Art Jazzed Up, up and away

Mike DiRubbo & Duncan Eagles
Photo: Chetna Kapacee

It has taken three weeks but the dust has settled at last on the opening night of the Art Jazzed Up exhibition at the Shaw Gallery, Croydon. With 80 artists showing their 250 artworks on the walls of the gallery it proved a monumental task all round. The Shaw Gallery hanging committee did a fantastic job with bringing the work together and providing the platform for the musicians to entertain us. A special thank you to Alan Carlyon Smith for curating and Trinity School for hosting us with plenty of refreshments.

Art Jazzed Up Submissions in their CD cases
 Photo:Melanie Ezra

The night itself saw a strong and inspiration performance from the musicians Mike DiRubbo, Duncan Eagles, Max Luthert, Dave Storey and Bill Mudge who spent most of the evening behind 3 giant paper canvases. I was on their side of the huge paper wall too, with the unsuspecting audience on the other side as they watched the drawing slowly appear.

This was a celebration of our creative community and a truly
 international event with artists of all ages from England, Wales, Scotland, Serbia, USA, Portugal, Germany, Austria, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Ukraine and Bulgaria participating. It was only fitting that the Private View climaxed with Mrs MacDonald, the Trinity School potter and Chris O’Brien from the Upper 6th joining myself for a live drawing finale as the band played out. Along one wall of the gallery hung the framed shortlisted artworks and it proved a difficult decision for the curator to decide the overall winner of the Album Art Award. Well done to Chris Holley who bagged this accolade and there were also prizes awarded to Louie Stoneman and Lilian McCann from Trinity School.

 

Dan Redding - left
Alban Low - Centre
Musicians - Mike DiRubbo, Duncan Eagles, Max Luthert,
Dave Storey and Bill Mudge from left to right

The whole event was filmed by Jazz filmmaker Dan Redding and the music recorded by Nick Pugh. As soon as I get my hands on this footage I will post it up here. A special thank you to everyone who took part and came along on the night, braving the driving rain and the travel chaos of Croydon. Two intrepid Welsh artists made it all way from Swansea, Melanie Ezra and Judith Parry we salute you. Read about Melanie's adventures here.

Check out all the artists who participated by visiting Exhibition Artists page.

AL.

Melanie Ezra - Swansea Scissorhands

Melanie Ezra - Inspired by Duncan Eagles

The high priestess of blades has sent an early submission to the Murder Minutes project in her own swashbuckling style. Melanie Ezra is a ferocious exhibitor, most recently beaching her spiked realities on Welsh shores but with regular raids across the Atlantic to breach U.S. defences.



The Ezra Art recipe book is a tapas styled affair, plenty of snappy dishes with a generous sprinkling of artistic flair. Her latest creations are currently being served in the solo show, 'Small Worlds' at The Brunswick, Swansea until the 7th December 2013.

Small World -
Melanie Ezra

Each world starts with a photograph which is spliced and diced as she takes apart her memories and time itself. After this is a period of reconstruction, slotting in sentiments and anecdotal evidence that has become nestled in her brain alongside the freeze frame moment the original photograph was taken. I have to tell you that for her entry to this exhibition she's added some extra ingredients to spice things up. The main dish is a reconfigured photograph of a dead rat seasoned with charcoal ash and incense.

Melanie Ezra on Hasting's Pier, 2011

I first met Ezra in 2011 at the Rarities exhibition on Hasting's Pier and I thought to myself, here's an artist who goes the extra mile. I don't mean just metaphorically but geographically too. She had set out from Swansea that morning and traversed Wales and England to make the grand opening of this outdoor show. She's never far from a pair of scissors, and she was on hand to hold the ribbon as it was cut (left).

Once again she's shown true dedication and will be negotiating the national train networks to be with us on the 11th November for the Private View of this exhibition. So come down and meet her at the Shaw Gallery, Trinity School, Croydon and view her cutting edge art. Don't be scared to shake her hand though, our Swansea Scissorhands will be leaving her artistic shears at home.

If you can't wait until then, you can find Melanie Ezra at http://melanieezra.blogspot.co.uk/

AL.

We currently have 138 submissions to the exhibition (either entered or spaces reserved), so there are still over 100 places left if you would like to submit work.