Wednesday 22 March 2017

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!"