Author Archive
Life Is A Beach: CAYUCAS
Cayucos is a surf town in San Luis Obispo County, California. Santa Monica’s Zach Yudin decided to adopt the name, after twisting it to Cayucas, for the songs that he started writing a couple of years ago. Exotic, yet redolent of beaches, sun, good vibes and girls (obviously), it must have sounded like a statement, a manifesto. Read the rest of this entry »
Tapes’n’Tales: Emiliano Ponzi
“It’s possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language to endow those things – a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman’s earring – with immense, even startling power […]”(Raymond Carver, A Storyteller’s Shoptalk, 1981). An artistic oeuvre that can be interpreted as the expression of a stylistic research that aims to explore the complex and stratified field of everyday life through the use of an ordinary language that is essentially plain and devoid of any visual-narrative frills. Qualities like linearity, humour and a refined unpredictability mark the work of the already well-known Italian artist and illustrator Emiliano Ponzi. Read the rest of this entry »
Hatching The Plan (slowly): ANDY STOTT
Sometimes all you need is to slow down. Manchester dj and producer Andy Stott has been active on the techno scene for over ten years, with a number of eps and two albums (2006’s “Merciless” and 20008’s “Unknown Exceptions”), to his name, but 2009’s “Night Jewel” and “Tell Me Anything” marked a clear change, dramatically rendering the frequencies lower and the beats slower. Words like crepuscular, deconstructed, claustrophobic got to be used more frequently in the reviews. As if finally hitting his stride, Stott became more prolific by releasing in 2011 two short albums, “Passed Me By” and “We Stay Together”, that can be considered with hindsight as the true watershed of his production and a preview of things to come. Read the rest of this entry »
Soldier of a Secret Kingdom: STEPHEN APPLEBY-BARR
Religion, Science, Philosophy and Superstition. Toronto-based artist Stephen Appleby-Barr demonstrates an exceptional ability to (re)create and, above all, manipulate early modern European historical references with infinitesimal doses of humour and intrigue. His ideal vision, inextricably linked to the old masters of the painterly tradition such as Rembrandt, Velázquez and Sargent, continues to evolve and reinvent itself by exploring the connections between classical aesthetics and contemporary art. Read the rest of this entry »
Graham Nash: Life on the Road
Showing through May 26th at Proud Camden, Life on the Road is a stunning photographic collection of personal and intimate portraits taken by internationally renowned English singer-songwriter and political activist Graham Nash, founding member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash. This photographic series, spanning from 1969 to 2003, showcases a unique selection of street photographs and portraits of family and friends featuring Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, David Crosby and other legendary musicians of the 1970s. Read the rest of this entry »
Exhibit Openings: Interview w/Elzo Durt + 108
Haunting geometrical compositions, vibrant colours and a sparkling labyrinth of art pieces ranging from a bizarre and provocative surrealism to a gloomy and abstract minimalism were some of the hallmarks of the double solo show recently opened at Doppelgaenger, in Bari, and featuring works by Italian artist and musician 108, aka Guido Bisagni, and Elzo Durt, Belgian illustrator whose swirling psychedelic graphic style is often associated with posters and album covers designed for the likes of Thee Oh Sees and Jack of Heart. Read the rest of this entry »
Brooklyn Gang, Summer 1959: BRUCE DAVIDSON
“You’re the only love I’ve ever known, just as long as you stay with me, the whole world is my throne” (Bob Dylan, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’). Columbia Records released Bob Dylan’s thirty-third studio album “Together Through Life” on April 28, 2009. A black-and-white picture portraying a couple of young lovers in the backseat of a car graces its front cover and there’s no need to add anything else. It’s startlingly intimate. It’s authentic. It’s compelling. It’s perfect. It’s so perfect it almost hurts if we consider the original story that inspired it. Read the rest of this entry »
Exhibit Openings: Teenage Machine Age by Ryan Heshka
Following the success of his first solo show, “Ours”, at Milan’s Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Canadian artist Ryan Heshka (interviewed) returns to Italy to present a major new exhibition, “Teenage Machine Age”, showcasing several small and large works in acrylic, gouache and oils and including a small section dedicated to the artist’s published illustration work. Read the rest of this entry »
Ghostly Incantations: LIFE & LIMB
What happens when two solo artists get together in creating something which is far more than the sum of them? Andrea Mangia still lives in the south east of Italy, in a stubborn refusal of music industry rules; his freedom has led him to work with one of the most prestigious european labels, Morr Music, releasing a series of warm electronic albums under the Populous moniker. Mike McGuire comes instead from New York, and his blissful layered vocals will sound familiar to anyone who has listened his work as Short Stories. They met through mutual respect for their myspace pages, and decided to work together. That work became an album, “Drawn In Basic”, unsurprisingly released under the name of Populous And Short Stories, cut and produced through emails and file attachments, working in physical solitude while enjoying each other’s spiritual presence. It was a good start. Read the rest of this entry »
Tapes’n’Tales: SHARMILA BANERJEE
The fresh cartoon-style of Berlin-based illustrator Sharmila Banerjee plays with an unconventional and psychedelically-structured observation of our own individual personalities in the natural environment. As demonstrated in the evocatively titled “Human Nature” – the artist’s new solo exhibition currently showing at Inuit Bookshop as part of the Seventh edition of the BilBOlbul International Comics Festival in Bologna – Sharmila Banerjee’s work encourages both reflection and examination of humans’ complex and powerful behavioural dynamics. Read the rest of this entry »
The Future Is Bright: THE FRESH & ONLYS 
Better Than Something: Interview with Ian Markiewicz and Alex Hammond 
Filming The Music: AG ROJAS 
Coyotes in My Backyard: TRAVIS MILLARD 
The Alchemy of Love and Fire: NEIL KRUG 
Drenched in The Rain of Dreams: Dimitri Drjuchin 
I CAN SEE FOR MILES: The Art of Jacob Escobedo 