Vyner Street 1st Thursday

Vyner Street first Thursdays are usually grounds for breeding some of the best cutting edge artworks in London. Somehow it seems to have slipped with galleries focusing more on commercial works that can help them through the recession rather than focusing on the content. It now seems pretty rare to be impressed at many of these galleries altogether.

Here are some of the works I saw at Wilkinson. Simple, nice, commercial, graphic, neatly presented. Inspiring however? not really...



Then again I do suppose some of the sculptures can look aesthetically pleasing down to the curation. Clean plinths, and quality space of the gallery seems to dominate the actual works on display.




I guess the highlights for me at Vyner this last week were at Gift gallery...
A show curated by Julien Aschner.



These two pieces above, the chainmail baby cap, and the body from the light through the fabric were two of my favourites from the night.

This lit piece was also pretty nice.


These porcelain sculptures lined up were by an artist who I had seen earlier in the year in a solo show at their gallery so although nice it didn't feel fairly new.




But what really surprised me and it's a shame I took less pictures of it was the open house art show. This reminded me of Christoph Buchel's work where it is difficult to tell reality from gallery and gallery from house. There is a freedom to rifle through the drawers of cupboards and to play as it were with the space. I lifted up the bed cover in this room and saw black spots on the sheets!


There was also an amazing walk in shower that had been built with a gold frame around it. The gallery space became part of the installation. Although its not clear whether this was their intention, it certainly had a small charming element of Buchel's installation I visited at the Whitechapel/Coppermill gallery a number of years ago off brick lane.