Kokoro: The Art of Horiyoshi III

Courtyard Rooms, South Wing, Somerset House, London

Horiyoshi III, the internationally renowned tattoo artist currently has his first exhibition in London at the esteemed Somerset House.

Horiyoshi belongs to a royal line of horishi tattoo artists: those specialising in the traditional full-body tattoo called Irezumi. This exhibition studies his paintings on silk as well as displaying tattoo instruments and paint brushes.

Kokoro means ‘heart‘ and ‘feeling‘ in Japanese and through the paintings exhibited Horiyoshi III preserves traditional Japanese culture and mythology through incredibly beautiful silk paintings. Each painting shows typical Japanese images such as dragons, koi’s and white phoenix’s, but each one is depicted is varying sensitivity, intricacy and harshness depending on the story told. The diverse nature of each painting gives the exhibition an eclectic feel considering that most of the paintings are all the same size and repetitively placed beside one another. The varying brush strokes and colours used also add to this fantastic effect.

Having “vowed to never be lazy until the day I die”, he still tattoos six days a week after thirty years of practice. You can see a video of Horiyoshi III at work here which The Guardian recently made.

After meeting Ed Hardy (the exhibition opens with a quote from Hardy about Horiyoshi’s pioneering impact on tattoo culture and history) and becoming close friends, Horiyoshi started to use the electric needle alongside using traditional techniques and pioneered a new form of Japanese tattooing.

The exhibition is free and runs from now until until the 1st of June, it is open every day from 10.00-18.00. More information can be found here

Remember, Remember, god is a paramedic ambulance, when the temperature is turning and the sweat is starting? God is a vertical video and a bulletproof cap. Now that we know those things keep going away, and keep coming back, remember, remember The Based God.


ON MONDAY NIGHT
IN ZUERICH, CH
Longstreet Bar

It’s only by invitation, so if you too want to be blinded by the mirror of smoke, the blue fish shark tower, the dilatante scum scraper, the ordained premadonna… CONTACT US ASAP: rm@sangbleu.com

The Board, the team and the Friends of Artists Space announce with great pride that the Annual Friends of Artists Space Dinner 2012 will On Saturday, May 5, 2012, 8pm, an event will be held in honor of SB5 contributor legendary artist and musician.

Alan Vega and his band Suicide are widely regarded as the godfathers of “No Wave.” The group’s seminal 1977 album Suicide is cited as an important influence by musicians such as Joy Division, Nick Cave, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, The Horrors, The Cars, and Bruce Springsteen. Vega studied art in the 1950s under Ad Reinhardt and Kurt Seligman and was involved in the Art Workers Coalition. In 1969 he founded MUSEUM: A Project of Living Artists, an artist-run 24-hour multimedia gallery in Manhattan. Vega’s own artworks consist of light sculptures constructed from electronic debris. Previous honorees include activist and art historian Julie Ault (2010) and filmmaker and choreographer Yvonne Rainer (2011).

This event is held exclusively for the Friends of Artists Space. A limited number of tickets are available. Please contact: friends@artistsspace.org to inquire about tickets or how to join the Friends of Artists Space.

http://artistsspace.org/

CHILD OF ALEX BINNIE, HOME OF THE FANTASTIC MrX AND THOMAS THOMAS NOW HAS A TUMBLR PAGE. INIT.
http://in2utattoolondon.tumblr.com/

Our dear friend, fabulous tattooist & shaman Jondix is featured in the new issue of Tattoo Artist Magazine. I guess the insanity of the cover he designed says it all.

The incredible photographs by Diane Arbus are about to reside in the Fotomuseum in Zurich until the end of May. Two hundred photographs will be on display showing Arbus’s world of couples, children, carnival performers, nudists, middle-class families, transvestites, zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities. Arbus’s spectacular ability to showcase a total honesty in her subjects found around New York still remain unbeatable in originality, as well as existing as a piece of amazing 20th century American history.

Find out more here:http://www.fotomuseum.ch

The exhibition runs from the 3rd of March until the 28th of June 2012