My first group show.

I have been in group shows before.  I am a member of the Law Society Art Group and as such I can, as of right, put up to 4 pieces in their annual show, which I have done for the past 2 years.  

This however is the first one that I've applied for and got into.  The show was held by Questa Non E Arte (Italian for this is not art).  They have organised a number of such exhibitions in Italy but this was there first in London.  I got in by stumbling across an advert on art jobs asking for submissions, so I submitted and was incredibly happy to get a nice email back accepting my work.  This was back in August. 

The event was held in the Brookmill Pub down in Deptford.  I got to attend for the first time last Sunday to hang my work.  I had one small corner to play with and so my work was hung thus,  then last night was the event itself.  It is a very strange experience to suddenly be working with other people.  I would have wanted to put in more and perhaps different work but you have to bend with the will of those organising.  The abstract and colourful quality was more in keeping with everything else in the show. 

The night itself came.  Having an exhibition in a pub is odd.  Some people are just there to go to the pub and have little or not interest in the art.  Others have come especially for the art work. I had to come up with an interactive project which basically involved people putting 3 word reactions on a post-it and sticking it next to the wall. Had a pretty good reaction,  one person said they made them feel horny.  That's odd right?

I meant to take lots of photos but I completely failed to as I spent to much time chatting to many fine people including Natalia Gonzalez Martin whose massive bulbous organic semi-mummified pieces were a fascinating trio.


Rosina Godwin Mutter's features were these lithe wormish monster like knitted creatures climbing around an upstairs wall of the pub and were intriguing tactile things. 

Deptford Does Art who helped organised the whole thing were nice and chatty people,  they are due to open a new gallery on Deptford High Street in December. 

I found the whole thing exhausting.  I have yet to work out how to manage these events. I have to say I was super nervous in the run up and the first few hours and this took a couple of hours before this abated.  I do however intend to do this again.