Christmas Gift Guide: Part 3 of 3

Mark Titchner at Tate
UP! Badge £4






















Bob and Roberta Smith at Tate
Blocks £30

Royal Shakespeare Company
Hamlet pencil 85p

Richard Wentworth at Tate
Meniscus glass £8.95

Spotted! Duro Oluwu umbrella

Spotted! The Duro Oluwu umbrella brightening up a very rainy Farringdon last week.

We made the umbrella for OFT (the collaboration between Outset Contemporary Art Fund, Frieze and the Tate) with print designed by Duro Oluwu.

Read more about the umbrella on the Swelle Life blog, and the rest of the range at kitgrover.com.

The umbrella is available now from the Tate Modern shop.

Monday Portrait: Cover girl Frida Kahlo

Not strictly a portrait but still - Frida Kahlo on the cover of Vogue Mexico's November edition.

Kit Grover Christmas Gift Guide: Part 2 of 3

STOCKING FILLERS

Sir John Soane's Museum
Inside Out bag £16






























Whitechapel Gallery
Richard Hamilton This is Tomorrow Apron £25

The Royal Shakespeare Company

Brevity. Soul. Wit notebook £5.99

Julian Opie
Flipbook £8.50

Monday portrait: Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama with her 1963 work 'Compulsion Furniture'. Above image c/o the Saatchi Gallery.

Helen Marten at the Chisenhale Gallery

Peanuts, 2012

For those planning their weekend of cultural activities, we highly recommend Helen Marten's exhibition at the Chisenhale Gallery. Read Adrian Searle's rave review here.

Kit Grover Christmas Gift Guide: Part 1 of 3

KIT GROVER CHRISTMAS GIFTS:

Damien Hirst
For the Love of God, 2007
Anamorphic cup and saucer £15
Available at Other Criteria / Tate











Anthea Hamilton
Limited edition, 2012
Fan for House of Voltaire £60
Culture Label



















Kit Grover
A1 bag £29.99
Kit Grover / Culture Label





















Grayson Perry
Table mat set £360
Yoox

Damien Hirst
I am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds, 2006
Bone china plate £22.50
Other Criteria

EVOL tower blocks

On friday Kit discovered the work of German stencil artist EVOL minutes from our office. We can't quite believe these mini tower blocks have been at Smithfield for over a year without us noticing.

Interested? Read more about EVOL and London street art at Hooked blog and see an earlier post about the Barbican area's more famous tower blocks.

 

Kit Grover inflatable wreath

What better time than the first day of Advent to show you our Christmas wreath!

A modern alternative to the traditional prickles, the Kit Grover inflatable wreath is available at Selfridges this Christmas.

Monday portrait: Portrait of a Man, Barthel Bruyn the Elder

Image c/o the Wellcome Collection

Portrait of a Man, Barthel Bruyn the Elder (1493-1555, Germany), oil on panel, 1533-1555.

This belated monday (thursday) portrait was inspired by a weekend trip to the Wellcome Collection's current exhibition Death: A Self-Portrait. A visit is highly recommended for the morbidly curious. 

News: A1 bag

Our A1 bag is going to be on sale this winter at BEARSPACE Gallery's shop as well as from Culture Label. The ideal Christmas present for artists sick of lugging unwieldy portfolios around London.

House of Voltaire pop up shop

We went to the House of Voltaire launch yesterday afternoon and the shop is looking great.

We couldn't resist a beautiful tea towel made by Art House Meath and are seriously considering the Stefania Pramma x House of Voltaire leather bag... Well worth checking out.

News: House of Voltaire

Over the past few weeks we have been working away on some exciting products for House of Voltaire, the pop-up shop from South London gallery Studio Voltaire which opens this wednesday.

We have produced a T-shirt designed by Åbäke, a fan by artist Anthea Hamilton, a silk wall hanging from Cary Kwok and exclusive scarf from Turner Prize nominee Mark Titchner.  

Image c/o House of Voltaire

House of Voltaire is open 21 November - 15 December at Jonathan Viner Gallery, 17a Adam's Row, Mayfair.

Monday portrait: Nick Relph by Audrey Mayer

Nick Relph photographed by Aubrey Mayer, 2010
[Image courtesy of RHM Foundation]

Grayson Perry reliquaries

A box of smashed pottery has arrived! While strongly resisting the urge to try and put the pots back together, we are starting to make some more Grayson Perry reliquaries.


Grayson Perry: "I think that the way we look at art comes from religion. We go to special buildings to stare at significant and precious things. We feel it is good for us. Tate Modern is a 21st century cathedral. Artists are its saints and holy fools. Here is a relic of one of them to take home from your pilgrimage."

Plastic fantastic

A couple of days ago Kit came into the office wearing a much loved pair of clear plastic Converse - a great way of showing off an impressive sock collection.

After a distracting twenty minutes trying to find a reasonably priced replacement, we stumbled upon these lovely Opening Ceremony x Adidas Originals brogues above, five stars. 

Obviously we can't discuss plastic shoes without mentioning Maison Martin Margiela's (sweaty) boots from his S/S12 collection:

Monday portrait: Salvador Dali

This image of Salvador Dali is hard to trace, does anybody have any information about its origin?

Naked-ladies-as-skull aside, Dali's clear cane is rather wonderful.

The Clocks

Are going back! Here are some clock-related facts to fill your extra hour.

1.) A tattoo of a clock with no hands represents time served in prison.

2.) According to superstitious souls it is a sign of death if a clock strikes when it has stopped running.

3.) Christian Marclay's award-winning work 'The Clock', 2010 is co-owned by the Tate, the Pompidou Centre and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and is composed of over ten thousand clips of clocks. 

Epic fog

The epic London fog obscuring Barbican's sixties monoliths Cromwell, Lauderdale and Shakespeare earlier today. 

Monday portrait: Dirty White Trash

This creepy crawly projection we found on Barbican's pinterest reminded us of artistic duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster's self portrait. 'Dirty White Trash', top.

Monday portrait: Ernest Hemingway

...in the bath. Photographer unknown.

Grayson Perry table mats

The Grayson Perry mats we made with the artist for Yoox have landed! Available here.

GRAYSON PERRY: “ Why have I chosen to have my tapestry images made into a set of table mats? The Vanity of Small Differences is about taste and class in British society and table mats, like net curtains, caravans, tattoos and having a clean car seemed to be one of the clearer symbols that divided the socio economic classes … when I researched taste for my television series I encountered table mats in all parts of society, protecting a glass coffee table in a hairdressers house, pseudo-ironically arrayed on a vintage dining table and casually strewn ready for breakfast for a man who owns a castle and six thousand acres. So who knows , buy these without fear.”

O'Keeffe

How lovely is artist Georgia O'Keeffe's OK brooch?

O'Keeffe watches over the office in a photo taken by Ansel Adams sent to us from Yosemite earlier this year.

Monday portrait: Sarah Bonetta Forbes

As it is the beginning of Black History Month, this week's portrait is of the fascinating Sarah Bonetta Forbes who was given as a 'present' to Queen Victoria aged 8.

Jil Sander v. Practicality

For his last collection at Jil Sander, Raf Simons re-invented the classic American grocery bag. They look fantastic but their prohibitive expense and impracticality doesn't bear thinking about. 

Naturally, they are sold out.

The thinking man's Supreme hat