Showing – Axel Antas ‘Nature of Things’ @ Rokeby – London

Axel Antas is exhibiting at Rokeby Gallery in London this month. The multi-talented Finish-born artist was recently selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize. His current collection of work builds on his interest in ‘displacement of the self as a physical entity’. Think extra-large drawings of woodland filled by average, everyday columns of cardboard boxes or photographs of great trees surrounded by strange hanging clouds. It’s all very urban meets rural life in a very static, uncertain way.

Axel Antas’ ‘Nature of Things’ takes place at Rokeby, 37 Store Street WC1, from 5th September – 3rd October.

News – Royal Academy Fire - London

Sixty fire-fighters were called out to a blaze at The Royal Academy of Arts yesterday. While no artworks were damaged, the roof caved in as did the due date for a forthcoming Saatchi show, USA Today: New American Art. The exhibition would have opened on 6th October, however given the wing is currently open air it’s likely to be sometime before the American works are exhibited.

Logan Hicks at Work - LA

Street Art - Big Little Baby - stenSOUL

Showing - Nobody Walks Artist Movement - LA

Showing - Tom Wilmott and Bob London 'The Ritual Works' @ The Fleapit - London

Hirst’s Online Battle

Multi millionaire Damien Hirst is all tied up in a legal battle with Simon Phillips, a struggling artist who owns the domain www.damien-hirst.co.uk. This spoof site couldn’t be less Hirst if it tried. The opening page reads ‘(My Arse) Straight Out of Old Compton Street’ (as opposed to ‘Straight Out of Groucho’s’) with a fabulous camp-fest image of Phillips dressed in red PVC (topped by a sailor hat, no less). Now, I’m not saying what Phillips did was right, it was unquestionably wrong; but you got to love this guy. He has the audacity to go up against a name like Hirst. He clearly knows how to grab some easy, if not expensive, publicity.

Over in superstar land, Hirst has hired city law firm Manches LLP to represent him in the ongoing battle over trademark and intellectual property rights. Trademark? Come on. Hirst may be a fantastic, prolific, got it going on artist, but a trademark? Wow. This legal jargon is something else. However, in Hirst’s defense, Phillips’ domain had included details of his nemisis’ career, which frankly, is a bit dodgy. Still, it’s all very David and Goliath and no doubt the whole thing will end in tears. Course they could surprise us. Hirst could set up his own, ‘My Shark, Your Space’ at www.simon-phillips.com and have a little fun with it all.

Showing - Robert Mapplethorpe @ Alison Jacques - London

In commemoration of Robert Mapplethorpe's 60th birthday, Alison Jacques have hooked up with the legendary Patti Smith and Tate Modern for an exhibition of the late artist's seldom seen film work. These include Still Moving (Mapplethorpe/Smith 1978) and Lady (Mapplethorpe 1984), a piece which he created with bodybuilder Lisa Lyon. Alongside Mapplethorpe’s films, the exhibition also comprises early Polaroids, his renowned gelatine pictures and American Flag, as well as works and poems by Smith.

Robert Mapplethorpe’s Still Moving and Lady takes place at Alison Jacques, 4 Clifford Street, W1 from 8th September – 7th October.