Ian Berry opens 'Hotel California' at the Catto Gallery

Guests at the opening of Hotel California at the Catto Gallery. Credit Gökhan Göksoy

Ian Berry opened his Hotel California exhibition with his work made of only denim jeans to great acclaim. By the end of the day, all the work was sold. Attendees all agreed that the work has to be seen in real life and so many were taken about by this new body of work, where Ian turned denim to water in the bright Californian sun.

London also basked in the sunny sunday day that reflected the new radiant work of Ian’s collages of blue jeans. The first show Ian has had with the Catto since his groundbreaking Behind Closed Doors body at the end of 2016 this much anticipated show almost sold out before the doors opened, and the rest soon were taken by eager collectors.

photo by Gökhan Göksoy

You can see more pictures of the opening here

Ian also showcases two of his installation, with the Record Store bridging the gap between the Hotel California album cover by the Eagles with the Hotel and pool themes and his much written about Secret Garden covered the Heath Street windows of the gallery making many a passer by stop in their tracks.

Photos of the art in context in the gallery

Secret Garden London

The show now continues until July 28 at

CATTO GALLERY

100 Heath Street London, NW3 1DP

Monday - Saturday 10 - 6pm

Sunday 12.30 - 6pm

Ian on BBC London with Jo Good

Ian Berry was interviewed by Jo Good on BBC Radio London on New Years Eve at Broadcasting House in London. They were speaking about his new exhibition at the Smallest Gallery in Soho on Dean Street as well as what happened in the last year and whats upcoming this year.

Have a listen here starting around 1:55

Soho Records Installation in London

photo by Opal Turner

Smallest Gallery in Soho

62 Dean Street | Soho | London | W1D 4QF

on until Jan 20

You can now see Ian Berry’s exhibition 24 hours a day in London’s Soho. On view at the Smallest Gallery in Soho, a curated space in the heart of London and made to be viewed from the window. You’ll see albums, tees and jackets and even a denim vinyl player but as fun as the show may be, it’s also a comment on the declining high street.

While the location in Soho is perfect as its famed for the music industry, as well as many famous record stores - many only in memory now. He also gives a nod to the connection to the music industry and denim.

Photo by Sadia Rafique

From the Curators Phil Levine and Andreia Costa

The Smallest Gallery in Soho presents ‘Soho Records’ by Ian Berry who is known for his works made just out of denim. Berry has turned the gallery into a unique vintage record store in a response to the ever-changing high street. Look closely and you’ll see at the heart of it is an acute observation of ‘communities’ and how they have changed. Where now we would meet for coffee, many in the past from the music community and like minded people would meet at a record store.

The space is filled with record covers, tee shirts, records and framed albums. Many have a connection to Soho and the story of denim. Music and denim have gone together through time. With acts and genres ranging from Elvis to heavy metal, Bob Dylan and punk, the pioneers of youth music have worn jeans. Many famous album covers of all time feature this artisan fabric.

Last year, 4.1 million vinyl records were sold in the UK, almost 1 million more than 2016, and a 12-fold increase on the levels seen in 2011. Fashion and music have always been inherently entwined together in society. Gone are the days of Virgin Megastore, HMV, Our Price, Woolworths and Tower Records where you would see such musical covers projected onto our streets. Yet it is an ode to the constant underground that music is always around and reinventing itself, as well as our lives.

To see more images

photo by Sadia Rafique

About The Smallest Gallery in Soho
The Smallest Gallery in Soho is a historic shop-front which faces onto Dean Street, in the heart of Soho. The aim of this intimate gallery is to display artwork that captures people’s attention on their journey through Soho and encourage them to stop, think and be inspired. It hopes to transcend the rapid changes of building developments and the dispersion of the creative cohort — that was once so vibrant within the area — by exhibiting free and engaging art works to view from the street.

The space was established by The Garage Soho, an early stage investor company that champions brand building and creativity.

Manager:
Moira Rizopoulos (@moirarizo)
moira@thegaragesoho.london

Curators:
Philip Levine (@philiplevine)
gallery@thegaragesoho.london
Andreia Costa (@a_m_da_costa)
gallery@thegaragesoho.london

Lighting Design @Syntaxlighting

Venue @thegaragesoho

Supporters @cocolightingltd @conedenim @tonelloslr & ArchitectualFX

Ian Berry Back on BBC London with Jo Good

On Wednesday 23rd of May Ian will be back on the Jo Good show on BBC Radio London. Jo covered Ian's exhibition in 2016 and her enthusiasm was infectious, so much so when asked many people who came to the show said they's come off the back of the interview - an amazing success from a non visual radio.

Jo will have Ian back on to talk about his new book, Ian Berry | Denim on Denim tomorrow you can listen on BBC RADIO London at 2pm

Ian Berry X Pepe Jeans London Film

Filmed in his studio, during install and in front of the final piece, Ian Berry presents the CCTV control room installation for Pepe Jeans London new Flagship store on Regent Street.

Ian Berry CCTV Installation on Regents Street, London

Ian Berry has been busy over the last six months making a life sized installation of a CCTV control room. With London being the most watched city in the world, Ian wanted to make a comment on this. Most people in the UK just see surveillance as just part of everyday life, whereas many people in other countries are confused at how relaxed we are with it. We'd say most people in London see it as making them safer, while respecting some people's views of how it could be used to misuse.

In truth, no CCTV camera was used for this, instead over a dozen days of photoshoots around West London, actually taken from the winter to the final few in summer. This has been a project a year in the making and has been six months in the studio producing. With photoshoots up ladders to look down to get that voyeuristic angle and, well, sorry to say, a few using a selfie stick to create the same effect. 

Notting Hill Gate Station

And more suitably, the location that house this installation? The new flagship store of Pepe Jeans London on Regents Street. One of London's most famous shopping streets and a stones throw (even Ian could throw that far) from Piccadilly Circus, possibly one of the most CCTV hot spots in the world.

Pepe Jeans have just opened up their new flagship store in Central London and this piece was central to its design by acclaimed Martin Brudnizki Design Studio. The CCTV cameras focus on West London, where Pepe was formed in 1973 on the Portobello Road, which is 'watched' heavily on the monitors. It then tracks a journey from W11 to central London, Oxford Street, Piccadilly and then to the new store at 57 Regents Street.

Ian says: 'Pepe Jeans is all about London. They first bought a piece from my gallery in 2013 and we had a friendly relationship before that and had actually first met in 2012 and they have been really good to me, sending me many pairs of jeans. They have since bought other works from the exhibitions and put them in various stores, officers and showrooms - they saw and appreciated it as art.  Its a good chance for people who don't go to gallery shows to see the real work. I want more people to see the real work, and not just replicated in differwnt media forms.

'So, they wanted a specific piece for the Regent Street store but I had complete freedom to make what I wanted, not trying to dictate anything. I said it should be something that could stand alone in a gallery as well as a store.'

And that he has. This incredibly detailed work comprising 16 'screens' most of which have four in between has been painstaking in the production. In the centre of the piece is a TV screen, showing Ian's work and him in the studio from a vantage of a CCTV camera. It also enables Pepe to use it sometimes for campaign imagery.

Notting Hill Gate Station escalators

But, whats the idea? says Ian 'Having got to know Pepe Jeans London well over the last few years and of course knowing them since my younger days, I know they are all about London. All that West London feel and aesthetic and aspiration. Their great campaigns all on the streets of West London, especially Portobello Road. It has such a good heritage routed there, of course, London doesn't have that many outright denim brands. But it's not just the heritage, they are forever looking at London for inspiration and this is my core feeling when making the piece.

'The control room is almost imagining them having it to keep monitoring the fashions of London to take inspiration from the street style of this great capital to keep evolving with the fast moving city'

With scenes including Portobello Roads famous Electric Cinema and market street, to some of the local pubs and music stores, showing some of the places the West Londoner would be hanging out. Ian says:

'As its the tourist area of London on Regent street and many of the customers coming in will probably be the many visitors to London I did think, they are not familiar perhaps with the West London scenes and wanted to add a few familiar sights, ones which I wouldn't normally do, but I think would catch the attention in the store - and perfect with the location.'

That's how the idea was born to make it the journey to the new store and he brilliantly utilizes the famous ad board of Piccadilly Circus which you can see from the store window as well as the iconic streets of Regents and Oxford which will bring the familiar to those less familiar with the city. And of course, all out of this familiar material - but one so unusual and unexpected as an art form that Ian has perfected for well over a decade.

Go and have a look again at this very contemporary art piece showing Ian's favorite subject of urban life and living out of the material of our time. Denim jeans.

You can view the piece daily at the Pepe Jeans flagship store at 59-61 Regents Street, London.

You can see a photo gallery here

My Beautiful Laundrette

The installation My Beautiful laundrette would not have been possible without many amazing contributions from many talented people.

The first to mention is Luke Aan De Wiel, an experienced model maker, set builder, prop maker and all round top human being.

His work has predominantly consisted of providing creative, beautifully crafted solutions to the advertising industry (both stills and TV), the film and music industries. He has also worked extensively in the exhibition and editorial worlds.

He collaborated here with Ian Berry to make the washing machines for the laundrette and also helped with the installation.

Then of course there are the jeans, Pepe Jeans London have supplied many for Ian to work with over the last few years, of which he particularly likes using the washes from denim Pepe sends. 

On the dryers, you may see Ian has tried a new technique. While known for his handcrafted, painstaking work cutting up pieces of denim, here Ian experimented with the super creative talented Moreno De Angelis to try lasering the denim to get the reflections of the washing machines opposite. Moreno is at the Iskoteca lab in Italy and is a creative genius with laundry methods as a brilliant chemist. This is a technology Ian is wishing to pursue with seeing the full potential and possibilities

A massive thanks to all.