Isis is...
...my friend John Marchant's new gallery. I went to visit last week having missed his grand opening (as it were) and had to share with you...
It's at 20 Hanway Street, that marvellously seedy little home to Bradley's Spanish Bar and numerous tapas bars and after hours drinking dens, record shops and being just off Oxford Street it's surprisingly stayed pretty much the grubby same apart from the incongrous Hakkasan chinese restaurant round the corner on Hanway Place, a super sleek high-end eatery. When you get to number 20, go to the end of the corridor, turn left up the stairs and come upon this beautiful oasis.....
I've known John for probably close to twenty years frighteningly enough, I met him on the Body Map stall at Camden Market where he used to work on Saturdays as a youngster, we'd bump into each other every few years, he's been working with some incredible artists in New York, Paris and London but always wanted to have his OWN space...and Isis is it!
His first exhibition by Ruth Marten is called Histoire un-Naturelle and the initial assumption is that these are beautiful antique prints, then you realise that she has minutely doctored, rearranged and collaged them to alter and play with the original engravings. Some of them are hilarious..
"Canapes"
"Angry Men"
...and a lot of them are beautifully hand-coloured as you can see. I loved this one called "Ladies Goods" which I thought my ladies would appreciate! :
I was feeling very covetous as I walked around the gallery, the scale of the pieces really makes you want to own one....but I did leave clutching the book of the show, a limited edition which she has hand-coloured, so if you can't stretch to an original work, the book is very special. What's really fun when looking at the actual works themselves is trying to see exactly where she has made the incisions or re-drawn parts. A lot of you work in and around Soho and I urge you to pop along, it took me five minutes to trot round there from Maison B, you could definately go in your lunch hour, for opening hours and a map go to their website http://www.isisgallery.org/. There's some exciting shows coming up, John gave me a sneak preview of Alice O'Malley's portraits and there's an exhibiton of Antony Hegarty's drawings coming soon.
Get yourself down there, I insist!
Madame x
It's at 20 Hanway Street, that marvellously seedy little home to Bradley's Spanish Bar and numerous tapas bars and after hours drinking dens, record shops and being just off Oxford Street it's surprisingly stayed pretty much the grubby same apart from the incongrous Hakkasan chinese restaurant round the corner on Hanway Place, a super sleek high-end eatery. When you get to number 20, go to the end of the corridor, turn left up the stairs and come upon this beautiful oasis.....
I've known John for probably close to twenty years frighteningly enough, I met him on the Body Map stall at Camden Market where he used to work on Saturdays as a youngster, we'd bump into each other every few years, he's been working with some incredible artists in New York, Paris and London but always wanted to have his OWN space...and Isis is it!
His first exhibition by Ruth Marten is called Histoire un-Naturelle and the initial assumption is that these are beautiful antique prints, then you realise that she has minutely doctored, rearranged and collaged them to alter and play with the original engravings. Some of them are hilarious..
"Canapes"
"Angry Men"
...and a lot of them are beautifully hand-coloured as you can see. I loved this one called "Ladies Goods" which I thought my ladies would appreciate! :
I was feeling very covetous as I walked around the gallery, the scale of the pieces really makes you want to own one....but I did leave clutching the book of the show, a limited edition which she has hand-coloured, so if you can't stretch to an original work, the book is very special. What's really fun when looking at the actual works themselves is trying to see exactly where she has made the incisions or re-drawn parts. A lot of you work in and around Soho and I urge you to pop along, it took me five minutes to trot round there from Maison B, you could definately go in your lunch hour, for opening hours and a map go to their website http://www.isisgallery.org/. There's some exciting shows coming up, John gave me a sneak preview of Alice O'Malley's portraits and there's an exhibiton of Antony Hegarty's drawings coming soon.
Get yourself down there, I insist!
Madame x
Labels: Antony Hegarty, Hakkasan, Hanway St, Isis Gallery, John Marchant, Ruth Marten