Photography in a period of transition: London’s creative community captured down the decades in David Gwinnutt’s Portraits Trouvés

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//Siouxsie Sioux, 42 Arlington Square, N1, 1982. © David Gwinnutt//
Corinne Day
//”This was taken in hospital when she had the brain tumour but oddly seems to reflect the end of that heroin chic period.” The late photographer Corinne Day, Whitechapel Hospital, east London, 1996. © David Gwinnutt//
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//Timberlina, east London 2009. © David Gwinnutt//

Photographer David Gwinnutt’s new show Portraits Trouvés at north London estate agency Currell provides documentation of the drastic transformation of our city through portraiture of some of the leading lights in arts and culture from the 80s to the 10s.

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Hormazd Narielwalla’s God Save The Queen celebrates female identity and sexuality at Salt & Pegram

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//Anna Piaggi – The Eccentric, Hormazd Narielwalla, 2016//

God Save The Queen is the title of collage artist Hormazd Narielwalla’s new exhibition opening at east London furniture and lighting specialists Salt & Pegram’s showroom on Thursday (April 21).

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//God Save The Queen, Hormazd Narielwalla, 2016//

Continue reading Hormazd Narielwalla’s God Save The Queen celebrates female identity and sexuality at Salt & Pegram

Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory: Ben Kelly’s choice for 111 Inspirational Interiors

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//Warhol poses for photographer Jon Naar on the famous red couch in his studio on E. 47th Street in midtown Manhattan, 1965//

Designer Ben Kelly, chair of interior and spatial design at University of the Arts London, has chosen this photograph of Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory for his exhibition 111 Inspirational Interiors.

Kelly has curated the show – which opens tomorrow at Windows Gallery 1 at Central Saint Martins  in Kings Cross, North London – after inviting 111 creatives to each select an image of an interior which is important to them.

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‘A complete environment’: Patrick Casey and Malcolm McLaren’s installation at Let It Rock in Ben Kelly’s 111 Inspirational Interiors exhibition

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//Interior, 430 King’s Road, west London, designed by Patrick Casey and Malcolm McLaren for the retail outlet Let It Rock and photographed by David Parkinson in January 1972. No reproduction without permission//

I have elected the above image for inclusion in the exhibition 111 Inspirational Interiors, which opens tomorrow in the Windows Gallery 1 at Central Saint Martins in Kings Cross, north London.

The show is curated by designer Ben Kelly in his role as chair of interior and spatial design at University of the Arts London as part of his project Popular Culture And The Interior; the 1972 David Parkinson photograph stems from my participation in Kelly’s ICA symposium last year, Dead Or Alive – Interior Design.

For the exhibition, Kelly invited 111 people to contribute “an image of an interior that has been important and influential in their creative and intellectual development”. The image I chose was taken on the completion of the refurbishment of the ground floor of 430 King’s Road  from the premises of boutique Paradise Garage into Teddy Boy culture emporium Let It Rock in late 1971 by the late Malcolm McLaren and his fellow former Harrow Art School student Patrick Casey.

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‘Misfits in the pantheon of pop’ : Barney Bubbles exhibition at Leamington Spa’s White Room Gallery this weekend

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//Four of the five 60in x 40in posters designed by Bubbles for the 1977 UK tour by Stiff Records’ artists//
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//Jacket sported by Jake Riviera in the late 70s decorated with badges, adorned with a ‘Jesus Of Cool’ promotional tie produced for Nick Lowe and accompanied by a Roberta Bayley photograph of Riviera in the jacket in 1977//

Music fan and pop ephemera collector Mike Hobday is realising a long-held ambition this weekend with a show of designs by the late graphic artist Barney Bubbles at The White Room Gallery in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

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The Conformist: Last few days of this glittering celebration of great British non-conformity from Emma, Lady Hamilton to Punk Rock and beyond

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//Details of Judy Blame jewellery with Helen Bullock bag//
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//Bullock’s window for The Conformist at Belmacz, 45 Davies Street, London W1//
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//Curator Paul Kindersely with wall of David Parkinson photographs 1970-75//

“So great to see an eclectic range of images and objects that challenge norms and play with moral codes”
The Courtauld’s Documenting Fashion blog

The Conformist – artist Paul Kindersley’s celebration of great British non-conformity of expression – is now entering its final few days.

If you have the opportunity, I recommend a visit to this fascinating exhibition (at Mayfair’s art/jewellery space Belmacz) which joins the dots between Emma, Lady Hamilton and Punk Rock, via Judy Blame, Leigh Bowery, Helen Bullock, Jennifer Campbell, Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Paul Housley, Malcolm McLaren & Vivienne Westwood, Julie Verhoeven, Rose Wylie and many other glittering and creative creatures.

Continue reading The Conformist: Last few days of this glittering celebration of great British non-conformity from Emma, Lady Hamilton to Punk Rock and beyond

Heritage Boot: On Austin’s SoCo, ‘the best handmade cowboy boots you can buy right now’ with a delightful flavour of the King’s Road heyday

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Part artwork, part footwear, entirely authentic

Heritage Boot, Austin TX

A recent visit to Texas provided many joys and pleasures, among them a taste of the heyday of the King’s Road boutique boom courtesy of Jerry and Patti Ryan’s Heritage Boot on Austin’s hip South Congress.

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Laurie Cunningham: Back in the Sunday Times with a major biography and a blue plaque on the way

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//Kavanagh’s piece on Cunningham in Style today//

I’m really pleased for writer/photography editor Dermot Kavanagh. His tireless championing of the late soulboy footballer Laurie Cunningham is paying off with a major piece in today’s Sunday Times’ Style magazine and news that there is to be a blue plaque marking the sportsman’s North London birthplace.

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Jah Wobble’s soundtrack for The Conformist: Big Youth, Blake, Buzzcocks, Joni, Miles, Stooges + much, much more

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//Clockwise from top left: William Blake; Jah Wobble; King Tubby; Miles Davis; The Stooges; Jimi Hendrix Experience//

An essential element of the current group exhibition The Conformist is the companion soundtrack selected by Jah Wobble.

This blends Wobble’s take on William Blake’s Tyger, Tyger (from the great 1996 album The Inspiration Of William Blake) with tracks to be expected from one of the world’s greatest dub, jazz and soul fiends – including King Tubby & Augustus Pablo, Big Youth, Miles Davis and the Isley Brothers – and some surprises, such as Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi.
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Available now: Limited edition prints of two breathtaking David Parkinson works

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David Parkinson
The Continental Bentley, Club International, Volume 3, No 5, 1974
Photo satin print poster
Ed. 20 + 5 AP
Printed 2016
£90 VAT INCLUSIVE

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David Parkinson
Untitled
Entry for final year project, photography course, Regent Street Polytechnic, 1970
Photo satin print poster
Ed. 20 + 5 AP
Printed 2016
£90 VAT INCLUSIVE

“David Parkinson’s sensuous, gritty photographs challenge the viewer to conflate sex with advertising”
Maisie Skidmore, Another Magazine

Two breathtaking works by the late fashion photographer David Parkinson are being made available in a special limited edition to coincide with The Conformist, the exhibition currently staged at Mayfair’s Belmacz Gallery.

Continue reading Available now: Limited edition prints of two breathtaking David Parkinson works