Yo! Bum Rush The Show
A guy called Gerald
So had a meeting with an excellent chap called Alex today and have agreed to put on a show at The Veneer Gallery on Argyle Street, Glasgow. It's a great space and I was put onto it by Stevie Dunlop and Sam J Murrays show last month where I made a small purchase. We had some coffee and a chat, and it's nice to speak to a gallery owner who has a passion and interest for Art, particularly after my recent experience of what appears to be exploitative behaviour from mercenary galleries across the internet.
Anyway I suppose that's part of the learning curve I'm on, for what good the internet provides in possibility it is always bound to have as much if not more shit to go through.
Right where it belongs
The gallery is ideally placed for giving the work back a site specific element, my last show had work relating to Linlithgow, and its impact on me but a great deal of the the work was based on work inspired by Glasgow and places that have specific meaning to me. The West of the city has always been a draw from a young age, and a place that I explored throughout my youth at various points of the day for different reasons. Everyone in Glasgow will have been to Kelvingrove at least ten times in their life. I associate it with John Menzies, getting a Darth Vader figure and waiting for my mum getting her haircut while sitting listening to the football in the car with my dad. As well as Art and Dinosaur bones. The Clyde at Partick is where I have found lots of inspiration for work, recently and twenty years ago, work that got me into Art School. Various parties after the Subclub or The Variety bar at various shitty student flats then walking back up to the town through deserted West end streets on summer mornings. Pakora. Mo's stores. Losing my virginity in a West end town house, then getting the bus to do my shift in ASDA the next day up Great Western Road. West Princes street, the night when lady Di died (Dodi and Di died, Dodi and Di are dead, Di and Dodi died). A guy falling out my window at a party. The Cul De Sac, Ashton Lane when it was good, starry starry nights The Volcano, skateboarding T-Shirts fucking shit hairdo's (well me particularly). Walking around Hyndland trying to decide which house I would really like. I'm not from the West end, and I lived there for a year in a really shitty flat but had a great time. I have an affinity with the old 44 bus route as I would say the majority of my former girlfriends have at some point lived on that bus route. My daughter is from the West end and was most likely conceived there.
So having my first proper show in Glasgow seems well placed in the West end.
From North and South we come from East and West
The show will open on Friday the 9th of October 2015 at 6pm and run till the Sunday, it's a short show but the way I see it this is about putting on an event to give people an opportunity to see the work in a proper context and to talk to me about it and for me to provide hospitality to thank those of you who have supported me in getting my work back out there, so that's why I'll be putting the drinks and some entertainment on over the course of the show. I will keep you posted on that front. Needless to say if your reading this you're invited and I look forward to seeing you there.
