Party on!

The New Art Gallery celebrated its 10th Birthday last night, and there was over 1000 visitors! The Party exhibition is on and is looking (and in the case of Martin Creed’s room filled with balloons) feeling great… so I really recommend a visit.

The Unwanted Gift Shop was open for business and record numbers visited the shop since its opening, and visitors were given free edible art (black and white jelly) and left smiling with art in their bellies. Some even came with more Unwanted Gifts, which have now been added to the shop display.

There is still time for more Unwanted Items… bring them along and register them at reception. You never know… your work might be worth £££ in years to come! :)

The Unwanted Gift Shop: Week 3

It has been a great start to the Unwanted Gift Shop with new items donated each day…

I am really enjoying having time to think and play with ideas. Lots of people have been popping into the Artist Studio and it seems that the project is capturing people’s imagination, which is great!

During this residency I am going to reveal as much of my thinking and working process as possible, highlighting processes, successes, and failures along the way both within the Artist Studio space and in these blogs.

I have set myself the creative challenge to build a “cohesive” body of work from the items… this came from an interesting conversation with a curator who said that artists that have a “cohesive” body of work are often more desired by the art market as their work can easily be marketed and sold to galleries and collectors looking to invest.  As an artist who has so far ducked and dived around the “commercial” art world, and avoided being labelled as a “particular” type of artist, I felt that this challenge would set an interesting arena for me to produce work in. It also makes a direct link to the objects themselves; items from the commercial world, that have for one reason or another, lost their value in the eyes of their owners.

If you visit the Unwanted Gift Shop, you will notice the three colours, RED, BLACK and WHITE… this pallet will become more prevelant as the residency continues. The three colours have spiritual and psychological properties and they are also a homage to the history of artists going through particular colour periods and to the fashion and retail world which in this case states that “red, black and white are this seasons must have colours”.

Here are the most recent items…

The Unwanted Gift Shop has opened!

The Unwanted Gift Shop is up and running!

I will  be in Every Friday and Saturday… so feel free to pop in… bring an unwanted gift or something you have lying around that you would like me to change into a work of art!

If you are interested to follow some of the media coverage so far visit the following links.

Express and Star interview: http://www.expressandstar.com/2010/01/06/artwork-comes-gift-wrapped/

BBC Radio West Midlands: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p005ymmg/The_Paul_Franks_Show_18_01_2010/

The images below are some of the items that have been donated to the project so far, which include a brand new 2008 diary, a drink coaster and some writing paper.

Please feel free to comment and make suggestions.

The Unwanted Gift Shop is getting ready!

Gearing up to Monday 18th Jan!

… 1st day of my 3 month residency at The New Art Gallery! Very excited about the items which have been brought in already!

Its ironic to be excited about unwanted gifts, as they are wanted gifts in my eyes.

In anticipation!

Mitra