This year has been the busiest ever for work and the balancing act of commissions, illustrations, exhibitions, film and publishing pushes me all the way. Luckily I’m back from my annual holiday in France and raring to go for the last few months of 2016.
Art of Caring at The Rose Theatre. (Left to right) Peter S Smith, myself and Robin Hutchinson MBE
Art of Caring
One of the cornerstones of each year is organising the Art of Caring at the Rose Theatre gallery space in Kingston-upon-Thames. It is an open exhibition that is organised with CollectConnect and supported by Kingston University as part of their International Nurses Day celebrations. This is our second year and it proved to be very popular with both artists and public alike. 330 postcard sized artworks were exhibited by 180 artists from all over the world, including many student nurses from Kingston University.
The Art of Caring has now travelled to The Arts Space, St Pancras Hospital where it has been transformed by curators Peter Herbert and Elaine Harper-Gay. It has breathed new life into the work, with larger format original work being exhibited alongside many of the postcards. It is open from 21st July to 13th October 2016 at THE CONFERENCE CENTRE, ST PANCRAS HOSPITAL, 4 ST PANCRAS WAY, LONDON, NW1 OPE. It is open Monday to Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm (TRAVEL/BUS 46/214 TUBE/KINGS CROSS). Free Entry.
Chapbooks
We
also published a chapbook with Sampson Low Ltd for International Nurses Day called Resilience (Chapbook 14)which features 28 poems alongside my illustrations. It made it to the number 1 position in the UK Chapbook Charts and has travelled the globe to chapbook collectors who also want to show their support for carers and nurses.
As a director at Sampson Low Ltd I’m proud to have instigated our new Chapbook series. We have published 17 chapbooks in the past year including my own for the Threshold Festival in April called The Gift (chapbook 13). Authors we have published include Kevin Acott (chapbook 1), Giovanni Cerbiatto (2), Natalie Low (3), Carole Bulewski (4), Francesca Albini (5), Stella Tripp (6), Peter S Smith (7), Bryan Benge (8), Simon La Brea (9), Wayne Sleeth (10), Eskild Beck (11) and David Bushell (12).
We have also started working with the free thinkers of Seething, who are a community of global community activists. We have published two Seething Chapbooks with them, Pasta Prose and Glovewatch 2016. I have also started a chapbook series with Maartens Lourens and/or The Combed Thunderclap at WTF?! Poetry, the first in the series is currently available on Amazon for modest a £1.
Art of Caring at St Pancras Hospital
Exhibitions
With the press of other commitments (publishing and album art) I’ve had less time to exhibit but the year started with a small group exhibition at the MINE Gallery in Carshalton that celebrated the photography of Bill Mudge. The Threshold Festival in April in May was really special and I love getting out of London for my annual trip to Liverpool. The months ahead include a film at Twickenham Alive Film Festival, the Secret Art Sale at Heath Robinson Museum (Pinner, UK) and Lines of Beauty at The Arts Project, St Pancras Hospital.
This year I worked with poet Kevin Acott on a new exhibition for Mental Health Awareness Week. We exhibited and published a map of relationships at Middlesex University with the help of 50 contributors. READ MORE
Album Art
I’m very lucky to have London as my playground in the evenings and nothing excites me more than indulging myself in the swings and roundabouts of the capital’s Jazz scene (and other genres too). If you never visited before have a look at my blog at the Art of Jazz.
Michael Chillingworth – Scratch and Sift
It has been an exciting and busy year as an album artwork artist. Every album is different and I love working with some of the freshest and most exciting music being released at the moment. My relationship with new label Two Rivers Records has been particularly fruitful. 2016 has seen me working on 18 releases so far including Samuel Eagles’ SPIRIT, Andre Canniere (The Darkening Blue, Whirlwind Recordings), Will Gibson (Facets, Pathway Recordings), Musson/Edwards/Sanders (Bibimbap, Two Rivers Records), Tony Kinsey Big Band (Embroidery Suite), SAWA (Two Rivers Records), Melange (Via Maris, Two Rivers Records), Jason Palmer & Cédric Hanriot (City of Poets, Whirlwind Recordings), Nautilus (Infrablue, Two Rivers Records), Patrick Cornelius (When We Were Very Young, Whirlwind Recordings), Michael Chillingworth (Scratch and Sift, Two Rivers Records), Kenneth Dahl Knudsen (We’ll Meet In The Rain, Two Rivers Records), Juan Maria Solare (Himmelsrichtungen, Janus Records), Clemens Christian Poetzsch (PEOPLE & PLACES, Two Rivers Records), Firefay (The King Must Die), Diane Taber and the Sunspots (Serve with a straw) and Robert Menzel (Alchemy, Two Rivers Records).
alban low 