'Masks' show is going to Pictoplasma, Berlin.

I'm very proud, excited and nervous to announce that my MASKS show will be going to Berlin for the Pictoplasma festival. The show will be part of the Character Walk that runs over the whole festival from the 11th until the 15th April and MASKS will be exhibited at Berlin Weekly. I'll also be giving a talk at .HBC as part of the Character Lab talks and workshops (you can read more about the other speakers HERE).

The MASKS show has been expand a bit from the London show at Nobrow last September. New collaborative work with my Father, Colin Newman and the ever fantastic, Felt Mistress will be on show for the first time. Here are some sneak previews.

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.

3D Masks Sneak Preview

Here are the first glimpses of two of the three 3D masks that I have collaborated on with my father for the MASKS show (Facebook users can RSVP here) that opens on the 15th September in London at the Nobrow gallery. The show will run until the 11th November. My Dad and I talked at length about how to get these image to work three dimensionally and with a spot of elbow grease, luck and determination, I am pleased to say that I couldn't be happier with the end results. My Pops has really out done himself. He cut, drilled and chiseled the wood perfectly and it was up to me to paint and varnish the buggers. Just a few tweaks left and then they will be back at his work space for gluing before they are shipped to London for hanging. Exciting times.See here for exhibition details during the London Design Festival.

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!

'Masks' featured in Guardian

A couple of weeks back, my Masks series was featured the the Guardian newspaper. Which came as quite a surprise..... a very good one. These prints along with a whole host of other prints and exciting projects will be exhibited at the Nobrow gallery from the 15th September. You find more details HERE.

'Masks' Update

Pretty busy at the moment but I thought I'd stop and share the latest Mask designs from last week.

Masks Series Part 1

Over the past two weeks, I've found time to work on a personal project and I finally feel genuinely excited and enthusiastic about drawing again. I've really enjoyed experimenting without any pressure and I have found that the ideas for other images in this series are starting to snowball. I'm taking a little break from working on them at the moment to concentrate on commercial work but this is the first half of a series of prints titled 'Masks' that will be available in the near future. Once the collection is complete they will all be sale at my solo show in September. Enjoy.