Nicola speaks out in The Guardian’s ‘Case for culture’ article: 100 voices

The Guardian asked 100 arts professionals and figureheads why they think the arts are worth continued development. Read my full response to A Case For Culture and England losing 30% of its arts council budgethere. See the full Guardian article featuring an excerpt of my thoughts on the matter here.

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Inspiration from Space

Just a quick post to say, you MUST check out new Google Space:http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

(Don’t run it on IE, I suspect it will not work!)

I have spent an hour just skimming around between the stars and getting some kind of perspective on just how infinitesimal our solar system is in the grand scheme of things. Beautiful and humbling.

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A new sense of beginning

Having recently relocated to a new studio in Singapore where I am making a new body of work, I decided to make this post more about my working process than my artwork progress.

Singapore is amazing, sensory and inspirational. In my first week I felt both swamped in things to do (as I have everything to do in terms of exciting new places to visit, pushing forward my projects / studio / ongoing initiatives as well as setting up a new home for the time that I am here) and also a rather unusual, floating feeling of nothing to do (as I am so new to life here nothing is set in stone yet, and I have no set daily routine.)

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A shift: London to Singapore

It’s been a while since I put fingertips to keyboard. As some readers, fellow creatives and friends will know, my efforts and braincells have been flurrying around over the last few months working to set up a second art studio in Singapore. Here, I will be creating a new body of artwork, as well as some exciting opportunities for other artists who will get the chance to take part in an exchange programme. Whilst time intensive, the process has involved forging many exciting new relationships and collaborations, meeting new people and discovering new places. I am delighted, amazed and overwhelmed to tell you that I am finally here: ensconced in my new art studio, equipped with a fresh horde of brushes, metallic pigments and ink pens, in the inspiring city of Singapore.

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The Spectacle of the London Olympic Ceremony 2012

I don't usually blog this sort of thing, but I was pretty impressed by this cultural spectacle. As were the hundreds of other watchers who had come to see the ceremony on the big screen at Greenwich royal naval college, which was a fantastic place to view it and a real display of the multicultural nature of London.

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Invisible in London: Understanding invisible art

Anyone living in London will have noticed that in preparation for the Olympic Games, a myriad of shiny new buildings, facades and artworks are materializing all over our City. This weekend I decided to bypass the luster and ostentation of new sights, and the glister of resurfaced old ones. I took a closer look at the things that have de-materialised, or are simply not there. (Like the Australian team bus that got lost somewhere between Heathrow and the Olympic Park last week, being spotted briefly somewhere around Buckingham Palace.)

I took a look at some invisible visions and the Hayward Gallery's exhibition Invisible Art of the Unseen...

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VIDEO: ‘World’s Largest Kinetic Art Sculpture’ Unveiled at Singapore Airport

The seemingly alive installation, composed of 1,216 bronze droplets attached to individual motorized pulleys, bobs and weaves in Terminal 1′s departure hall at Changi Airport. While some examples of airline art look like they could’ve used more planning (the Oslo wang) or boldness (or less boldness, as is the case with Denver International’s “evil robo-horse” and what-the-freak murals), this moving artwork is minimalism at its best.

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Contemporary Korean art at the Saatchi Gallery: YeeSookyung

The exhibition presents the largest survey of new Korean art to date, and highlights an exciting group of artists who have recently emerged on the global art scene, producing work that provides an arresting insight into the future of contemporary art in Korea. The show begins on 26th July, but if you pop into the gallery now you can see a taste of Korea coming through. Intricate oil paintings on aluminium surfaces by Hyung Koo Kang really draw you in, and beautiful 'translated vases' by Yeesookyung are growing in the lower gallery spaces. Made from 'ceramic trash', Yeesookyung's uncanny and bumpy objects have organic, bubbling forms featuring fragments of Korean patterned vases joined in a frankenstein-like manner to make new, growing forms.

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A New artwork: Big Money

Last night's private view of Games People Play saw the unveiling of a dissected dollar bill in a different format. Made from real dollars, the series is very intricate by nature, and I love that it forces the viewer to question what they are seeing and recognise parts of the dollar that they have never truly looked at before. See what you think of the images below. Visitors were very excited to accept my challenge - find the hidden message in the artwork: I have used the letters in the dollar to pick out some new words...

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‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’: Rae Macken Talks Fairies and Contemporary Shakespeare

Custom/Practice are staging a slickly-edited, contemporary take on Shakespeare’s classic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream for this summer’s Almeida Festival. Artistic Director Rae Macken recently took a few minutes to chat about the cast, the setting and why those elements make this production of Dream unique.
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Exhibition: Games People Play

This new exhibition is a playful nod to any games from the Olympics, to the Euros, Wimbledon to board games, toys to political or mind games. The artists have responded to this theme to create a concoction of playful artworks that play with your mind.... opens next Tuesday at Nolia's Gallery (Southwark Tube, near Tate Modern), please join us for the private view evening.

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PANDAMONIUM: MELTING THE HEART OF EVEN THE MOST MISERABLE CYNICS

I REVIEWED THIS SHOW IN TREBUCHET MAGAZINE, SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE OR READ ON BELOW… “Sometimes an aesthetically appealing tiger cub or a quirky ladybird can overshadow the actual substance of the artwork” Byroglyphics, 'great sage 1' 55x76cm. Graphite and pastel on Paper.
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ArtHAUS features in Guardian

The genre-busting artHAUS exhibition at DegreeArt Gallery is still open until June. Having been featured in the guardian's lifestyle picks, it's well worth a visit - It is very inspiring for me to see the art in the context of interior design. The art spills out onto the walls (in some cases quite literally) and inspires other elements in the room. It's very imagination capturing and eclectic. But also rather  nice to get inspiration for how to place objects & art in our own homes & spaces. I have recently rearranged my studio to reflect a string of inspirations emanating out of one central artwork.

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ArtHAUS Features in the Evening Standard

My recent group show ArtHAUS has been featured in the Evening Standard including images of my work in the 'living room' - "Bursting with statement pieces by up-and-coming creative talent, this eclectic show is bridging the gap between contemporary art and interior design. The downstairs floor of the Hackney gallery has been split into five small spaces, each of which looks like a different room in a real home."

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ArtHAUS - June private view

It's a HAUS full of intrigue - Chopped up money, amazing vintage sofas, a human sized apple, giant paintings of our lovely Queen, organic sculptures growing in the bathroom, and a 'kitchen sculpture' made from a pile of fragile, ephemeral egg shells.

ArtHAUS opened last month, and I'd like to say a big thank you to all those who came along.  If you didn't make it there's another chance to meet the artists at a private view & press viewing next Thursday. It has been fantastic to get such great coverage from the likes of Art Review and Guardian, for both the show as a whole and my own series of Ha’dollar artworks which Londonist noted as “hypnotic dissections and re-arrangements of one dollar bills that make you question what you’re seeing”.  (see more press here).

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