Signifier ’23 Selection and Wishing You a ‘Bloody Good’ New Year!
Welcome to your January edition of Signified
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Make Sure You View our New Year exhibition at : six : shot : gallery
Nanae Kawahara on ‘View’
When making these six new works of illustration, I lingered at the point of starting. In recent years, how to face the making of original works has become a major issue. This is always difficult, but it is becoming clear that my best starting point is from my own experiences and feelings. So, I have titled this showcase View — which simply sums up that these works are expressing what I see and how I feel about each subject.…
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New & Recently Boosted in Signifier:
Cruel Paintings by Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, Japan’s Last Ukiyo-e Master
Yoshitoshi Tsukioka began to carve out his own sub-genre among ukiyo-e artists of bloody pictures in One Hundred Tales of Japan and China (和漢百物語), which he published in 1866. This series of works depict the battle between various yōkai and heroes from Japan and China. These were the first yōkai Yoshitoshi painted making it a prescient work that would later define him as a unique artist. His skill in the ukiyo-e style can be…
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Spotlight on some of our most popular articles from 2023…
January ’23: The Bread is the Life
Bread has appeared in art ever since the agrarian civilisations which relied upon grain as a staple food have existed. There is an Egyptian hieroglyph, a simple semi-circle, that depicts bread, and this symbol went on to have a variety of meanings — feminine, offering — depending on context. Bread’s importance for survival meant it also symbolised spiritual sustenance, especially in Christian services re-enacting the last supper…
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February: Poster Boy
Illustrator, Abram Games defined British wartime visual culture with his informational posters produced during the Second World War. His bold and innovative style would make him one of the most sought-after and prominent graphic designers of the post-war years, with the famous Festival of Britain logo and the first television ident for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) among the most seen, genuinely iconic…
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March: The Awe of the Land
Classical Chinese landscape painting began around the time of the artist and poet Wang Wei, during the first half of the eighth-century. He’s known as the innovator responsible for introducing a poetic dimension to landscapes and for originating the discipline of brush and ink painting onto handscrolls, sometimes combining elements of calligraphy. None of his original landscape paintings are known to have survived…
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April: Simultaneous Colours of Sonia Delaunay
Sonia Delaunay was a colourful force of life moving between art and fashion throughout her long career influencing many artists and designers to this day. Born Sara Stern in 1885 to poor Jewish parents in Ukraine, she was sent at the age of five to her mother’s affluent brother in St Petersburg to have a better life. Adopted by her Uncle and Aunt, she took their surname of Terk and became known as Sonia…
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May: Ghost Paintings of Ubume
Bread has appeared in art ever since the agrarian civilisations which relied upon grain as a staple food have existed. There is an Egyptian hieroglyph, a simple semi-circle, that depicts bread, and this symbol went on to have a variety of meanings — feminine, offering — depending on context. Bread’s importance for survival meant it also symbolised spiritual sustenance, especially in Christian services re-enacting the last supper…
Continue reading in Signifier🚀
June: Depletion to Completion
Identical circles or clocks touching each other, reflecting one another yet containing separate spaces clearly comments on a respectful relationship between two persons or groups. The twinned circles in gold, for example, may suggest wedding bands and associated commitment. Félix González-Torres was open about being a gay man with much of his output exploring related issues and his repeated use of the two visually…
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July: Michael Snow, a Different Wavelength
Experimental Film was an emergent genre through the 1950s and into the 1960s, long before Video Art became commonplace. Of course, it’s clear that the earliest works of cinema were also, by definition, experimental films exploring the potential and language of the moving image. So, what defines Experimental Film and differentiates it from other similar sub-genres such as avant-garde, non-narrative, Underground…
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August: Dürer and Jerome, Being Human
Here, Saint Jerome’s halo is balanced with rays of light shining through many-paned windows, which cast exquisite shadow patterns on the window recess. The room is cosy and comfortable. Jerome is working on a slanted work surface with only an inkpot and a crucifix on his wooden table. He sits on cushions on the bench, and a chair with cushions is beside him. There are well-used cushions on the window seat and on the sill…
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September: A Real Robin Hood?
Many believe the legend of Robin Hood to be part-inspired by some of the age-old tales told about King Arthur, combined with the life story of Sir Fulk FitzWarin, of Whittington Castle, Shropshire. Both these mythical and historical sources have informed our modern interpretations of the legends across media since Hollywood’s Silent Age but the character was created long before, by a lineage of balladeers and storytellers…
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October: Kapoor and Me, Now and Then
As a student, I found Anish Kapoor’s early works inspiring because they achieved a pleasing, visually stimulating result with comparatively simple and, importantly, affordable materials. Pure powder paints poured over forms carved from plaster or polystyrene blocks doused in PVA glue. This was something that could be done with meagre funds. Ironically, Anish Kapoor went on to become the highest paid artist in Britain.…
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November: For the Love of Water-Lilies
Claude Monet’s series of grand paintings known collectively as Water-Lilies were described as “the Sistine Chapel of Impressionism,” by fellow artist André Masson in 1952. Among the most important and well-loved works of the French Impressionists, they have inspired many artists, notably American abstract painters Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko who were impressed by their monumental scale and the joy of creation…
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December: Fat and Felt, Fact or Folklore
There’s no denying that Joseph Beuys is among the most important artists of the twentieth-century. He can be thought of as the spiritual successor to Marcel Duchamp — both artists made art that pushed the very definition of what art was and what it could be. The major innovation embodied in their work is that art can exist as a concept beyond materialism and the moment. With them, art became a process…
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Calling All Artists — Six Shot Showcase Slots are Available for 2024
Submissions window for The Signifier : six : shot : gallery is open.
Every month we showcase just six images by each artist, or creative entity. These six images are linked in some understandable way — perhaps from the same project, series, or dealing with related subjects. They may be linked by aesthetics, techniques, processes, philosophies, formal or conceptual elements. The six images are accompanied by an artist’s statement that does not necessarily explain the work but lends insight into meaning that informs deeper engagement.
As we approach the close of our third year, you can read an overview of the gallery’s first two years here.
We look forward to receiving some exciting art from you!
There are example exhibitions to see here.
🌟 Best Wishes for 2024 🌟
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