Fresh Exhibition - a-n The Artists Information Company

Venue: Trinity Buoy Warf Gallery
Location: London

Last night saw the beginning of a new art scene in London, when the first year fine art students from the University of East London had their opening show entitled Fresh in The Electrician’s Shop space at Trinity Buoy Wharf last night, Thursday 22^nd April 2010.

Tim Allen, Programme Leader for BA Fine Art at UEL commented that this was the ‘best first year show ever held’.

The show was organised by a body of the students with the help of the lecturers and the energy and professionalism of the student artists was apparent throughout. The attendance outstripped even the high expectations of the students involved, to the point that more beer had to be shipped in to meet the demands of the growing crowd.

The layout of the building brought out a terrific response from the students. The gallery is in the basement of an old warehouse building famously used for film sets as well as being used to showcase artist’s work. Trinity Buoy Wharf provides space for artists and cultural events and is located in London’s Docklands area, about one mile East of Canary Wharf.

The students were given access to the space for a very limited time, the preparations started on Monday morning and the show had to be finished by Wednesday in order to be ready to open the doors to the public on Thursday afternoon. The time restrictions and the scale of the building demanded a vigorous response to the show, and the students certainly rose to the challenge.

The student artists were given free rein to produce art in response to the building in whatever way, and using whatever medium, they saw fit. The show included video art, painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and performance art. Many works were recreated from found objects and recyclable materials showing a concern for the use of resources.

The title Fresh was chosen to highlight that this group of emerging artists is new, vibrant and individualistic. They are certainly the crowd to watch in the future. The end of year show will be held at the AVA Gallery at the University of East London and the private view for the show opening will be held on the 15^th June 2010. If you would like to attend please RSVP to Laura Iosifescu,[email protected] The show is free and is open until Friday 18^th June.

Laura Iosifescu

Laura is a professional artist and the founder of Laura I.Art Gallery.She currently lives and works in London. She developed her basic skills in traditional art during her time at the Fine Art High school in Romania but found herself reaching her full potential as a student in the Department of Fine Art at the University of East London. From there she went on to open her own local gallery where she is currently curating a series of exhibitions. As an artist, Laura is best known for her re-interpretation of the medium of paint as an aesthetic vehicle. Utilising self-designed machines and other unconventional techniques as tools to manipulate paint, she challenges the viewer by re-examining how paint can be transformed in her collection of wall mounted “living paintings” - flowerscapes with depth and colour introduced by her signature style.. The flower motifs are intended to represent and investigate an accumulation of life experiences and ideals to do with freedom and courage, life and death, identity and belief, which are channelled into her art through her three dimensional forms and colours. Eventually dissatisfaction with the format of wall mounted paintings, a feeling that the medium was imprisoned by the canvas, led to a series of experiments culminating in Laura’s revolutionary Blossom Escape, which transformed her flowerscapes into the real world in the form of a floral dress made entirely of paint. It has been recognized and highly praised by the press, and by well established professionals in the art world and was shown in an exhibition at Saatchi Gallery alongside work shown by artists such as Tracey Emin ,Marc Quinn, Gavin Turk, Idris Khan and Xavier Mascaro. She has displayed her work throughout the UK and in France and Portugal and in New Orleans and Los Angeles in the USA. Her work has been published in Landscape Art Review, La Dolce Vita magazine, HESA Inprint magazine, and in The State of Art vol 2 published by Bare Hill and there has been press coverage in the Financial Times, the Guardian and in the local press and on the web. Sixty per cent of Laura’s work is now in private collections around the world which makes her work a great investment. In 2016 Laura opened the first contemporary art gallery in Barking, Essex, an area which is now at the forefront of regeneration in East London. The gallery was inaugurated by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London and Darren Rodwell, the leader of the local Council. She is currently curating a series of exhibitions in her own space at the Gallery, including the highly successful Blessings of Life and Codes of Faith, and is embarking upon a series of art workshops. Laura Iosifescu is an idealistic young artist who believes in a world where beliefs and cultures no longer separate people but can be shared and celebrated. Her aim is to break down barriers, including those between artist and audience, and foster a collaborative and creative community in this part of London. With highly successful curatorial exhibitions and painting workshops in The Laura I. Gallery in Barking, Laura is truly inspired towards making this world a better place through art.