Subway Gallery is possibly THE coolest gallery in the world. Just because of what it is and where it is. Totally at random you could be walking through the dank, dreary streets of Edgware Road, past the maximum security police station and down into the pedestrian subway by the Bakerloo line station and there out of nowhere is a little subterranean oasis of creativity.
The guy who runs it is an artist himself, he wrote the Him Book, the book that accompanied the wax works of Charles Saatchi (shown in various exhibitions including Zoo Art Fair last year if anyone remembers) one of which has taken up semi-permanent residence in the gallery. Subway attracts a unique crowd from one visit there to an opening you can tell there are certain regulars, all rather quirky figures which form part of what seems to be little community. A completely different vibe from the white cubed space of the Lisson Gallery, the closest gallery to it, or any other mainstream gallery for that matter. And thank god for that.
This month’s exhibition is a solo show of Charlie Baird’s work. It comprises some strange paintings centring on the theme of chance and fate. Some are like rather unfashionable early 90s style murals with tarot card imagery, a sort of painted version of a Phil Collins album cover. However, other paintings have a sense of modern anxiety and purpose. Scenes of urban apocalyptic turmoil, burning cars in the sky, flyovers (very much like the Westway directly above Subway) are now playgrounds for disaster.
Subway exhibitions change each month and vary from contemporary instillation, to more conservative paintings to documentary photography and much in-between. Keep you ears peeled for the new exhibition opening around the first week of December.
Art Sleuth is part of www.openmagazine.co.uk check out the main blog site at http://www.openmagazine.co.uk/blog/
1 Comment
November 18, 2008 at 9:50 am
This is more like it AS. Being bundled in with fashion was just too confusing.
Although I confess I was really there in the discussion about school uniforms.