Category archive for: Events

Bryn has produced a short film showcasing the art on display during the Lost In S.P.A.C.E. group show from artists based at the Custard Factory that ran in the Gallery at the end of October:

I managed to blag a photo pass for the All Tomorrows Parties: Release The Bats Halloween party held in Space2 on Saturday so here they are:

Capsule were responsible for bringing the event to Birmingham and have photos of audience members in fancy dress on their blog.

Laundry, “an association of multi-disciplinary artists”, are taking over the Custard Factory Gallery from November 6th to 9th under the banner Laundry Open Lab.

This girl has inner beauty by Helena Roos

The main draw is a show from Galleri 54 from Gothenburg.

Galleri 54 is a not-for profit, artist-run gallery in Gothenburg. The gallery is run by Group 54, formed in 1954, as a reaction to the Gothenburg art scene which was considered confined and conservative.

The gallery has existed since 1959, and is run by a board consisting of 8-12 artist working in Gothenburg. The board members are replaced on a regular basis. The gallery’s aim is to offer interesting and varied exhibitions showing local, national and international artists giving artists the opportunity to show their work and to formulate ideas without commercial pressure or influence.

Portable - G54@Custard Factory has artworks by nine individual artists who are actively working with the gallery and is a taster of what is currently happening in the Gothenburg arts scene. They’ll be exhibiting a wide variety of forms such as drawings, black and white painting on the wall, performance, sculpture, video, installation and collage. The artists are Ann-Sofi Roxhage, Anita Paakonen Ahl, Paula Wallmark Nilsson, Helena Roos, Sara Lännerström, Stina Pettersson, Jonathan Jarl, Theo Ågren and Björn Hellström.

The launch is on Thursday November 6th at 7.30 pm and the show continues on Friday, 2 pm - 8 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 12 noon - 5 pm.

I could be dreaming by Paula Wallmark-Nilsson

Alongside this they’re running Laundry Open Lab sessions on Saturday and Sunday evenings:

Saturday November 8th @ 5.30 pm: Interactive Installations: Gary Stewart, Iniva (the Institute of International Visual Arts)

Sunday November 9th @ 5 pm: Art is my Business: Ania Bas

Sunday November 9th @ 6 pm: Off the map - art in Nodar, Beirut, Alexandria: Alicja Rogalska

Sunday November 9th @ 7 pm: Crossing Borders: Brendan Jackson

Full details of the talks can be found here.

Not much info online yet but I picked up a flyer declaring that the mighty Public Enemy are playing Space2 at the Custard Factory on December 3rd. Tickets will be on sale on November 3rd from The Ticket Sellers for £20 plus the usual booking fee. CF tenants Heducation appear to be behind this.

The Hello World after party takes place at Fazeley Studios on Friday evening from 5.30 - 8pm for delegates and parties involved in the Hello Digital festival. Here’s the invite and you’ll need to email afterparty@hellodigital.net to get on the guest list.

As well as music from Gigbeth and a chance to catch Ikon Eastside’s Warhol exhibition it’s also an opportunity to have a look round the new studios and spaces in Fazeley Studios. And to drink wine and network, of course.

Lucienne Cole’s Here + Now + The Future closes this year’s Ikon residency in Eastside on October 31st. As with last year’s Halloween party they’re making a big deal of it with “performance, film, music, dancing and marshmallows” and a strictly black and white dress code.

Providing a welcoming environment for ‘kooks’, Ikon Eastside hosts a closing party to The Eternal Now: Warhol and Film ‘63 – ‘68 by artist Lucienne Cole & friends, including Steve Woods and film-maker Chris Keenan. Paying an affectionate homage to ‘The Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ and The Velvet Underground and Nico, “the most influential and unpopular band in history.”

But fear not, arts fans. They’ll be back in Digbeth in the Spring.

Jibbering’s Shambala Art Exhibition launches tomorrow night at the Wild Building on Floodgate St, from 7-11pm and then continues until Friday 17th October.

Over thirty street artists have been brought together to help raise money for two small grass roots charities based in Africa. The boards that the artists painted during the Shambala Festival 2008 will be exhibited, along with donated pieces that will be sold through closed bids to the highest bidder.

All profits (with no administration charges) will go to Banunule School For Orphans, Kampala, Uganda and Malawi Education Project, Malawi.

The exhibition has already been shown in London @ Cordy House, Curtain Road, Shoreditch, 18th - 21st September. The launch night on Thursday 17th September saw over 500 people through the doors. With buyers knowing that the exhibition was on for three days in London and then open in Birmingham for 7 days, we saw several large bids on the opening night.

Full details here.

In brief, it’s an exhibition featuring artists based at the Custard Factory running from 23rd to 30th October. Which is a fantastic idea. Even better, they’re hoping to do it regularly. Full press release follows…

So you’ve taken your money out of your bank account and you’ve put it safely in the shoe box under the bed.

While thousands of worried investors are wondering just how to protect their future investments a group of local artists may have an alternative solution.

Investing in art is fun, interesting and, although doesn’t promise high returns, can be highly lucrative should an artist become more well known. Add to this the pleasure one can get from enjoying your purchased artwork on a daily basis and it starts to seem like a great idea, furthermore, you can always sell the artwork later for at least what you paid for it!

So where does one go, in Birmingham, to become the next Saatchi and Saatchi art collector? The answer would be at the heart of one of the largest accumulations of arts and media people in Europe, the Custard Factory, Digbeth.

Organisers of a new exhibition want to highlight the the vast amount of talent there by forming a recognisable group of artists and regularly displaying works that can be bought by any budding patron of the arts.

Artist and organiser Richard C. Pullen says, ‘The Custard Factory is part of the S.P.A.C.E. Foundation which is the ‘Society for the Promotion of Artistic and Creative Enterprise,’ hence the title of the exhibition ‘Lost in S.p.a.c.e.’ It’s prime purpose is to reveal all those artists working here to the outside world. There are so many good artists here that they can sometimes feel lost and, hopefully, these exhibitions will be a way to overcome that.’

Fellow organiser and artist Bryn Tranter added, ‘We hope to create a growing force of creative talent that we can, eventually, take on the road and be accessed by everyone. This exhibition is just the starting point of our vision.’

The first exhibition will be held in the Custard Factory Gallery and runs from Thursday 23rd until Thursday 30th of October and features work from painters, furniture makers, jewellery designers and milliners amongst others. Entry is free and there is a cafe and specialist shops on the site.

The EnR Twinz are putting on their first Birmz is Grime night at the Custard Factory on October 16th featuring themselves plus DJ EJ, The Flatline Crew, Kimberly Miles, Mayhem, DJ Kaos and DJ Blizzard. Here’s the flyer with full details.

News comes via a feature in the Birmingham Mail.

Most of the videos I find on YouTube tagged Custard Factory consist of incoherent footage from camera phones waved around at club nights, the novelty of which wears thin after a while, but occasionally a gem pops up. Here’s a video promo for the Louis Den Beat Cypher night at Rooty’s on October 9th. It’s utterly fantastic.

And here’s the more traditional flyer:

More info at Louisden.com.