Bohemia Village Voice

Review of art show Inside Out by Brian Coen

Collage by Thaddeus Skews

THURSDAY JULY 14th saw the grand opening of “Inside out”, a two-artist show at the hip St Leonards oddities shop, Amongst Other Things. The private view was, to quote one of the artists, “a real night of the night”. Art-and-booze-hungry folk swarmed to the show and were greeted by the beautiful and strange creations of street paste-up, digital and screen-print wizard Tobyuk44, mixed with work by multi-media illustrator and sculptor Thaddeus Skews .

Mr. Warren, shop clerk at Amongst Other Things, had the idea for transforming the shop temporarily into a cutting-edge gallery at the same time as being exposed to the flickering lights of the two contemporary local Artists’ work. The Art cake ingredients were thrown in a bowl and, in the words of Bob Marley, he did “stir it up”.

The private view not only boasted art and drinks, but also the local oddball art band “Unicorn Dad versus Robo Dad” playing a stripped-down intimate set of their broody friendly tunes. Highlights of the exhibition include: a paste-up of Eastern European flats stretching across the whole shop front, a five-foot wooden skeleton based on a Fisher-Price phone caricature, the boy on the top of the wardrobe with de-tuned T.V. eyes, encyclopedias sculpted into collage theatres, a dazzling array of limited edition screen prints [below], cards and some jelly beans – a wonderful month-long event and another reason to love this town.

Inside Out Until 14 August 2011, Fridays and Saturdays, 11am to 4pm at Amongst Other Things, 32, Western Road, St Leonards, TN37 6DJ. Tel: 719676. Thaddeus Skews: unicorndad@live.com  Commissions possibly undertaken if your are extremely fortunate.  See tobyuk44’s stuff at: www.Flickr.com/photos/tobyuk

Horse by Thad Skews

The handsome artists: Toby (left) and Thad

Don’t Try This at Home – collage by TobyUK44