A Dream Deferred

It's not easy visiting the Haunch of Venison. This ultra-edgy gallery in a small mews off Bond Street stages demanding and enthralling works that need all your attention, and quite a bit of time. There's no question of walking in, having a brisk look round and then off to lunch. For Jamie Shovlin's current exhibition, A Dream Deferred, the best scenario is pop in, buy the catalogue, read it at leisure and then go back to truly appreciate the pieces on show. This young British artist (born in Leicester in 1978) has created a thought-provoking show of paintings, video, sculpture and artefacts capturing the fading of the American Dream, from the optimism of his parents' generation in the Sixties to the rise of the American war machine, the Civil Rights movement, and endemic violence in film and society. And all this is set against references to iconic American music like the Eagles, Chicago and Bob Seger who portrayed America with such trust and sweet optimism. Shovlin's parents are seen on adjacent videos handling and discussing old vinyl LPs of their youth; a stack of prints depicts the many victims in the Friday the 13th horror movies; a stomach-churning assembly of wax arms and legs in coloured wax recalls the black athletes at the Mexico Olympics who were stripped of their medals for daring to give the Black Power salute on the podium. Shovlin's works are referential to other artists in the way that cover versions of a famous song recall its original impact with added layers of meaning. This is a very impressive exhibition but it's hard work.
Runs to 18 August. Open Monday to Friday 10am - 6pm Monday - Friday, and 10am - 7pm on Thursday.
6 Haunch of Venison Yard, off Brook Street, London W1, 020 7495 5050
www.haunchofvenison.com

Caption
MIDWESTERN (GETTING BACK TO MY ROOTS)
2007
Acrylic on unprimed canvas
183 x 183 cm
Photo courtesy of Haunch of Venison

 
 
 
 

Musique-Cordiale

Sunday 12 - Saturday 18 August
As music festivals move outdoors for summer, one of the most captivating is Musique-Cordiale which takes place this month in the South of France. It is the brainchild of Pippa Pawlik, a professional violinist and viola player who originally assembled her musician friends for informal weeks of music. Now three years later this has grown into an event attracting 20 instrumentalists, 50 singers, a group of young soloists and two professional conductors. It is multi-national and multi-generational - a real Entente Cordiale. There are concerts in the pretty hilltop villages of the Var region, Seillans, Mons and Bargemon, and the programme includes large-scale choral works, a string quartet, a piano recital, concertos for trumpet, oboe and violin (separately of course), and a lecture. The programme features work by Handel, Pergolesi, Marcello, Shostakovich and Swiss composer Frank Martin. New Zealand soprano Anna Leese performs operatic arias from The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, La Boheme and the Song to the Moon from Rusalka by Dvorak. The young conductor and violinist Kevin Griffiths opens the festival to an audience that will include musicians, local residents, tourists and music lovers from many countries. For more details and tickets email:pippapawlik@musique-cordiale.com, or telephone (UK) 020 7870 1691 or (France) +33 (0) 870 40 50 41 or visit www.musique-cordiale.com

 
 
 
 

Flower Power

Few galleries have had such a profound effect on the modern art market as Flowers, established nearly 40 years ago when the British had neither the money nor the inclination to invest in living artists. From a tiny upper room in Soho, Angela Flowers began exhibiting painting, sculpture, drawings and performance art from undiscovered talent, her own taste and instinct being the sole criteria for inclusion. She also launched the gallery tradition of group shows and gradually the press and the public learned to respect - and buy - the modern work she promoted. Artists who sold in the early Seventies for a few hundred pounds now have international reputations and their work can command hundreds of thousands. Three decades later, the company has grown substantially, continuously moving to larger premises. It is now run by her son Matthew Flowers while Angela remains as Chairman. The main headquarters is Flowers East , a vast 12,000 square feet space close to the City and the thriving arts community of Hoxton. There is a West End presence at Flowers Central in Mayfair (opened in 2000), and Flowers West on Madison Avenue, New York. This month, both London galleries exhibit challenging modern work. FLOWERS EAST is staging "says the junk in the yard" which takes its name from a Beatles' lyric. Thirty different artists have contributed work about waste - the corrosive byproduct of modern society. The show contains major names in the post-war British art scene like Peter Blake and Derek Boshier alongside emerging talent on the international scene.
3 August - 8 September. Open 10am - 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.
92 Kingsland Road, London E2, 020 7920 7777
www.flowerseast.com

Caption
Mikhael Subotzky
Samuel (standing), Vaalkoppies (Beaufort West Rubbish Dump) 2006
Limited Edition Light jet print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper
116 x 100 cm / 45¾ x 39½ in
Photo courtesy of Flowers, London

 
 
 
 

Flowers Central

FLOWERS CENTRAL is holding "Small Acts", the first solo exhibition of Greek-born artist Kleio Gizeli, who graduated from Central St Martin's in 2005. These small mixed-media works are a surreal interpretation of domestic interiors with a nod to both Vermeer and Magritte. The anonymous characters are both disturbing and intriguing, captured in familiar acts of daily life but forever unknown to the observer. 8 August - 8 September. Open 10am - 6pm Monday to Friday, and 10am - 2pm Saturday.

Caption
Kleio Gizeli
The Last Order 2007,
Mixed media construction in box frame
25 x 50 x 23 cm / 10 x 20 x 9¼ in
Photo courtesy of Flowers, London