John Jones Prepare Canvas for Nasser Azam's Antarctica Project

As part of his Performance Painting project, artist Nasser Azam will be travelling to Antarctica where he will create a series of nine paintings in the coldest place on Earth.

John Jones has worked with Azam to produce specially designed canvases that will withstand the -30C conditions. Azam is hoping to take inspiration from the harsh landscape, 24 hour sunlight and extreme physical conditions when composing his work on the 3m x 3m canvases which he will lay on the ice.

"I have prepared the canvases in the core colours - a red, a blue, a yellow - I am keeping the palette to a very simple colour scheme. I want to see how I can visualise everything against the starkness of everything being white."

Azam, whose previous works include painting in zero gravity, has been preparing for the sub zero conditions by spending time in the freezers of Billingsgate market. The trip marks a new phase in his long term Performance Painting series, designed to challenge the limits of his creativity in extreme circumstances. Once completed, Azam's nine works will be displayed on an international tour.

For more information click here.
Photograph courtesy of Nasser Azam.

National Open Art Competition

John Jones is excited to announce the National Open Art Competition is now in its 14th year.

The annual competition is open to entrants from across the UK and welcomes all artists; from emerging to the established.

The 2010 judges will include young British artist Gavin Turk, former Director of the Whitechapel Gallery Catherine Lambert and 2009 winner Lisa Wright.

Register online to submit your original paintings, drawings, prints and now art photogrpahy until 31st August 2010.

For more information click here.

Islington Exhibits

Unlocking Venues
Exhibiting Art

John Jones was excited to hear about this local project which unlocks hidden venues in the Islington to give artists and craft persons a space to display their work.

Islington Exhibits are inviting applications for four artist-in-residence projects, each worth at least £1,000. The residencies are:

• Archway Herbal Clinic
• Islington Council Town Hall
• St. Luke's Centre
• St. Martin of Tours Housing Association

Application deadline: 21 February 2010

Islington Exhibits will run from 24 June until 4 July 2010. As well as offering the residencies, the scheme encourages artists to seek out their own local venues and mount their own exhibition or alternatively apply to exhibit in the Summer Salon at Islington Arts Factory.

In addition they would love to hear from any venues who would like to be approached by artists. Interested venues can post their details onto the website.

Islington Exhibits will be holding a public meeting to enable people to find out more. This will take place on Tuesday 16 March, 6pm till 7:45pm, at North Library, Manor Gardens, London N7.

For further details or to register as a venue looking for an artist, click here.

John Jones Artist in Residence Mariana Heilmann

Entry 2

BLADES
PARCHMENT PAPER
GREAT STUDIO
UNINTERRUPTED TIME
SPACE
EXPOSURE TO JJ WORKSHOPS AND POTENTIAL MATERIALS
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES
EXTREMELY HELPFUL AND EXPERT TEAM ALL AROUND
BEGINNING NEW COMMISSION

All the above are topics I could write about at length, but for now I will just keep them as they are…headings of all the important aspects of this week.
A dream come true, I only fear that one month is just not going to be long enough to explore all the possibilities that are around me at John Jones.
In this light I have decided to make small sketches with as many of the materials available to me as possible, so that at a later date I may go back and expand on them both in scale and in form.

Parallel to the work I will be doing with materials gathered at JJ, I have also started a commission measuring 215 x 133cm. (Wave of Peace II) The process to make this piece is extremely slow and meticulous; there are around 14000 pieces which I will pin to a support specially designed and made for me at John Jones. The pieces are made from plastic milk bottles which my local community and friends in Barnes have collected for me. This commission comes as a result of a recent collection of work which I showed late last year.

The reception to the work was very enthusiastic, and I have a line of large commissions to complete as a consequence. I will have one of these hanging at John Jones during Feb. (Water II)

On Thursday I moved from the display area into what will be my studio whilst I am resident artist. It is quite far removed from the main area but it is perfectly situated in terms of being within arms reach of the workshops; my suppliers of materials!

Ignacio Iasparra Solo Show on View at John Jones through 15 March

Presented by Lodeveans Collection and John Jones, Argentine photographer Ignacio Iasparra's debut show in the UK opened with great success last Friday. This remarkable series of images made between 2003 and 2008 depict what Isparra describes as various ‘moments of light and colour,’ shot in different settings throughout Argentina, including the forests and woodlands of the Tigré and Paraná Deltas.

The series offers the viewer a speculative experience, revealing subtle and endless variations of light, colour and shadow. Each image effectively becomes dislocated from any specific sense of place, as Iasparra‘s photographs present ambiguous and only partially defined environments. A fragmented subjectivity, achieved through the act of framing, creates an impression of disruption and estrangement, as well as a sense of immersion and immediacy.

I realized that on each occasion the place mattered less. I was not looking for images of a certain place, but for sensations. My intention was to confront clear images with vague sensations. I thought it was important that the elements of the image were recognizable, that it didn’t turn into pure abstraction. After all, they are photographs…My search was for an almost abstract estrangement and sense of wonder.
Ignacio Iasparra, 2010.

Born in 1973 in a rural town near Buenos Aires, Iasparra continues to work in Argentina. He graduated from the Escuela Argentina de Fotografia, where he studied under Ricardo Torosian and Fabiana Barreda. He has had a number of solo exhibitions in Buenos Aires, and his work has been part of various seminal group shows.

In 2005, Iasparra was elected Photographer of the Year by the Argentine Association of Art Critics. He has works in the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires and MALBA’s Colección Costantini. He continues to explore the array of photographic possibilities of Argentina and beyond, through the ongoing development of his artistic practice.

Special thanks to John Jones, the Lodeveans Collection, the Argentine Embassy in the United Kingdom, Sarah Toplis (Curator) and Yinan Zhang (Exhibition Assistant).

For more information please visit John Jones and Lodeveans Collection.