Kamen Riders Vs Super Sentai Exhibition

I feel very lucky to have been asked to take part in the 'Kamen Riders Vs Super Sentai' exhibition at Q Pop gallery in Los Angles. About 100 artists were asked to reinterpret any character or image from either of these classic Japanese children's TV shows into a one off piece of art. My one off prints are available HERE and HERE.

MASKS opens at Nobrow Gallery, London

On Thursday 15th September, Masks opened to the general public and the launch night was a blast. Thank you to everyone who attended and a special thanks to Sam and Al at Nobrow for hosting the event, Adrian, James, Natasha, Ann Lou and Joe for being such stars helping me ready the show, Nick White and Laura Beckett for looking after me in their lovely home all week, Sahar Freemantle for her beautiful hats, Felt Mistress for the incredible and gigantic felt versions of Mr Fish, Taimatsu Maru and Neko Mata from the Bento Bestiary and lastly, my father, Colin Newman for the fantastic work he put into making the Masks come to life in 3D. Hopefully this is just the first of many projects with him in the future. The prints from the show are available from Nobrow. Below are some pictures from the night and some press reviews I've found from around the interwebs.

As the show is a part of the London Design Festival it has been gaining some great press. Here are some snippets and quotes.

This quote is from a blog called 'I am the Noble Savage'. I'm flattered beyond belief.

"Newman’s evocation of primitivism, however, is also layered with a retroactive sense of futuristic fascination. Weird, wily faces are composed with a repetitive mechanical energy reminiscent of Italian Futurism, the graphic rigor of Russian Constructivism and the clunky horror of nineteen-fifties American science-fiction monsters in a faded pulp comic palette. Symmetry offers no solace in these images, at once remarkable reminders of the highly organized aesthetics of the uncivilized and machined abstractions of ritualistic horror."

-Jamil, (iamthenoblesavage.com)

You can see more pictures and writings of the show on 8 and 2 (a blog by Yu Fujiwara), the Nobrow website and Its Nice That (which is where the video below comes from). Thanks to everyone for supporting the show.

LDF Special: Ben Newman from It's Nice That on Vimeo.

Masks Exhibition and Felt Mistress Sneak Preview

September 15th marks the opening of my new solo show 'Masks' at the Nobrow Gallery in London which will feature my mask designs from the last six months. The show opens just in time for London Design Festival and you can read more details on their website by clicking HERE. To make the event even more special I have enlisted the help of some very talented friends. In fact one of the collaborations is with my Father, Colin Newman but more details and pictures of that project nearer to the exhibition.

With the show just over a month and a half away, I can contain myself no longer as I'm very, very, very excited to preview photos of my collaboration with the extremely talented and very lovely, Felt Mistress. This is a dream project for me as back in 2008, I was exhibiting alongside Felt Mistress in a Christmas show and completely fell in love with her monsters and her ability to visualise and create these incredible beasts in three dimensions and only using felt! Anyway, three years later and to much anticipated excitement, I've finally gotten to team up with her and the results are amazing. Felt Mistress is creating three Yokai from my book, The Bento Bestiary (which is available to buy HERE) and today you can see sneak preview shots of the terrifying Taimatsu Maru. YEAH!This bad boy even has a big blue tail. SHAZAM!
Boy oh boy, he is a handsome devil!

Geometric Love

I managed to squeeze in some print designs over the weekend so that I can spend a couple of evenings screen-printing in the SNAP studio basement. I'll post photos of the prints once they are finished.

Cinemascope Exhibition Now On!

These two prints are a limited edition of 12 and went on sale on the 8th May at the Cinemascope exhibition in Brighton. The show will run until the 31st May at the Boxbird Gallery. 

Boxbird Presents the CinemaScope Exhibition

AArrgghh! I only meant to post one of these prints but I think they look better put together. These two prints will be available from the 8th May at the Boxbird gallery in Brighton during the Fringe festival. The show is called 'CinemaScope' and features a host of fantastic Boxbird artists and invited talent. Click here to see the ace line-up. Each artist will produce two A2 prints based on any film of their choice. I chose 'Shogun Assassin' and the 'Fistful of Dollars Trilogy'.