Fear not for Steve’s work will be up on the walls for a while longer, maybe even long enough for buds to start opening and spring time raising from its slumber.

You know the score come and visit and take an alternative visual trip through Ulysses.

Monday – Friday 9am – 7pm

Ulysses runs until April 2nd.

Admiring the work of Steve Williams

Curator feet

When Steve Williams first approached me about exhibiting a series of works inspired by the symbols held within the chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce I had to do some googling to fully appreciate what he was proposing. But today up on a step ladder with screw driver in hand and a picture in the other I fully ‘get’ it. The works that Steve has created are considered but not over thought, they show his sensitivity to Ulysses which is notoriously obtuse. And offer a window into Joyce’s world that for someone like me who is largely a visual person, is hugely helpful and gratifying.

Steve Williams exhibits his Ulysses series for the first time, his project has been in process for many years and this calm and measured approach shows in a really unified body of work. As well as his Ulysses series Steve Williams also shows works on themes as diverse as infertility and sunshine!

So if you want to find out more and get a chance to meet the artist himself, come along to the opening of the show on Thursday 9th February 6-9pm

Steve Williams and Ulysses ready to get up on the walls

Through the steamed up kitchen window I looked out into the back garden. Picking our way past the hawthorn bushes and across the damp grass David drew back the door of the shed/studio. It makes me muse on all the sheds in little gardens and the wonderful industrious activity going on in these seemingly innocuous structures.

As the door creaks into submission my eyes are once again flooded with faces familiar and strange to me. David flips the switch on the heater and we sit snuggly with a cup of tea in the studio. David shows me his sketch books full of faces and people, the room protected from the winter weather through plastic cladding, is filled with the echos of the outside world.

As this project progresses David visits the Kentish Town Health Centre and records the faces of those who work there. He comes to know what it is to be daily in such a busy place filled with individual narratives. For both parties, the free Space Gallery and David,  this has been a journey which will continue for a few more months.
His work will be on display from April this year and there will be a chance to come and hear him talk about his experiences.
So bear in mind when you pass a shed in the future it is not just air fix modelling and storing of shovels that goes on in these wooden havens!

David Harker

On Friday 13th January we played host to an afternoon of creativity with one of our new friends artist Sam Oyelowo . Gathering around a table stocked with all you need; tea, coffee, some paper and some means of making marks, we spent the afternoon thinking about the colours and the spirit of London street markets. Sam was working with a group of artists and curators on a community arts project in the nearby Queens Crescent, where our baby venue the New Space Gallery is based. The aim of their project was to engage the local community in the arts and for the artists involved to be inspired by the life of the weekly market that takes place in the street. All this activity, including our afternoon of market inspired musing, culminated in an exhibition at the Parlour Project space which is located at the thick of it on the Queens Crescent itself.

Mark making of an afternoon

We market musers made our way to the exhibition where we indulged in gawping at beautiful paintings by the likes of Grace Aza-Selinger as well as eating the carrot cake baked by the wonderful Trace Creatives. We left our comments on beer mats and typed on an old type writer, a lovely evening up in an attic room above the street.

To compound our connection with our new friends the Trace Creatives, Free Space Gallery met up with them for a chat on Sunday 15th. Most new friends would choose to meet up for a coffee, a neutral beverage in a venue equidistant between their respective abodes. However,  Free Space Gallery takes a more proactive approach to fostering relations and suggested a live on air chat about the intricacies of community arts projects in the year of the cultural olympiad. On Sunday evening between 6-7pm on OnFM 101.4fm,  our regular Artist Lounge slot, we were to be found with furrowed brow leaning towards a microphone. So listen in next week and meet some more of our friends. Cos as we have said before 2012 is a year of collaborations which is essentially making friends and having fun with them!

And here are our new friends. Let the good times roll

Friday 13th looking a whole lot brighter

So if you would usually be avoiding travelling, lonely wood cabins in the forest or anyone in a ski mask why don’t you change your  Friday 13th routine of hiding under a duvet and head to Kentish Town for some laid back illustration instruction.

Free Space Gallery has teamed up with Trace Curators who will be opening their new show at the Parlour Project Space in Queens Crescent on the hallowed eve of Friday 13th showcasing new artistic talent.

Let artist Sam Oyelowotransport you in this workshop. Everyone is welcome (even those wearing or semi hiding in a duvet)!

Hope to see you there. Oh yes and happy new year here is our present to you

The drinks trolley was positioned and complete with Christmas themed cakes. The crowds delighted in her paintings both large and small.

Her work will be decorating the walls for the Free Space Gallery until the beginning of February so I hope you can come along

Here are some sneaky pictures..

Aleksandra Perzynska at the Free Space Gallery

Free Space Gallery complete with mince pies

Aleksandra Perzynska celebrating the show

Free Space Gallery is looking resplendent on this winter day with its all new shiney exhibition by the wonderful Aleksandra Perzynska with ‘Illustrating Life’ a tailor made exhibition for the Free Space Gallery. As well as this all new dish of colour served on the first floor of the Kentish Town Health Centre there is also something happening on the ground floor. Yummy Jammy have taken over the Free Space Gallery cafe for this Wednesday 11am – 3pm and for a number of Wednesdays to come. Selling their jams and chutneys, clad in aprons and looking tres house wife chic this is a sight to behold and a taste to tickle the buds with.

So come on down to the Free Space Gallery and indulge those senses.

Tomorrow there will be a chance to meet Aleksandra herself from 6-9pm, there will also be wine and maybe we will smuggle some jam and toast in too.

By this I mean feeling not in the slightest bit Christmassy and wanting to escape all this madness?

Well if the answer to this is yes come and join me and my band of similarly non tinsel wearing art lovers to celebrate the new exhibition by Aleksandra Perzynska.

Illustrating Life opens this Thursday evening. Between 6-9pm come along to Free Space Gallery, turning off the high street alight with red and green come and join us in our safe space of abstract canvases. Enter the world of Aleksandra Perzynska and what a calming world it is.

Seek refuge with cakes and wine and all things nice this Thursday 6-9pm

Aleksandra Perzynska

And when you grow you need food.

So we have decided to join up with our friends at the Leighton Education Project in Kentish Town. We have exhibited work together at the New Space Gallery but never have we eaten together. So here it comes a scrumptious collaboration. Next Wednesday  (7th December) between 11am – 3pm there will be a chance to come along to the Kentish Town Health Centre and have a taste of some of their latest edible creations. The team have been working on producing some wonderful jams and chutneys. Oh and also some cakes to, just cos you need something to go with your jam.

It will be the first time you can get your hands on their Yummy Jammy so come along have a snack and pop up stairs to the Free Space Gallery to have a look at our new exhibition which opens on Monday Illustrating Life

Look forward to seeing you there. I will be the one licking my lips.

yummy jammy...can't wait

D.M. Pope and Skull 1

Do not let the hushed nature of the Free Space Gallery website lead you to believe that we have been laying dormant for there has been the usual amount of scurrying around behind the scenes which will result in a number of fantastic collaborations in 2012. As well as planning ahead we have been steadfastly focused on the present with the celebration of the exhibition D.M. Pope and Stephen Hennessy resulting in full bellies and wide smiles last Thursday evening.

Free Space was filled with the contented sounds of crisp munching and wine slurping as well as the gentle buzz of arts enthusiasts last Thursday. So if you were there thanks for coming and if you weren’t then you have limited time to see the wonderful show. It will be with Free Space until next Monday, 5th December, so the clock is soon to strike midnight and the Free Space will be undergoing another transformation with not a pumpkin in sight!

http://www.youtube.com/user/theexitmachine

Here is a sneaky peak into some of the other projects undertaken by D.M. Pope