ProjectCardiff will consist of a series of portraits of those people who make a valuable contribution to the life and soul of Wales’ capital city.

This inaugural chapter of ProjectCardiff will focus upon those individuals who are making a positive contribution to the creative cultural life of Wales’ capital city. These individuals may be involved in some way with artistic, creative, design or cultural endeavours: people who help to shape, influence & make a difference in Cardiff through their talent, enthusiasm and hard work.

ProjectCardiff invites the community of Cardiff to participate in this project by nominating their own creative and inspirational heroes. Help us identify these individuals whether they be artists, activists, architects, bloggers, crafters, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, film makers, organisers, promoters, performers, imaginators…

What is it about these individuals that impresses most?
How are they making a difference?

ProjectCardiff seeks to unearth the interesting and inspiring stories of Cardiff’s inhabitants and draw people’s attention to the city’s vibrant energy and abundance of talent.

ProjectCardiff is not intended to be a popularity contest and as such individuals will not be selected based upon the number of nominations they receive. Nominations for neophytes to the creative and cultural industries will be considered with equal merit to those received for long established creative entrepreneurs who have brought a multitude of activities, events and other projects to the city.

A selection panel will be convened later this year to assess the nominations received along with those names canvassed from conversations with the lovely people who dwell in this energetic young city following which individuals will be invited to sit for a portrait by the talented photographer Lann Niziblian.

Do please visit www.projectcardiff.com to make a contribution to this project and nominate a Cardiffian who has inspired you recently.

You are warmly invited to the private view of ‘On The Map’; an exhibition of historic maps and contemporary map art at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.

Friday 9 March 2012, 6.00 – 8.00pm

The exhibition continues until the 17 June 2012

The exhibition will be officially opened by Councillor Jeremy Birch, Leader of Hastings Borough Council, at 6.45pm. There will be a pay bar and live music provided by The Lucky ones.

The exhibition features the work of 18 artists, including my own work ‘Hiraeth’, which will be exhibited alongside historic maps from the museum’s collection.

Additional Events:

- Travelling Around Our World
Free trails and activities on the theme of transport and exploration available from the museum reception during normal opening hours until the end of the exhibition.

- The Unbuilt Room by Seth Kriebel
A performance game for 5 people at a time
Saturday 17 March
Preformances every half hour from 11.30am – 3.00pm
Free to participate

- Map-Making Workshop with Ed Boxall
Saturday 17 March
11.00am – 1.00pm and 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Free to participate

- Mapping Hastings
An illustrated talk by Steve Peak
Saturday 24 March at 2.00pm
£4.00 (includes tea and cake)

Click images to view full size

I’ve just finished this hand embroidered unicorn-porn hoodie. It’s a one off item that will be available from my Etsy shop from 7:00pm (GMT) tomorrow evening (Monday 5 March 2012) for £55.00. There’s only one of these in existence – I don’t even have one myself – so you’ve the chance to get your paws on a unique item.

The drawing has been hand embroidered using high quality white, silver and pink DMC embroidery threads. The jumper is a good quality men’s medium hooded sweater from H&M which has a rather lovely soft lining; it’s a cosy jumper.

Be sure to pop along to my Etsy shop tomorrow evening to get your hands on this unique piece >> www.etsy.com/shop/spikeworld

My collection of ultra violet Orifices will be exhibited as a part of the Galerija Balta’s Experiments with Lights textiles exhibition which is to be on show at Leitzkau castle, Germany, from the 10 March to the 20 April 2012.

I’m awaiting further details at present but will post them as soon as they’re available.

My work has been selected for an exhibition tentatively entitled ‘On The Map’ to take place at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in the new year.

‘The museum already has a permanent collection of historic maps but would like to extend the reach of the exhibition by exploring map-making in its broadest sense, bringing the subject up-to-date with a display of contemporary work inspired by maps and/or mapping techniques.’

Councillor Trevor Webb, lead member for leisure at Hastings Borough Council, said: “Hastings Museum and Art Gallery has wonderful collections which can provide all sorts of creative inspiration, and exhibitions like this are excellent ways of demonstrating the importance of historical artefacts to the work of contemporary artists.”*

The exhibition will take place from March to June next year. I’ll post further details nearer the time.

*Source: Hastings Observer – www.hastingsobserver.co.uk

Click the picture above to view more images

Drum roll please… I’ve just printed up my first ever batch of t-shirts and in a way of a celebration, and because I’m over excitable, I thought I’d offer up one shirt for FREE to a lucky follower, friend, fan, fiend, or farmyard animal.

This is a limited edition run of just 50 shirts which have all been screen-printed by my own fair, and purple, hands. The design has been printed with black pigment and then heat-pressed with some lovely shiny silver foil (as you can see pictured above).

The sexy Shewolf design is taken from the series of hand drawn Bestial Drawings that I’ve been working on over the last twelve months or so.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these shiny new shirts you’ll need to leave a wonderfully exuberant comment below or retweet one of the millions of tweets that I’m likely to post to Twitter in the next few days. Alternatively you can post a direct link to this article in a tweet. If you’re posting directly on Twitter be sure to mention me (@Spike_Dennis) so that I don’t miss your tweet.

The deadline is 23.59 (GMT) on Sunday 4 December 2011. I’ll put all of your names in a big wintery woolly hat and pick a winner sometime on Monday morning.

if you don’t win this giveaway don’t fret as the shirts will be available to buy from my Spikeworld shop from Monday next week in small, medium and large sizes. This is a limited edition print run of just 50 shirts so be sure to snap one up quickly; when they’re gone, they’re gone!

www.spikeworld.co.uk/shop

Terms & Conditions: There are none. I shall be as fair and honest as I possibly can be but I reserve the right to make things up as I go along.

Following a successful exhibition at The Sho Gallery I have been invited to take the Infographics exhibition to the Cardiff Design Festival Headquarters at the Cardiff Story Museum in the city centre. The exhibition is open now and will continue until the 9 November featuring work by an international selection of artists and designers including:

• Alix Martin
• Amy Kett
• Daniel Ulf-Hansen
• Innes Jones
• Juan Manuel De J. Escalante
• Mario Klingemann
• Matt McKenna
• Ninian Carter
• Phil McCollam & Ellen Mueller
• Rob Stevens

The infographic works can be seen alongside a range of other work that was a part of the Cardiff Design Festival. This includes information about some of the work short-listed for the Best of Welsh Design Awards and work by illustrators Amelia Johnstone and Anna Bhushan.

Entry to the Cardiff Story Museum is free and the opening hours are
Monday to Saturday: 10.00am – 5.00pm
Sunday: 11.00am – 4.00pm

Photographs from both the exhibition at The Sho Gallery and The Cardiff Story Museum can be seen on my Flickr pages here.

Exhibition opens: 4 October 2011

Exhibition celebration: Wednesday 12 October 2011, 7.00 – 10.00pm

Difficult subject matter is dealt with by local creative designer Alix Martin as well as Mexican artist Juan
Manuel De J. Escalante. Using data provided by Welsh Women’s Aid (www.welshwomensaid.org) Martin examines the problem of sexual assaults against women in Wales and the UK. Similarly Escalante examines problems arising from within the society in which he lives in Central America through a generative work inspired by statistics from the Mexican Presidential Office relating to the deaths caused by the country’s drug wars.

A lighter side to the exhibition can be seen in a number of works such as Mario Klingemann’s Dada inspired response to the current trend for infographics and a series of ‘How To’ videos by American artists Phil McCollam & Ellen Mueller. During the Cardiff Design Festival visitors to Sho Gallery will not only be visually stimulated but they will have the opportunity to learn how to find water in the wilderness and how to communicate non-verbally with extraterrestrials.

Exhibitors:

Alix Martin \ Amy Kett \ Chris Glynn \ Daniel Ulf-Hansen \ Hole in My Pocket \ Innes Jones \ Juan Manuel De J. Escalante \ Mario Klingemann \ Matt McKenna \ Ninian Carter \ Phil McCollam & Ellen Mueller \ Rob Stevens \ See What You Mean

Location:

The SHO Gallery, The Coach House, 1A Inverness Place, Roath, Cardiff CF24 4RU

Opening Hours:

Monday: Closed
Tuesday – Wednesday: 10.00 – 17.30
Thursday: 10.00 – 18.30
Friday: 10.00 – 17.30
Sunday – 11.00 – 4.00

Further information:

www.thesho.co.uk
www.cardiffdesignfestval.org

My work will be on display in Lithuania as a part of an exhibition hosted by The Textile Artists’ Guild in Kaunas this month. The exhibition, entitled Experiments with Light, has been curated by Jolanta Šmidtiene and Dovil? Vanagaite.

The brand new Kaunas arena’ media centre will be transformed for an international exhibition in which exhibits will be installed in the darkness and illuminated by ultraviolet light. This luminescent lighting will highlight details of the artworks enriching the aesthetic experiences of the visitors creating mystical effects and exhibiting unexpected approaches to textile art.

The exhibition will feature four of my luminescent sculptures including Wretched Rupture III (pictured above). There will be a launch event on Friday 23 September 2011 from 8.00 – 9.00pm and the exhibition will continue throughout the Textile festival. The Textile Guild will also be holding a number of workshops throughout the Kaunas Biennial.

Click here to download a pdf of the the Kaunas Textile Biennial programme or visit their webiste: www.biennial.lt

Location:
Zalgiris Arena
Karaliaus Mindaugo g. 50
LT-44287
Kaunas

You can find out more about Kaunas Textile Guild here: www.tdg.lt

Jade Gilbert: Untitled (May 2011)

Intended to showcase and support unique and innovative artists working in the UK today, Bank Street Art’s drawing and illustration season will present a varied programme of solo, joint and group exhibitions across two galleries.

My work has been selected, along with that by Jade Gilbert, for the first exhibition in the series which will be on show from the 20 September until the 29 October 2011. My work will occupy the Atrium Space whilst Jade’s will be on display in the Juniper Gallery. Apparently there will be an exhibition Private View at a later date, the details of which I will post here once it’s confirmed.

Bank Street Art’s drawing and illustration season is being curated by Chloe Reith and this inaugural exhibition will be followed by a programme of exhibitions leading into the new year.

You can see a snippet of Jade Gilbert’s work on her Axis pages here: www.axisweb.org/artist/jadegilbert

Bank Street Arts are located in Sheffield:
32-40 Bank Street
Sheffield
S1 2DS

Visit www.bankstreetarts.com for more information.