Angela Flowers at 80

From boho to Bugaboo bland: is this the death of Dalston? was the title of an article by Alex Rayner in the London Evening Standard’s ES magazine on 11 January:

Three years ago Kingsland Road was teeming with skinny-jeaned, neon-haired hipsters, artists and fashion designers. But then the rents started rising, the scenesters started leaving and now Dalston is deluged with yummy mummies and estate agents. … now estate agents prowl with sheaves of property details under their arms and women in gilets discuss the relative merits of primary schools over a latte. Gentrification. Has it killed Dalston, or just made it stronger?

Fortunately I hadn’t made the trip to Kingsland Road hoping to rub shoulders with “scenesters”, yet alone yummy mummies, but to visit the Flowers East gallery. Even better, their absence didn’t detract from my enjoyment of Angela Flowers at 80, a show celebrating the owner’s 80th birthday (in December) drawing together works by artists associated with the gallery over the last 40 years. As the gallery quite correctly described:

Reflecting Angela's appreciation of art in its many forms, the exhibition will display work by established and emerging artists practicing a number of disciplines including photography, installation, illustration, painting, video and sculpture.

Although the number of works is fairly small, the range is comparable to that to be found at a RA Summer Exhibition and the quality higher.

It seems unfair to pick out particular pieces, but looking into Kleio Gizeli’s small installation, Late Night Commuter 2011, inevitably reminded me of last month’s Hopper exhibition in Paris.

I think I saw Michael Sandle’s Encapsulated Submarine 2011 at the RA Summer Exhibition that year – a shame it wasn’t in bronze. It looks like a Type VII U-boat with some poetic licence, but I may be wrong.

I also liked this piece, but shamefully I didn’t record and cannot find its name or its creator's – my apologies.
 

 

 

 

 

Leighton House Museum

12 Holland Park Road was the London home of the Victorian painter and sculptor, Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). Leighton died the day after his peerage was created and the house first became a museum in 1900. The Leighton House Museum is administered by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and a major restoration was completed in 2010. Two of its most striking features are the Narcissus Hall and the Arab Hall on the ground floor (below, left and right). The former has tiles by William De Morgan and the latter incorporates an extensive collection of Islamic tiles and ceramics.

On the first floor are the artist’s studio and the Silk Room with Millais’ Shelling Peas (left), exchanged with Leighton for a copy of an elegant bronze by the latter, Needless Alarms, also on display. The museum has a unique and exotic atmosphere, quite at odds with its Holland Park surroundings, and is well worth visiting. It is only a short distance from High Street Kensington tube station (and after 2015 will be hardly any distance from the new Design Museum).