West Berlin Gallery
The West Berlin Gallery is spot on with its choice of name, both historically and geographically speaking: Brunnenstraße 56, just 100 metres from where the Berlin Wall once stood, is the location of this little gem belonging to Guillaume Trotin and Elodie Bellanger, in the erstwhile Western part of town. Here, in the new heart of the Berlin art scene, every month they show different exhibitions of contemporary urban and digital art, graphic design and illustrations. With Alias, Cuypi, Roland Brückner and Doppeldenk, the art connoisseurs and Bright debutantes are showing four young and established representatives of street art, character design and illustration. At the turn of the millennium Alias got involved in the street art scene in Hamburg. Since 2003 he has lived in Berlin and, with his posters and stickers made with templates and spray cans, he is now a firm fixture on Berlin’s urban art scene. Cuypi’s works, with their combination of character design and typography, make recurring reference to comics, street culture and films. Putting feelings into images is what the 31-year-old aims to do. With Doppeldenk the extraterrestrial colourful style of two anonymously working Leipzig artists is finding its way into the Bright halls, and last but not least, the illustrator Roland Brückner will be sharing his passion for painting, which he discovered after a skateboard accident as a teenager. A bright bunch of contemporary art welcomes you!
www.westberlingallery.comChampfest Magazine x Fixedgearlondon
Twofold, as a duo, double trouble – that’s the deal this time around with Fixedgear. Australian twin sisters Monique and Joanna Kawecki are the brains behind Champfest Magazine, which is based half in London, half in Melbourne and is completely autonomous. Bikes, art and design dominate the magazine’s contents, with which the girls unite international like-minded fellows of the Fixedgear universe and beyond. Together with Fixedgearlondon (FXDGLDN) at Art Bright the twins are presenting a double exhibit: in a gallery-book corner combination, they want to share their common passion for two-wheelers with the visitors. You will be able to browse through different issues of Champfest and Fixed Magazin or admire the joint photo exhibition featuring some very personal bike impressions. The Londoners are also bringing some of their enviable bikes with them, as well as video projections and their clothing line. Japanese photographer Tomonori Tanaka aka Rip Zinger will be documenting the goings-on at the double expo during Bright. An all-round package!
www.alachampfest.com
www.fixedgearlondon.com
Anzeigeberlin | Adam Sello
When it comes to skateboarding matters Adam Sello represents clear points of view: commerce is turning kitschy, culture is good and credibility is best. With his words, work and knowledge the old-school skateboarder and young dad conveys this particularly credibly, ever since he quit his studies in psychology and dedicated himself entirely to his passion in 2000. Starting out in the video and film sector, later working mainly as a photographer, Sello set up the independent media company “Anzeigeberlin”, and within ten years has also published countless examples of his work: at the beginning of 2000 he documented the Berlin skateboard scene around the National Gallery in Berlin, including pro-skater Willow when he was still getting off thestarting blocks of his skating career, Berlin didn’t even have a skateboard hall yet. The result, the video documentary “Anzeigeberlin Panorama”, was released in 2004 and since January 2005 they’ve been publishing the “Anzeigeberlin Information” magazine, a free independent skate mag in pocket format. The hand-copied booklet began as a fanzine and developed into a small magazine, which is published seven times a year – all previous issues can be found on the website anzeigeberlin.de. Adam Sello represents skateboarding in its pure essence, black and white, rough but clear, with no extra frills. Just one reason why the Berliner-by-choice gets on so well with Bright bosses Thomas and Marco and why he has been involved since the very first event in 2006 in Frankfurt: they really valued each other’s creative work. Which is why Bright is delighted to be presenting Mr. Sello’s photographs at the first ever Bright in Berlin!
www.anzeigeberlin.de
Lamono
Young art magazine? Creatively ambitious streetwear label? Hot water bottles? Hot water bottles?! If you believe that this equation doesn’t really pan out, then you shouldn’t miss the “Bouill’Hot” exhibition from Lamono by Ambiguous. 40 hot water bottles will be exhibited by 40 artists. The participating artists, from Tougui to XLR8 and Friedemann Zschiedrich, are interpreting these most grandma-like of all everyday items in their own individual ways, whereby the term “warmth” plays a central role in all of the work. Since 2006 the magazine makers and curators from Lamono have been stirring upthe art cosmos in Barcelona and Madrid. Their supporters, the boys from Ambiguous Clothing, are in no way inferior to them in terms of credibility and they have always considered the cutting edge betweenthe two worlds of “skateboarding” and “art” to be the starting point for parallel existing forms of expression. And they know a lot about everyday objects: last year they sent 500 table tennis rackets customised by different artists on a world tour. But first things first: don’t miss “Bouill’Hot”– bottles don’t get hotter than this!
www.lamonodigital.net
2SickBastards
“We are not you, we’re not just doin’ it, we’re not lovin’ it and we are not the real thing.” With these borrowings from various well-known slogans from the Disneyland of global consumerism along with their own penname the two Londoners Ben Aldis and Sam Pitcher from 2SickBastards are already making it pretty clear where their art will take us. They are transforming pop icons into freaks and laughing stocks of their own questionable images – mostly cynical and cruel, but rather good if we may say so ourselves. Kate Moss’ bloodied nose certainly says it “in ya face” rather than “between the lines”. In a group exhibition in May 2010 they presented their work at STROKE.02 in Munich with our friends from hatch and in August with Cem Cil they will be at the Hype Gallery in Bochum. At Art Bright the two British bastardos are showing us a small and nasty selection of their wickedness and we are full of gleeful anticipation. And by the way, the boys also print their art on consumer T-shirts.
www.2sickbastards.com