Celebrating the Pomp Us Art Festival

Celebrating the Pomp us...! 18 – 19/12/2010

The Topolski Century Gallery it is located on the South Bank and contains a unique, monumental work by the artist Feliks Topolski (1907 - 1989). 

Witnessing the most significant moments and characters that helped shape the twentieth century and capturing the pomp and ceremony of all aspects of it in his work. 

 

As a lover of celebration and gatherings Felix hosted the most exciting parties in his studio, were the gallery now is located.  

With the same celebratory mood the gallery opens once more its doors to contemporary artists and the public to explore a play with words ideas or meanings.

Topolski Century Gallery is hosting the two-day art festival “Celebrating the pomp us...!” including artists in a variety of mediums from visual art to music, performance, video, photography and sculpture.  

With a pinch of satire, a dash of humour and more than a measure of pomp 

Flora Bradwell, Froso Papadimitriou & Jonathan Bradbury, Gillian McIver, Gronk & Claud, Jenny Sianou, John Patrick Egan, Kirsten Linning, Liam Herne, Nancy Wyllie, Naz A. Karam, Otto Alexis Schade Lopez, Panos Dimitropoulos, Roozbeh Emad, Sanna Jarl-Hansson, Sarah Caputo, Ting-Ting Cheng, Wendy Stone, Wojciech Sobczynski

invite you to come and experience a scope of work that encompasses subjects from domestic consumerism to outer space and everything in between and beyond.   

The only sure thing is the festivity about it.

Organised and curated by Collaborative Art

Open call for artists in any medium

‘Celebrating the Pomp us’ is a two-day art festival held at the prestigious Topolski Century Gallery located on South Bank in London, one week before Christmas. 

A play with words ideas or meanings, what is certain is the festivity about it.

The theme is open to interpretation and we invite you to respond whether it is satirical, humorous or just pomp with any medium and art expression including: visual art, sculpture, photography/digital art, video/animation, performance, spoken word/poetry. 

Submission is free.

Please send a brief artist statement and CV, no more than two pages and:

for visual work: five images, no more than 300kb with links to website (if available) and dimensions
for written work: two written examples of your work, no more than one page each
for spoken work:  a brief description of one page and duration
for media work: a video sample, no more than 600kb or links to online samples and duration.
for performance: a small video no more than 600kb or links to online samples and a brief description of the concept and duration.

Please submit only work that you would like to be considered for inclusion

Deadline for submission for "Celebrating the pomp us" on 17/11/2010.

For submission or further information please contact via email to neverinthemiddle@gmail.com or visit www.neverinthemiddle.net

A thought on observation

Topolski Century Gallery 22/10 – 30/10/10

Solo Exhibition by Sanna Jarl – Hansson

The Topolski Century Gallery it is located on the South Bank and contains a unique, monumental work of art that presents an extraordinary panoramic record of key events and figures of the twentieth century as witnessed by the artist Feliks Topolski (1907 – 1989).

As part of the Black History Week Topolski Century Gallery would like to invite you to Sanna Jarl-Hansson Solo exhibition with the title “A thought on observation” where through her work she explores the understanding of cultural division and collation from under unique characteristics of an individual need of relativity within the socio-cultural surroundings that have encapsulated her life.

Sanna finds similar links to Feliks Topolski "landscape of humanity" through the exposure of the different cultures he witnessed in his excessive travels and juxtaposed here at the memoir. She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  In a very early age moved with her family to Kenya and then to Rome were she spent her childhood experiencing the duality of cultures through her often journeys to the two continents. Since 2005 she has lived and works in London and recently graduated with a BA Fine Art from Middlesex University London.

As Sanna describes: “Someone who has spent time growing up outside of their parents culture has been thought to most likely suffer from an identity crisis, because there is more than one country as well as culture that has helped form "where they come from" but with time I've learnt to take advantage instead.”

Private view: October 22nd 6pm – 9pm admission free

Further information please visit : http://www.topolskicentury.org.uk/

Topolski Century

150-152 Hungerford Arches

South Bank, London

SE1 8XU

Faces - The 21st Century

The Topolski Century

The Topolski Century of the Century is a unique, monumental work of art that presents an extraordinary panoramic record of key events and figures of the twentieth century. Six hundred feet long and between twelve and twenty feet high this labyrinthine installation exists as a testimony to some of the most significant moments and characters that shaped the twentieth century as witnessed by the artist Feliks Topolski (1907 – 1989).

HISTORY

Begun in 1975 and opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 1984 the Topolski Century depicts through figuration and abstraction an extraordinary array of portraits including: Nehru, Gandhi, Lord Mountbatten, George Bernard Shaw, Picasso, General de Gaulle, Martin Luther King, Enoch Powell, Nye Bevan and Laurence Olivier, among 700 other leading figures of the 20th Century.

These derive from Topolski’s own personal experience initially captured in pencil and ink drawings which he produced throughout his life and published in Topolski’s Chronicle.

Topolski was widely known as a war artist and chronicler of London’s social and cultural scene. He designed costumes and sets for the plays of George Bernard Shaw for whom he also illustrated many published works. He provided portraits for John Freeman’s 33 ground-breaking ‘Face to Face’ interviews. He also published 24 books of his own including his autobiography ‘Fourteen Letters’.

Topolski’s work is enjoying a fundamental reassessment with new displays at the National Portrait Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the Polish Cultural institute. Interest in the artist has also been resurrected in various museums and galleries that own his paintings and drawings including the V & A, Imperial War Museum, The Tate and The British Museum.

In an era saturated by media coverage of war and world events, Topolski’s eye witness account of the twentieth century carries a pertinence and energy that few other historical sources of this period offer. Mark Lawson, reviewing Topolski on BBC’s Front Row said that when comparing TV pictures (of the same events) with Topolski’s paintings, “Topolski comes off terribly well. He makes the case for art.”

Topolski’s concept of the artist as a figure concerned more with public that with private life holds a resonance with contemporary museum and gallery audiences keen to re-engage with history through personal memory and witness accounts.

In August 2010 The Topolski Century Gallery agreed to and hosted a premiere exhibition “Faces – The 21st Century”, where in juxtaposition to the visual diary of the 20th century by Feliks Topolski was work by the forthcoming artists, Jonathan Bradbury, Lynn Hatzius, Rowan Newton, Froso Papadimitriou, Trevor Simmons, that reflects society on the aftermath of the millennium.

Curated by Froso Papadimitriou
Installation by Froso Papadimitriou and Jonathan Bradbury
http://www.topolskicentury.org.uk/information/events/

Neverinthemiddle - Collaborative Art

Welcome to our blog.

This page is linked to the website www.neverinthemiddle.net and will be the place that Froso Papadimitriou and  Jonathan Bradbury will be creating a written document of both their personal works and also their Collaborative Art work and projects.

www.neverinthemiddle.net

Website for London based artists Froso Papadimitriou and Jonathan Bradbury