HIGH-VIZ FUTURISM

Found this close-up of one of my paintings while going through my files. Love the colours and the textures.

Close-up, angled detail shot. Acrylic on box canvas, 60cm x 60cm, 2018.

BREX-GLITCH

Looking at the glitched government website the other day, I couldn't help but think this was an omen of some sort.

Below: Government Portal Website with Coat-of-Arms 

Screenshot, Natural Glitch, No Filters

Below: Government Portal Website with Crown

Screenshot, Natural Glitch, No Filters

ALEXI K: DIGITAL, ANALOG, MATERIAL ARTIST

DIGITAL

'DATASTREAM ARABESQUES' : Vector Compositions, 2017

Photo courtesy of Moxy Downtown Hotel, NYC.

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ANALOG

'POLYGRAPH NUDES' : Ink on Paper, 2009

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MATERIAL

'ELECTRONIQUE' SHOE : Pattern Design, 2015

Photo courtesy of Bucketfeet

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All artwork copyright Alexi K. 

LOS TRES AMIGOS

ALL-TIME FAVOURITE PHOTO

I was persuaded by my studio pal to go on a winter bike jaunt on the canal last week, and I was glad that we did. The canal, with its engineered geometry and vertiginous reflections, plus the cold drizzly weather, brought a few hours of sharp relief from the stuffiness of the studio.

We constantly stopped to take photos. At several points we overtook the same three guys walking a long stretch of the Midlands towpath. It's always weird when you see people walking purposefully on long empty stretches of the waterways. As my friend pointed out, you need to live near the canal to know how to use it. 

Eventually we came to a long tunnel and the guys walked past me again. This time, however, they walked under a skylight ( see above ) and the lighting was so perfect, I chased after them and explained that I was an artist and that it looked really cool when they walked under this one source of light, and I asked if they could walk back under it. I had enough presence of mind to sweep away a piece of litter that was glinting in the darkness and that would have ruined the shot. The three friends obliged and I got the most spectacularly cinematic shot in my repertoir.

In the old days ( pre-camera phone, pre-internet - the 1990s ), you really could go up to complete strangers and say they had a cool look and can I take your picture..? Now, of course, you have to have a team of lawyers on standby if you forget to ask permission.

Below: Adios, amigos.

We talked to the guys once we got back out into the open, and I made sure they were all happy for me to put the shots on my social media, and they were fine about it. I seriously think the pic of them in the tunnel is the best photo I've ever taken.

Below: The Three Amigos

All pics shot on iPhone 7+, copyright Alexi K.

THE HUMAN GLITCH II

Untitled Glitch Drawing, Pen & Ink on Watercolour Postcard, A5, Jan 2020

UNTITLED ABSTRACT COMPOSITION ( 2019 )

Acrylic on canvas, 76cm x 101cm

'A'...'OK'

I was designing my own font last year ( not yet seen on this blog ), and inevitably ended up using the 'A' and 'K' in my 2019 logo designs ( notably the 'A' with way-finding chevrons that you may have seen on my posts ). Since then, I've decided to have another go, so I'm experimenting with new versions of the logo and abstractified configurations of the font.

I love the beauty and elegance of various non-European alphabets, and ultimately want to invent my own.   

Below: Combining 'abstract alphabet' vector shapes, with a real-world paint stroke

( 2020 ).

2 0 2 0

ANTICIPATING THE PAST,

NOSTALGIC ABOUT THE FUTURE

Welcome to my blog - I've been expecting you. Hope to see more of you in the coming months.

- Alexi

Above: Front cover for VAROUFAKIS ( prog rock band ), Jan 2020

All artwork and photography in this blog is by Alexi K, reproduction by permission only. 

Above: VAROUFAKIS ( outtake ), Jan 2020

UNDER THE ARCHES: BIRMINGHAM NOIR

The BBC's super-hit show Peaky Blinders is set in Birmingham and more specifically, the streets of Digbeth, which have traditionally been the seat of the local Irish community.  However, thanks to the Luftwaffe in World War II, not much of the old neighbourhoods actually remain, and the production has to film elsewhere in the country. Despite that, the Digbeth area of town, where the music and arts festival takes place, still has a certain cinematic ambience if you can catch it in the right light. Below is a selection of photographs from around my studio.

( Below ) : The Old Typhoo Building, Bordesley Street

( Below ) : Lower Trinity Street

( Below ) : The Custard Factory, Floodgate Street

( Below ) : Lower Trinity Street

( Below ) : Coventry Road

( Below ) : Coventry Road

( Below ) : Electric Supply Station, Upper Trinity Street

( Below ) : Adderley Street

( Below ) : The Custard Factory, Gibb Street

MOXY DOWNTOWN: ON THE UP

Very pleased that the super-funky designer hotel MOXY DOWNTOWN NYC - which features a series of my digital mosaic tiles in the lobby - has been nominated for the Condé Nast Reader's Choice Award. No doubt part of its amazing success is the contribution of interior designer Kim Edwards who infused the hotel with her playful, eclectic, and energetic sense of aesthetics. Well done, Kim!

Below: Datastream Arabesque #8 ( detail with texture )

About the Datastream Arabesques: Each composition is made of fragments of other compositions that were broken up, partially deleted and then recomposed. In other words, it was a digital version of smashing up a load of ceramics in order to create a mosaic from the fragments. The artwork evolved naturally into a series of Futuroid Arabic motifs, which I'm still experimenting with, but haven't released yet.

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COLONY COLLAPSE

Colony Collapse - Digital Drawing, April 2019.

HELLENIC RUINS

Artist's Photographs from September 2018, Paros, Cyclades Islands, Greece

If there's one thing the Greeks are good at, its starting a building and then abandoning it before completion. The example you see here is a particularly striking one, in that it presides over the main coastal road to Paros Kite, the well-known resort populated by kite-surfers during the summer months. The location, size, and assortment of storeys and basements suggests that it was supposed to be a medium-sized tourist hotel, presumably with the intention of capitalising on the influx of surfers from all over the world. I've been going to Paros since the early two-thousands, and it has always been there, ominously occupying a fork in the road like something out of a Stephen King novel. 

To a geometric abstract artist, this kind of structure, with its stark right-angles, exposed staircases and empty voids open to the sky, presents dozens of possibilities for great compositions. It also proves that skilled abstract artists, such as the unknown manual labourers that erected this skeletal structure, exist in all walks of life.

Above: A distinct Rene Magritte atmosphere evoked by the bare structure and blue sky.

Below: A selection of interior shots.

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The experimental piece below was actually inspired by the way in which my iPhone previews the group of photographs in the photo folder.