It was about 2 years ago when my friend started telling me about his friend that was working on his own exhibition. Fast forward to October 2015 when my same friend invited me to a private viewing of Arran Gregory‘s HUNT exhibition at the Old Truman Brewery.
Finally, I was going to get to see why I was left waiting for so long. I rarely go to exhibitions with expectations but this time I kind of expected the level of work fit for a fresh graduate. Unbeknownst to me, Arran was no newbie on the scene. A crowd outside the Brewery’s F Block T2 would indicate this as we made our entrance.
Inside we were met by twenty hand-made mirror sculptures in ode of the Amur leopard – the world’s most endangered big cat. A few more than 60 remain and with that Arran’s intention was to really make us aware of not only the problem at hand but also to highlight their exquisite power. The amount of patience and determination it must have taken to execute this is nothing but admirable. The space in which it was presented was the perfect setting. We were able to walk around (some walked in between) all of the 20 sculptures. All looking so fierce yet fragile (PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH signs were plastered at every angle). I would love to see the same twenty against a more natural background or under colourful spot lights in a mainly dark room.
A percentage of the proceeds from sales of his work will be donated to the Amur Leopard & Tiger Alliance and the Long Live South Bank campaign.
After the Hunt exhibition, we headed over to the Brewery’s Shop 7 where London based artist Ant Carver was hosting Nothing’s Wrong Something’s Right. The exhibition is a series of portraits created with spray paint as the basis for his backgrounds and oil paint for his muses in the foreground. Bold. Bright. Moody. Each face full of character. Eyes full of stories. Each hue pulling you in.
Not much further down Dray Walk (off Brick Lane), the 125Live exhibition was obviously coming to a close with the hosts tidying up and slowly switching off the lights, section by section. Like the total rebels with no cause that we are, we popped in, acting as if we were obliviously to what was happening. And I’m glad that we did! 125Live celebrates contemporary photography via the exhibition, the release of a book (125Annual), print sales, awards, guest speakers & photographic workshops. I was gutted to find this out a little too late.
Each art work on display were selected by a panel of judges from 1000s of submissions from both professional & amateur artists around the world. The limited edition art prints can be sold for £100 right up to £5,000.
The SN Lounge 