Jump to content

Rosy Wilde

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Madeofstars (talk | contribs) at 16:26, 1 February 2009 (→‎2006 reopened in Soho: Vine). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

File:Rosy.jpeg
Artist Stella Vine in the door of the derelict butchers shop in Whitecross Street, Shoreditch, in 2003, before converting it into the Rosy Wilde, a gallery and project space for emerging artists.

Rosy Wilde gallery[1] was an artist-run project space,[2] established in 2003 by British artist Stella Vine in East London in a former butchers shop to showcase work by emerging artists.[3] She sold the gallery at auction in October 2004.[4] In 2006, following her disillusionment after experiences in the commercial gallery world, she reopened the gallery in central London's Soho district.

2003 – 2004 in East London

In August 2003, Stella Vine opened Rosy Wilde gallery,[1] an artist-run project space,[2] to showcase the work of emerging artists,[5] at 139 Whitecross Street in London's East End,[6] giving it "immediate Brit Art cache" according to the Evening Standard. The gallery was described as "small but well formed" by The Guardian's Jessica Lack. The Times journalist, Andrew Billen, said the street was "bohemianised" but had remained working class.[7] Vine said she loved "the cosmopolitan chaos" of the area.[8] She lived above the gallery,[9] whilst her son Jamie used the basement.[7]

File:Rosy Wilde Gallery Shopfront 2003.jpg
Rosy Wilde gallery opened in 2003, after conversion.

In October 2003, Gina Birch of rock band The Raincoats performed live at the opening of the Cathy Lomax curated group show Fanclub at Rosy Wilde.[10]

In November 2003, Vine was in shock over her mother's recent death.[8] She was also experiencing rejection in her private life:[8]

"I was just falling in love right, left and centre with these gorgeous young artists who came in the gallery. They’d see this fat old stripper, this nutter who runs a butcher’s shop that she thinks is an art gallery, and who thinks she’s some artist but hasn’t even been to art school... They probably thought, "Christ, who is this woman who’s texting me 20 times a day?""[8]

In 2009, Vine commented on these early years explaining: "In the beginning it was a real battle to assert any kind of intelligence at all.". She spoke of pouring her emotions out in interviews and coming across as "a bit wild" and explained her mother had died at that time: "you are in a bit of a crazy place after something like that.".[11] She said she now feels like "someone who's grown up" and that she sees life in a "much more mature kind of way". [11]

Instead of sleeping, Vine was staying up at night painting in the badly-ventilated room, where the thick linseed oil, turps and paint fumes, which were "probably a bit dangerous", made her "a bit high".[8] She had become obsessed with the story in the press that Diana, Princess of Wales, had written to her butler, Paul Burrell, telling him that she was afraid she would be killed in a car crash.[8] Vine painted 30 pictures of Diana, but, lacking space to dry or store them, she put them all except one in a skip.[8]

Exhibitions

The gallery put on shows for James Jessop, Jasper Joffe and Cathy Lomax. Exhibition titles included Something Is Already Happening, Search & Destroy, Vaguely Romantic, Olena, Frontin', King and Rising Tides.[12]

After her mother's death in 2003, Stella Vine became obsessed with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and painted 30 pictures of the princess. In 2009, Vine said she had been: "in a bit of a crazy place" with grief.[11]

In December 2003, City and Islington News reported that the "upstairs of the Rosy Wilde gallery is transformed into one such teenager's bedroom"[13] for the Fanclub exhibition. The joint show included eight young artists who "littered" two floors with their art work, conjuring up the sense of fan "memorabilia" of icons such as Prince, PJ Harvey, Billy Fury, Brian Wilson, and Elvis Presley,[13] delving into the "psyche of the besotted fan". Lomax's painting of a group of crazed fans was described as "touching" while Yolanda Zappaterra's work seen as "tongue in cheek". The exhibition summed up as being "successful as a self indulgent wallow in the nostalgia of our formative years."[13]

In July 2004, The Evening Standard reviewed the show James Jessop and Jasper Joffe commenting that Jessop had exhibited alongside Vine in Saatchi's New Blood exhibition and also worked as a Group 4 security guard for his day job and that Joffe's talent is for speed painting[14] having previously exhibited 72 canvasses created in 72 hours at the Brno contemporary art gallery and that he also locked himself into a gallery in Milan overnight "painting an artwork an hour".[14] Whilst The Guardian's Jessica Lack commented that the joint show was "Bright, splattered and buzzing with energy, the paintings of these two young artists will certainly challenge your visual senses". [15]

Saatchi collects Vine's work from Transition Gallery

Rosy Wilde galllery was on the verge of bankruptcy, when Vine exhibited the sole remaining Diana painting, Hi Paul can you come over I'm really frightened, in a group show at the East London Transition Gallery, run by Cathy Lomax, from whom it was bought in February 2004 by Charles Saatchi, then exhibited in his New Blood show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Scotland on Sunday journalist, Catherine Deveney, visited the gallery in June 2004; Vine told her, "It's a tip."[8] Deveney said it was "fascinating, like being placed slap bang in the middle of a person’s entire life"[8] with the walls whitewashed and employed as an improvised diary—"Tuesday 4pm" written in black above the bed—[8] large pink cushions on the big bed, boxes, papers, suitcases and propped-up canvases on the floor, a loaded clothes rail, and art materials on a table.[8]

The Times journalist, Andrew Billen, visited her in June 2004, and said the gallery was a clue that "Saatchi's Midas touch has not turned Stella's life to gold."[7] On the day of his visit, the front door was partly open to allow a street seller to keep his goods inside the "scuffed" gallery space, which was empty except for a gas cooker covered in graffiti text from the poetry of Sylvia Plath.[7] He said her son's basement accommodation was "dark dungeon quarters"[7] accessible by an oubliette, and "upstairs festers a beyond-squalid kitchen".[7] Vine's bedroom was on the next floor and reachable by a ladder to replace the stairs which had fallen down.[7]

Her studio on the first floor contained a Mac laptop computer, a chair, and a cat sitting on an old mattress on white-painted floorboards.[7] Billen said, "This is not cheerful artistic anarchy; it is emotional chaos."[7] The studio walls were covered with work from her show Prozac and Private Views, including Catherine Deneuve on circular wood, and images of Denis and Margaret Thatcher, Geri Halliwell, Kitten from Big Brother and Vine's aunt Ella.[7]

By June 2004, Vine had stopped answering phone calls, as she was in debt for £80,000, excluding money due on the property, and "It seems every call I get now is from someone saying I owe them money."[16] She listed the debts as comfort shopping on credit cards, loans, council tax, her car and parking fines, and said she found this very depressing: "I am a very depressed, manic person."[16]

The media attention following Saatchi's purchase of her Diana painting had left Vine depressed and even suicidal:[17] she said the "tremendous love" she had for her son Jamie had kept her going.[18] A previous partner paid her a surprise visit, which she found emotionally disturbing.[18] He moved to Spain.[18] In October 2004, she sold her gallery at auction for £330,000, which the agents Savills said was "quite bullish for the area",[4] then moved to a rundown Spanish farmhouse with her son Jamie, their cat and £20,000 worth of paint and canvas.[18] She said, "It was typical Stella, running away when things get tough."[18]

2006 reopened in Soho

Vine re-opened Rosy Wilde in 2006, above the Ann Summers shop in Wardour Street, London.

In 2006, Vine re-opened her Rosy Wilde gallery, this time on the floor above the first Ann Summers sex shop, in Soho, London, at 79 Wardour Street, with the entrance in Tisbury Court.[19] She held exhibitions for artists such as Jemima Brown whose show at Rosy Wilde was described as "spooky and unhinged"[20]. Other artists to exhibit were Annabel Dover, Cathy Lomax and Michael Crowe whilst show titles included Force Fed Brown Bread, Lux, Give Me Your Blacklisted and Vignettes.[21]

Vine said that whenever she had been offered gallery representation the arrangement had broken down, and that "The art world is really exactly the same as the sex industry: you have to be completely on guard, you will get shafted, fucked over left, right and centre."[22] (Saatchi, however, had acted "entirely honourably")[23] She said that her priority was independence, which was the only context in which she was able to function viably as an artist, so that she preferred "running a cottage industry and maybe earning £50,000 a year" to earning hundreds of thousands but at the cost of participating in a manipulative system and losing independence of action.[22]

Exhibitions and performances

  • Olena, 31 July – 31 August 2003. Artists listed in exhibition catalogue: Louisa Clarke, Robert Ellis, Sigrid Holmwood, Laura Lancaster, Cathy Lomax, Kate Lowe, Stella Vine
  • Vaguely Romantic, 5 September – 4 October 2003. Artists listed in exhibition catalogue: Robert Ellis, Tanya Fairey, Sigrid Holmwood, Laura Lancaster, Cathy Lomax, Fiona Lumbers, Dave Smith, Isabel Young.
  • YKK, 24 October – 22 November 2003. Solo exhibition by artist Kev Rice, Exhibition catalogue
  • Fanclub, 29 November – 21 december 2003. Artists listed in exhibition catalogue: Annabel Dover, Sarah Doyle, Antonio Gianasi, Cathy Lomax, Alex Michon, Marcus Oakley, Stella Vine, Yolanda Zappaterra. Live performance with Gina Birch of The Raincoats.
  • King, 25 November 2004. Performance by artist Mark Wilsher
  • Frontin', 8 Jan – 1 Feb 2004. Solo exhibition by artist Fiona Lumbers, exhibition catalogue.
  • Search & Destroy, 5 Feb – 7 March 2004. Alex Gene Morrison, solo exhibition, exhibition catalogue.
  • Projects, 11 March – 4 April 2004. Solo exhibition with artist William Cruickshank Exhibition catalogue.
  • James Jessop and Jasper Joffe, 9 July – 25 July 2004. Exhibition catalogue.
  • Vignettes, 4 – 29 July 2006. Solo exhibition with Cathy Lomax. Exhibition catalogue.
  • Force fed brown bread, 2 August – 2 September 2006. Solo exhibition with artist Michael Crowe. Exhibition catalogue.
  • LUX, 6 September – 30 September 2006. Solo exhibition with artist Annabel Dover. Exhibition catalogue.
  • Give me your blacklisted, 4 October – 28 October 2006. Solo exhibition with Jemima Brown. Exhibition catalogue.

Artists exhibited

(As of summer 2006)

  • A:
  • B: Andy Black, Gina Birch of The Raincoats (live performance), Jemima Brown
  • C: William Cruickshank, Michael Crowe
  • D: Lorin Davis, Katy Dove, Annabel Dover, Sarah Doyle
  • E: Robert Ellis
  • F: Tanya Fairey, Oriana Fox
  • G: Antonio Gianasi
  • H: Jacqueline Hallum, Sigrid Holmwood, Dan Howard-Birt (curator)
  • I:
  • J: Jasper Joffe
  • K:
  • L: Laura Lancaster, Cathy Lomax, Kate Lowe, Fiona Lumbers
  • M: Sara Mackillop, Alex Michon, Alex Gene Morrison
  • N: Barbara Nemitz
  • O: Marcus Oakley
  • P:
  • R: Damien Roach, Kev Rice
  • S: Emily Jo Sargent, Dylan Shipton, Dave Smith
  • T:
  • U:
  • V: Stella Vine
  • W: Rachel Warriner, Mark Wilsher, Michael Wilson, Nicola Williams
  • Y: Isabel Young
  • Z: Yolanda Zappaterra

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b "Modern Art Oxford: Stella Vine", Modern Art Oxford, 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  2. ^ a b Stella Vine Profile, The Guardian Online, 6 March 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2009
  3. ^ "Rosy Wilde", Rosy Wilde (history). Retrieved 8 December 2008.
  4. ^ a b Miller, Compton. "DJ Victoria tunes into Knightsbridge; Homes gossip", Evening Standard, p. 2, 13 October 2004.
  5. ^ Honigman, Ana Finel. "Stella Vine in conversation with Ana Finel Honigman", Saatchi Online, 25 July 2007. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  6. ^ "Rosy Wilde", Rosy Wilde (home). Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Billen, Andrew. "I Made More Money As A Stripper", The Times, 15 June 2004. Retrieved 7 January 2009.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Deveney, Catherine. "Stripped bare", Scotland on Sunday, 14 March 2004. Retrieved on 17 December 2008.
  9. ^ "The Money Issue: answer the questions! Stella Vine - Princess Diana, Prozac and private views", The Independent on Sunday, p. 7, 7 March 2004.
  10. ^ "Stella Vine's The Waltz at Museum of New Art", September 2006. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
  11. ^ a b c Mercer, Joseph. "GT Art: Stella Vine", Gay Times, pages. 46, 47, 48. February 2009 issue. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  12. ^ "Rosy Wilde: Previous shows" Rosy Wilde (previous shows). Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  13. ^ a b c Leong, Karen. "Gallery Review by Karen Leong, Fanclub, curated by Cathy Lomax", City & Islington News, December 2003. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  14. ^ a b Anderson, Hephzibah. "James Jessop and Jasper Joffe", The Evening Standard art section. July 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  15. ^ Lack, Jessica. "James Jessop and Jasper Joffe at Rosy Wilde", The Guide, The Guardian, 3-9 July 2004 issue. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
  16. ^ a b Hall, Jane. "Debt, Diana and homesickness", The Journal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, p. 16, 8 June 2004.
  17. ^ Eyre, Hermione. "Completing my new show was the only thing that saved me from suicide", 15 July 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
  18. ^ a b c d e Saner, Emine. "My £600-a-week coke habit just to paint; Controversial artist Stella Vine speaks about the project inspired by Kate Moss that drove her to addiction - and how only the love for her teenage son stopped her from attempting suicide.", The Evening Standard (London), 1 December 2005. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  19. ^ "Rosy Wilde", ArtRabbit. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  20. ^ Russell Herron art blog, 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  21. ^ Comment art page for Rosy Wilde, 2006. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  22. ^ a b Smith, David (2006)"Art? It's like the sex trade" The Observer, 23 April 2006. Retrieved 23 April 2006.
  23. ^ Barber, Lynne. "Vine Times", July 8 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2009.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosy_Wilde&oldid=267848603"