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| < Back Our 2008/2009 exhibition programme. FREE ADMISSION |
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SOME LITTLE ARTISTS
14 June - 27 July 2008
LITTLE ARTISTS
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| DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE |
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Boing, Boing! It’s The Little Artists
(Enebriated Emin Enraged) |
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| Smurf Net Level 3 |
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| Concealing Claire (Sugar and Spice dress) |
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Lick Your Self
Frozen fruit flavoured mixture and wooden stick
All images
Courtesy Cake + Neave/The Little Artists |
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The Little Artists are John Cake and Darren Neave. Cake and Neave's practice considers cultural identity, branding and what it means to be a contemporary artist through adopting the concept of the figure of the artist as a logo, a brand name, a lifestyle choice. They created and became 'The Little Artists' brand. Their work has been exhibited across the UK, Europe and in New York. This is the first time a
selection of their practice has been seen together.
The selection of work in 'Some Little Artists' is wide-ranging from Art Crazy Nation - Their infamous recreations in Lego of Modern / Contemporary iconic art and artists, to SmurfNet - recent works that include London Tube maps obliterated with Tippex and the stations replaced with stickers of Smurf heads, referencing and identifying with the actions, strategies and mythology of the deceased German artist Martin Kippenberger. Other works include Concealing Claire/Every Little Artist Helps - Toilet roll doll sculptures that take Grayson Perry's transvestite alter-ego's dresses as their starting point and go up to 3 metres high; Lick Your Selves - Paintings made from melting their sculptural ice lolly version of Marc Quinn's 'Self', a casting of his head in his own blood; Contemporary Artists Play Pictionary - Drawings produced by famous artists when challenged by The Little Artists to a game of Pictionary.
This exhibition allows for a reflective look at the core themes throughout all Cake and Neave's work: aggressive branding, cultural identity, contemporary art/artists.
It also gives an insight into their latest work SmurfNet, core to this is the 'Smurf', the iconic blue character, created by Peyo in Belgium 50 years ago. They have become an image understood world-wide but whose name is different in every language. (Schtroumpfs - French, Y Smyrffs - Welsh, Schlümpfe - German etc.) As in the cartoon or comic-strip, when speaking the word 'Smurf' can be used to replace a word in a sentence but understanding is not lost. Pieces in this new body of work include paintings that are actual London tube maps that have had the station names and wording covered with Tippex/Liquid Paper and replaced with collaged 'Smurf' head stickers. Progressive maps have further meticulous obliteration; the coloured tube lines and then the surrounding blank paper, resulting in a textured monochrome surface - negating the function of this 'design classic'. |
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| ABOUT THE ARTISTS |
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John Cake and Darren Neave have been working together since 1994 and under
the name of The Little Artists since 1996. They found notoriety with their 'Art Crazy
Nation' series - a huge body of work involving Lego and the recreation of modern
iconic artworks and artists in a relatively large, small-scale art gallery.
Their work has been exhibited across the UK, Europe and in New York.
An awardwinning commission by the Walker Gallery in Liverpool saw their cartoon character identities and brand as the face and inspiration for the 'Big Art' children's gallery.
Cake and Neave have been selected to take part in the first Tatton Park Biennial in
May 2008, curated by Danielle Arnaud and Jordan Kaplan from the commissioning
group Parabola.
Forthcoming Solo shows include Galerie Markus Winter in Berlin, and
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe in 2009. Recent solo exhibitions include the Fishmarket Gallery, Northampton and Kulczyk Foundation, Poznan.
They have also featured extensively in group shows across Europe including;
Space/Galerie Priestor, Bratislava (curated by Juraj Carny), Galerie Good Friday,
Brussels, Krinzinger, Vienna and The Kunsthall, Bergen(curated by Dr Sabine
Dorscheid).
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OPENING TIMES: Gallery open: Thursday - Sunday 12-4pm
HIVE GALLERY, Elsecar Heritage Centre, Wath Road, Elsecar, Barnsley, S74 8HJ
Tel: +44 (0)1226 (0)1226 743122 Email:info@hivegallery.co.uk |
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