BLAST 1. Group Show. Newcastle

BLAST 1, Feb 2010, Carliol Square
Group show with Tom Whitty and Claudio Pascale. We took over the upstairs of World Headquarters Night Club. Filled it with art, and people, had a party. Then we left. I exhibited my explosion painting, the sketch up for JU87 and a coffin.

We promoted the show with a series of flyers with really graphic images on them. Passing them around at exhibition openings like illegal porn in the Victorian times. Art porn in the 21st Century.

EASYRIDER. Goup show. Newcastle

EASYRIDER, 29th October, Hangar 51, Newcastle upon Tyne

The first test of a graduate artist is if they are going to carry on with art after uni. Tom and I decided to leap into our next show, EASYRIDER. The original plan was to show with Lindsay Best and get a shop in the city centre. However the circumstances changed so we decided to return to Hangar, one more time...

The result was EASYRIDER a 1 hour performance involving: an 8 piece motorbike gang, a car we smashed up, and a film I made and Tom's Riot Police film.

Neither of us had managed to get the papers or even local culture mags like The Crack. To our dismay it was Front page of the Sunday Sun, nationwide Metro, Auto Trader Magazine, FORUM Magazine, covered through the week in The Chronicle and Journal. All of this publicity had positive sides; sales and attention but these benefits were far outweighed by the downsides!

Press links: Metro, Sunday Sun 1 and 2, AutoTrader

The video of the show is below:

My artwork in the show:

My print artworks in the show were based on a visit I paid to a militaria store with my imac and my scanner, I scanned half his store; guns, belts, helmets, anything. It took me a long time to settle on a final style but the three 200x40cm banners were as meaningless as I could ever have hoped. Guns 1, Guns 2, and God 1 - which was based on scans of notes I'd taken whilst discussing post modernism with a vicar. What I like about them the most is that you don't get any sign of the process from just looking at them, and I doubt people would remember them now.

SEX AND VIOLENCE

E20 E59 is a reference to Duchamp and this photo is inspired by Valerie Solanas shooting Andy Warhol who for a while I was really into. I think there's a big hang up about Warhol that needs to be overcome.

Joseph Steele @ Newcastle University Fine Art Degree Show 2009

Newcastle University Fine Art Degree Show 2009

For my degree show I decided to create an installation, a slick gallery space with my best artwork on display. You know writing this I can't help but feel like one of those people wallowing in their work, I never liked that. Anyway I got a JCB barrell, three mega posters in their steel frames, an office space on a mezzanine level and the standard promotional materials. On the opening night I played the Rolling Stones a lot, really loud and this brought lots of people into the space and created the pop-fad atmosphere I was after. Unsurprisingly, I got a first.

Joseph Steele's 'Pillow Talk' @ Spectacles and Carpets

I think it was the 20th May. I'm not sure. Anyway this stray bullet of a show in my 5 a month marathon was by far the most gruelling for me in that I had a stinking hangover and was getting the sinking feeling of about to leave uni.

I sat in bed for 6 hours and spoke to anyone about myself who came in.

Art I guess

Material World @ Cobalt Studios

COBALT STUDIOS PRESENT:

Material World.

This show which opened on the 15th May 2009 was (again) another knock out success. A very different show from Mayday or Proud of our Roots this saw me exhibit alongside some established and starting out artists in the North East: Glass artists Gavin Marshall, Effie Burns and Kathryn Hodgkinson, painter Paul merrick and retired architect turned photographer David Whitton.

The show was more commercially minded with an emphasis on making the work look absolutely stunning, which it did. I exhibited three megaposters; military hardware identification chart #2 weapons of world war 2, and two prints based on the monument and millenium bridge. My theme? Sex and violence of course. The show attracted some 150 people over the weekend and is ongoing. And I sold some!

Proud of our Roots

6th May 2009. Lamplight arts centre, Stanley.

This show saw me exhibit alongside emerging photographers, mainly from the Stanley area. Debbie Todd was instrumental in pulling the show together which was a great success, the opening was packed and had a speech from the Councillor and... me, I don't know why but they asked me to say something and I ummed and erred my way around the subject of art and culture coming to the conclusion that the Northern drive for supporting and promoting art and culture, to raise the profile of the region only means something if people put on shows like this. It brought together different people from different worlds and gave visitors an insight into something beyond the every day.

Chris Moon, Anthony Gardiner, Andy Singe Thompson, Lorna Christie, Liam Mcgough, Sara Coulson, Debbie Todd Photos, Sarah Lockey