Hello everyone,

If you are in Venice at the weekend pop into the book launch for Empire II - an immersive artist led film hub project devised by Vanya Balogh for the 57th Venice Biennale. 

The book launch is this Saturday May 27th, at Castello 1610/A, Riva Dei Sette Martiri from 6-8pm BST.

Age of Anxiety is a 260 page full colour bespoke publication, designed, produced and printed by Victor Hotz Studio in Switzerland - www.studiovictorhotz.com
 

The book features selected work by 115 participating artists - observations on Anxiety and Empire.

There will be an event panel talk at 7pm, to explore and discuss the influence of capital, social media and technology on the Venice Biennale and contemporary art. Attending guest speakers are Negin Vaziri, Mark Woods, Andrea Morucchio and Vanya Balogh.

Entry is free and drinks and refreshments will be served. More info at www.empire2.infowww.empire2.info

or email: centrocampista@lineone.net

Here's a pic of Sooz Belnavis and me at the opening in May, taken by Ashley Scott Fitzgerald:

​If you're not in Italy, come and meet this cheeky octopus in Sydenham:

 where I will be running an art stall at TNG's James Ross Hunter Youth Support & Youth First Event from midday at TNG youth centre, 111 Wells Park Road, London SE26 6AD.

There will be cards, prints, watercolours, T shirts, posters and paintings by myself and artists Dick Graham, Caroline Gregory, Tracey Howard, Amber Sibley, Frog Morris and Polixenia Anastasiou. 

Come and grab a bargain and have fun playing Splat The Rat and eating cakes!

​

JRHYS Community fundraising event "2017" in memory of James Ross JamesRoss Hunter. 

FREE buffet, raffle, auction, face painting, art, DJ, rock climbing, table tennis tournament and live performances.
Free entry for all!

DONATIONS will go towards JRHYS Community Projects at "TNG Youth and Community Centre".

Starting in June places are available on my new 5 week courses at Thomas Calton Centre on Choumert Road in Peckham, SE15 4NX.

Choose from:

Learn the Art of Facepainting on Monday mornings 10am - 1pm
 

Still Life Art Practical on Tuesday mornings 10am - 1pm

 or

Exploring Creativity on Fridays 10am - 2.30pm.

 Prices start from £80 for 5 weeks.

For more information visit www.southwark.gov.uk/adultlearning

Don't delay! Book a place today!

Also in June you will find me at Union Chapel. 

Drop in on Wednesday June 14th, from 11am - 1pm and take part in my Shrine to the Seasons mini residency project: https://store.unionchapel.org.uk/events/2017-06-14-open-wednesday-union-chapelhttps://store.unionchapel.org.uk/events/2017-06-14-open-wednesday-union-chapel

Or come and make a paper fan or bow tie with me at the Union Chapel Summer Fete, this year with a Victorian theme -  on Sunday June 25th, from midday.

That's all for now, best wishes and I hope to see you soon!

- Joanna

Dear everyone,

Please find below details of the show Empire II The Age of Anxiety, curated by Vanya Balogh, for the 57th Venice Biennale. 

My short film "Singing Ghost" will be playing on the show reel.

The 1990s. My art: installations. Furniture, found objects, taxidermy.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rolled out Care in the Community. Hospitals and institutions closed. An auction of furniture and equipment. A hospital screen. The poignancy of its chintz rose pattern. The patina on the fabric, rich with emotional resonance. Sanderson Chelsea. 1950s style retro. English beauty, wonder, fascination. Floral motifs, history. Domestic architecture. I started drawing. Painting again. An experiment. Describing and capturing process. I paint. A description of flowers to uplift and revive the spirit in times of adversity.

In November 2016 I put the last of the remaining original flower drawings from the first “Screen Flowers” series outside in the elements, to document the process of decay, filming and photographing snatches of the drawing encased in ice and snow. Bringing these fragments together, my film is a representation of live art interaction Singing Ghost - an exploration of our collective anxiety regarding mortality, an examination of the context and meaning of song lyrics, and an interpretation of mythology surrounding hauntings.

The opening party - vernissage - takes place next week on Wednesday the 12th of May, and the show continues throughout the Biennale with artist talks and an evolving portal. There is a book launch scheduled for May 27th, and there will be Cinema of the Mind in the afternoon on May 14th.

I will be attending the opening party next week, so I hope to see you there!

Follow this link for an article in Artylist magazine:

http://www.artlyst.com/features/uk-ireland-showing-2017-venice-biennale/

​And here we are on the map:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1-7wKKff6RIwCD2WqRLUrHSYZbLo&ll=45.435603220321205%2C12.344391765118303&z=12

Finally, here are some pictures taken by Ansell Cizic, of some of the paintings from my last exhibition, Floral Anthology, at Westminster Reference Library. While working on these paintings I realised that I was born to paint! And so expect more paintings from me soon..

With love and best wishes - Joanna

Hello everyone!

The free drop in art session for my Shrine to the Seasons project at Union Chapel open Wednesdays will be taking place tomorrow - May 3rd 2017, this month, instead of the following week as listed.

Please come along and make some art to be developed over the coming year for exhibition and display at the chapel.

We will be looking at the different meanings of May Day, traditions of the rites of spring, and exploring decoupage and wildlife collage.

 
Do drop in tomorrow between 11am and 1pm. The art takes place in the main church, at Compton Terrace, Islington, London N1 2UN. Nearest station Highbury and Islington.

If you can't make it tomorrow then do come along another time, or book a one to one or group art session with me at one of the all dayers.

All sessions are free and materials are provided.

Here are some pictures of my new oil paintings from my recent exhibition Floral Anthology, at Westminster Reference Library, flowers by Carol Campbell:

 Thanks to Alice Saga for this lovely photographic detail of "Burnt Norton".

 And I am very pleased and excited to be taking part in the Venice Biennale this year, as part of Vanya Balogh's Empire II. More details to follow soon!

With love and best wishes - Joanna

Dear everyone,

Please do come along to the opening party for my new exhibition "Floral Anthology" at Westminster Reference Library, behind The National Gallery  - 35 Saint Martins Street WC2H 7HP... It's this Tuesday March 28th, from 6 - 9pm. I will also be there during the day on Wednesday March 29th.

For Spring! For Roma​n​ce! For Art! For Love!

4 days only! Closing at the end of the day on March 31st. Opening hours 10am - 8pm

The exhibition Floral Anthology is an exploration of ​the wonder and fascination of floral motifs in our history and a metaphorical description of the power of flowers to uplift and revive the spirit in times of adversity ​

Paintings by Joanna McCormick and Harry Pye. Flowers by Carol Campbell. Poetry by Sooz Belnavis.

In an explosion of colour and vibrancy​,​ the subject is examined through different mediums of paint, floristry and three dimensional objects.

The opening party takes place on Tuesday March 28th, 7-9pm and will include Joanna McCormick's live art interaction ​"​My Ex The Narcissist​"​, poetry from Sooz Belnavis, flower themed cocktails and an edible Cake Smash cake.

​Joanna McCormick is an interdisciplinary artist who has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad. She has worked as artist in residence for organisations such as Westminster Arts, The Holly Lodge Centre at The Royal Parks in Richmond and for the National Trust. She has shown work at various venues across the UK and abroad, The Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, The Fashion and Textile Museum and Cass Art’s art spaces throughout London. Joanna is a regular contributor to artist and curator Vanya Balogh's projects and has also devised and delivered many live art interactions. For example, with Sarah Sparkes for Chutney Preserves and Frog Morris for The Royal Academy of Arts. Joanna paints and draws in oils, watercolour, pastel, pen, pencil and charcoal. She takes photographs and film footage that is often obscure and abstract, examining the structures and colours of the world around us and drawing attention to minutiae and the luscious beauty that can be found within the everyday. She also makes sculptural objects linked to her live art practice. Joanna's work snatches inspiration from retro imagery and texts from poetry and song lyrics. Victorian scrap books and medieval chap books, wallpaper and textile designs. William Morris and Sanderson. Old photographs, such as those found in "We are the people" - Tom Phillips' exhibition of postcards at the V&A, and botanical illustrations, such as those by Maria Sybilla Merian – found in The Royal Collection, London. Weaving historical and political narratives into a wonderland fairytale world, that viewers are encouraged to freely interpret, and create their own story from. Joanna teaches art classes at The Thomas Calton Centre in Peckham, for Southwark Adult Learning, and runs a regular art drop in session at Union Chapel in Islington, every second Wednesday of the month. More info on Jo and her art at: www.joart.info.​

Harry Pye is the London-based "master of lo-fi British art", according to The Guardian newspaper. He won first prize in a competition to paint a portrait of Tony Blair, judged by Gilbert & George. He edits The Rebel art webzine and has had exhibitions of his work in London, Denmark, Australia and Brazil. Collaborations with filmmaker Gordon Beswick have been screened at Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London.

​Carol Campbell: My life is like a flower. I am at that time of life, mature in age, ‘over the hill’, knowing that it’s all downhill from now on, so reflecting on ‘the has been’.
Plant materials are my medium. The love of them is embedded within me. I have used flowers commercially and recreationally, from a florist shop owner to a flower arranger.
The love for my garden; it’s like a stage with weird and wonderful plants, among crazy artefacts. I head a contemporary flower group where we dissect plant material and recreate different forms. I teach Floristry at Lewisham Southwark College to the new breed of enthusiastic florists breaking new boundaries. This is alongside teaching my grandchildren how to grow seeds and loving nature.
ROUNDROUNDROUNDROUND...........
Is a reflection of my life. Frozen in time, with the introduction of wax. Growing from darkness into light, appreciating all stages of growth from birth to death, bulb to flower to bulb.

Sooz Belnavis is a multidisciplinary artist. Belnavis’ formal interest lies in mark making, using the gesture to create effects both dramatic & visceral. This physicality manifests itself in abstract expressionist paintings, the nude, ‘kinetic’ paintings, site specific performance and art installations.

Belnavis’ poetry adds another dimension to her practice. In her performance The Red Line Belnavis combines poetry, opera, and the gesture, in a dramatic setting in the crypt of a Catholic Church. In this the gesture is the emotional charged climax to the performance.

”For me my poetry is like a broad brush stroke, it has the ability to touch everyone in the room simultaneously!"

​

Hello everyone.

Please come to the celebration party for my exhibition with Neil Ellis's Brilliant Neon at Cass Arts, this Thursday:

“NEON PINGS”

Cass Arts Islington Art Space, January 5th - February 4th 2017 

Opening party January 12th, 6-8pm.

For this exhibition at Cass Arts Islington store, 66-67 Colebrooke Row, London, N1 8AB, interdisciplinary artist Joanna McCormick shows her paintings alongside Neil Ellis's Brilliant Neon, to create an installation that shines with vibrant colour and light.

The show connects personal and political impulses and transgresses boundaries to create an innovative and collaborative, bright and evocative installation.

Vibrant neon lights shine out with intricate, varied and vivid motifs that dance across the walls. Sharing space with butterflies, sea monsters, sailors and mermaids, elements that are painted in oil on canvas or cardboard, and in watercolour on paper or card, with a bright palette and a broad range of techniques, including free scumbling translucent brushwork, blended strokes working wet into wet, handmade stencils and impasto and intensely fine lined detail drawn in paint onto flat colours.

The anchor, the lobster, hearts, birds, words and rainbows. The works blend and complement each other to create a unique and eclectic experience for the viewer.

The exhibition is an experiment with spatial variations, and sits between disciplines. Exploring notions of materiality, repetition and how motifs and themes relate and interact across formats.

​And​

 in the evening on Sunday January 29th I will be performing Moon Moon Sing Sing at Vinyl Deptford, with a great line up of experimental noisenicks:

​

Here are some photographs of the Cosmic Dogs and Spacestronaughts from my most recent exhibition Space 2016, curated by Vanya Balogh:

Thanks to Phillip Raymond Goodman for the pics.

​ The big and very beautiful photographs behind my work are by the artist Stacie McCormick​.

Best wishes for a happy and hearty 2017! - Joanna

Hello everyone,

I am very pleased and excited to be taking part in Big Deal Number 7,Space 2016, curated by Vanya Balogh. I'll be showing my Spacestronaughts - representations of The Sun in human form, and my Cosmic Dogs - manifestations of The Universe in canine form. The opening is tomorrow evening, 6 - 9pm, and I hope to see you there! If you can't make the opening party, I will be there next Thursday, December 8th, in the morning...All details in the invitation below, and here...www.deal-big.biz

On December 2nd I will be teaching day one of my Exploring Imaginative work and Visualisation course for Southwark Adult Learning Services. It's a two day course, December 2nd and December 9th, 10am - 5.30pm, at Thomas Calton Centre in Peckham. Learn how to unlock your imaginative talent, and how to transfer your ideas from the mists of your mind into drawings and paintings on paper.

More info here:

www.southwark.gov.uk/adultlearning

​This Sunday December 4th you will find me celebrating Christmas in Bermondsey, with Frog Morris and Alice Renouf. Come along and join the fun! Make a Christmas Crown, elf, or fairy for the top of the tree, and join the Christmas procession. The Blue Christmas takes place at The Blue Market Square from 12 til 5pm, and is supported by BID.

With love and best wishes - Joanna

Invitations for tomorrow and Thursday, and some Moons...

Dear Everyone,

Tomorrow you will find me at Union Chapel running a drop in art workshop for their open coffee morning.

Every Wednesday morning Union Chapel open their doors for people to come and enjoy a range of activities, or just have a look around and view the incredible architecture.

I run the art session every second Wednesday of the month, from 11am - Midday. September's theme will be hot colours for Autumn. I hope to see you there!

More information here:

http://www.unionchapel.org.uk/visiting/see-the-building/#Open%20Wednesdays

Earlier in the month I teamed up with Neil Ellis from Brilliant Neon for the art gallery upstairs at Cass Art in Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey.

Our exhibition, Under the Sea, finishes on Friday this week.

I am hosting a finnissage closing party on Thursday afternoon - September 15th - 3.30 - 5.30pm. The address is Cass Art, 103 Clarence Street, KT1 1NW. Come along and see some of my new oil paintings, bask in Neil's neon lights and have a glass or two to drink.

And last Saturday Alice Renouf and I performed our Moontime Sing Sing singing moons for Frog Morris's Bermondsey Folk Festival at Bermondsey Blue market. Daren Callow took some lovely photos: