Eyeblog

Cover Up and Joe Rush private view launch night

I am pleased to say that we successfully launched the gallery space last Thursday evening (19th April) with a double exhibition: group show Cover Up, which explores the creative interface of contemporary art and music and features work by artists and designers that have made album cover art; and a solo show of unique sculptures by internationally celebrated British artist Joe Rush.

A crowd gathered shortly after the doors opened at 6pm and it wasn’t long before the warm spring evening encouraged it to spill out onto the gallery forecourt, where Rush’s ‘Antler (from the catwalk series)’ stands 5 metres tall on it’s plinth, in the shadow of Tate Modern located next door.

Inside, resident DJ’s from London nightclub The End span some tunes, while art lovers and collectors sipped on wine and bottled beer. The female staff at Eyestorm got very excited when Hollywood actor Jared Leto popped in early on in the evening for a brief drink and a sneak preview of the art. The girl on the door cunningly got him to put his name in the signing in book too. We later discovered he is a collector of Antony Micallef’s work, which is probably how he knew about the opening.

Three of the four artists who were commissioned to make work for Cover Up: Stanley Donwood, for his continuing involvement with Radiohead; Reggie Pedro of Gomez album artwork fame and Jason Kedgley from Tomato for his contribution in designing album art Underworld, were present. Unfortunately, the forth artist, Tomato’s Simon Taylor, who has worked with Underworld and Soul 2 Soul, couldn’t make it due to commitments in Tokyo.

At the other side of the gallery, Joe Rush and his supporters surrounded his collection of sculptures, including ‘Axeman’, owned by Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, and a number of bronzes commissioned by Damien Hirst; each one standing alone on a pile of unpainted breeze blocks used as plinths.

The evening was such a success that it wasn’t until the alcohol ran dry that it was forced to come to an end. All in all it was a great launch party and we were very pleased with the response and proud to open the new space with two strong exhibitions.

Angie Davey – head of artist liaison and curator of the two exhibitions.

In Association with the Institute of Contemporary Arts

Eyestorm is the leading online gallery of limited edition contemporary art. Founded in 1999, Eyestorm came under new management in 2006 and has refined its operations to make buying the finest contemporary art easier and more enjoyable than ever before.