Loz returns for the inaugural edition of The Other Art Fair in Bristol

Loz returns for the inaugural edition of The Other Art Fair in Bristol, launching on 5-7 June at the iconic Arnolfini.

Exhibiting and available to buy at the fair will be Loz's new Imagined Nebula work as well as her signature Cloud/line works

As the UK's leading artist fair, The Other Art Fair gives art lovers the unique opportunity to buy directly from 70 of the best emerging and undiscovered artists.

Celebrated for its unique visitor experience, The Other Art Fair’s first edition in Bristol will feature a fantastic talks programme, live art performance, anthropomorphic taxidermy classes, immersive theatre, a 'kids create' area with the magical House of Fairy Tales, live music and much more. 

“Overflowing with creative talent” Time Out

“It’s worth the hype” The Independent

For more information click here...

Website News Archive - Dolphin Auction Creates Huge Splash

Dolphin Auction Creates a Huge Splash For Charities

Aberdeen has gone Dolphin mad this summer with a colourful pod of wild dolphins gracing locations across the city. 50 life sized dolphin sculptures were transformed by the imaginations of leading artists, designers and creative’s. All the dolphins were sponsored by local/national businesses, with the whole city falling in love with each and every dolphin even creating a new social media craze the "dolphie" a dolphin selfie, which flooded twitter and instagram feeds all summer long.

The culmination of the event saw 18,000 visitors coming to bid farewell to the dolphins for one last weekend. The pod in the quad saw all 50 sculptures placed together at Marischal College, and gave the public one last chance to see see their favourites before being auctioned.

On 10th September at Aberdeen Music Hall all 50 Dolphins were put up for auction and the results were beyond anyones wildest dreams. The sold out auction saw a full house eager bidders as well as an extensive following all the action live online. With the money raised going to WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation) and the ARCHIE Foundation, the charity which supports sick children at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

Loz Atkinson who created an un quenched defiance to the stars said "I couldn't make the live auction but was excitedly watching live online and as the evening went on i have to say i was blown away by the ammounts being bid, and when my doll came up to say i was elated is an understatement! I even shead a tear of joy knowing she'd be going to a very loving home and that all the dolphins had done an amazing job for the charities."

Loz's Dolphin sold for an astronomic £22,000 the second highest selling dolphin of the night. The biggest sale of the night was "Golfin Dolphin", which featured the signatures of many of the world's top players, including Phil Mickelson, Paul McGinley, and Paul Lawrie all playing in the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open which sold for £55,000.

In total the auction raised an incredible £531,000 to be split between the two charities.

David Cunningham, chief executive of The ARCHIE Foundation, said: "It was staggering and amazing. We are so humbled by the generosity of the people of Aberdeen.

Website News Archive - All Aboard the Clouded Bus

All Aboard the Clouded Bus

Artist Loz Atkinson’s CumulonimBUS joins 60 strong convoy to celebrate London’s Year of the Bus

2014 has been dubbed The Year of the Bus with Transport for London marking a number of significant milestones and anniversaries. It's been 60 years since the creation of the iconic Routemaster, 75 years since the launch of the RT-Type bus and 100 years since the world's first mass-produced motor bus, the B-Type 'Battle Bus' that carried soldiers to the frontline during the First World War.

As part of the Year of the Bus celebrations, painted and adorned bus sculptures will be displayed in free and accessible locations across London’s streets, parks and public spaces from 22 September for seven weeks. Following the display, the artworks will be auctioned to raise invaluable funds for three charities: Kids Company, Transaid and London Transport Museum.

60 sculptures of the new Routemaster bus will be transformed by the imaginations of leading artists, designers and creative’s. Each bus will be sponsored by local/national businesses. The Year of the Bus sculpture trail will culminate in an auction, with the money raised going to:

Kids Company who provide practical, emotional and educational support to inner-city children, young people and vulnerable families

Transaid who identify, champion, implement and share local transport solutions to improve access to basic services and economic opportunity for people in Africa and in developing countries.

London Transport Museum who highlights the vital role transport has played in the life of the capital.  Also delivering essential travel safety education to keep our children safe, and running programmes to help young people into employment.

Including her talents is artist Loz Atkinson, 29, who lives and works in Leicester. Her Bus is titled "CumulonimBUS” has been hand painted with realistic representations of cumulonimbus cloud formations.

Loz, explains, "Clouds have always fascinated me with the way they capture our imaginations and day dreams. With the trail helping to raise vital funds for many charities who help children I hope the clouds will capture the imagination of visitors and encourage a playful childlike enjoyment of the art trail.”

Loz has been involved in many large scale public art events in the past, painting sculptures for Elephant Parade London in 2010 then Hornbills, eggs and phone boxes. Her egg sculpture, for The Big Egg Hunt 2012 sponsored by Faberge had a mini tour of Leicester cultural venues including Embrace Arts, before being displayed on the streets of London. Through the sale of these works, Loz has helped to raise nearly £15,000 going towards many different animal conservation and children’s charities.

Loz continues “Being able to paint the bus at Embrace Arts has been a huge pleasure with them being absolutely amazing hosts and looking after us very well. Having had the egg on display here a couple of years ago it was definitely a treat to come back and work in such a great environment”

Michaela Butter, Director of Embrace Arts, said: “We were delighted to support artist Loz Atkinson by providing her with a venue to create this new work. At Embrace Arts, we are always keen to offer artists opportunities to build their careers and to share pioneering work. It was great to have Loz in residence to develop CumulonimBUS, providing a platform to raise Leicester’s artistic profile within the UK.”

Loz’s Bus as well as 60 others will be on display from 22nd September in key locations across the Capital.

For more information on The Year of the Bus Art Trail please visit http://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/year-of-the-bus?cid=fs114

Review of the Year 2014

What a crazy year 2014 has been. The rides gone up and down, around and around, it had thrills and chills, and was very brightly coloured and after choosing love over fear here we are on the flip side in 2015 ready for another to begin. We've all loved and lost, won and learned and here in no particular order is how it all went down...

The beginning of the year seem to start out with a lot of news and firsts. Mainly the new website was launched having had a whole redesign with new pages and lots of new or never before seen work up available to view. Visit www.lozatkinson.co.uk for all the latest.

New digital 'Hellscapes' were created adding to the ongoing 'see you there' series inspired by Dante's Inferno. A project I've been working on since 2007, it was great to revisit the work after quite a long hiatus from working digitally, with hopefully more being created and hopefully shown this year.  

When hell freezes over

 Taking part in 'The Image is the Servant' where i created artwork live in response to a collaberative music performance. With over 40 creatives taking part in an intriguing live performance where the collective, creative efforts of specifically curated, artists, poets and musicians battle for domination, with live generated photographic images. Can the image outshine reality and no longer be “the servant” as Beaudelaire said, but become the main constituent? 

Hit And Run from Honest Dave on Vimeo.

A strangely wonderful evening with the creative rawness palpable to anyone lucky enough to be there to experience it. Thousands more claim to have been at Reading when nirvana played that historic set in 1992 than were actually there and the same will be said of 'the image is the servant".

An unquenched defiance to the stars

Designing and creating "an unquenched defiance to the stars" for Wild Dolphins which took place in the summer in Aberdeen. Wild in Art created more than 50 dolphin sculptures to be transformed by the imaginations of leading artists, designers and creative’s. Wild Dolphins culminated in a live auction raising over £500,000 with an unquenched defiance selling for an astronomical £22,000. The money raised went to WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation) and the ARCHIE Foundation, the charity which supports sick children at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.

Mark Shand and I at the Elephant Parade London artist party (2010)

The tragic passing of Elephant Family's head and founder Mark Shand in April was a huge shock and although having met but a handful of times, he impacted my life greatly and will be sadly missed. A warm and generous man that without his and the whole of the elephant family teams support, I certainly wouldn't be where I am today. He has left a truly great and lasting impression on my life, which i shall always hold dear and like his friends the elephants shall never forget him. His life's work was saving Asia's forgotten Elephants and you can help keep his dream of saving them from extinction alive here.

Prince's Trust wall of inspiration

I was honoured to be asked to create a piece of work for the Prince's Trust inspiring art event. Way back in 2009/2010 the Prince's Trust helped me with mentoring and a small loan to get me started on my self employed path and to be able to help give something back by doing what i love to help those who helped me was absolutely fantastic.

painting the cumulonimBUS

Being part of another Wild in Art event this time buses to celebrate TFL's Year of the Bus which saw the anniversary of many milestones within their history including 60 years since the creation of the iconic routemaster and 100 years since the B-type 'battle bus' helped transport troops to the western front in the First World War. Having set up a mini bus painting station at the amazing Embrace Arts as the bus was just that little too big for my studio, the cloud covered CumulonimBUS was born and has been placed in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park before being auctioned off at the end of January 2015 with the money raised going to Kids Company, Transaid and the London Transport Museum.

Trafalgar Square for the Year of the Bus launch

For more information here's a link to a BBC report where you may even see a familiar face http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29660835

UK Young Artists showcase the best of the UK's young and innovative creative talent at regular national and international events. After being in Derby and Nottingham the festival came to Leicester and I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the 70 artists from across the UK to take part in a rich a varied programme of events as well as showcase some of my own work. A real breeding ground for new friendships and future collaborations made for a really exciting and dynamic festival with many future possibilities to leave a lasting legacy.

alsongside my work at UKYA festival

The major news of the year was being selected to exhibit at The Other Art Fair in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, London.

Opening night of The Other Art Fair

The insanely hot October edition saw over 13,000 visitors peruse buy and admire 130 artists stands including stand 131 with Zoe Childerley and I exhibiting together for the first time showing brand new work. Although created independently the work shared a common interest in the human need to measure, comprehend, conquer and solve the existential mysteries of the universe, which we are intrinsically a part.

The Other Art Fair - Opening night

Using psychological theory, field of view studies and mathematics in the work to highlight the folly yet importance of such endeavors. The work although fundamentally different in medium and technique created a really interesting and dynamic stand generating a lot of positive comments, contacts and sales! With both our work featuring in online reviews and highlights of the fair.

After being spotted at The Other Art Fair a selection of both mine and Zoe's work is currently on display as part of 'Contemporary Boom' at Artvera's Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland.

Contemporary Boom - Opening night

Contemporary Boom - Exhibition view

On until the 24th January 2015 the exhibition highlights the works of nineteen contemporary artists, originating from the UK, South Korea, France and Switzerland. Pictures, paintings, collages, sculptures and ceramics mix references to street art, eroticism and pop art. They offer above all an explosion of colours.

Contemporary Boom - Exhibition view

This on going series of cloud paintings adopting the psychological phenomena of Pareidolia and Apophenia, the experience of seeing pattern in random or meaningless data. Mixing this with the Mathematical Golden Ratio expressed as a geometric grid highlights that indistinct stimuli represented by the clouds can be forced to be perceived as significant. I'm really taken by this subject matter with the work developing quite significantly over the year, continuing this in to 2015.

One of the last things to happen in 2014 was the launch of my new online shop. Especially designed for this range of useful art works for all, Using my signature style of graphic depictions of mouths I've taken Phoneme mouth shapes of certain words to create these striking pieces.

'Useful' art for all

With many pieces selling already here's hoping with much more to be added soon including original works and fine art prints that the shop will be a huge hit in 2015.

So keep dropping by the website or find me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for all the very latest. 

2015 promises to be just as crazy, busy and hectic if not more so than the last. So once more unto the breach dear friends once more and don't forget to enjoy the ride...

  

For Eileen yesterday, today, forever xx