Royal Philharmonic Orchestra feat. Martha Argerich

The Hexagon

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Sat 2 May 2009 7.30pm

On sale Mon 4 Aug

Conductor: Charles Dutoit
Soloist: Martha Argerich, piano
Programme: PROKOFIEV Symphony No 1 in D Major OP.25 Classical
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.3
PROKOFIEV Romeo & Juliet Suite

The highlight of our season is undoubtedly the first appearance at the Hexagon of one of the world’s most celebrated musicians, Martha Argerich. Over the last 20 years this extraordinary pianist has made very few appearances in the UK and we are most fortunate to have her perform in Reading. What makes the evening doubly special is that orchestra will be joined by another musician whose reputation places him as one of the truly great conductors performing on the concert stage today. Charles Dutoit has recently been appointed the Royal Philharmonic’s new music director. He will conduct an all-Prokofiev programme beginning with the composer’s delightful Classical Symphony, followed by Martha Argerich’s interpretation of Prokofiev’s electrifying 3rd Piano Concerto. In the second half of the programme, Maestro Dutoit and the RPO will perform a suite of excerpts of what many regard as the greatest ballet score ever composed, Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet.

Tickets: £31, £27.50, £24.50, £19.50, £15
Substantial discounts for subscribers booking 5+ concerts.
Pre - booked children and students in full time education are entitled to tickets for only £10
Student standby tickets are just £5 available one hour before advertised performance time, in person only.

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KITSUNE MAISON TOUR @ HEAVEN

Bomb The Bass @ Proud Camden

Chris von Steiner @ Strychnin Gallery London

Strychnin Gallery proudly presents: The Snow King. A solo show featuring Chris von Steiner. Opening February 15th, 7 p.m., at Strychnin Gallery London.

There's a door, somewhere. A door that opens on a white and silent world, where every secret is kept frozen under snow and ice. There's a kingdom, somewhere. A kingdom wherein there lives a sad little boy, waiting for some brave stranger to deliver him from his icy castle. There's a king, somewhere. A lonely little king willing to offer you his crown, who is not exactly who you might think he is. There's a door, somewhere. A magical door you'd better leave shut if you're not prepared to meet the child you forget you were.

Welcome to the world of French visual artist Chris von Steiner. Using his fantasies, dreams and desires, Chris creates digital fairytales out of the stories he grew up with, stories that have since turned into eerie tales of passion, fear, loneliness, pride, innocence and hope. Combining the pop icons of his youth with bold colors, elements from movies, music, books, and television, Chris von Steiner’s digital paintings have a haunting familiarity right upon first sight. Like a pop song touching your heart and sticking in your mind, von Steiner’s works invade your memory and stir up tales you can get lost in. He has exhibited all over Europe and the USA.

Von Steiner’s new series of work titled “The Snow King” takes you to an icy kingdom that visions of childhood dreams and nightmares, brotherhood, family ties, loyalty and betrayal abound in. The story told in these images is hard to make out – which of the characters is to be trusted? Who is good and who is evil? Set in a cold winter wonderland, the Queen is holding her dead son, two brothers are close but one is silenced, a stag is prancing through the snow… let your fancies take you to this enchanted kingdom and lose yourself in your own imagination.

Strychnin Gallery is proud to present French artist Chris von Steiner with his first solo show in London.

Chris von Steiner: The Snow King
Opening: Feb. 15th, 7 pm
Show runs until: March 30th, 2008
@ Strychnin Gallery London
65 Hanbury Street
London E1 5JP
+44 207 247 5666
Contact: Iris Bitter// Public Relations
Mail: production@strychnin.com
Web: www.strychnin.com
Open: Fri - Sun 12-6

With galleries in three bustling hotspots – New York City, Berlin, and London – Strychnin Gallery is a playground for artists from all around the globe. It is a place where collaboration is encouraged, new projects are constantly developed and creativity is the one and only thing that truly counts.

Owned by charismatic curator Yasha Young, Strychnin is dedicated to presenting emerging American artists to the European art world and vice versa. It features a variety of artists with particular individual styles rather than artists belonging to a collective “hip” movement. If you insist on putting a label on them, try lowbrow turned highbrow, pop surrealism or fantastic realism among others.

Founded in Brooklyn in 1998, the gallery opened a European showroom in Berlin in 2002. The US gallery has since moved to a location in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, opening with a group show featuring over 70 artists in October of 2006. Strychnin opened a third location in East London’s vibrant art scene right off of Brick Lane in October 2007.

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NEW SAATCHI GALLERY OPENS 2008

SAATCHI GALLERY TO MOVE TO DUKE OF YORK'S HQ, CHELSEA

The Saatchi Gallery is moving to Chelsea, and will open again in early 2008.

The Duke of York's HQ, Sloane Square, offers an ideal environment to view contemporary art, with very large well-proportioned rooms and high ceilings. The Gallery will occupy the entire 50,000 sq ft building giving the gallery scope for a book shop, educational facilities and a café/bar. It is ideally located in a central London location on Kings Road, Chelsea.

The Triumph of Painting will be on hold until the new Gallery opens.

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Peter Hujar @ ICA

Susan Sontag, 1975. Gelatin-silver print. © The Peter Hujar Archive, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.">

Peter Hujar, Susan Sontag, 1975. Gelatin-silver print. © The Peter Hujar Archive, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

5 - 23, 27 - 30 Dec 2007, 2 - 27 Jan 2008

"Surprising and memorable. *****" Evening Standard

This is the first UK retrospective for Peter Hujar, one of the most important American photographers of the 70s and early 80s, whose work shows the life of New York at a time when the city was financially impoverished but artistically rich. Hujar, who died in 1987, is most associated with his black-and-white portraits of the city's avant-garde stars, but his subjects also include nudes, animals and the streets of night-time Manhattan.

Hujar's studio portraits reflect his background in fashion photography. He first made a name for himself with his male nudes and portraits from the gay scene, and this exhibition contains a number of portraits of transvestite performers such as Divine and Candy Darling. Other sitters include figures from New York's cultural aristocracy of the day, as well as younger scene-makers such as Susan Sontag and David Wojnarowicz. Many of his subjects are shown reclining, posing with beautiful insouciance.

The exhibition also includes photographs of New York itself, including haunting images of the abandoned streets of Downtown Manhattan at night. Finally, there are striking images of animals, using the same square format film and the same singular approach that Hujar brought to his human subjects. Hujar's work received little recognition during his lifetime, but was an important influence on Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others.

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