Brian Clarke at Newport St.

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Kennington Runoff

Most of us equate stained glass with ecclesiastical feelings of guilt, forgiveness, penitence and, in our case, parental disappointment that we’ve chosen to work at a publishing house that might not actually exist. However, the newest offering at Vauxhall’s Newport Street Gallery takes stained glass out of the church and challenges us to consider it as a stand alone form of art, and we’ve just checked it out for you.

Brian Clarke is regarded as the most significant figure working in stained glass today and the current show, ‘A Great Light’, is an overview of his output over the past 20 years. On the ground floor we encounter a quite mesmerising new work called ‘Ardath’, a huge wall of mouth blown glass depicting a floating, flowering meadow in springtime. A selection of Matisse like cut outs complement the work on the opposite wall. The other downstairs rooms feature skulls in a variety of settings.

Upstairs we are presented first with an aquatic theme, in which a warship and men on a beach appear to be oscillating and moving in dot matrix compositions. The final rooms are the most interesting, and consist of a series of folding screens which possess a kind of ethereal beauty. Screens are intended to prevent us from seeing something, but these screens invite us to look through them with their depictions of jellyfish, heraldry, and flowers. Also in these galleries are smaller, jewel like panels presented on plinths.

A Great Light is foremost an uplifting and life affirming body of work (in spite of the skulls) and feels quite appropriate for a sunny summer’s day. And if you don’t like stained glass they have an ace selection of merch to make your friends think you’re a real art connoisseur.

Brian Clark, A Great Light is open now until 24 September at the Newport St. Gallery and is totally free. Just turn up.

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The Currency in Newport St.

Posted on October 18, 2022 by Kennington Runoff

When Time Out, or as we like to call it, ‘that listings site from a bygone era’ described the new show at Newport Street Gallery as ‘stupid, lazy, arrogant, crap art’ we knew we had to get over there as soon as possible. This very controversial show is called ‘The Currency’ by Damien Hirst and features 10,000 of his dot paintings in several eras of existence. These range from physical paintings to photocopies and then cinder, as the artworks are torched on the first floor.

For people not aware of Mr. Hirst’s oeuvre, he has spent a large amount of his career preserving dead animals in formaldehyde, sticking diamonds of skulls, and exterminating flies. We reviewed a previous show at Newport in October, 2020. An abiding theme of Hirst is the repetitive nature of objects and their cycle from inception, to life, to being fetishized and worshiped, and eventual meaningless demise.

Hirst’s interest in the repetitive nature of dots is well established, and last year he gave 10,000 people the option to buy an NFT .jpg dot painting for £2000. The NFT could then be traded for an original 8×10 work. About half the punters traded it for an original and the remaining ~~suckers~~ folks stuck with the NFT option. It is these physical works which are on display in monumental floor to ceiling displays and ultimately dispatched into ashen bits above Vauxhall.

The exhibit is peppered with TV screens featuring live footage of the works being prepped and torched. When the fires aren’t on, there are clips of Mr. Hirst in conversation with actually responsible people such as former Bank of England boss Mark Carney and Stephen Fry, with topics ranging from the absurdity of the art market to the meaningless value of money. Try telling that to the single mum who can’t heat her home at the moment. But we digress.

Damien Hirst: The Currency is on now until 30 October and is free. Even if you find the theme distasteful, the exhibition itself is quite thought provoking as the paintings/photocopies begin to incrementally disappear. There is also a great gift shop. The fact that over the past 12 months the NFT market has crashed is just a side giggle. However, we at the Runoff would never capitalise of personal loss as that would make us no better than a Florist.

Keith Cunningham at Newport St. Gallery

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Kennington Runoff

The latest offering over at the Newport Street Gallery is the work of little known and exceptionally gifted artist Keith Cunningham, who mysteriously gave up painting just a few years after he started. Cunningham was on the periphery of the London Group of artists who among their number included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kosoff and the Group were intrigued by Cunningham’s powerful, if not at times gruesome and sinister, subject matter.

At least there’s no queue for the toilet

Cunningham was certainly a man with something to say, but not very interested who heard him, as many of these 70 works accumulated in his studio as opposed to being seen. He used a very dark and tightly controlled palette of colours with think coats of impasto, giving the works that are not under glass a 3D element, with the added drama of huge brushstrokes. In this manner he captures commuters, rabbits, and even squid.

At the moment there is an epic retrospective of Francis Bacon’s work at the Royal Academy (north of the river if you dare) and in way Cunningham’s depictions of blood crazed dogs, skulls, and angst is an interesting counterpoint to the great man’s work. It’s possibly not a coincidence that they’re being staged at the same time.

As you move through the well organised exhibit Cunningham’s work begins to tilt more towards abstraction and huge blocks of colour. The painting below is a still life. However, it rather reminded us of Phil from the accounts team when he fell over outside the Tommyfield pub after downing eight pints of cider at our Christmas party.

‘Keith Cunningham, the Cloud of Witness’ is on now until 21 August at Newport Street Gallery and is totally free.

Voyages at Newport St. Gallery

Posted on September 24, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

The spanking new exhibition at Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall is called ‘Voyages’ and is the first major show outside the US of the work of New York photorealist Richard Estes. For those of you not in the know, photorealism is the ability to precisely depict a photographed scene by paint. Now you might be saying to yourself ‘then why bother – just because you know how do so something doesn’t mean you should do it’. So a bit like yodeling or skipping. But draw closer and the 45 paintings made over 35 years become abstract and aren’t really photographic at all.

His best work is on the ground floor and NYC is in the spotlight. Estes makes use out or glass, angles, light, refractions and the constant repetition of this urban field. He also examines people examining other things, such landmarks, cameras and their phones. All of these come together to create something that seems photographically familiar to us but when you get closer to the canvas becomes more like wedges of colour that have been thrown together.

Upstairs are more traditional landscapes that capture the small, intimate moments of the artist’s adventures. The paintings tend to become less personal and less real when they aren’t populated by human activity but are nevertheless interesting. Touching down in Copenhagen, approaching Antarctica by sea, and exploring the landscapes of New Zealand, Nepal, and Tanzania all seem even more exotic given that they have been off limits for the past 18 months and you don’t have to take a lateral flow test to see them.

Richard Estes ‘Voyages’ is open now until 12 December. As ever, Newport Street Gallery is totally free and open Wednesday to Sunday.

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Kennington Runoff

We originally posted this in October 2020, and this thought provoking exhibit closed just a few days afterwards. Newport St. Gallery is opening on Wednesday of next week, again with little fanfare. Once Time Out (if they still exist) and others review this it will sell out very quickly and we cannot reccommend it enough. It is totally free and available for now, but not for long! Book here.

Without a great deal of fanfare, on Wednesday Newport Street Gallery reopened with a survey of Damien Hirst’s early work called ‘End of a Century’. The timing of this retrospective might be a coincidence or an intentional and very prescient observation of the world around us in 2020, as Hirst’s early work explored themes of death, healing, life saving medication, infection, and anatomy. We checked out the show on it’s opening day.

In the first gallery we were introduced to one of Hirst’s trademark dissected animals; this one being a baby shark in formaldehyde. Moving into the main galleries you might think you’d just wandered into aisle three at Iceland, as there were several freezers stuffed with frozen cow heads (we asked, and they are real). Also on show were Hirst’s trademark medication cabinets and a variety of medical implements. After an enormous anatomical model we’re left to ponder the slightly humorous ‘Shut Up and Eat Your Fucking Dinner’ (pictured at bottom) which was fashioned as a butcher shop window featuring a variety of meats encased in formaldehyde. Is meat murder?

On the first floor we got to grips with several of Hirst’s spin and dot paintings, with one actually spinning in the room. Surprisingly, there were several cubist inspired collages of found materials which Hirst created before he was a student at Goldsmiths, even then showing his early interest in mortality and resurrection. The most arresting work upstairs was ‘A Hundred Years’, in which a bloody severed cow head is being eaten by maggots who turn into flies who then get executed by an insect-ocutor. We’re not making this up.

Some of these works are almost 30 years old and don’t have the shock value they once possessed. But if your artistic taste embraces decapitated cow heads, meat, pills, blood, dead flies, and medical implements then this show will be right up your street. Vegetarians might want to steer clear. And lest you don’t give your mortality much of a thought during the pandemic, this show is a reminder of the profound fragility of organic matter.

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Kennington Runoff

On the first floor we got to grips with several of Hirst’s spin paintings and dot paintings, with one actually spinning in the room. Surprisingly, there were several cubist inspired collages of found materials which Hirst created before he was a student at Goldsmiths, even then showing his early interest in mortality and resurrection. The most arresting work upstairs was ‘A Hundred Years’, in which a bloody severed cow head is being eaten by maggots who turn into flies who then get executed by an inect-ocutor. We’re not making this up.

End of a Century is on now and until the end of March, 2021. Tickets are free and can be booked here.

Gavin Turk: Who What When Where How & Why at Newport Street Gallery

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Kennington Runoff

We can highly recommend the latest exhibition at Newport Street Gallery, Who What When Where How & Why by Gavin Turk. Gavin is the Beautiful South of the (no longer) Young British Artists – not as well known as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, but when you go this exhibition you’ll realise how many of his hits you know.

Here are some snapshots. First up, classic Newport Street Gallery stuff:

Gavin Turk Sid Vicious room at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

Gavin Turk demolition block at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

We had a genuine “is it art?” moment when we saw one of these bronze rubbish bags outside the lift on the second floor. As in “is it part of the exhibition or has someone just left out a rubbish bag?”.

Gavin Turk rubbish at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

Gavin Turk sculptures inc. Pop at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

Gavin Turk tramp at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

Identity Crisis:

Gavin Turk Identity Crisis - Hello Magazine at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

This is genuinely arresting, precisely because it wouldn’t be as arresting as it should be if you saw it on the street:

Gavin Turk sleeping bag at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

Finally, Newport Street Gallery’s largest space is an amusing setting for Gavin’s greatest hit, his blue plaque titled Cave:

Gavin Turk Cave plaque at Newport Street Gallery - kenningtonrunoff.com

It’s free entry as always as Newport Street, and it’s open until March 19th (closed Mondays).

Jeff Koons Now at Newport Street Gallery

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Kennington Runoff

One of the writers of this blog is a philistine who can’t abide modern artists explaining their art but enjoys shiny, colourful, huge, spectacular objects with a novel and amusing concept behind them. Jeff Koons fan? Yep, absolutely, so we were thrilled to hear the second show at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery would be Jeff Koons Now.

The huge, light Newport Street Gallery space provides the perfect setting for Balloon Monkey (Blue):

Likewise this giant Play-Doh has Newport Street Gallery written all over it. This is made of aluminium, while Balloon Monkey (Blue) is made of stainless steel:

The only x-rated pieces are in the final room downstairs, but they’re so x-rated we believe they would be illegal if they were on a popular local blog rather than in an art gallery, so here’s a silver train instead:

Entry is free and the gallery was buzzing but not excessively full during our weekend visit.

Naturally the gallery shop stocks some Koons ~~expensive tat~~ art:

Welcome to Kennington Jeff – we haven’t been this excited since the two Kevins, Pietersen and Spacey, came to town.

Pharmacy 2 with Ronnie O’Sullivan

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Kennington Runoff

We weren’t overly excited when we heard the restaurant at Newport Street Gallery was going to be Pharmacy 2. Damien Hirst is an artist whose reputation is built on great ideas, so why recycle one from the nineties? (The original Pharmacy opened in Notting Hill in 1998, closing in 2003.)

Then we heard the food would be by Mark Hix, longstanding friend of the (not young anymore) Young British Artists. We are fans of Mark’s cooking but it tends to be rather meaty, and the two times we went to Hixter Bankside it was almost as quiet as Gordon Ramsey’s place round the corner on Great Suffolk Street.

Also, our solicitation came to naught – we did not receive an invite to Pharmacy 2’s opening. But to make it up to us, they arranged for the most talented and compelling sportsman of his generation, Ronnie O’Sullivan, to be dining there with Damien Hirst during our first visit (Ronnie had the steak).

From the moment we entered and saw Ronnie, we had a great time. The decor may not be a new idea, but it’s fun to look at, and at least it’s not a Polpo rip-off. There are no other restaurants remotely like this in the area, and it seems to be doing well, being close to capacity for both our visits.

As for the food, most of it was great. Struggling to find a vegetarian main course, one of us had two starters instead, although we’ve since seen there is a vegetarian menu on their website (perhaps you have to ask for it). Anyway, these shaved winter squash with trevisano and Graceburn cheese cost £7.50 and went down very well:

As did these heritage beets with walnuts and chickweed, also £7.50:

Your other correspondent went for a flawless brunch option of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for £9.95 (they serve brunch from 10am to 6pm every day except Monday when they’re closed):

On our second visit we had some tasty waffles with Yorkshire rhubarb for £7.95, but the brunch portion sizes are not large – more of a mid morning snack than a full meal.

The desserts are also small but cost just £4 so no complaints there. This pineapple upside-down cake was deliciously moist and nostalgic. So nostalgic that we went right back to the days when you just started eating instead of taking a photo first:

The only disappointment was a side of creamed spinach, which tasted like a pie filling without the pie, and was far too salty.

Nonetheless we can wholeheartedly recommend Pharmacy 2 for brunch, lunch, dinner or drinks. It’s great fun.

They’re open Tuesday–Saturday 10am–midnight, and Sundays 10am-6pm.

Address: Newport Street, London SE11 6AJ.

Newport Street Gallery

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Kennington Runoff

Those of you who follow us closely on Twitter will know that our invite to the opening of Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery (NSG) got lost in the post despite months of blatant solicitation. Nonetheless, we picked ourselves up and dragged ourselves along on the first day it was open to the public.

NSG is a great building – lighter and more inviting than the Saatchi Gallery to which it has been compared (both having been built by rich people to show their huge collections of contemporary art).

Well done to Damien who has certainly not skimped on this, and architects Caruso St John who were also behind the revamp of Tate Britain. The Guardian recently published an interesting article about the building and NSG’s issues with community outreach.

The first exhibition is Power Stations by the late John Hoyland, whose huge, colourful but foreboding canvasses suit the space so well that it’s hard to imagine how smaller works will fare.

If you don’t like Hoyland’s stuff then you have a long wait for something else – this exhibition runs until April of next year.

Damien’s involvement in NSG is relatively inconspicuous until you enter the shop where there are eye-wateringly expensive skulls and jewellery galore. Newport Street Gallery’s shop is not the much-needed replacement for Kennington Bookshop as a place to buy a present a tenner – more like ten grand.

The first day crowd was large and varied, and Beaconsfield, further down Newport Street, was the busiest we’ve ever seen it. We have no doubt NSG’s arrival will spark a new level of boom for the once-neglected area we call North West Kennington, others call Lambeth, and, in a blatant land grab of which we would have been proud, Vauxhall’s developers have decided is called Vauxhall. We’ll see about that:

The first floor of NSG is taken up by a restaurant named Pharmacy 2, a sequel to Damien’s Notting Hill restaurant that was open from 1998 to 2003. Whatever next – Fat Les reforming to play the opening party? Just as long as we’re invited that’s fine by us – and we mean now, not next year when Pharmacy 2 finally opens to the public. Altogether now: “Where on earth are you from?/We’re from Kennington”.

Kennington Runoff

Surreptitiously exploring Kennington, including the suburbs Vauxhall, Oval, Walworth, and Elephant, since 2012

Tag Archives: Newport Street Gallery

Brian Clarke at Newport St.

The Currency in Newport St.

Keith Cunningham at Newport St. Gallery

Voyages at Newport St. Gallery

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

Damien Hirst at Newport St.

Gavin Turk: Who What When Where How & Why at Newport Street Gallery

Jeff Koons Now at Newport Street Gallery

Pharmacy 2 with Ronnie O’Sullivan

Newport Street Gallery