Age: 26
Website: http://beachlondon.co.uk/
Job: Co-owner of Beach London, and co-running B.C. (Baz and Chaz). Beach is a gallery, café and bookshop in Shoreditch. And B.C. is a gallery project based online and in pop-up spaces. Both are quite new.
Tell us a bit about your life so far. Where have you been? What have you seen?
I don't really know how to answer this. I've enjoyed growing up and having a pretty chill life so far. And now I'm trying to work hard. I went to Auschwitz last year, that was a very harrowing and terrible, but inspiring place. I guess I've thought about a lot of stuff very differently since then. I wish I still did my own work.
What inspires you? Spending time with nice artwork, being surrounded by nice looking stuff, Good zines, the smell of print, skateboarding, handsome bikes, long bike rides, hangovers, Essex, marker pens, the internet, A0 prints, cooking, blogging, Arsenal, Ping Pong, cooking a nice dinner, Glass bottled Coke, clean T-Shirts.
What is Beach London?
I hope it's a nice place to hang out that has nice shows, decent coffee, and is the sort of place that is always pretty fresh when you go in there - always worht popping in, sort of thing. We are nice folks (again, I hope!) and are always up for chatting about art, illustrations, zines, shows, stuff like that, over a coffee. And somewhere to have a game of Ping Pong. Sometimes.
Where can we find you?
Usually at Beach. Which is ace, and a good and interesting place to spend time. But if not, I'd like to say skateboarding, but usually cycling. Or drinking tins on the street (pubs are a rip off). Or playing ping pong at Beach (So good)
What events/exhibitions do you have on at the moment?
Sean Morris Killer Abs Will Kill You. It's really nice, and Sean came over from oz for it, which was awesome, as we got to spend a few days boozing and talking about art... there's lots of great artists from Oz that kind of get glossed over a little over here. Sister Arrow's show opens in a few weeks, which will be brilliant - her work is getting better and better and better, and i'm really excited for the show. B.C. are also planning a show at a new space called Mexico in Leeds, which might also go on for a week at Beach.
What's coming up at Beach?
We try and keep events regular and varied - not just exhibitions or presentations of artwork - we had Clinic in here doing a poetry night the other day, and New Found Original did a Ping Pong tournament!
Over the next few weeks we've got a launch of a new fashion magazine by Ida Rhoda, and a Searching Finance evening about using Social Networking for marketing! Totally weird, but they're buddies of mine. On Thursday the 15th there's a show of the BurgerMat artwork - a load of artists did designs for a pop up Burger restaurant, which was pretty exclusive, and we're showing it here, so it's nice that it's getting some gallery time. We've got Trolli sweets for it ha ha. then the week after is Sister Arrow's 'Peace prong' - her debut solo show - which i'm really excited about, and is gonna be beautiful.
There's loads coming up over the next few months, including a Belly Kids night where the artist make food instead of art, and our regular events called Artist vs MDF where we buy an exciting artist some wood and let them go nuts. This Saturday Thomas Slater - the nicest guy in illustration - is doing it, so that should be fun. It's a cool way to buy some work really cheap. Good times.
Who are some of your favourite artists?
Far too many - right now: John Bohl, Sister Arrow, Sean Morris (just set up a show at Beach - total dude and one to watch), Alec Kronacker (His MA show at the Salde was unreal) Martin Cole, Dan Ford, Milo Brennan, James Hines, Rafael Rozendaal, Michael Dotson, Craig Scott, Travess Smalley, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, and a lot of those old minimalist dudes, Matt Lock, James Unsworth The Gonz, Aaron Angell, John Slade, Danny Espinoza. Anything that's really colourful. Michael Willis, Joe Vass, Espen Friberg, Carl Partridge. Ed Templeton, Jaakko Palasvuo, Kate Steciw, Clay Hickson, Gergo Szinyova, Christo + Jeanne-Claude ... it's hard to write a list like this as you remember people you like more than someone you've already written!
What are some of your favourite websites/blogs/venues right now?
Ummmm. That's hard. I always like Vyner Street but none of the galleries really stand out. But it's always a nice afternoon's art fun. Can I say Beach? I really like being here. Bold Tendencies of course. The Nieves website (And their Iphone App!) The BBC football gossip column. A blog called Barrio Bajero. Nobrow. 20 Hoxton Square usually have some rad shows. I like going to the Soho galleries - Alison Jacques and that. X Marks the Bokship. Oh Wow in NY. Galleries in Berlin. I can't think of any websites. Can I say Facebook? I find I do a lot of business-y stuff on it at the moment.
Top 5 people?
Outside the obvs (GF, rents, pals, Beach interns (they have all been rad), etc) - The Gonz, Marc Chaimowicz, Anthony Caro (TV interviews with him are brilliant - he looks at art as a very black and white thing - I guess it's from decades of study),
Top 5 places? Chalkwell Beach (Southend), Krakow, Mangal in Dalston, The Grand pub in Leigh-on-Sea (RIP), Maple Street skatepark in Nottingham, circa '07, and an honourary mention to a potter down Vyner Street on a Saturday afternoon.
Thanks, Anything else you'd like to say?
Come to Beach and show us your work, we always like to see it (But it doesn't mean we'll show it!!), it's nice to talk about people's work. Thanks for everything to Matt, Jasper, Chris, Barnie and Alex.
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