Tag Archives: London

Portugal: Expressions of Contemporary Art

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smaller-urbano-image-block-copycollective exhibition of works by Portuguese artists:
Francisco Urbano, Carla Taveira, José Cunha, Florentina Resende & Maria Rafael

Private View: Friday 10th of July 2009 – 6 pm to 11 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 10th to 23rd of July 2009
Gallery Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 2.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thurs 23rd of July: 11.00am to 5.00pm

This forthcoming exhibition aims to bring the UK closer to current trends of Portuguese contemporary art. These five artists echo trends and styles from masters of the past but approach them in very individual and modern ways. These artists have brought contemporary art to the forefront of the Portuguese art world by pushing their ideas and methods to previously unexplored areas. All five have unique styles and techniques however their shared Portuguese heritage provides a common thread through their work. This common thread is what sets these artists apart form other modern artists as it provides a very unique and rich influence from which to work from. Bringing this exhibition to the UK will provide a window to the most current developments in contemporary art from artists that are making an impact on the movement itself. Outlined below are the five individual artists:

Francisco Urbano: “In the work of Francisco Urbano there is a curious and rich combination of elements. The synthesis of these is the ability to transform each work in a particular fantastic realism that is just amazing in itself.” – Oscar D’Ambrosio

Carla Taveira: “Her works have always attracted many people’s interest due the materials she uses within her pieces of artwork. Departing from established aesthetic forms, Carla Taveira uses unusual materials that immediately arouse the interest of the spectator. On closer inspection of the works one discovers that the layered textures are made up of such as gum, resin and recycled resources.”
José Rodrigues Figueira – Mayor of Vendas Novas City Continue reading →

Young London Stands up to Rogue Agents

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Young London is the latest agency to join up to the National Approved Letting Scheme (NALS), accreditation set up to provide a much needed industry benchmark to protect landlords and tenants from the perils of ‘cowboy’ agents.

Under the strict accreditation guidelines, NALS members must comply with defined service standards, have in place a customer complaints procedure that offers independent redress through the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme, have suitable Professional Indemnity insurance and protection for client monies as well as access to appropriate Tenancy Deposit Protection.

Young London currently has more than 300 properties under management and Neil Young, CEO of Young Group, is confident that NALS accreditation along with the company’s recent decision to join the voluntary Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme demonstrates Young London’s commitment to providing clients with exceptional service: “When choosing a new home to rent or making the decision to let your property, people need to have confidence in their appointed agent and be provided with peace of mind that the process will be dealt with professionally and as smoothly as possible.

“In adopting the UK-wide framework that NALS has established we make it clear to tenants and landlords that, in addition to our own strict professional code of practice, we now adhere to a set of standards put in place by an independent Government-supported scheme with the primary aim of raising standards in the private rented sector.”

The Scheme is supported by some of the most powerful voices in the property industry; The British Property Federation (BPF), National Landlords Association (NLA), the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Guild of Letting and Management are all Directors of the Scheme. Shelter, National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP) and RICS endorse NALS and recognise the benefit to the sector in having a single industry kitemark for the assurance of good customer service. Continue reading →

Firm Foundations for Crossrail Boost

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Commenting on the laying of foundations for the new Isle of Dogs Crossrail station at Canary Wharf, Neil Young, CEO of property portfolio managers Young Group, welcomes the boost to property market confidence that the project will bring.
Neil Young, Young Group’s CEO comments, “The impact of infrastructure improvements on the property market is well documented and Crossrail is a prime example of a project which will provide a much needed boost to confidence in the local markets close to the new route’s stations as localised demand for property increases.”
Young Group points out that historically, new stations have resulted in property prices seeing a benefit of around 10% – over and above the prevailing market movement – with the impact concentrated on station location as the epicentre, with the effect diminishing by c. 1.5% every 1km further away you are from the new station.

The statistics have been researched by the London School of Economics and use sample data from the impact on property prices brought by the Jubilee Line Extension and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR).

Neil Young continues; “The support that property prices receive from infrastructure projects is demonstrated by the new East London line extension that’s currently under construction. Within 18 months of the project announcement, prices in Dalston at Young Group’s development, The Interchange, increased by around 9 per cent over and above the average for London during that period.

“Even small scale transportation enhancements can have a positive local impact. For instance, within six weeks of the new pier opening at Woolwich Arsenal for riverboat services, we saw rental renewal prices increase at the Royal Arsenal development by around 10%, at a time when the market as a whole was softening.” Continue reading →

An exhibition of Photographs by Martin Edwards in collaboration with make-up artist Melissa Hartzel

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smaller-martin-edwards-image-block1Private View: Friday 3rd of July 2009 – 6 pm to 11 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 3rd to 9th of July 2009
Gallery Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 2.30 pm – 6.30 pm (Closed Sun)
Last day of Exhibition: Thurs 9th of July: 11.00am to 5.00pm

“Identity” a term most commonly understood to describe personal identity, or the idiosyncratic things that make a person unique. An important part of ‘identity’ is gender identity, as this dictates to a significant degree how an individual views him or herself both as a person.

The forthcoming show “Made-up” disrupts the fabric of convention of fashion photography and identity by literally blurring boundaries. Martin Edwards’ photographic works centre on form, colour and scale on one level, yet explore deeper feelings and issues of ‘self’. Melissa Hartzel is a London-based makeup artist whose work has featured in ‘Health and Fitness magazine’ and ‘Look Magazine’ and she has also worked on the Miss England competition.

Working in close collaboration with make-up artist Melissa Hartzel, the five installations that form “Made up” are evocative close-ups of lips, eyes, hands, the body and legs. But there is a catch. Although all the photographs appear to be close-ups of women, Martin worked with members of the transgender community and professional fashion male models that feature in the photographs. Continue reading →

“Made-up”: A Photography Exhibition about Fashion Photography and Personal Identity

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smaller-martin-edwards-image-blockAn exhibition of Photographs by Martin Edwards in collaboration with make-up artist Melissa Hartzel

Private View: Friday 3rd of July 2009 – 6 pm to 11 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 3rd to 9th of July 2009
Gallery Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 2.30 pm – 6.30 pm (Closed Sun)
Last day of Exhibition: Thurs 9th of July: 11.00am to 5.00pm

“Identity” a term most commonly understood to describe personal identity, or the idiosyncratic things that make a person unique. An important part of ‘identity’ is gender identity, as this dictates to a significant degree how an individual views him or herself both as a person.

The forthcoming show “Made-up” disrupts the fabric of convention of fashion photography and identity by literally blurring boundaries. Martin Edwards’ photographic works centre on form, colour and scale on one level, yet explore deeper feelings and issues of ‘self’. Melissa Hartzel is a London-based makeup artist whose work has featured in ‘Health and Fitness magazine’ and ‘Look Magazine’ and she has also worked on the Miss England competition.

Working in close collaboration with make-up artist Melissa Hartzel, the five installations that form “Made up” are evocative close-ups of lips, eyes, hands, the body and legs. But there is a catch. Although all the photographs appear to be close-ups of women, Martin worked with members of the transgender community and professional fashion male models that feature in the photographs. Continue reading →

WAES Learner leaps into work after 19 years

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Elizabeth-Ann Murphy gained her first job in nineteen years after studying several Childcare courses at Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES).

“I was so proud of both my sons and I just wanted them to be proud of me”, with that in mind Elizabeth-Ann Murphy decided to turn her life around and embarked upon pursuing a career in childcare.

Elizabeth-Ann, a single mum who has lived in Westminster all her life endured tremendous hardship and has overcome many struggles in her life. She left school at sixteen and worked in retail for many years until she had her son. Since then, she hasn’t worked in nineteen years and over the years had lost complete confidence in herself and abilities.

She had always heard about courses offered at WAES but never anticipated she would be studying on one of them. With much hesitation, she built up the courage and made the leap to come into the Amberley Road Centre and enrol onto a Level1 Childcare course.

After successfully completing the course, she not only gained a qualification but also gained a boost in confidence which lead her to study Level 2 in Childcare. Once she had successfully completed Level 2, her tutor suggested she progress further onto the Level 3 Diploma in Childcare. Elizabeth-Ann laughed at the very suggestion and dismissed it because she never thought she’d be capable of achieving a Diploma. But with continued support from her tutor she decided to take on the challenge and is now well on her way to completing the course. As a direct result of studying at WAES, she was able to secure her first job in nineteen years.

“I have loved every aspect of studying at WAES; it’s such a warm and welcoming place. It has equipped me with the skills and much more importantly with the self confidence I yearned and needed in order to move my life forward and secure a job

I was so frightened of the prospect of taking on a job after 19 years of not working but with the encouragement of my sons I just thought we all have to let go of the umbilical cord someday and when the opportunity arouse I grabbed it with both hands,” says Elizabeth-Ann.

Elizabeth-Ann has much to look forward to with a new found career in childcare and her childcare graduation ceremony in July where she will be awarded her Diploma certificate by her long-term inspiration, Constance Briscoe; first black female judge in the UK and author. Continue reading →

Groundhog Day . . . with a difference

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As the UK’s Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opts to hold the current base rate at 0.5%, the similarities between the current market and pre-credit crunch days become clearer – but so do the startling differences…

Neil Young, CEO of Property Portfolio Manager Young Group, believes that the Bank of England’s MPC base rate announcement’s recently are more reminiscent of the former Bank of England governor, the late Lord Eddie George’s, days of little change. “We seem to be heading back towards where we were before the credit crunch in as much as rates aren’t changing, the level of mortgage lending is stabilising and the majority of lending is through the high street rather than specialist lenders. However, the startling differences are that the base rate is now 0.5%, not the long term average of 5.0%, lending volumes are 60% lower and margins are at levels that the banks would previously only have dreamt of.”

Inflated Margins
Despite the fact that over the last 12 months three-month Libor has come down by 4.4 percentage points, the best trackers are only 3 percentage points lower.
“The treasury is fast to draw attention to the value of economic stimulus that it has provided, but much less quick to acknowledge that the treasury-owned lenders are amongst those sitting on the benefit of a record low base rate.” Neil Young, CEO – Young Group.
-ends-

About Young Group (www.younggroup.co.uk)
Young Group specialises in providing Property Portfolio Management services to private and institutional investors, offering asset management, acquisition and disposal off residential property investments in London.

At a Glance:
• 255: The number of apartments that Young Group clients have successfully completed on in 2008
• 67%: The percentage of new business generated through referral and by repeat investors
• £700 million: The value of property that Young Group has transacted since it formed in 2003
• 1,700: The number of apartments that Young Group has transacted since 2003
• 15: The number of developments offered to Young Group’s client base of global private investors
• 300: The number of assets currently under management by Young London – our lettings business
• £35 million: The value of mortgages written by Young Finance in 2008
• 272: The number of tenants who will sleep soundly in beds provided by Young Furnishing
• 99%: The proportion of investors who will hold their property assets for at least the next 12 months.

Young Group manages the entire investment process from sourcing opportunities through to financing (Young Finance: www.youngfinance.co.uk), furnishing (Young Furnishing: www.youngfurnishing.co.uk) and letting (Young London: www.younglondon.co.uk). Young Group is the principal in the majority of transactions and also retains a number of units for its own portfolio. As the principal, Young Group does not realise any profits until completion and has transacted in excess of 1,700 apartments, with a retail value of more than £700 million. The majority of our units are bought by clients for their private portfolios. The Group’s portfolio managers liaise with the Young London estate agency team in advance of completion to let investors’ apartments to quality tenants, often through corporate lets.

Young Group clients have access to all available finance products via Young Group’s FSA regulated mortgage desk, Young Finance.

• Young Group’s iconic Canary Wharf development, The Landmark (www.TheLandmarkE14.com), has been awarded two Daily Mail Property Awards in the categories of best high rise development and best high rise architecture. The Landmark East Tower rises to a height of 459 ft, making it one of the tallest residential properties in Europe.
• Young Group’s COO, Sylvana Young, has been named Bradford and Bingley’s Property Woman of the Year, 2008 for London.
• Young London (www.younglondon.co.uk) is a finalist in the national Estate Agent and Letting Agent Awards, 2009.

Young Group supports NORWOOD and CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, two charities particularly close to our heart, donating £50 per property exchange and providing additional support throughout the year.

Visit www.younggroup.co.uk to learn more.

THE ALOPECIA SERIES An exhibition of works by artist Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf

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Red Gate Gallery
209a Coldharbour Lane
London SW9 8RU
Call: 020 7326 0993
Info@redgategallery.co.uk
www.redgategallery.co.uk

THE ALOPECIA SERIES An exhibition of works by artist Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf

Private View: Friday 12th of June 2009 – 6 pm to 11 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 12th to 18th of June 2009
Gallery Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 2.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thurs 18th of June: 11.00am to 5.00pm

Rebecca Fontaine-Wolf’s latest series begins to examine the effects of illness on personal image and identity through a study of three female alopecia sufferers (alopecia is a medical condition where hair is lost from the head or body, sometimes to the extent of baldness).
Rebecca’s work always focuses on the human form, especially the female form and images of feminine beauty that both captivate and terrorise. This concern with female beauty, image and identity has lead to an interest in the way in which the ‘self’ can be extended and expressed through the addition and alteration of a multitude of objects to the body, objects which then almost become an inseparable part of the individual itself. One way that women in western culture often ‘add’ to themselves as individuals, is by expressing their personality and style through their hair – a particularly important part of the body as it is one of the few aspects of our natural physiology that we actually have the power to alter. There are as many different hairstyles as there are people on earth, and each is laden with it’s own meaning; worn one way, another, or not at all. These meanings are inescapably bound up to our personal identity and the way that we define ourselves. Most importantly hair is something through which a woman can enhance and express her femininity. This series of works investigates what happens when a woman looses her hair – one of her primary outlets for defining herself as a female, and what importance prostheses can take on for these individuals. Is there a change in the way that sufferers relate to themselves, and to these new objects now that certain choices have been removed?
Rebecca explores these ideas by using images of feminine beauty as points of departure from where she can delve into zones of feeling, as well as colour, texture, and surface. She works with oils and other media, exploring paint through form and vice versa.

“Dissolution of The Rectangle” An exhibition of past and recent installation works, constructs & Paintings by Gail Sagman

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castaway-smallThe concept is in the working method.
The belief is in using whatever may be ‘at hand’
The poetry is in the detail.
The humour is in contrasting scale.
The intimacy is with every part of the surface.
The rhythm is within the balance.
The essential is in the line.
And all are in the materials.

Gail Sagman’s vast body of work spanning 30 years introduces the viewer to the artist’s life-long passion for the innumerable possibilities within the abstract in 2 dimensions.

At first glance, the spectator is confronted with a geometrically analytical approach to the picture plane. On closer inspection Sagman’s work reveals a very methodical, yet poetic and lyrical reconstruction of objects into intricately made assembled paintings. Instead of an image of the external world the viewer is given a world of its own, analogous to nature but built along different principles.

Sagman hopes to reintroduce her ‘paintings’ to a London audience after several years working and exhibiting elsewhere. For this forthcoming exhibition she plans to present pieces from various stages. Each work finds echoes in the other, of the concerns, which have remained primary in her exploration of the language of painting. Each is an example of the diversity that can be achieved by breaking down conventions and creating a personal script.

Private View: Friday 5th of June 2009 – 6 pm to 11 pm
Exhibition runs from: Friday 5th to 11th of June 2009
Gallery Opening Hours: Fri, Sat, Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs: 2.30 pm – 6.30 pm
Last day of Exhibition: Thurs 11th of June: 11.00am to 5.00pm

Red Gate Gallery
209a Coldharbour Lane
London SW9 8RU
Call: 020 7326 0993
Info@redgategallery.co.uk
www.redgategallery.co.uk

London internet marketing conference changes for the better

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smx_londonThe SMX London Internet Marketing Conference and Expo 2009 has changed its agenda in response to cusstomer feedback. The better-than-ever event will bring online marketing professionals from all over the world together this month to help businesses make the most of the internet.


Search Marketing Expo (SMX) will again be held in London on 18 and 19 May at the New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden.

The two-day long conference will be led by a crop of top international search engine marketing experts and will offer lively workshop sessions on organic and paid search, during which speakers will discuss a wide range of search marketing topics, including global search marketing, linking, SEO for multimedia and social media networks.

In answer to requests from delegates, the agenda for the upcoming SMX London has been changed to focus even more heavily on advanced search engine optimisation and marketing topics, providing a solid training opportunity for European-based search marketers.

Among the many speakers booked to attend is internet marketing guru Kristjan Mar Hauksson from Nordic eMarketing, who will be a part of the workshop moderating team. Kristjan will also be speaking in the workshop on Online Reputation Management, where he will discuss why organisations need to worry about online reputation, and what they can do to improve it.

“Search marketing is expanding rapidly in Europe and SMX fills a previously unmet need for industry professionals and the community of vendors,” says Matthew Finlay from event producers Rising Media.

For more details and booking information for the Search Marketing Expo London 2009, visit www.searchmarketingexpo.com