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A few months after the Grockles at Sea show, we are organizing our second show as o-collective.  The artists who will be showing their work are Victoria Foster, Mark Hayward and Ceci Lombardi. 

 

Vicky foster graduated last year from the University College for the Creative Arts (Canterbury)with a degree in Fine Arts.  Mark Hayward graduated from UCCA this year, and will be going to the Royal College of Art this year to do an MA in Printing.  Ceci Lombardi graduated last year from the RCA, and has collaborated with me (Marco Palmieri) in setting up the O-collective.  She has worked as an assistant for Tod Hanson, had a Show in London at the Nolias Gallery, and will be going to Portugal this year.

More details of the show will be posted soon.

 


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Finally we have finished the press release. It has taken three nights, but we’ve made it! These past days have been an interesting experience, because it allows me to think more objectively about my own work while organizing the exhibition.  At the moment the work I’ve been making is for the upcoming show in June with Victoria Foster and Marc Hayward, so by organizing Grockles at Sea is making me take in consideration the possibilities of working with others for a specific show. But I will develop details about that show in the future, since at the moment 20th April is sooner. (Ceci)

So, this is main text for the press release of Grockles at Sea:

  Grockles at Sea is an exhibition curated by Ceci Lombardi and Marco Palmieri which aims to explore ideas of redundancy, recycling and regeneration.  The selected artists will present a new body of work which investigates these issues through the use of craft-based techniques, kitsch paraphernalia and second-hand materials.                                                                 The exhibition developed from a fascination of the seaside town and its various narratives, spanning from its Romantic heritage to its glitzy tourist attractions.  "The sea is relentless; it reclaims, recycles, recedes, returns. It can be postcard aesthetic, and it can be awesome power, and it is full of myth and fact.  It is a lot of things to a lot of people- whether that is a deep, spiritual interest, an intellectual pursuit, or a mindless surrendering to tradition.  So the seaside tourist is relentless like the sea- they will inevitably return."(Eleanor Levett)        The aim of the exhibition is to present a collection of work which functions within the context of Folkestone and its identity as a seaside town, setting up a temporary site where a dialogue can be developed.   

The nature of Benjamin Fletcher’s practice relies on his obsessive interest in second-hand objects and materials.  Ranging from watches to old pieces of wood, the artist meticulously works them into new curious artefacts.  For the exhibition, Benjamin is presenting a series of objects made from old pieces of wood.                                                      

Hannah Lees constructs sculptures out of second-hand materials, which vary from driftwood to fake diamondsShe uses a complex language of materials to create hybrid ready-mades.  In the work Three wishes, the materials are carefully selected to resemble a maquette of a lakeside landscape.  The dichotomy between the materials and the Romantic imagery in the work raises issues relating to the failed picturesque, kitsch materiality, and contemporary aesthetics.                         

Eleanor Levett started using homely craft techniques such as cross-stitch, tapestry, and needlepoint embroidery as a tool to explore the way textures alter the viewer’s experience.  Her research continued by tracing the relationship these crafts have with contemporary sub-cultural art forms such as tattooing, graffiti and game design.  Her work derives from this research and attempts to articulate and further develop the relationship between these different forms of outsider art.                         

Marco Palmieri produces small paintings by working over cheap prints and copies of paintings found in charity shops.  Through this form of appropriation, the artist aims to investigate issues of authenticity and the redundant and regenerative nature of painting.  The images are stolen, then given a new life:  they are Frankenstein images.                                                     

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very exiting day today! the invitations have just arrived! seeing them printed out it's really rewarding! I just like the idea of sending out to people and handing them in hand…it's seems very official once you have something printed that you can show to others. I guess the task for today will be going around giving the invitations away and sending them to some "important" names which hopefully will turn up on the private view!


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At the moment the first show of o-collective is one of my main concerns, because it will be the first resulting project of something I’ve been organizing for the last months, and a reward of the hard work. I see this as one my first achievements after graduating, it has the sense of the beginning of an era…Together with managing the o-collective I also have to focus on my own work at a daily basis. It’s easy to loose track sometimes of what is important after graduating, because you feel detached from what you’ve been really trying to achieve during the years you spent studying. Specially when you have to maintain an "ordinary" job completely unrelated to your artistic practice. I work as a waitress, so between my working hours is when I focus on my drawings/paintings. At the moment the series I am working on I see it as a tracking system, some sort of scientific study on the aspects of figuration and abstraction. by Ceci Lombardi


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