knows is here in all its multiple manifestations of joy, misery, industry and exhaustion. Migrants mix with city workers and street hustlers in a truly soulful depiction of 21st century London. Lovers, fighters, workers, gossips, carousers and the broken and damaged spill from the street to the pages of his sketchbook and finally onto canvases that celebrate the industry, passion and drive of actual Londoners and their part in the continuing story of London. Gray's admiration for 15thC religious artist Piero Della Francesca is reflected in this fantastically atmospheric historic venue. St Pancras Church was built in 1822, and if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the whispers of London Souls from days gone by. Sales and enquiries: www.gxgallery.com info@gxgallery.com 020 7703 8396 http://www.edgrayart.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgrayart http://www.youtube.com/user/EdGrayArtTV 3 - 10 December 2011 MATERIAL MATRICES Catherine Dormor This exhibition focuses on structures and behaviours of the textile in order to explore inter-relationships between touch and sight as registers of perception. Textile is taken as a model for this, very often its structure and the process of its formation, most notably but not exclusively weaving. The exhibition includes photography, moving images, digitally printed cloths and sculptural elements. This varied and variable practice allows for an extension of dualistic models where the focus is on interdependency and inter-relatedness. Catherine Dormor is currently working towards submitting a practice-thesis PhD at Norwich University College of the Arts, Catherine has exhibited internationally and locally for several years and has work in private collections. Her current studio is based in Cambridge; she also teaches for Middlesex University and has published articles, papers and reviews. www.catherinedormor.com 7 October - 27 November 2011 NAVIGATING IN THE DARK PART III Kalliopi Lemos The Benaki Museum in Athens, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Crete and the Crypt Gallery of St Pancras Church in London collaborate to present Navigating in the Dark, a three-site exhibition by sculptor Kalliopi Lemos. Passage through life explored in the final part of the exhibition 'Navigating in the Dark' by Kalliopi Lemos, in London. Following critically acclaimed exhibitions at the Benaki Museum in Athens and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Crete, London-based artist Kalliopi Lemos launches the final part of Navigating in the Dark. Her site-specific installation will open at The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras, on 7 October. Bringing together work produced over the last 10 years, Navigating in the Dark is an exhibition in three chapters that explores the passage through life. Lemos will use the underground space of the St Pancras Crypt, a burial place, to explore her themes of spiritual and physical migration. Taking the viewer on a journey through darkness, Lemos will create an installation where she fills three wooden boats - her signature motif - with steel sculptures of snakes, crows and the human figure. At another part of the crypt 28 sculptures of bees made from Japanese paper will be suspended from the ceiling. In the vaulted, underground burial space of St. Pancras Church, London, amid an evocative sound installation, found objects, symbols and materials intertwine to create a narrative that explores the dissent into a dark space and the passage through it to light and regeneration. The trilogy is curated by Maria Marangou, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete and Curator of the Greek Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. The three chapters of Navigating in the Dark build on the themes of exploration, transition and the connection with the unconscious that recur in Lemos' work. Drawing on sources both autobiographical and global, in these exhibitions the artist plays the role of both listener and storyteller. Navigating in the Dark PART I (January 26 - March 26) was shown at the contemporary annex of the Benaki Museum, Athens, PART II (May 6 - August 31), at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Rethymnon and the final part October 7 - November 27) at the Crypt of St. Pancras Church, London. Video documentation of each part of the exhibition will be presented at St. Pancras creating a cumulative record and allowing visitors at the final venue to appreciate the concept of the project as a whole. Kalliopi Lemos comments: "One feels the need to discover a base: a truth that is unshaken and that connects you with your core. You have to descend into that dark place to discover understanding, sympathy and empathy, first toward yourself and then toward others. Navigating, to me, expresses this lonely search for a direction, as you try to move through the 'underworld' toward acceptance, humility and self-awareness. It has to do with movement and exploration." www.kalliopilemos.com 15 - 29 September 2011 RENT SALE A retrospective exhibition of Charlie Pi's fabulous baroque style oil paintings on wood and canvas. Iconic images of the black male figure. All paintings for sale at the same price - the cost of one month's studio rent. charliepi.wordpress.com 9 - 12 September 2011 CRYPTIC "The unconscious cannot be civilized. It takes a candle when it goes to the cellar." Gaston Bachelard 'The Poetics of Space' In this provocative and playful exhibition a group of artists explore the hidden meanings in the world around them using the crypt gallery as their cellar. Nothing is what it seems. Each artist's work seeks to reveal surprising perspectives on the extraordinary and the mundane. Participating artists: Birgitte Aasen, Ben Barbour, Nathan Birchenough,Tori Brown, J Yuen Ling Chiu, Charlie Day, Paula Day, Margaret Duston, Robin Gardiner, Paul Griffiths, Ruth Harrison, Annamaria Kardos, Carol Mancke, Mark Nader, Janette Staton, Maaike Stevens, Kathy Taylor, Jonny Weeks, Joe Winter. www.cryptic2011.com Image: Screw Finger, Nathan Birchenough 26 August - 5 September 2011 SILKS A composition of poetry Artists: Chie Kushima, David Cobb, Etsuko Jinguji, Etsuko Natsume, Miyoko Harada, Sachiko Goto, Yoshiko Takeshima, Yukiko Araki and more This exhibition makes use of silk to visually and artistically introduce the wide variety of Modern Japanese art forms. In the world of literature, short prose and poetry (Tanka, Haiku, etc) are the subject of much discussion. Here illustrators and picture book artists have created images based on these forms of poetry, which have then been turned into scarves, making the most of the wonderful feel of silk. The total number of scarves, each measuring 80cm by 80cm, exceeds 200 items for both the early and later exhibitions. These fresh new designs stand out brilliantly in the serene atmosphere of the old Crypt Gallery. We have high expectations for this totally unprecedented exhibition featuring scarves that are themselves works of art. We hope to convey to the English people the lost beauty, and indeed the very heart of Japan. With the introduction of Haiku provided by the British Haiku Society we are certain we will achieve a Japanese/British cultural exchange with an unprecedented level of quality. 7 - 20 August 2011 557 SHADOWS 557 Shadows will feature work in a range of media, including stone carving, drawing, glass sculpture and photography. Through a contemporary use of natural materials together with pictorial and sculptural techniques traditionally used to depict the human figure, the artists will question the perception of the body in today's society. The play of light and shadow and combination of anatomical and idealised representations will juxtapose the fragility and strength of the body and the transience and endurance of corporeal experience, to explore the essence of human form across boundaries of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. The artists featured in this exhibition combine their creative practice with a range of professions associated with the body and include an anatomist, psychologist, medical illustrator and architectural stone carver. Featured artists: Marcia Bennett-Male, Emily Evans, Richard Field, Peter Herbert, Roberto Pacini, Rafe Purnell. Curated by Julia Tatiana Bailey and Peter Herbert. For more information visit: www.557shadows.wordpress.com 1 - 10 July 2011 SURFACE Curators: Louise Harrington and Fiona Chaney 27 artists consider the emphasis of 'surface' in their work in this multidisciplinary fine art exhibition, with each artist traversing their own path in their own distinct manner. Categories represented include video installation, photography, painting, drawing, mark making, print, mixed media, sculpture and performance. All artists respond to the gallery's atmospheric site whilst following their own independent practices. This exhibition promises the visitor a diverse, intriguing and thought provoking experience. Participating artists: Louise Harrington, Fiona Chaney, Sophie Cordery, Juliet Guiness, Loraine Perry, Regina Valkenborgh, Joanna Austin, David Donald, Hazel Walsh, Stephen Buckeridge, Tom Wilkinson, Sarah King, Belgin Bozsahin, Eleni Xintaras, Maria Gaitanidi and Cynthia Ayral, Victoria Arney, Sinéid Codd, Susan Eyre, Michelle Roberts, Andrew Salgado, Amy-Louise Watson, Antoinette Momtahan, Ephemeral Incident, Lyndsey Searle, Alex March, Emma Robinson, Ronis Varlaam 10 - 26 June 2011 TOTEM BODY Birthing A New Earth Consciousness TOTEM BODY is a group exhibition about rediscovering the animal in human nature and celebrating our 'creature consciousness.' In the numinous and evocative atmosphere of the Crypt Gallery, fifteen artists explore the primal power of our embodiment as a human animal. The work ranges from painting, drawing and printmaking, through sculpture and installation, to include performance and sound. There will be talks and workshops to coincide with the exhibition, and both a printed and online catalogue. Totems are essentially living symbols of unity and kinship, and amongst indigenous peoples they have usually been animals. The human body is portrayed in this exhibition as a totem animal in its own right - as a symbol of our unity with each other as human beings, and emblematic of our common biological and mythic origins which we share with other animals. The Crypt Gallery itself symbolizes in this exhibition the death and rebirth of instinct. A renewed awareness of our animal nature binds us to the Earth and restores a sense of our kinship with all other creatures. Artists: Alexis Rago, Barry Cottrell, Briony Marshall, Elisa Cunial Trotta, Kate Walters, Janet Waring, John Simpson, Jürgen Werner Kremer, Kassandra Damaskos Isaacson, Lorraine Clarke, Mark Gibbs, Nicolas Moreton, Sandy Sykes, Sue Freeborough, Tristan Stevens. Curated by Barry Cottrell Project website: www.earth-awareness.com http://totembody.com Contact: mail@barrycottrell.com or 07866 736987 26 May - 5 June 2011 Amon Tobin + Tessa Farmer present: ISAM: CONTROL OVER NATURE To mark the release of Amon Tobin's highly anticipated new album 'ISAM', due for release this May, the electronic pioneer has come together with highly respected Saatchi Collection artist Tessa Farmer on a revolutionary, collaborative installation. 'Control Over Nature' will combine Amon Tobin's sound design and elements of the forthcoming album, alongside Farmer's trademark sculptures (constructed from bits of organic material, such as roots, dead insects and bones). Hovering with a rarefied, jewel-like beauty,Tessa's tiny spectacles resound with a theurgist exotica: their specimen forms evolve as something alien and futuristic. The collaboration perfectly captures the themes surrounding ISAM: sensory deprivation, disorienting situationism and the mechanization of natural things. "There is common ground between Tessa and I" says Amon, "we're both re-arranging and augmenting natural elements to make something imagined but tangible. We are both exploring new uses for familiar materials, or in Tessa's case familiar creatures. I'm trying to take an objective approach to all my source material, whether it's field recording or synthesis based or a mixture of the two. I'm treating it all as musically/creatively relevant and useful." Tessa's work will feature heavily throughout the ISAM campaign as a whole, with the album artwork being dedicated to her creatures: "ISAM is beautiful, surprising, playful, disturbing and unnerving at times. It has an incredible energy, to which I am responding to instinctively, conjuring scenes that reflect the varying moods of the tracks. The scenes are action packed, but frozen in motion - to be animated by the viewer's imagination and Amon's music." 6 - 19 May 2011 JUST UNDER THE SURFACE Artists: Rosalyn Driscoll, Bonnie Kemske, Tereza Stehlikova, Anais Tondeur Just Under the Surface is a unique exhibition in a unique gallery space. This is the first exhibition by the pioneering women's art collective, Art in Touch. It explores the aesthetic, emotional, bodily and metaphysical possibilities of an art keenly aware of the senses, especially touch. We are working directly with the remarkable atmosphere and spaces of the Crypt Gallery, a former burial site under St Pancras Church in London. Through sculpture, moving image, sound and installation, Just Under the Surface will create deeply immersive environments where multi-sensory encounters are actively encouraged. "The concept of the exhibition lies in integration and unification," says film-maker Tereza Stehlikova, co-founder of Art in Touch, "of our different artistic disciplines, the exhibit itself, and the space as a whole, which acts as a literal and metaphorical container for the diverse impressions and experiences brought to it. The Crypt becomes one of our collaborators, as we seek to draw out the hidden stories from a space that is already rich with them." The tactile is a critical, but often overlooked, element in contemporary art practice as the means by which time, emotions and events imprint their histories and memories into objects and sites and as the way these stored impressions are retrieved by visitors' touch The four artists are Tereza Stehlikova, film-maker, Bonnie Kemske, ceramic artist, Anais Tondeur, textile artist, and Rosalyn Driscoll, tactile sculptor. The artists will work individually, in pairs, and collectively, creating an installation using rawhide, ceramics, film-projection and fabrics, along with subtle interventions on the walls and alcoves of the underground space. Just Under the Surface will showcase a rich new direction for contemporary art. We are keen to actively involve the general public, especially visitors who are blind or partially sighted, as well as children, and are offering tactile workshops and guided tours through the space. We are partnering with a scientist and a philosopher who will document people's responses to the exhibit using complementary scientific methods. This documentation is as ground-breaking as the exhibit; by correlating quantitative biophysical data with in-depth interviews, a deeply integrated portrait of the sensory, aesthetic experience will begin to take shape. The results will be analyzed with the artists, and the findings will be disseminated through articles, conferences, presentations, workshops and future collaborations. www.artintouch.co.uk 22 April - 1 May 2011 LIFE IS ELSEWHERE True life is elsewhere, Rimbaud. We agree, but prefer Kundera. Life is Elsewhere resonates in us, it is a profound precept of our condition and germane to the space we choose. BORA AKINCITURK, FRANK AMMERLAAN, SOHRAB BAYAT, ELIF BOYNER,TIANZHUO CHEN, EDWARD COLLINSON, BETH FOX, HAYLEY GOODSELL, VIVIENNE HOLLIS, OLIVER GUY-WATKINS, LARA KAMHI, GEMINI KIM, GALA KNORR, ANNE KUHN, ENDA MAC NALLY, HOLLIE MARSHALL, JENNIFER LOUISE MARTIN, KATE MCLEOD, ELAINE MULLINGS, AINE O'DWYER, ASLI OZDEMIR, JAMIE PARTRIDGE, ELSA PHILIPPE, GIUSY PIRROTTA, ANNA SALAMON, LIESEL THOMAS, KSENIA VASCHENKO, TYLER VIPOND, JWAN YOSEF Responding in a direct and literal way to the history of The Crypt Gallery under St Pancras Church, the theme Life Is Elsewhere is drawn from the title of a novel by Milan Kundera. The phrase also acts as a metaphor to the lives of those working within the institution. All participating artists are currently studying, or have recently studied within Central St Martins, The Royal Academy, The Royal College, Slade School Of Art, Chelsea, Goldsmiths and The London College Of Fashion. The challenge of moving from the routine implied by educational establishments into the less directed world of producing in a self-motivated environment is a fact that looms on the horizon. But where does life exist? Is life an ongoing continuum or can we place it on hold? These questions and others relating to the theme will be investigated by the participating artists, resulting first in a ten day exhibition beginning on April 22nd 2011, and secondly in a publication to be released on the weekend of April 29th/30th. The launch will coincide with a series of modest performances, talks and experiments within the space. The exhibition will be split into two parts, with one location showing a series of films by six artists on a single screen. www.lifeiselsewhere2011.tumblr.com email: lifeiselsewhere@gmail.com 6 - 8 April 2011 AND FORGET 'and forget' showcases the work of sixteen emerging artists working in diverse media including sculpture, installation, illustration, film and photography. Each artist aims to respond to the atmospheric site whilst following their own independent practices, which evolve around elements of myth and ritual, material and the functionality of the object, individual existence and (gender) politics, history and time. Participating artists (including artists form Chelsea, St. Martins & Goldsmiths): Dominique Russell, Marleen Boschen, Adam Durrance, Charles Pryor,Joseph Sweeney, Camille Johnston, Max Bainbridge, Patrick Concannon, Conor Mills, Henry Petrides, Mimi Winsor, Leonard Hughes, Liv Fontaine, Megan Pickering, Huaien Wu, Zeroten 1 - 2 April 2011 MILKT Creative Directors: Camille Verhaeghe and Rachel Noël MILKT is a series of installations and performances based on Metropolis by Fritz Lang, exploring through the relationship between humans and machines, punctuated with musical interpretation of the heart beat of the city. Designed and directed by two final year CSM Performance Design students, it is a collaboration of their work along with Nat Harding, Music student at University of Surrey. For invites to the performance: Milktproject@gmail.com 1 - 26 March 2011 LIMBO 13 Group exhibition featuring the diverse works of 17 international artists who explore the concept of 'limbo' in different cultures and beliefs; ranging from the ancient world to contemporary society, using different mediums and creative methodologies. Through differing personal perspectives and religious backgrounds, it offers the public a chance to explore the notion of limbo through a range of associated subjects and sub-topics. As well as looking at the traditional definition of limbo, each artist has explored spirituality in the 21st century and interpreted this into their own work. Some works depict limbo as a dream-like fantastical or other-worldly spiritual state whilst others view it as a literary/theatrical/contemporary metaphor, or conceptually encourage the audience to question their own ideas about limbo. An intriguing, curious and thought-provoking display of feelings, thoughts, fears, fantasies and hopes, this exhibition runs in the suitably atmospheric Crypt Gallery on Euston Road, and provides the ideal location to inspire audiences to meditate on the concept of limbo. None of the artwork on display aims to provoke, upset or disrespect its surroundings in any way and only intends to inspire profound feeling and thought in viewers. Artists Consuelo Giorgi, Art Missy, Isabella Zuhal Parla, Alice Giorgi, Felicia Davies, Felma Barbo, Alessia Braccialini, Pip Hodgkinson, Suzanne Holtom, Thilo Staudt, Roman Gilz, Sylke Ennen, Matteo Alfonsi, Sally McColl Reddock, Francesca Curcelli, Alberto Sordi and Matt Coulam all invite you into their subjective realms of limbo... Contact Curator Consuelo Giorgi on 07964 562403 or The Crypt Gallery on 020 7388 1461 for further information. Featured Artists: Consuelo Giorgi (Curator/Photography, Italy) Art Missy (Photography, Italy) Isabella Zuhal Parla (Painting, Britain) Alice Giorgi (Painting, Italy) Felicia Davies (Painting, USA) Felma Barbo (Mixed Media, Britain) Alessia Braccialini (Mixed Media, Italy ) Pip Hodgkinson (Mixed Media/Printing, Britain) Suzanne Holtom (Painting, Britain) Thilo Staudt (Mixed Media, Germany) Roman Gilz (Photography, Germany) Sylke Ennen (Painting, Germany) Matteo Alfonsi (Graphic Art, Italy) Sally McColl Reddock (Painting, Britain) Francesca Curcelli (Photography, Italy) Alberto Sordi (Mixed Media, Italy) Matt Coulam (Painting, Britain) 19 - 25 February 2011 COATED Above and below the surface of painting COATED is an exhibition of works by nine contemporary painters. Each artist explores the imaginary world of the paint-COATED surface: the invention of myths, memories and imaginings, mingled with photography and fact.The exhibition will be appropriately situated beneath the noisy daily activity of Euston Road. The St Pancras Crypt is a place of interest for artists and art-lovers alike, and growing in popularity. Visitors will have the opportunity to slip below the surface of everyday life, to explore the curious relationship between paint on canvas, and the space beneath. Laura Cumming wonders if paintings can disclose the things that are left unsaid. She uses flattened, symbolic imagery to explore the visceral and chaotic experience of being a human. She graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art and was recently shortlisted for the London Fringe Festival Arts Award. Jenny Evans explores the tension between painted and three-dimensional objects. Her works reference the human body, religious doctrine and historical painting traditions. Through her treatment of the human form she suggests it as a site of both sexual desire and religious devotion. She graduated from Chelsea College of Art and Design, and has exhibited in Tokyo, Japan, as well as the UK. Sean Fairman creates works from found natural and industrial materials such as earth, soil, sand, stone and tar. He combines repeated application and removal with a physical process of depiction and destruction in order to attain complex surfaces. His work evokes visual, physical and metaphysical responses. Vying between abstraction and narrative, Fairman's imagery displays a balance between landscape, urban surfaces and geological sub-strata. He has exhibited internationally and had several solo shows in London. Alastair Gordon uses painting to evoke scenes which may appear at once fantastical, factual and historical. He sensitively negotiates the tradition of landscape painting to reflect on transition and identity in urban communities. He has exhibited extensively in the UK, including solo exhibitions and a community based artist's residency. Sam Kiff reacts with a deliberate juvenility to early sensory experiences. His canvases become a plain onto which he splurges forms, faces and thrills, using coloured forms that dazzle, intrigue and occasionally repulse. He knowingly presents these painted forms to the critical adult eye. Kiff has studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design, and at Central St Martin's. Lucinda Metcalfe paints in response to imagery of built environments and travel brochures. Dense with layers and refined in colour - her paintings acknowledge the futility of media-driven ideals, whilst chasing after a perfection that is deeper than the surface of a painting. Her work gained a distinction in her MA at Slade School of Fine Art, and previous exhibitions include 'Sitting Tenants' at Lotta Hammer and 'New Contemporaries' at the Liverpool Biennial and the Barbican Curve. Katrine Storebø's paintings are 'snapshots of snapshots': they are impressionistic and impulsive, responding to forgotten moments and human exchanges of everyday life. They suggest a forgetfulness which is both charming and obscure. Storebø graduated from Central St Martins and has studied and exhibited internationally. Melanie Titmuss explores the ways in which space is experienced and conjured. She considers myth and nostalgia in relation to the banal, particularly within the manmade landscape. She studied at Wimbledon and Cyprus College of Art and has exhibited and worked in the UK and Europe. Her work was previously selected for New Contemporaries and reviewed in publications including the Guardian and Financial Times. Adrian Tobin's current work is inspired by a visit to Lourdes in July 2010, responding to Jessica Hausner's sceptical (but excellent) film; Lourdes. He set out to experience the quiet - even maternal - stillness of the small town in the Pyrenees, in contrast to what he sees as a Blackpool-esque culture of binge drinking and mass produced religious tat. He has studied at Wimbledon, Chelsea and Cyprus College of Art, and currently has a studio in Wapping E1. For further information please contact Adrian Tobin: 07913522054 solidmelts@yahoo.ca 12 - 16 February 2011 OUTPUT FROM JAPAN A Japanese Contemporary Art Exhibition presented by NIMO The New Ikebukuro Montparnasse Organisation (NIMO) is an NPO group for independent artists established in February 2010. The organisation has been officially supported by the office of Tosima-ku Tokyo Japan since April 2010, and our members consist of artists, creaters and musicians of all genres. NIMO's main activity is organising art events for our members and supporting each artist to develop and enhance the quality of Japanese art culture. NIMO is inspired by Ikebukuro Montparnasse, an artist village built around the 1930s in Ikebukuro city Tosima-ku Tokyo. During the 1930s many young artists set up studios in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, and many avant-garde artists worked together and developed Japanese art culture; artists including Saburo Aso, Masaaki Terada, Shunsuke Matsumoto, Iwami Furusawa, Ichiro Fukuzawa, and Kikuji Yamashita. Our aim is to reproduce the artist village so that our artists can contribute to the enhancement of Japanese artists, and for the motivation and development of Japanese art culture. This group exhibition in London is our first project in a foreign country. The main aim of this exhibition is to provide experience and the opportunity to have inter-cultural communication in an artistic arena for our artists. We believe that it is a great opportunity for our artists to see the reaction from an audience in London and we hope that it will be a chance for artists to express themselves to the world through their artwork, and also to get some inspiration from their experience. The concept of our group exhibition would be "output from Japan". In other words, the concept is committed to each participating artist. In this exhibition there are almost 60 artists from many genres, such as painting, fine art, sound art, photography, ceramic art, illustration, calligraphy, and sculpture. We would like our audience to enjoy their free expression and also to find connections in their artwork. We hope that this exhibition will develop some rapport between our audience in London and Japanese art. www.nimo.asia/jcae.html 9 - 10 February 2011 LUO QING - solo exhibition 1 - 5 February 2011 AFTER THE FLOOD - A Bobok Show Bobok Enterprises presents 'After the Flood', an exhibition of recent work by Robert Brown, Pat Garrett, Rick Kunstler, William McGhee, Roberto Marrone and Porthos du Vallon. 19 - 26 January 2011 ROOTS - Back To Your Senses The show presents a selection of works by Sardinian artists Virgilio Cotza. Situated on a path that links ancient history to the present, his artwork explores the relationship between the two. Virgilio's art reveals how the millenary roots of Sardinian culture feed the present, bringing us echoes of primordial instincts and needs, still present in contemporary society. Some of his works focus on symbolic figures, often warriors, travellers or shamans: all visualisations of human inclinations and needs which lead an individual's life. His technique exposes an intimate relation with nature, earth and primary elements and the result for the viewer is that of a strong sensorial engagement. The artwork chosen, brings us back to earth, to the forgotten/overseen roots of life, through the use of organic materials and primitive shapes.The roughness of the surface and the paired-down figures grip the visitor's own physical and emotional core. It is an immediate form of art, an art that doesn't rely on conceptual explanation, on third party filters, to be understood. It readily connects to the individual's instinct and only later to the mind. 2 - 22 December 2010 ILLUMINI PRESENTS - CRYPT-MAS A free alternative Christmas art experience, for all ages, created inside an underground grotto. The venue is a dark church crypt, with alcoves and arched ceilings, the fantastic setting and atmosphere, for an alternative Christmas experience. Once inside this unusual historical subterranean labyrinth, guests can explore the festive grotto. Illumini takes them on a journey of an alternative Christmas, one never been seen before. Walls lit with bright colourful projections and effects guide the way, passing illuminating artworks that will dazzle and amaze guests of all ages. Hidden deep inside, Is Illumini's very own Father Christmas, an art installation based on a futuristic, robotic Santa. He is there to greet all his guests from young to old, with surprises and gifts for the children. The event has been designed for everyone no matter what age, to enjoy a free alternative Christmas art experience. Children can participate in workshops during their visit, making their own festive gifts to take home with them. The whole event is free including children's workshops, making it a fantastic family fun day out with a difference, at what can be a very expensive time of the year for people, especially families. The event starts with a grand opening free for everyone, with performance, light shows and much more for all the family. 26 November 2010 TO SEE For one evening only: Friday 26 November Viewings begin from 6pm Choreographed and Directed By Lucy Palmer Please contact Lucy to book a viewing 07595884371 or email lucypalmer1@aol.com 4 - 24 November 2010 AN ORCHESTRA OF STRINGS Curated by Teresa Mills Artists: Jonathan Waller, Hedy Esmail, Anwyl Cooper Willis, Polly Cruse, Fiona Hughes, Clare Stanhope, Dave Eldergill, Sarah Rose Allen, Jane Tudge, Valentina Gomez, Otto Alexis Schade Lopez, Kathy Taylor, Carl Gent, Lisa Bird, Marco Russo Di Chiara, Anne Lydiat, Teresa Mills Teresa Mills, artist and curator, writes: Our fear of love and loss is a very human condition. These artists present their work in a particular way around this theme. I hope this exhibition presents a serious side, a positive side but also a slightly humorous side to a necessary emotion to deal with the events of life. I love this piece of text by ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage" Lao Tzu Contact 0207 688 0083 27 - 31 October 2010 DELINEATION, CONTEMPORARY DIALOGUES WITH DRAWING TBC Artists' Collective Beverley Bennett, Maiven Bergeron, Laura Davidson, Susannah King, James Jeff Lindley, Paula Lucido, Alex McIntyre, Paul Mendez, Elizabeth Oniri, Charley Peters, James Tuitt and Philip Weiner TBC is a London-based multi-disciplinary collective of artists, and a thinking space for members - and the wider arts community - to engage in discussion and debate, and make public their ideas. The group self-publishes a magazine, 12 Pages, and works on exhibition projects that interrogate individual members' creative identities and explore the potential of collaborative works. The exhibition, Delineation: Contemporary Dialogues with Drawing considers drawing as an expanded field that explores what it is to draw within the context of contemporary art practice. In the elegiac setting of The Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras Church, Delineation will present works from TBC Artists' Collective that contemplate the nature of contemporary drawing activity in physical, cognitive and virtual contexts. The exhibition will focus on the processes of drawing itself, and also assert its relevance to writing, sculpture, sewing, technology, mark-making, language, gesture and performance. tbcartistscollective.org / info@tbcartistscollective.org In association with The Big Draw Sponsored by Quintessentially 5 - 24 October 2010 FLASHIER...AND TRASHIER Participating Artists: Kate Bradbury, Dan Casado, Chris Czainski, Ella Guru, Sue Kreitzman, Karin van der Plas, Julia Sisi, Phil Wildman, Stephen Wright From the creators of "WOW!!" Now Comes: FLASHIER.......AND TRASHIER!!: THE EXHIBITION. An exuberant celebration of paintings and assemblage art made from salvaged and recycled materials inspired by Sue Kreitzman's and Phil Wildman's original exhibition, 'Flashy & Trashy', in 2008. Expanded to include nine artists, visitors are invited to marvel at the salvation and regeneration of lost and discarded objects, transformed into wild and wonderful objects of art. Ponder the questions asked in the installations: "What Should We Wear on the Way to the Afterlife??" "What Hidden Powers Are Bestowed Upon Objects That - Like Souls Damaged - are Discarded, Abandoned, and Forgotten?" Marvel at an extravaganza of all things kitsch! Enjoy the thrills and chills of the St Pancras Crypt, deep beneath the streets of the city. Be amazed by our glimpse into the murky voyeuristic past of often beautiful and extravagant days gone by. Enjoy memories and reconstructions of Old Fashioned Circus Side Shows and visit our opening night on Wednesday 6/10/10: a celebration of "FLASHIER & TRASHIER!!!: THE EXHIBITION" with street entertainers and performance art. Contact: suekreitzman@yahoo.co.uk pbherbert@gmail.com For a short film about this exhibition ">click here 22 - 26 September 2010 UK HOME TRUTHS MAUGER MODERN ART is delighted to present two solo shows previewing on the same night at the Crypt Gallery, St. Pancras Church this September. Philip Pak Hin Chiu 'H I N' Hin was born in a little town in Fanling, Hong Kong. From a young age, Hin spent most of his time learning to draw from Japanese Manga in addition to the traditional Chinese watercolour lessons he was taking at the time. Because of his love for art, Hin's parents decided to send him to study in England at the age of 12. In addition to exhibiting at London Art Fair, Miami Scope, and Art London, Hin's work has been shown in cities such as Miami, Brussels, Amsterdam and Valencia. He created the vibrant and diverse art group ELAC (East London Art Company) in March 2007 - this will be Hin's second solo show in London with MAUGER and will feature new contradiction drawings, strange magnifying experiences, prints and installations - works will be posted on the show website very shortly. http://www.asrealasadream.com/ Susan Elliott UK Home Truths is the first London gallery show from Hastings based artists Susan Elliott, whose work exploring national identity has been critically acclaimed and widely collected. Her work is held in private collections from New York to Miami, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Paris. "My studio is an archive of the nation's mantelpieces and an affectionate collection of the kitsch and the idiosyncratic within which I think there is an inherent beauty. These objects, once bought as a reminder of good times, offer the stereotypical view that speaks of inbuilt Home Truths" 16 - 19 September 2010 GENERICITY Uniquely Singapore - Distinctively London? Come join us for an inquiry into generic urban spaces within cities, with specific examples relating to London and Singapore, through an exhibition and a discussion forum. Using photography as a medium of observation, communication and representation, this project has been a series of ongoing conversations on generic spaces between six pairs of architects and architectural students in London and Singapore over the past year. Six key activity spaces (Transit, Eating, Leisure, Retail, Living and Occupational) that define our contemporary life have been identified as the basis for discussion. This exhibition showcases the collective findings by the correspondents. The main theoretical position of the project arise from the prevailing condition of cities striving to be unique through icons, but yet reinforcing the generic with cities made the same through the endless repetition of differences by the same set of building programs and signature "starchitecture" styles. Therefore, rather than claiming uniqueness through cultural references in architectural expression or iconic figurative gestures; this project questions and rediscovers the uniqueness of urban spaces through the most generic and banal scenes of everyday life. Perhaps, the uniqueness of the city can only be revealed through celebrating the generic. 4 - 14 September 2010 THE OUTSIDERS A photographic exhibition by Vernon Dewhurst inspired by the situation of the Burmese migrant workers, and the refugees from the oppression and terror of the Burmese State. Living outside the mainstream of Thai society the people from Burma have few rights and little legal protection against unscrupulous employers and their agents. They are frequently harassed by the Thai police, often having to resort to bribery in order to avoid deportation or prison. Their living and working conditions are harsh and their remuneration minimal, but they are there because at least they are safe from Burmese army and police, and they have a chance to earn some money, a large portion of which is invariably sent back to their families in Burma. As a photographer I found the dichotomy between their living conditions and situation and their almost invariable cheerfulness, dignity, and optimism an inspiration and a lesson. They have learned to live with so little, to overcome so much, to retain hope in extreme adversity, and to hold on to their identity and self respect. I hope the pictures show people that we can relate to, they are not from another planet, they are just like us. They have the same hopes, the same fears, they laugh like us, they cry like us, but they have none of our advantages of money, freedom, safety, health care, and education. People in Burma simply want to leave in peace and security under a federal democratic system where everyone is treated equally regardless of their race, religion and gender. We should not ignore or forget them, for we are their only witnesses, of their misfortune and of the crimes committed against them, The camp pictures were taken in various labour camps in Thailand and the background pictures in southern Burma 2008-2009. Portraits of the refugees were made in the UK in 2010. There will also be showing a short film by 'Joshua' (narrator of Oscar nominated 'Burma VJ') about the monks uprising of 2007. For a short walk through this exhibition ">click here 11 - 30 August 2010 THE SKIN I'M IN Large works on paper by Charlie Pi With Guest Artists: Eugene Ankomah, Agnes Eve and Jo Wilmot The Return of the SUMMERSHOW: Four inspired artist in one truly inspirational venue. Charlie Pi is an artist best known for his paintings of black men , using baroque iconography to create hauntingly beautiful works , but this year things have changed.Since last September artist Charlie Pi has been working on paper.What does a children's nursery rhyme illustration look like when it's five foot square? Plans, sketches, storyboards, illustrations, comics and text made large. Not precursors but finished works in their own right. Charlie has broken away from his previous baroque iconography in oils to a free space in which to examine both theme and process. As Charlie says, "I can do anything I like on paper, if the picture gets too big for the page I can stick another piece of paper to it and mistakes can literally be cut out. I don't feel the need to finish or complete and if the worst comes to the worst Paper burns." Playing with mixed media, household emulsions, car paint, inks and oils, even furniture polish and ultimately fire. Moving on from images of beautiful young black men to multi-image pictures of a mixture of models; young, old, black and white, male and female. The multi images an attempt to portray character beyond image. Although the models are real and provide both visual and personal inspiration , these are not portraits. The imagery is probably more informed by Charlie personal projections. Seeing his model in his old fashioned stripey nightshirt not only brings back childhood memories of nursery rhymes but makes Charlie aware of his own ageing process. The 'Squirrel Watchers' are as much about this personal projection as they are about the original model. Again when confronted by a black model who is training in dance choreography but who has no forearms due to Thalidomide, Charlie is made aware of his own feelings about Classical Ballet in which the dancers is bombarded with strictures on there being only one way to do it. 'Porte des Bras' is an exercise which tells how the arms should be held to conform with the five foot position of Ballet. The result in the case of this young dancer cannot be other than other.. Even 'ConsiderThe Lilies' which might appear to be a fairly straightforward painting of the unveiling of a beautiful young man, is based on my feelings about this model who I know suffers from body dysmorphia and believes himself to be 'fat and ugly'. A very different body of work but with the usual wit and luscious beauty of Charlie Pi: Thugz 'n Frox, Squirrel watching by Candle light, Consider the Lilies, Pretzel Hug and I am a Dancer. After the success of last year's show Charlie Pi has invited three other artist to join him in this truly inspirational venue. Eugene Ankomah: Will be re-creating an installation and video based on a previous performance, 'Tribal Dance' "My work often mixes cultural imagery and symbolism from my African background coupled with images from popular culture combined with experimental ways of approaching my various themes I aim to comment socially, politically, culturally, emotionally and personally. I reveal to hide and hide to expose." Agnes Eve: Will be showing her wonderful strong yet intimate, semi-abstract landscapes. 'The substratum for my paintings comes from Nature. Nature takes the leadership in creating. It is a constant, unstoppable process of formation within creation and has been progressing since the Big Bang. My role is to extract it from the whole and transfer it to my work.' Jo Wilmot: Presents all new oils based on concepts of glamour. "I'm interested in the way shiny newness becomes tarnished, in how fast a longed for item or experience switches from desirable to bland. We live in a culture of glossy images, objects and items and we are led to believe that the next purchase or cocktail will make us complete." I have selected these artists because I admire not only their work but their practice. I see in each of them a desire to push beyond, an openness to new ideas and serendipity but most of all a love for the creative process above and beyond product. All artists are available for interview and can be contacted direct. For further information or picture go to: Charlie Pi: 0208 691 5592 Charliepi.wordpress.com/ charliepi@hotmail.co.uk www.myspace.co.uk/charliepi Eugene Ankomah: 0796 574 971 www.eugeneankomah.com www.myspace.co.uk/uegeneankomah Eugene-ankomah@hotmail.com Agnes Eve: 0784 1516 312 www.agneseve.com agneseve@ymail.com Jo Wilmot: 07967 195213 jowilmot@hotmail.com 31 July - 8 August 2010 PASSION FOR LONDON Recent work by Paul Hiles Hiles' recent work, produced over the past four years, focuses on London life and humour in all its detail. Concentrating on London scenes, he incorporates well-known landscapes, such as St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge. The trademark red London buses provide a distinctive light touch to the pencil-drawn, intricate, black and white pieces of work. Many of the works are large in scale and full of quirky details such as "Jack the Ripper" hiding down a dark alley in Spitalfields, Boris on his bike next to City Hall or Anne Boleyn being beheaded on Tower Hill. The intricate yet hectic nature of the work resonates with all London dwellers - the appeal is in the detail, richness and scale. www.paulhiles.co.uk 17 - 25 July 2010 DOES MY ART LOOK BIG IN THIS? Rintama Arts, participating artists: Susie Baldock, Jenni-Maria Cibari, Debbie Clark, Fiona Chaney, Sophie Cordery, Sam Goodchild, Juliet Guiness, Louise Harrington, Chris Korek, Elli Lait, Loraine Perry, Jessie Rayat, Maria Staley, Regina Valkenborgh, Rachel Wilkins Curator: Loraine Perry RINTAMA ARTS present a group of emerging artists from the University of Hertfordshire whose work encompasses photography, painting, installation, performance, print, video projection and site responsive work. Each artist traverses their own path in their own distinct manner focusing on elements of beauty, frivolity, humour, darkness, the delicate, the ethereal, the everyday and moments in time and space that cause the viewer to 'take a minute' with some responding directly to the physical, cultural and historical aspects of the building and location at St Pancras itself creating their own narrative. www.rintamaarts.com 25 June - 13 July 2010 UNDER THE MOON Ramona Belcher, Norma Cronin, Juliette Jeanclaude, Carol Lawrence, Jess Lee-Short, Su Lupasco Washington, Annalouise Oakland, Yvonne Overton UNDER THE MOON brings together eight artists for the first time, most unknown to each other until the rallying call was sounded, and the circle drawn. Expressed through painting, sculpture, installation, print and mixed-media, the personal narrative of each artist is revealed in their distinct and individual work. This diverse and inspired group fuse their talents to present a truly unique show. As moonlight illuminates all it touches, so the spark of this creative adventure will entice and excite all who enter the mysterious, subterranean labyrinth beneath the hubbub of Central London. www.underthemoonexhibition.wordpress.com 10 - 20 June 2010 GENE MEME 50 beautiful and compelling paintings by artist Gregor Harvie replicate and mutate, evolving from simple cells to complex crowds. Like genes, they proliferate without conscience, overwhelming the space they occupy. 50 elegies by writer Alex Harvie remember past societies whose rapid growth led to collapse, a simple repetition of previous failures. We ignore these messages from the past, these memes, at our peril. For each painting sold, Street Child Africa will offer a vulnerable child in Ghana a year's apprenticeship including accommodation, food, medical care and support, to help lift them out of poverty. Find out more at: www.genememeart.blogspot.com THE POPULATION DEBATE Rising population is one of the most important issues facing our planet. The GENE MEME debate asks: What should be done about it? The panel of eminent speakers discussed this critical issue,tackling topics like: Whose problem is it? What are the demographics? What are the options? What are the practical problems? What ethical issues might be involved? Should anything be done at all? Prof. Aubrey Manning OBE, University of Edinburgh Prof. John Guillebaud, University College London Roger Martin, Optimum Population Trust Fred Pearce, The Guardian, New Scientist Savina Geerinckx, Street Child Africa Revd. Jeremy Caddick, University of Cambridge For further details see www.gandaharvie.com or contact Alex at info@gandaharvie.com 6 May - 6 June 2010 LINGERING WHISPERS The exhibition where international Art & Fashion duel and duet Website : http://lingering-whispers.com Does self expression flourish under pressure? Is creativity at its most acute in times of social, political and financial crises? More than anything, do the Arts provide hope during periods of extreme difficulty? The Great Depression in the 1930's saw Hollywood enter its Golden Age, a period many still describe as the Imperial Era of cinema. On the eve of WWII in 1939 MGM created Gone with the Wind, still one of the most successful films of all time. The Wizard of Oz, released the same year, became one of the most famous moving pictures ever made and Judy Garland's rendition of Over the Rainbow has been voted the greatest American movie song of all time by the American Film Institute. Extravagant colour and elaborate sets delighted millions; timeless in their invention and splendour while the music, choreography and elaborate costumes of this period all became instant classics, both on celluloid and stage. So now, while the financial world alleges we are once again in the midst of a grave depression, could Art once more succeed and exceed beyond all limits, providing a platform where all channels of creativity might flourish, stimulate and inspire? With this in mind, Lingering Whispers has been born. An exhibition comprising 40 international artists hunting for alternative ways of expression during this crisis. Art and Fashion will merge into one, both stage and catwalk, conscious and subconscious combined where imagination will be celebrated and the pigeonholed eliminated. Contemporary artists, poets, performers, fashion designers and photographers will unite in sharing their unspoken vanities, intoxicating fantasies, illusions, longings, dreams and desires. Lingering Whispers is about experiencing, not inert viewing. Art as a stage rather than four blank gallery walls. A glamorous, exquisite alternative to darkness and gloom. Curated by Predrag Pajdic and produced by Virginie Puertolas-Syn with: Dom Agius, Errikos Andreu, Barney Ashton, Joachim Baldauf, Stefania Bonatelli, Wren Britton, Carolyn Cowan, Fran Dileo, Alexandra Eldridge, Devin Elijah, Manuel Estevez, Roberto Foddai, Al Giga, Frances Goodman, Christophe Haleb, Katharina Hesse, Daniel Holfeld, Kobi Israel, Pascale Lafay, Scooter Laforge, Emiliano Lazzarotto, Mark Mander, Tupac Martir, Katarina Mootich, Michal Ohana-Cole, Maflohe Passedouet, Petra Reimann, ricci/forte, Pato Rivero, Yvonne De Rosa, Mauro Santucci, Iris Schieferstein, Erick Soler, Tapio Snellman, Wolfgang Stiller, Christopher Stribley, Lee Wagstaff, Cyrille Weiner. For further information or press images please contact Predrag Pajdic on +44 77 344 340 66 or p.pajdic@gmail.com 22 - 30 April 2010 BODIES TRANSFORMED A collaborative exhibition of 8 artists The show brings painting, print, installation, sculpture, drawing, photography and dance together within the magnificently labyrinthine architecture of the Crypt. Its subterranean space creates a setting for an alchemy or transformation of the material body and immaterial aspects of each work. Its scope is at turns both mythic and playful. "Sara Mark's work manifests the process of matter transformed, the transformation in Glen Snow's painting is completed by the viewer's reading of the painted surface, and Kim Thornton's work transforms the mundane objects of domestic life. Dina Christy employs the transformative qualities of light, Bruno Mazzotta re-invents mechanical objects whilst Lisa Payne combines materials in an attempt to make a homogenous whole out of disparate parts. Victoria Ahrens breathes new meaning into the origins and memory of collected material and Jane Dalton's intricate mark making transforms the surface and becomes a measure of time as well as space". 15 - 20 April 2010 CAGED BIRD SINGS A show about breaking the ties that bind Featured artists - James Roper, Klarita Pandolfi, Eoghan Deane, Antonio Pagani, Dorothy Yoon, Reme Campos, Jo Young, Paul Dawes, Kika Nicolela, Hester Jones, Stella O, Daisy McMullan, Sarah Misselbrook, Andrew Graves-Johnston, Taciana Coimbra, Domenico Bolano, Luigi Menichelli, Max Lamour, Arturo Zavala Haag, Tom Lovelace and Elizabeth Shingleton. Curated by Bare/not Projects (Dinea Smith, Silvia Caso and Kate Weir) Bare/not Projects are first-time curators from Central St Martins. Our debut show - Caged Bird Sings at The Crypt Gallery - is a group project with 21 artists, sculptors, film-makers, photographers and designers who have been given an open brief to deconstruct and challenge ideas of restriction. These artworks confront the illusion that we alone control our lives; an antidote to the media's influence on our perceived autonomy; where liberated individuals are praised whilst stereotypes, moral panics, religious beliefs, political ideologies and sexist or racist perceptions are perpetuated. With themes ranging from immigration and cultural identity to sex trafficking and claustrophobia we want to explore the wider issues surrounding restriction. * Is security, which undermines liberty in the name of protection, desirable? * Is what we feel as an act of freedom lived as an act of violence by someone else? * Are these binds inevitable or self-imposed by our collective or personal conscience? * Can there be a world with 'no conformities, no cliches, myths or anything which is given or dictated; where it is possible to eschew conflict because everyone is allowed to be different' as defined by anthropologist Roland Barthes? * Is freedom really the ultimate goal? We have joined forces with charities Stop the Traffik and the Anti-Slavery Organisation, and will be holding a symposium in the Crypt on 17 April to further investigate our theme and talk about the legacy of restriction and censorship in art history. Visit http://barenot.wordpress.com for more information or follow us on Twitter (@barenot) and Facebook. 8 - 12 April 2010 PASSION II An exhibition of paintings by Audrey West Journeys through pain can reach a place of joy. Audrey West's exhibition of paintings creates new icons out of traditional themes, surrounded by seascapes, and the 'truth' of portraits to describe a complex mythology. Images of the journey of the African diaspora, suffering related to Jesus, the anarchic joy of flamenco combine to describe the artist's passions in a juxtaposition of loud and muted tones. Passion n.1 strong and barely controlled emotion > an outburst of such emotion. 2 intense sexual love. 3 an intense enthusiasm for something 4 (the Passion) suffering and death of Jesus Audrey West emerged as a significant 'black woman artist' during the 1980's. She continued to write and paint whilst active in community development, and working as a counsellor and language teacher. An MA in Cultural Memory has set her various pursuits within a cohesive framework. Audrey has recently begun to showcase her work again, with much audience appreciation. 18 March - 4 April 2010 PASSION A photographic interpretation by Andrew Rafferty Portraying the last few hours of Christ's life has absorbed some of the greatest artists over many centuries. Early imagery focused on the Passion being a necessary precursor to Christ's triumph at the Resurrection. But over time this focus shifted to the artists using the human compassion of the viewer to respond spiritually to the sufferings of Christ. Photography is rarely used in Christian churches as the primary artistic medium for storytelling, let alone devotion. But it could be argued, that a photographic depiction of the Passion started around 1400 A.D. with The Shroud of Turin and some 600 years gives many the promise of an afterlife. Perhaps it was the Cloth of Veronica, the most famous relic of Rome in the thirteenth century onto which it was claimed that the imprint of Christ's face was made in an almost photographic way that inspired the Shroud's creation. Rafferty's photographic interpretation of the Passion goes deeper into today's human than yesterday's divine. Not just human weakness, but humans actively seeking the downfall of another human. There are no long robes, no halos, and geographical and historical reference points have been stripped away. With its fourteen works the exhibition has a narrative that leads from Conspiracy to Death for more than one. Uniquely, in this interpretation of the Passion, the artist has used himself in every image and all are self-portraits, as if to emphasise that we each have the capacity to be the conspirator, the torturer or the betrayer or perhaps, the redeemer. Rafferty's photographic technique is inventive. Infra-red videography and photography are set alongside sharp close-ups, multi-layered images, 'joiners' and a photograph made through skin contact, a new Vero Icon. Using the darkened spaces and passageways of the Crypt Gallery there is a sense of journey. But to what end are we being propelled? 16 February - 13 March 2010 WARNINGS Warnings is an extraordinary promenade experience beneath the Euston Road. A live-art piece about reading and being read to; an immersive night of theatre about guilt, loneliness and the ghost stories of M.R. James. On your journey you will hear two of James's greatest works, 'Count Magnus' and 'A Warning To The Curious', unfolding through the vaults and passageways of this very much still inhabited nineteenth-century crypt. Expect chance-meetings, otherworldly images, and a few surprises. 11 - 13 February 2010 ATMOSPHERE IN THE SPECTRUM An exhibition of artwork by Amy Brooks, Elliott Tucker,Rebecca Brodskis, Sophie Hoyle, Aukje Dekker, Milica Prokic, Sidonie Roberts, Ben Nathan, Lina Daugirdaite, Erik Bellevik, Tal Regev, Babette Semmer, Leo Cohen, George Rae, Esmeralda I Gonzales, Ben Nash, Leonora Aunstrup, Patricia Delgado, Sydney Southam, Oli Bonzanigo, Richard Burton, Agatha Antony 'Atmosphere in the Spectrum' is an exhibition showcasing a gamut of young emerging artists each at different stages of their education who explore a wide variety of techniques for expressing something as intangible as mood, atmosphere and spectrum. Each artist brings a different viewpoint to bear on the concept of atmosphere; thus, by its very nature, each vision expressed will be personal, engaging the viewer in a very individual way. The artists present their work in a range of media including drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, installation and video, featuring a fluidity that will appeal to a sweep of emotions enhancing the work as well through the influence of the space and the aura of the crypt that pervades it. 4 - 7 February 2010 UNEARTHED AT THE CRYPT A group show with artists Andy Charalambous, Karen Gardner, Nigel Goldie, Hinchee Hung, Orson Kartt, Izzie Tart Unearthed at The Crypt is an Exhibition of Contemporary Art from six artists whose work ranges from video, sculpture installation, ceramics and unconventional painting materials. Unearthed is about emergence from concealment, of materials sourced from under our feet, of illuminations of truth before appearances, and about the opportunity for discovery. The Crypt as the given space provides the experience of disinterring, of bringing from obscurity into full view works which are reflexive, regarded, ironic, as well as experimental. This is an exhibit not just to view, but to experience. For further information or images see http://www.unearthed.org.uk or phone Hinchee Hung on 02076070006; email hinchee@spaceoddity.eu 29 - 31 January 2010 126 DAYS We've been together now 126 days, it's been colourful, even messy at times. An exhibition of artwork by Patrycja Basinska, Darren Beatty, Nadia Berri, Alex Darcy, Terry Dynes, Niccolo Fano, Manuel Fernandez, Jayne Lloyd, Christina Papanicolaou, Cristina Pedreira, Lara Pelॺ, Wendy Plovmand, Judith Riessner, Lucia Rivero, Ana Ruepp 126 DAYS showcases the work of Byam Shaw MA students following this period of time together as a class and as a group of individual artists. The nature of the Masters dictates a one year trajectory for the completion of a body of work. 126 DAYS provides a snapshot of the ongoing artistic process, an insight into its evolution under these circumstances. Presented works include video, sculpture, installation, mixed-media and painting. 15 - 17 January 2010 CONCRETE An exhibition of artwork by Rebecca Ackroyd, Olivia Bax, Conal Bryant, Abby Clark, Oscar Coakley, Kenneth Collings, Maya Darrell Hewins, Aislinn Dowling, Leanne Hayman, Nina Kovacevic, Alberto Lamback, Ben Lund, Benjamin Spicer, Nicky Spry, Yoichi Tamori "Concrete" is a group show consisting of works from students at Byam Shaw School of Art. The pieces selected question not only the form of physical structures but also our notion of them. The show explores the relationships between objects established within a space in a suitably contemplative atmosphere. Participating artists present their work in a range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and video. The individual interpretations made by each artist are varied, yet when placed together the structures create a cohesive whole. The nature of much of the work invites the viewer to look beyond the surface and observe the individual ingredients of "Concrete". 16 - 20 December 2009 MAGIC CARPET Crossing back and forth between time and place, the Crypt Gallery showcases a group of exciting time-travelling artists. ?In ancient times dreams and trance states were the principal well established methods of time travelling. A symbol can be read as an inconceivable compression of the time taken by operations of the spirit.? - Paul Valery The weight of history and our navigation within it becomes a trickier task as time passes. As our eyes open wider, our experiences increase, and our visual memory gets ever more full, the connections between people, events, objects and emotions becomes harder and harder to distinguish within the clear linearity from past through to present. This exhibition brings together 12 emerging artists exploring the concept of displacement. Utilising images taken from a rhizomatic understanding of the world and its histories, the group presents work in a range of media encompassing video, painting, sculpture, installation, and sound. Artists include: Mark Bell, Lindsey Bull, David Cochrane, Rita Evans, Charlie Franklin, Andrew Gannon, Julia Mariscal, Paul McCann, Jill Mulleady, Michael Murphy, Luna Paiva & David A Smith. Further press information: http://www.cryptgallery.org.uk or please write to jilluna@yahoo.com 11 - 13 December 2009 OBSESS(US) Artists: Ayano Yamamoto, Clare Wallis, Carlos H. Matos, George Petrou, Ioli Zalimoglou, James Ashby King, Jonathan Cunningham, Manuel Mu񯺠Gomez Gallardo, Michael Delaney, Molly Beth White, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Lillian Suwanrumpha, Lucia Gomez Mejia, Sylvia Nicolaides, Tomoko Takayama Presenting Obsess(us), an exhibition that brings together a group of 15 artists from diverse art backgrounds and cultures to explore the concept of obsession. Through photography, installation, video, sound and painting the artists express their own interpretation of this notion and create artworks which are individual responses that also combine to form a collective understanding of what it means to obsess or be obsessed. Shared qualities and ideas, such as social and self, body and space, physical and mental, reality and imagination, all play a part in each of the works. Each response is not only explored in different media, but also conceived from varied cultural backgrounds and attitudes. The anxiety that obsession brings with it is present in all of the works, inviting the viewer into a state of contemplation. 3 - 6 December 2009 LITTLEPALOOZA! A festival of theatre, music, cabaret, storytelling and visual arts from Scary Little Girls Productions. As a production hub and artists support and development network, Scary Little Girls now has over 100 associate artists from all areas of the arts. This means that there will something for everyone in the rich programme of our first ever arts festival. Each day we are in the Crypt Gallery will see a combination of visual art displays, animation and performances. Ticket only. Advance bookings recommended as spaces in the crypt are strictly limited. Tickets and more information available at www.scarylittlegirls.co.uk Enquires on info@scarylittlegirls.co.uk or Tel: 0797 6623 706 27 November - 1 December 2009 FANTASY ZOO A new Garudio Studiage exhibition HATE REALITY? LOVE ANIMALS? SKINT? Garudio Studiage have the perfect project for you with our latest collaborative venture, the Garudio Studiage ?Fantasy Zoo?. Garudio have chosen 30 of their favourite artists to receive an imaginary budget of ?10,000 to ?buy? animals anywhere they can find them and create the zoo of their dreams. The rules are strict but the outcome is open, so expect everything from balloon giraffes to ornamental cats all created with a careful budget in mind. Along with Garudio Studiage, contributing artists and designers include: Andrew Rae, Andy Forshaw, James Dawe, Karin ūesson, Mike Topping, Hannah Waldron, Danny Sturgess, Laura Gill, Annabelle Hartmann, Sarah Fotheringham, Ivana Bobic, Kenn Munk, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Adam Knight, Tara Langford, Clare Ormerod, and many more. 19 - 24 November 2009 FORGE Photography exhibition Fashion photographer Cameron McNee and actor/director Dominic Kelly have collaborated to produce their second exhibition of photographs exploring emotions and relationships. Working solely with Meisner-trained actors from the Actors Temple, they have produced a series of intimate, large-scale portraits of relationships. Since 2006, McNee and Kelly have worked together with actors devising a process to capture uncensored moments of human emotion on camera. This process is based on an acting technique devised by Sanford Meisner that Kelly and the actors are trained in, whose principle aim is to create impulsive and truthful performances. It is also a technique that has bred many highly commemorated actors and Oscar winners in the USA such as Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Diane Keaton, Angelica Huston, Kim Basinger and Felicity Hoffman. Forge consists of (both) studio portraits, exploring relationships that we can readily identify with, and environmental portraits that ask the viewer to construct relationships out of the clues they are given. In a culture fascinated with watching reality television and seeing real people in emotive situations, the work of McNee and Kelly aims to provoke people's expectations about what is real and what is fabricated. The exhibition incites the viewer to forge their own stories behind each portrait they encounter and the individuals in them. The Crypt Gallery is a cavernous space under St Pancras Church built in 1822 and converted into a gallery in 2002. The haunting tunnels offer viewers space and atmosphere to consider the work. For more information: www.camanddom.com Cameron McNee shoot@cameronmcnee.com 07876560022 www.theactorstemple.com 10 - 12 November 2009 THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY Featured artists: Riffat Ahmed, Nicholas Brown, Lola Bunting, Maria Elvorith and Emma Smith Performances by Riffat Ahmed and The McCarricks Curated by: Maria Elvorith Dark and captivating, ?Through a glass darkly? alludes to the idea that our understanding of this world will never truly be clear until we reach an end; until that point, we perceive life only through a fogged lens. A selection of emerging and talented young artists explore and illustrate this idea through the varied disciplines of photography, video, painting, mixed media installation, music and performance art, all situated within the evocative setting of The Crypt Gallery. Intricate models placed inside the walls of the gallery and beyond the viewer?s grasp speak of our dreamlike perception of reality. Photographs capture fragile and misty moments in forgotten places around England, while delicately painted nebulae and star clusters surrender unnerving truths to the attentive, revealing another dimension to the experience. With ethereal sound and light bending and travelling throughout the gothic passageways, mysterious narratives painted in classical baroque style ask us to reconsider our initial interpretations and perceptions of this world, as the dawn and dusk of human mortality are explored in provocative physicality. 30 October - 3 November 2009 TRACING THE PHOTOGRAPH Supported by Openvizor Uz Afzal, Fagner Bibiano, Myka B, Karina Beltran, Charlie Dutton, Craig M Edwards, Bruno Freitas De Oliveira, Isabel de Porcel, Heidi Kayla, Raakhee Lakhtaria, Catherine Lindsay-Davies, Georgina McNamara, Olivia Milani, Bex Singleton, Natalia Skobeeva, Nick Smith, Rhod Walls Tracing the Photograph presents the work of 17 recent graduates from Central Saint Martins' Postgraduate Certificate in Photography. Curated by Rebecca Harris, this exhibition presents a collective of artists using the medium of photography, where themes and processes come into contact but practices remain distinct. Such an exhibition highlights their varied approaches, rendering the photograph almost obsolete through their conceptual aims and creative processes. These artists have come together while studying and the outcome of their experiences activates a discursive response to the nature of presenting or rather tracing spaces around us. Several of the artists explore what makes a photograph, considering the nature of the photographic image and the idea of authenticity, questioning the assumption that the photographer has the ?power? to turn what they ?see? into a ?mental object?. The practice of using a camera, of making a photograph, is also analysed through different processes highlighting that, inevitably, there is a vulnerability associated with the photograph. Our brains connect to our vision, recording moments in time, often as short sequences of film, pointed by specific memories of taste, colour, touch, things said and those forgotten or not said, the materiality of sound, acting as moments captured by a photograph. But these moments can become blurred, transferred and transformed determined by our current understanding of past experiences. By negotiating techniques, some of the artists return to the foundation of photography as an art form, where the line between photography, painting, drawing and sculpture became blurred into an experience of perception to the real and artificial meaning of representation. 3 - 25 October 2009 MIND THE GAP. . .BRINGING DEPRESSION ABOVE GROUND An exhibition of work by the Women's Art Movement This exhibition introduces a diverse group of National and International Female Artists wanting to break down taboos for women suffering from depression. The atmospheric ?Crypt? chambers and corridors take you on a creative journey of installation, painting, photography, digital imagery, glass, metal casting, film, slide projection. Many lives are enriched through the collaboration of creative females exhibiting together to combine experimental artistic disciplines, confront contemporary issues, social diversities & challenge the understanding of female representation within society. http://www.wam-london.co.uk 25 - 28 September 2009 UNRELATED ACTS ?When everyone who surrounds you is unique, only then will you truly belong.? Mr Woodcock Unrelated Acts brings together 13 very different practising artists. Without employing a preconceived aesthetic or moral theme, curatorial team Janet and Holly controversially yet lovingly selected these up-and-coming artists, using random connections and chance encounters in time and place. Unrelated Acts is a leap of faith, combining fate, gut instinct and the irrational. Beyond this unorthodox heart-over-mind process, the question of what truly connects the works, and their aesthetic relationships and common conceptual themes, will be entirely down to their audience. These Unrelated Acts occur appropriately inappropriately in the bowels of the underground catacombs of the Crypt Gallery, underneath St Pancras Church, opposite Euston Station. While many people lie beneath its floor and within its walls, the artists ? using various methods and media, including painting, installation, sculpture and even Chanel No5 ? adopt this ossuary space to conceive their collective genesis. For additional press material and images, please contact Janet and Holly: janet.holly@hotmail.co.uk 07940 706568 12 - 20 September 2009 IS THIS SPAIN? This exhibition brings together contemporary Spanish artists who question and reject the often held stereotypes of Spanish culture and Spain as a country. The artists portray another reality of the country, the "unofficial" one. This exhibition shows the culture of a country that lived under a total dictatorship during the twentieth century, a dictatorship which influenced in a very negative way the economic, social and cultural development of Spain. Challenging perceptions of Spain and demonstrating the cultural richness of the country, the artists promote and disseminate current Spanish art in its various manifestations, with emphasis on new languages such as video, net.art, and installation. London is the ideal platform at a European and international level for these emerging and established Spanish artists to advance a contemporary Spain which is not just bull, fiesta and siesta. A Spain that had its golden age and that, in the 1980s, began to emerge again. The artists and their work include: Momu & No Es, "Reina de las Fiestas" Derivart, "Casas Tristes" Santiago Sierra, "Bandera Negra" Andres Senra, "Casa Quemada" Greta Alfaro, "In Ictu Oculi" Democracia, "Subtextos" Alicia Framis, "Secret Strike - Inditex" Busto Bocanegra, ήchiriez Camerবt;br> Maria Ca񡳬 "The Toro's Revenge" Revista UHF, "Mapas de Espa񡦱uot; Carlos Llavata, "I am Not Proud" Alejandro Vidal, "Tactical Disorder" Is this Spain? is a project organized by Exprimentolimon and Pensart with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the collaboration of Taller Digigrafico and Wines of Spain http://www.exprimentolimon.org http://www.pensart.org 27 August - 9 September 2009 SURFACE / SPACE / TIME Curated by Sam Clift & Eve Wheate ?Surface / Space / Time? brings together an independent group of inspirational emerging and established artists, exhibiting in their distinctive style through diverse practices of sculpture, drawing, painting, textiles and video installation. The exhibition seeks to explore hidden passages and connotations located within the subject title. Addressing the nostalgic labyrinthine passageways and presence of the Crypts half-lit spaces, installations and other physical and metaphorical entities merge and submerge, integrating and initialising a relationship with the space. The interspersed site-specific work characterises the adaptability of the artists to either work or conflict with the fabric of the building - as seen in the installation that searches for comparisons between the beautifully constructed, solid brickwork of the Crypt and the ?direct absence and alternative? with the economical materials and labour saving technology used within modern construction. Other artists examine ideas relating to the everyday perception and place; using multimedia, imagery and pattern to determine how memories are associated with the objects that surround us and how culturally and socially they give us a sense of ownership. Suspended in a semi-lit vault, large-format painting?s explore and attempt to accentuate the void within two and three-dimensional space, toying with the illusion of one?s own sense of physical and metaphorical perception of an environment. This distinctive exhibition invites the viewer to evoke a mental orbit of exploration, discovery and examination in a labyrinth of contemporary art that interconnects with its atmospheric space. Featured artists: Eve Wheate, JooHee Hwang, Lucy Barfoot, Lucy Fergus, Luke Stones, Mark Houghton, Mary Louise Evans, Richard Jack, Rona Smith, Sam Clift, Simone Wallace & Sue Hotchkis. 5 - 23 August 2009 BLACKMANKIND Four very independent artists in one very independent space. Artist Charlie Pi returns to the Crypt at St Pancras Church with twenty five new and intriguing portrayals of the black male. Based in part on traditional stereotypes of the black male such as: the athlete, the shaman, the exotic and the mystery, these paintings shift and twist the stereotypes to create thought-provoking images around the broader areas of physicality, spirituality and creativity. Titles such as, ?Rasta and the Bathroom Elk?, ?Drop the Pineapple?, ?The higher he climb?, and ?Olympic Pluckers?, give some idea of Charlie?s creativity and sense of humour. After the success of last year?s show Charlie Pi has invited three other fiercely independent artists to join him this August. These artists are not ?fresh from College? and like Charlie himself produce their art in and for the real world outside of the gallery system, which makes for an immediate and palpable difference in both approach and product. Beautiful photographs by Trinidadian Performance Poet, Rasconrad, ?I love photographing aspiring black men. There is a power that exudes from them between the ages of 16-35 that I think is unparalleled. Whether it?s his raw anger, deep frustration, hard musculatur or innate beauty, the black man is amazing to capture on film at that age.? Intricate and obsessive painted construct by Bajan Michael Connell. A builder by day, Michael uses all the detritus of his job. From shards of mirror to pipe insulation to create semi-abstract wall constructs where every leaf is cut from wood and painted to create magical illusion. ?I want to bring colour to the streets of London.? Terence McDonald Humphrey (Montserrat Man) Founder of 'Trunkstore' a developing independent arts outpost whose ongoing collaborative work includes the ?No Go Zones Audio Radio Project? and the emerging ?Aquarium Project? will produce a soundscape for the show. All artists are available for interview. For more information go to: www.charliepi.co.uk Or call : 0208 691 5592 mobile: 44 7940 259 948 27 July - 2 August 2009 POSTMAN'S PARK Frederick Alfred Croft [Inspector aged 31] saved a lunatic woman from suicide at Woolwich Arsenal station but was himself run over by the train (Jan 11 1878) Quietly hidden in a small pocket of St Pauls? Cathedral is a park of great consequence; for therein lies a monument celebrating heroic acts of self-sacrifice. What sets it aside from monuments of grandeur is its focus; which is not on the celebrated military heroes, not on the world?s most notorious thinkers, but on barmaids, railway workers, printers, policemen and children. What did they do that made them worthy of a permanent monument in London? They gave their life to save another's. The Actors? Temple invites you to down into St Pancras Church?s Crypt at the bequest of artist and philanthropist, G. F Watts. Once inside, the truths beneath the memorial inscriptions are revealed. These dead Victorian heroes share their memories of golden days; weddings, births and days-out whilst also harbouring doubts about the final moments of their life. Loss of loved ones, misleading news reports and ulterior motives float around in this underworld exhibition of living portraits. A fully immersive world of interaction is there for the taking. The audience is rewarded by asking questions, overhearing conversations and finding dark corners where secrets are shared. Yet, if observed from afar, when the portrait is unaware of any presence, a different hidden side of the ghost could be brought to light. At all times G.F Watts will be there with you to share stories and guide you around his dimly lit gallery of ordinary heroes. At times macabre, at others profoundly beautiful. Postman?s Park offers an insight into the human capacity to love, to live and die for what we believe in. 8 - 24 July 2009 SCULPTURE AND PAINTING EXHIBITION The London based FREE PAINTERS & SCULPTORS have been showing interesting work for 57 years. This group of 80 artists is free to follow their own ideas. Hence fresh work is always shown. No one is tied to a gallery's dictats. We hold 3 - 4 exhibitions a year, though this one concentrates on the three dimensional. 26 June - 1 July 2009 MELQUIADES As ?But Melqu���es? tribe, according to what the wanderers said, had been wiped off the face of the earth because they had gone beyond the limits of human knowledge.? Gabriel Garc���MᲱuez, ?One Hundred Years of Solitude? Melqu���es is a show which opens windows to places just beyond the reach of explanation. It widens the gaps in experience, and invites mystery into the familiar. It is a show that explores the notion of the travelling display of wonders. The show shall exhibit the work of contemporary artists and musicians responding to things they can never experience. The audience shall wander through a labyrinth of curtain and stone, behind each arch, there shall be something unexpected and mysterious. Some of the works shall be ideas, some objects, some sounds, and some movements. Together they shall create a world just beyond the grasp of the everyday,the world of Melqu���es and his travelling show. 5 - 21 June 2009 THE SPACE BETWEEN Group show with artists Annie Cattrell, Amanda Couch, Richard Ducker, Jan Dunning, Joy Gerrard, Kate MccGwire, Maril讥 Oliver, Kate Street, Esther Teichmann The Space Between brings together a group of nine established and newly established artists (whose work ranges from video to performance and sculpture), many of whom are represented in major collections, including the Saatchi, V&A and Wellcome Trust?s. The show explores the ideas that surround our common experience of ?liminality?, of existing in ?a space between? places, ideas, thoughts and emotions. The venue itself, with its tombstones and relics of those who have ?crossed over?, is perfect for a discussion of the theme, occupying as it does the middle ground between states, the ephemeral and the permanent, life and death. The current Zeitgeist dictates that we can be anyone or anything if only we try hard enough, or are good enough, and so increasingly we find ourselves in a ?space between?, somewhere between ?being? and ?becoming?. It?s a place of transformation and possibility, rich with longing, melancholy and fantasy. Only here are we able to stop and contemplate ? but never entirely grasp ? the state of flux that characterizes our lives. This sense of being poised on some kind of threshold is all the more topical because of the precariousness of the age in which we live. As the artist Doris Salcedo has said, ?Precariousness produces an image in which the nature of the work is never entirely present.? The artists? diverse practices of sculpture, video, photography, installation and performance each tap into different aspects of the theme. Annie Cattrell describes herself as ?a runner between worlds?, between science and art. Her work deals with the fleeting and ephemeral, those things that are normally invisible to the human eye ? a breath inside a human lung or cloud formation on a particular day. She will be showing ?Ranges?, which captures in glass a whole spectrum of human facial expressions from neutral indifference to laughter and anger. Amanda Couch has created an alter ego, ?a traveller, somewhere between civilized and savage, woman and child, space and time?. She has created a new work especially for The Space Between, which she will perform at the private view. Richard Ducker makes sculptural objects coated in concrete that are at once sombre and humorous. He combines the found with the made object to suggest private stories embedded in works which ?evoke nostalgia, myths soaked in dreams, and fairy-tales gone wrong?, and will be exhibiting a new work, ?Aqualung?. Jan Dunning works with a pinhole camera, offering an unsettling, enigmatic perspective on the ?natural? world. Her work exploits the ambiguous and transformational perspective of the pinhole photograph to present confrontations between fiction and reality, the possible and impossible, the natural and unnatural. Joy Gerrard concentrates on space, site, politics and a visual response to the city as a site of transformation. She looks at the idea of ?the crowd? framed by urban space in an attempt to address some fundamental questions about the changing political face of the city. Recent work includes large-format drawings of crowds forming to mourn and protest as well as miniature animation and video works that comment on the politics of congregation and dispersal in urban spaces. Kate MccGwire uses impure materials, most recently pigeon feathers, to create forms that exist somewhere between myth and reality, deliberately playing with Freud?s notion of ?The Uncanny? (that sense of something which is both familiar and strange) to unseat our sense of well-being. She will be showing ?Rile?, a feathered hybrid, half serpent half snake, and ?Sluice?, an effluent-like flood of pigeon feathers, both of which play on the material?s ability to elicit wonder and repulsion in equal measure. Maril讥 Oliver works at a crossroads somewhere between new digital technologies, traditional print and sculpture, her finished objects bridging the virtual and the real worlds. She works with the body translated into data form in order to understand how it has become ?unfleshed?, in the hope of understanding who or what it has become. To this end she uses various scanning technologies, such as MRI and PET, to reclaim the interior of the body ? a threshold portraitists don?t generally cross ? in all its physical beauty. And yet we are never privileged a complete view of the body before us; in her ?Family Portrait? series (which will be shown in its entirety) our gaze is constantly drawn to the gaps, the spaces between the printed sheets, each representing a slice of the body. Kate Street uses language and well-known stock phrases as a starting point for her sculptural works that strike a balance between the theatrical and the absurd, the romantic and the deathly. She is creating two new works for the show, one of which ?Bird in the Hand? explores our need to compare our achievements with others?, to dissect and analyse, in the search for the root of what makes us happy. Esther Teichmann uses the medium of photography and video to examine the relationship of the self to the maternal body and to the body of the lover. Desire and fear of loss are subtly and yet powerfully evoked in these explorations of the visceral and expressive properties of the human physique and skin. Teichmann will show ?To Get There?, a video work which invites the viewer to enter into the intimate world of the mother longing to comfort an adult child. For further information or images see www.thespacebetween.org.uk or phone Emma Lilley on 07834 320714; email emma.lilley@btinternet.com 22 - 31 May 2009 TALES FROM THE ELECTRIC FOREST As humans have migrated into cityscapes, we have brought with us a vast array of age-old mythical creatures and many new ones have risen up from the pavement. Such beings have found refuge in such places as dark dingy alleyways, abandoned factories, derelict houses, attics, cellars, sewers, train stations, underground tube lines... anywhere out of reach of the city's lights. These fantastical city dwelling figures and their stories, clearly continue to absorb and fascinate mass consciousness, for they are continually rearing their heads in modern cinema, theatre, literature and art. Recent examples of such tales can be found in the form of Murakami's monstrous rat-like 'Inklings' in his novel; 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'. The comedy series, the Mighty Boosh, created the hideous 'Crackfox' and David Lynch made a dreadlocked back-alley witch in his film 'Mulholland Drive'. All of these tales explore figures that appear to have undergone some form of physical mutation or drastic mental change rendering them abnormal and monstrous. With the idea that mythological symbolism has a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional use, the exhibition's ultimate purpose is to offer an illustration of the fears and aspirations of the early 21st century and compare them to those of bygone days. Fifteen artists have scoured the dark corners of the city and their own consciousness, creating and appropriating tales of the city. For further information please email t.g.adriani@gmail.com For sales contact Helen Prosser at hprosser@cactusproductions.co.uk or 07786 521 806. Read a review of the exhibition: www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/532039 8 - 17 May 2009 THE OTHER SIDE Curated by Erika Winstone This exhibition takes its title from the book ?The Other Side? written in twelve weeks by the artist Alfred Kubin when he found himself incapable of drawing; it is his only novel. Eighteen artists have been invited to explore ?the other side? through working with real and imagined relationships, exhibiting work in association with an ?other?. The nature of these relationships vary, including differences of age, specialism, physical ability, career status, with in some instances the partner no longer alive. Questions are raised of individual practice relative to collaboration across these differences. The exhibition hopes to highlight the creative value of relationship within artists? practice and the ability for this to sustain and continue over time. The artists work in a range of media encompassing drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, sound, video, text and performance. Materially, there is an underlying correlation in the exhibition between music and art, with many of the artists working directly with sound as an integral element. ?The Other Side? is timed to coincide with a free Music Festival in the Church above and sited specifically in the Crypt gallery with its dual history as a place of sanctuary for both the living and the dead (having been used as a crypt and an air raid shelter in both world wars). Artists Mark Dean is presenting a new video and sound work echoing the voice of the Reverend Al Green with a painting by Liz Arnold (d.2001). Jane Eyton and Matthew Kolakowski will both present individual works and a collaborative sculptural installation made specifically for the space. Tony Hill, photographer, painter and sculptor, will present new work close by watercolours by his wife the painter Lynne Davies-Jones (d.2004). Trevor Jones, painter and printmaker, will present new paintings that are explorations of his relationships with his wife and his daughter. Trevor recently had a major stroke and now paints small scale with his left hand. David Mollin, artist and writer, will exhibit a work made collaboratively with the sound artist and writer Salom頖oegelin, and his mother. Lisa Payne, a recent graduate from the Royal College, will present sculpture alongside drawings and sculpture by her former tutor, the sculptor Peter Stanley (d. 2006). Roxy Walsh, a painter who has recently adopted twins, will present pairs of paintings made in relation to this for the show. Mark Wayman will be presenting a pair of performances in relation to memory, time and this particular site. Erika Winstone will present an installation that layers drawn paintings and video featuring performances by her father, band leader Eric Winstone (d.1974), and daughter Anna with her friend April. Maria Zahle is presenting a piece of writing, simultaneously being an art piece and an essay-text for the project. Exhibition website with links and further information on artists work, and performances at http://erikawinstone.net/theotherside 14 - 20 April 2009 ATLAS...SEPARATED BY INTERVALS An exhibition co-curated by Emma Somerset Davis and Mark Metcalfe Artists: Paul Atkins?Matt Blackler?Simon Burbidge?Cornford & Cross?Emma Somerset Davis?Valentina Goba?Celia Hempton?Paul Haydock Wilson?Sam Jacob?Tony Lee?Mark Metcalfe?Garry North Mouat?Elaine Mullings?Gaia Persico?Rachel Pumarejo?Anton Razvan?Andy Stiff?Finlay Taylor?Peter Mackertitch?Charlotte Young?Eli Zafran ??what he sought was always something lying ahead, and even if it was a matter of the past it was a past that changed gradually as he advanced on his journey, because the traveller?s past changes according to the route he has followed ?Arriving at each new city the traveller finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places?? (Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972) A group exhibition of 21 artists who share the negotiation of displacement and dislocation as depiction. The exhibition presents a temporal non - atlas that traverses and charts the spaces between the familiar and the unknown: an atlas that shifts and dissolves and is constantly annotated through the relationships created between the viewer, the artwork and the site. 6 - 12 April 2009 WHAT A CIRCUS The Greatest Show On Earth A mixed media exhibition by Deborah Ess鳦lt;br> Deborah Ess鳠was born in 1966 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she has studied and lived in many countries around the world, which is often represented within her work. Working in the tradition of latin american dances, she explores the language of expression and movement in a most bold and brilliant way. She can be contacted for commissions at: deborahesses@yahoo.com, her studio is now in Blackheath. Deborah is also exhibiting at: Buenos Aires Caf鬠17 Royal Parade, Blackheath SE3 0TL* until May 9th and Blackheath Open Studios, weekends 2-3 and 9-10 May, 2009. Please * check the website for details: www.blackheathartsociety.org.uk Visits to her studio strictly by appointment. www.deborahesses.com 26 March - 3 April 2009 GLASS ECHOES 2 An exhibition of contemporary glass by 24 newly established and emerging artists, curated by Angela Thwaites. See www.glassechoes.org.uk for full information. Artists: Fabrizia Bazzo, Varun Cursetji, Jane Dorner, Rachel Elliott, Andrew Graves-Johnston, Belinda Salmon Harding, Molly Harwood, Marion Hewitt, Dot Hill, Arabella Marshall, Karen Murphy, Tracy Nicholls, Alkesh Parmar, Diana Perry, Kevin Petrie, Tania Porter, Liam Reeves, Ana Robinson, Carla Sealey,Victoria Scholes, Cathryn Shilling, Andrea Spencer, Angela Thwaites, Phil Vickery, Aviva Walton The pieces on show chime in with this unusual, echoing space. They complement a subterranean world of things past and things to come, a place where rest and regeneration share the same domain. The long narrow passageways, hidden vaults and open spaces in the Crypt give a special atmosphere to the artists' work. On show are conceptual pieces, made with the environment in mind, using a variety of techniques - casting, fusing, blowing, pⴥ de verre,screen-printing, etching and mixed media. Work will be available for sale or for commission by direct negotiation with the artist. This is the second exhibition in what is intended as a biennial glass event. 18 - 22 March 2009 FACE TO FACE An exhibition of work by Andrea Tyrimos and Yasemin Kemal. Curated by Christie Joannou Face to Face is an exploration into the facial expression of a human being. Through a series of unique portraits, two artists have collaborated from all corners of Cyprus to examine issues relating to the Cypriot Diaspora. The artists? work deals with the important theme of reflection and self discovery as they challenge the viewer to seek the stories resting behind each portrait. Through each painting and drawing the viewer is taken on a journey to experience how young people deal with the on-going ?Cyprus problem?. They help to provide an understanding of how two people come together regardless of their background or ethnic origin, and how they adapt in an environment far removed from their homeland. Faces are caught on canvas as if frozen in time, leaving the viewer face to face with a sense of the emotional struggle, anger, happiness and courage behind each image. 7 - 14 March 2009 A PLACE CALLED LIMBO ?tis a strange place this limbo! ? not a place?? Artists: Jane Grisewood, Harriet Hedden, Chris Koning, Mike Latto, Arabella Lee, John O?Connell, Kriton Papadopoulos, Claire Robertson, Pauline Thomas and Ken Wilder ?Tis a strange place this limbo! ? not a place, Yet name it so; where Time & weary Space Fettered from flight, with night-mair sense of fleeing, Strive for their last crepuscular half-being;? (from ?Limbo? by Samuel Taylor Coleridge) Scattered over the Irish landscape (and unmarked except for a map reference) are the burial grounds of unbaptised children. For the past three years these sites have been the subject of the work of one of the groups' artists, Arabella Lee. They have remained for her in limbo but form the origin of this collaboration between the ten artists who have taken Coleridge?s words from his poem ?Limbo? as the focus. Their diverse practices of drawing, painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation explore this ?time and weary space?, touching on themes of oblivion and longing, suspension and uncertainty. The incompleteness and contradictions inherent in life affect us all - whether as participants or observers. We share experiences of waiting and senses of nothing happening. We can have feelings of isolation and emptiness, or exist between things, in a sort of no-man?s land, or we can simply encounter awkward moments. In all of these instances there can be an acceptance of the middle-space ? a moment of limbo. The Crypt Gallery beneath St Pancras Church, near Kings Cross provides an evocative location for this exhibition, where the artwork is bound together by the setting and integrated seamlessly in the subterranean space. Amidst the labyrinthine passageways and shadowy vaults the artists have installed video projections and site-specific installations, interspersed with two-dimensional works, sometimes almost hidden from view in the half-light. Their varied approaches reflect the frozen moments and uncertainties, the betweens and intervals, indicative of ?A place called Limbo?. For all press enquiries please contact Jane Grisewood. janegrisewood@btinternet.com 21 February - 3 March 2009 HERE & NOW A group show by INSIDEout Contemporary Art from Hertfordshire Artists: Jo Austin, Lupe Cunha, John Farnham, Lotte Farnham, Louise Harrington, Anne Houghton, Loraine Perry, Richard Phillips, Jan Reichmann, Anna-Marya Tompa, Deborah Wallond and Jane Willis. Curated by Lupe Cunha, MA. INSIDEout Contemporary Art, a Hertfordshire-based group of artists who came together in 2008 with the aim of showing the best in innovative contemporary art, are excited to be holding their second exhibition, this time in central London. With its long narrow passageways, hidden vaults and artefacts, the Crypt adds a special atmosphere to the artists? diverse work, including site specific pieces, installation, video, sculpture, plaster forms, photography, painting and printmaking. The unique quality of the venue with its low light and irregular surfaces contrasts with the vibrant colours of both paintings and light work. The old stonework is interspersed with modern technology in the form of digital photos and abstract sculptures. The many alcoves of this warren provide multiple individual spaces where a variety of contemporary installations, discussing a wide range of issues, are brought together without conflict, integrated and yet isolated, as visitors move between light and dark as they view the exhibition, the lighting accentuating the Here&Now of each artist's concept. 12 ? 17 February 2009 KAPRICORNIAN VOYAGE A collection of sculpture, drawings, paintings and photography by Kabira Alieva. Co-curated by Irina Stark This exhibition sheds light on Kabira's journey of self exploration, and features many personal works which have never been shown to the public before. These pieces weave the real and the imagined, with waking dreams, childhood adventures and half-remembered episodes intruding into the present. As well as merging her memories, her works merge different media. Her photography explores the juxtaposition between the real and concrete with the murky depths of the subconscious: the dreamy fairy-tale landscapes which might be real, or might only be in a parallel dimension. This is Kabira's take on Alice in Wonderland. What makes the dichotomy between the tangible and the ethereal more poignant is Kabira's background as a life scientist. Her 3D pieces show the importance of understanding the language of biological form ? amorphorous sculptures, which highlight the inescapable fact of being ? that each entity we see is neither part of the past, nor the future. All are part of 'now', their journeys incomplete and their destinations unknown. Kabira's drawings and paintings take the theme of the descent from reality into parallel worlds further. The abstract nature of some of her compositions merely creates a setting or route-map that allows the viewer to complete her thoughts and story. Do they portray Kabira's own feelings, her own self-discovery,her conquest over her dreams and fears - or does the freedom and involvement of the viewer personalise and relativise the ideas on the canvas, moulding them with unique but discrete meanings? Kabira's work certainly seems crafted so as to evoke strong feelings, but they resist interpretation, preferring to remain, tantalisingly, always just out of reach. For all press enquiries please contact info@starkprojects.co.uk / www.starkprojects.co.uk 29 ? 30 January 2009 WE CAN UNDERSTAND THE MEANING BETTER WITHOUT Artists: ADS3, Andreas Blank, Alexander Crocker, Sabina Donnelly, Robin Footitt, Tom Foulsham, Robin Friend, Ian Homerston, Ian Law, Lucy Moore, Samuel Nias, Darren Norman, Xavier Poultney & Hannah Barton, Lewis Ronald, George Thomas, April Yang. Curated by Dean Kissick & Sabina Donnelly. 1. An exploration of abstraction across various disciplines: painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, communication art and design, design products and architecture. 2. It starts with one artwork, that leads to another, that leads to another, and so on... an investigation into a series of connections made in the studios of the Royal College of Art. 3. Abstraction as structure. Simplified form producing a multiplicity of meanings. An absence of the particular. 4. An ephemeral intervention into an empty crypt beneath a 19th-century church in St Pancras. We exist in the in-between, abstract spaces within real spaces, now gathered together underneath the city, and then dispersed. 22 ? 25 January 2009 THREADS OF SINCERITY Works by: Emma de Clerq,Jenny Evans, Eliott Johnson, Nobuko Kawata, Kate Kendall, Billy Kerry, Georgina Mascolo, Arisa Nishiyama, Mike Pollard, Rika Yamasaki. The narrow passages and hideaway corners of the Crypt come alive with illuminated imagery, self-lit micro-beings, curious documentation and objects re-formed from a past life. Ten artists demonstrate a simultaneously profound and playful approach to memory, materiality and belief. You are invited to watch, investigate and participate in this exhibition of photography, drawing, sculpture, painting and installation from Chelsea College of Art. 16 ? 19 January 2009 ILLUSTRATORS KILLED MY FAMILY AND BURNED BY HOUSE DOWN An exhibition by 34 final year Illustration students from the London College of Communication. Amidst the catacomb-like vaults of the Crypt Gallery underneath St Pancras Church, Euston, we will be displaying a veritable feast of our work in progress from our final year. We have a genuine interest in pushing what illustration means and what constitutes illustration, exploring everything from traditional drawing to graphic design, moving image, printmaking and sculpture, and using a multitude of media and processes. Just like our delightful tutors have taught us to think, we focus on concept over style, allowing our ideas to inform our stylistic choices, creating work that hopefully pushes the boundaries people expect us to sit within. We've done rather a lot of this exhibition malarkey over the last few years; once we filled a 10,000 square foot warehouse with turf and pretty pictures. Another time we hung all our work from 2000 helium balloons in one of the college galleries, which, long story short, led to a visit from the fire brigade and a ban on balloons of any kind in the college, oops! That aside, we have had some fun with our shows to date and are looking forward to this one showing off our work in its final year prime. For more information please contact : illustrators@burninghouse.co.uk 14 ? 21 December 2008 LIGHT Sculpture, film and print by Dan Knight This artist uses light to reflect a spiritual quality in his work. Pieces include a film of more than 15,000 flower images, sculptures made from recycled electric cable, plus a series of small prints and a 5 note bottle top organ. 5 ? 9 December 2008 PRESENCE A group show by "Thirteen" Artists: Judith Bieletto, David Cullen, Hartash Dale, Paula Day, Carlo de Lins, Aileen Harvey, Nick Hazzard, Helga Lee, Marcelo Resta, Claire Pinney, Kate Poland, Michal Radzio, Wendy Roberts, Eric Storey, Julia Tester, Johanna Zhang "Presence", the inaugural show of the "thirteen group?. On display is an eclectic and arresting selection of new works from these emerging artists. Jewel-like paintings and photographs, bold abstracts, subtle etchings, striking woodcuts and coolly detached screen prints are placed in delicately-lit labyrinthine passages. The range and variety of work is bound together - and informed by - the setting; full of colour and form ? not to mention the past ? it provides an evocative mood in which to reflect on the works, which are both intelligible and intelligent. 21 ? 30 November 2008 JINN An exhibition of work by Gareth Brookes, Oliver Garland, Philip Medhurst, Christopher Roantree, Emma Simpson, David Snoo Wilson and Pascal Stefanidi In Schopenhauer's "of will and representation" he speaks of matter striving for form, of all things that exist being already present visually and experientially but waiting for the right moment to be manifest in the world?to be represented. This show attempts to transcend our already preconceived ideas of our represented world, where form function and experience can evolve from the known, the understood, the beautiful to the grotesque, the unbelievable and the unknown. A second evolutionary state perhaps where time itself can collapse on the floor in a heap waiting to be picked up again and relived. A crypt being a forgotten place forgotten in contemporary society, often viewed within the theatrics and drama of our minds as a place of fear, foreboding and events far from the minds of modern society?.The crypt presents us with an environment, a forum in which the ceremonies of our work can take seed, and germinate. Jinn? his or her own individual spirit. 12 ? 16 November 2008 VENT An exhibition of work by Cameron McNee & Dominic Kelly The work is an examination into the true nature of human emotion, finding ways of catching the moment of uncensored self expression; a rare moment shared with a loved one, a stranger or simply on your own. Cameron McNee, a photographer and Dominic Kelly, an actor/director desired to use their skills to craft images that were beautiful to the eye and also created a connection to the subject that was hauntingly real. The gripping exhibition consists of 5 foot high portraits and cinematic images which invite you to join the subject in their pleading, grief, anger or jubilation; so that you in turn take on the role of the jilted lover, the betrayer or bearer of great news. Beginning in January 2007 Cameron & Dominic workshopped scenes with actors from 'The Actors' Temple' evolving their photographic process to capture the truest moments in the subject. Continuing over 20 months an impressive body of work has been produced with the process growing and encompassing at times a cast of and a crew of 20, whilst other times stripping the process back to an intimate head shot showing the rawest of emotion between subject and camera. "Our desire to produce this work was driven by our own passion, our passion to create beautiful and powerful imagery, but also our passion to make a connection with all people. We have worked with people across differing races, age, religion and gender to find a common truth; we all feel emotion; rage, happiness, love, desire, sadness, these are all part of who we are and the truthful beauty that we are all the same." Cam & Dom www.camanddom.com   5 ? 8 November 2008 DARK/ART/DRESS An exhibition of site specific fashion and art from designer Lauren McCarthy and collaborators Lauren McCarthy - art dress, early works retrospective and new pieces introduction, costume works from 'the yellow wallpaper', pattern cutting performance www.artdress.co.uk Alexandra Groover - La Voisin collaboration, two dresses on the theme of aphrodisiacs, sorcery and the muse www.alexandragroover.com Robin McGrorty - E=Mc2 collaboration, works in progress and pieces on the theme of energy, balance and the spacial occupation of the human body Julian Roberts - subtraction cutting toiles and experimental works www.julianand.com Gareth Barnett - The Society of Futopia, new ritual performance and art works     24 ? 30 October 2008 [noplaceprojects*] An exhibition of work by Moira Allan, Russell Chater, Judith Fairlie, David Fitzgerald, Liz Helman, Helen Scalway and Richard Stone The exhibition no place takes as its prompt text by Jacob Voorthuis. The group were invited by artist/curator Liz Helman to respond to the notion that: ?the city is a web?a text. And the text of our lives is in turn inscribed on the city?on the spaces we inhabit?we draw a map of the city as it exists in tension with our lives.?** 'no place' will feature new work by artists: Moira Allan, Russell Chater, Judith Fairlie, David Fitzgerald, Liz Helman, Helen Scalway & Richard Stone. This diverse group, whose practices range from drawing to sound and installation, are united by a common interest in responding to issues and ideas concerning place and space. The varied approaches within the group allow for the creation of multiple narratives to play over a single site. The Crypt is a unique venue in the heart of Kings Cross, an area of the city in the grip of redevelopment, one of the most connected places in London and now the biggest transport hub in Europe. 'no place' is produced by Polly Gardiner. www.noplaceprojects.net Contact Email liz.helman@dsl.pipex.com Mobile 07968 087 692 Notes * [noplaceprojects*] is an artist-run initiative showcasing works in transitional spaces. As its name indicates, [noplaceprojects*]is not about a fixed venue, nor a fixed theme, but more about responses to current social and global frameworks regarding space and place. ** Jacob Voorhuis - ?Walter Benjamin Ambling through the City of the Mind?.Dr. J.C.T.Voorthuis lectures in architecture and philosophy at the Technical University of Eindhoven at the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam.     11 ? 19 October 2008 ALL THIS TIME An exhibition of work by NATASHA STANBRIDGE, TREVOR TAYLOR, CORNELIUS BRADY, AGATA CARDOSO, SHARLENE CHANNER, LORNA MACMILLAN, MARK METCALFE, LUCY CAREW, JON GABB, SARA GRAHAM, GILES HINCHCLIFF, JON SOLOMON, ZOE CROSS, MATT BLACKLER, JANE BURNHAM, GARY MEYNELL, TOMOKO SAKANISHI, NICHOLAS LOCKYER, JENNY JOHNSON, SRDJANA SARCEVIC, NATHAN GORDON, DILYS REES, GEORGE WILLIAMS, JI YOUNG PARK, DENIZ UNAL, SAYSHUN JAY ?All This Time? is The Vanity Group's second show at The Crypt - St Pancras Church. In 2007 The Vanity Group used this space as a stall to set out their wares, observing the time honored traditions of gallery and art. This time however the exhibition is site specific, interweaving the personal archaeologies of the artists with the archaeology of contemporary society and the physical archaeology of the space. The Crypt as it now stands is used as an artists? space - we now approach with the idea of the space and interior architecture of the building. Site-specific art, an intervention in a specific locale, creating a work that is integrated with its surroundings and that explores its relationship to the topography of its locale, but more specifically, in this case, its relationship with its architecture and psychosocial history.     27 September ? 4 October 2008 MINE An exhibition of work by Rodrigo Boro, Roy Baron, Boldizsar Csernak, Dominic De Vere, Sebastian Edge, Stavros Gangos, Woodrow Kernohan, Timothy Leek, Sean Malone, Annamaria Pinaka, Cathy Rogers, Irina Rusakova MINE is an exhibition of work produced by current and recently graduated students of the MA in Artists? Film, Video and Photography at the Maidstone Campus of the University for the Creative Arts. Combining the background given by the course and the unique setting of The Crypt, MINE promises to be one of the most exiting and imaginative post-graduate shows this year. Offering innovative new approaches and explorations of time and lens based media. The course offers an original creative experience to students giving them not only the opportunity to use various media but actively encouraging them to incorporate new techniques into their existing practice. For further information please visit www.mineshow.co.uk or e-mail info@mineshow.co.uk